AN IMPROVED METHOD OF LUBRICATING CARRIAGE AXLES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ebenezer Partridge, of Smethwick, in the County
of Stafford, Manufacturer of Patent Axles, for the Invention of "AN
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ebenezer Partridge at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition, on the
23rd May 1861.
I, EBENEZER PARTRIDGE, of Smethwick, in the County of Stafford, Manu-
facturer of Patent Axles, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for.
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OF LUBRICATING CARRIAGE AXLES," to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is the lubrication of road carriage axles, without
the necessity of removing the wheel, as is now practised, a complicated
operation requiring the removing of nuts and collets, and generally the
assistance of a coach builder; whereas, with my improved method, any. ordinary.
person can do what is necessary.
My Invention consists in casting on, or in screwing into, or otherwise fixing
on or making in the axle-box a pipe or channel leading into the lubricating
chamber, and in closing such pipe or chaunel by a screw plug. By simply
removing the plug and pouring in oil or other fluid lubricant through the pipe
or channel, without taking the wheel off the axle, the oil will find its way into
the lubricating chamber; the plug has then to be screwed in, and this operation
repeated as often as fresh lubricating matter is required, always without the
necessity of removing the wheel.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Ebenezer Partridge in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd November 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EBENEZER
PARTRIDGE, of Smethwick, in the County of Stafford, Manufacturer of Patent
Axles, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Ebenezer Partridge, Her special licence that I, the said Ebenezer
Partridge, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the.
said Ebenezer Partridge, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IN-
PROVED METHOD OF LUBRICATING CARRIAGE AXLES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Ebenezer Partridge, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Ebenezer Partridge, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say:
The object of my Invention is the lubrication of road carriage axles, without
the necessity of removing the wheel, as is now practised, a complicated operation
requiring the removing of nuts and collets, and generally the assistance of a
coach builder; whereas, with my improved metliod any ordinary person can
do what is necessary.
My Invention consists in casting on or in screwing into or otherwise fixing
on or making in the axle-box a pipe or channel leading into the lubricating
chamber, and in closing such pipe or channel by a screw plug.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings, is a longitudinal section of an axle

page_text: box, illustrating the manner in which the axle is lubricated according to my
Invention. a is the pipe cast in a piece with the axle box b, and leading into
the lubricating chamber c; d is a screw or plug for screwing into and stopping
the pipe a.
There is a hole e formed through the head of the screw d, into
which a pin or cotter, not shown in the Drawing, is inserted for preventing
the screw from turning; g is the inner or back cap screwing into the inner
end of the axle-box; a detached view of this cap is given at Figure 2; it is
made with a recess or chamber for receiving a leather washer h to prevent the
oil from running out of the inner end of the box, and with a recess j, in which
part of the head of the screw d enters; this screw d not only closes the pipo
or hole a, but prevents the back cap g from turning. The nut and collet i,
outer cap k, washer 1, and other parts of the axle-box and axle are constructed
in the manner described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to me
the 2nd August 1860, No. 1867.
By simply removing the plug d, and pouring in oil or other fluid lubricant
through the pipe or channel a, without taking the wheel off the axle, the oil
will find its way into the lubricating chamber c; the plug d has then to be
screwed in, and this operation repeated as often as fresh lubricating matter is
required, always without the necessity of removing the wheel.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as my "Improved
Method of Lubricating Carriage Axles," forming a pipe or channel on the axle
box leading into the lubricating chamber, and closing the same by a screw
plug, substantially in manner herein-before described with reference to the
Laccompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ebenezer Partridge, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of November, One thousand
cight hundred and sixty-one.
EBEN. PARTRIDGE. (L.S.)