US47391A - Improved artificial skating-pond - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES M. o. CAMPBELL, on PHILADELPHIA, rnivnsrnvhivik;

IMPROVED ARTIFICIAL SKATING=PONDQY 1f.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 47,391, dated April 2.5, 1835.

To all whom it may concern: i

Be it known that I, M. C. CAMPBELL, of Phil adelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful icomposition of matter, which I term an Artificial Skating- Iond and I do hereby declare that the follow ing is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and the method of carrying it into effect.

It has long been a matter of regret that the healthful and pleasing exercise of skating should be restricted in temperate climates to the few months of winter; but limited as may be the season for its enjoyment, its intrinsic excellence has secured for it an almost univer-' time. It is a misfortune, however, that materially interferes with the practice requisite for proficiency in, the art, and with its enj oyment after it has been acquired, that it is so largely dependent on the weather that even the short season of the winter months is seriously encroached upon by the thaws and rains and snow rendering the ice unsafe, or its surface unfit for use. have been made to render skating independent of ice hitherto have been unavailing, for,

however perfect a surface might beobtained with regard to smoothness, the necessity for the recourse to roller-skates interferes so much with the freedom and celerity of motion that it has afforded but little pleasure under the most perfect attainable conditions, and rendered it, in fact, of no use whatever to any other than learners, who have been compelled to practice laboriously to make the slightest progress in the rudiments of the art. The nicest possible adaptations of rollers or wheels admit, at the best, of but a poor counterfeit of the easy gliding motion of polished steclwhen acting upon the smooth surface of a material cut sufficiently to give a firm hold in striking Thevarious attempts that PATENT,-

like ice, over which it slides without friction," and yet obtains a hold by its incision that give certainty and precision to every movement 0 the skater. I y y The object of my inventionisto obtaina material like ice for skating purposes, into which the runner of an ordinary skate may out, and over whichit will glide with as little friction as possible; to obtain, infact, a i na I terial or composition upon which the skate operates in precisely the same manner upon ice, and yet so constituted that it is not subjeet to alteration by variations of temperature, and remains in as good condition when subject to the heat of an ordinary summer day as does the ice of a skating-pond duriugthe sea-X son best adapted for skating. Io attain this end, myinvention eonsists'in covering a smootlu ly-prepared surface-such as a well-made floor withacoating of chemical salts or crystallizable composition of matter, in such amair nor that it will congeal into a surface with a close similitude to that of ice, (considered sin ply in reference to skating,) and yet differin from ice in the important feature (which co1 stitutes the entire aim and value of my 1m tion) that it is not affected by theunodei temp erature of the atmosphere during the sun mer months. 1 I 1 I 1 To enable others skilled in the arts to which it appertains to make and use my invention, 1 will proceed to describe in detail what I believe to be the best method ofeompounding and applying the same. i I take equal weights of carbonate of soda (the sal sodapf commerce) and of sulphate of soda (Glaubers salt) in the proportion ofabout one pound of each for every square foot of the surface requiredlto betpre pared, and place them, mixed together, in a tinned iron kettle, which should be covered and heated until its contents have become y, fluid The cover is then removed and theheat 1 continued, while the mixture is constant] y stirred, until. ithas lost from fifteento twenty per cent. of the water of crystallization, when it should be removed from thefire and the stirring unremitted until it becomes'cool. It is then poured or cast upona section of the. floor that is to be employed as a foundation, 1 and which should be divided'by strips of wood into sections of a size proportioned to the the entire area desired may be covered 5 and, any inequalities at the junctions of the sections may be smoothed,with an ordinary scraper, to render the whole surface smooth and uniform. If the composition should become deteriorated by the eftervescence of the salts employed, as will occasionally occur, it will be necessary to sprinkle it with water to remedy the evil; and when it hasbeen much out up the skates, the surface may also be renewed by sprinkling it with a saturated solution of the sweepings, in

water, applied with a watering-pot 'or other suitable means.

Having thus described the means and meth od which Iprefer to adopt in carrying my invention into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself particularly to the two salts or the proportions herein mentioned, as there may be other similar salts or compo sitions that congeal in the same way, and are as unaffected by a moderate temperature, and are as suitable for skating purposes.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent 7 The preparation of a surface with a congealed material or composition, substantially as described, and for thepurpose specified.

M. C. CAMPBELL.

Vi tnesses:

WVM. H. BROWN, CHAS. P. LYLE.