US32750A - Skate - Google Patents

Description

UNITE@ STATES PATIENT FFIQE.

N. YV. CAMP, OF TRETON. NEXV JERSEY.

SKATE.

Specification of Letters latent No. 32,750, dated July 9, 1861.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, N. IV. CAMP, of rIrenton, in the county of Mercer, in the State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Skates; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this application.

My invention has for its object a skate which shall be capable of yielding perfectly to the uneven surfaces over which it may pass and at the same time allow the foot of the wearer to assume under varying circumstances the natural and varying positions without cramping. Many attempts have been made to accomplish these ends, in a practical and useful manner, but none have, to my knowledge, been as successful as the method which I have conceived and practically applied. In some instances, a rigid runner has been employed in connection with springs, or an elastic sole; in other instances, a double or divided runner has been used in connection with a stock formed of two rigid sections hinged together; and in other instances a flexible stock has been employed in connection with a runner formed of two parts hinged, or jointed together, but all of these methods of arriving at the results embracedby my invention, embrace practical objections and thus fail to accomplish the desired ends.

My invention consists in the employment of a double runner, or ruimer consisting of two separate and independent portions, as will be explained, in combination with a flexible or elastic stock or shoe sole in the manner hereinafter fully described.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use my invent-ion, I will proceed to explain the construction and operation of my improved skate, referring by letters to the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification; and, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of my invention as applied to a ladys gaiter or boot. Fig. Q. is a vertical section of the same, and Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the skate detached from the boot.

In the different figures the same letter indicates the same part of the apparatus.

A. is a gaiter or shoe of the ordinary fashion; in the sole a. of this shoe, I propose to insert (between the inner and outer sole) the flexible metallic plate b. to which are suitably secured the two port-ions B and B of the runner; these two runner pieces, it will be seen, are each shaped and arranged as distinct runners, but one in advance of the other, in the same plane, so as to constitute a double bearing surface and in such manner that when the skate passes over uneven or rough surfaces the runner pieces B. and B. will operate independently in connection with the flexible stock piece Z). and accommodate themselves to said uneven surfaces, and naturally support the weight on the stocks while at the same time the stock and foot of the wearer can also yield freely to the distortion of the bearing surface of runner, without being cramped.

I have illustrated at Fig. 3. the flexible stock l). and runner B. B. Separated from the shoe, and, in this condition, they fully embrace my invention, and embody its advantages, in practical application when the stock l). is securely fastened to the sole of the skaters boot by any suitable means, which will admit of said stock l). yielding as designed, with the bending of the wearers foot occasioned by varying circumstances. It will therefore be understood that my present invention is not limited in its application to the insertion of the flexible plate b. in the sole a, of a boot as shown at Figs. l and 2 but may be used independently of such feature of application, without losing in any manner its merit as to novelty or practical utility.

It will be seen and readily understood, that by the employment of two distinct and disconnected runner pieces B. and B. arranged on a flexible stock piece b. as shown and described the skate is made to possess the capacity of always affording a bearing at each end of the foot, when passing over an uneven surface, while at t-he same time the foot to which the stock piece b. is fastened is not cramped, or forced into any unnatural positions. And these results, it will be observed are attained without any complexity in the mechanism of the skate, (which is a fatal objection in practice) or the employment of a single joint while the several parts are of the simplest form and put together in the ordinary manner.

I am aware that the runner has been made in two distinct portions and also that the stock has been made eXible and do not claim either of these elements.

I am also aware that a stock similar to the one I employ has been combined with a runner made in two parts jointed together but this combination embodies a practical disadvantage arising from the liability of the joint of the runner becoming chocked and frozen up which renders the bending runner inoperative.

I am also aware that a runner formed of two distinct portions as mine has been combined with a stock of two pieces, hinged together, or connected by springs but such combination embraces practical objections, in the inperfection of operation and liability of derangement besides being as is also N. w. cAMP. [1.. Sg

Vxitnesses:

DAVID MILLEDGE, WVM. C. I-IowELL.

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