US678580A - Self-lubricating journal-box. - Google Patents

Description

No. 678,580. Patented July as, lam;

a. NEUBER.

SELF LUBRICATING JOURNAL BOX.

("0 Mod Unrrnn TATES Arena anion.

GEORGE NEUBER, OF EASTON, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO FREDERICK ORF, OF SAME PLACE.

SELF -LUBRICATING JOURNAL-BOX.

srnorrrcarron forming part of Letters Patent No. 678,580, dated July is, 1901. Application filed March 26, 1901. Serial No. 52 882. (No model.)

1"0 aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE NEUBER, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Easton, county of Northampton, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Self- Lubricating Journal-Boxes, of which the following is a specification.

My presentinvention relates to an improvement in self-lubricating journal-boxes, the object thereof being to provide a simple, effective, and economical construction in which the consumption of oil will be muchless than is commonly the case.

The invention is preminently adapted for use with locomotive or car axles, although it can be employed with all kinds of vehicleaxles. It relates particularly to that class of axle-lubricators wherein wicking, such as ordinary lamp-wicking, or any equivalent soft fibrous material is employed as the means for feeding the lubricant to the axle arm or journal.

The invention therefore consists, essentially, in the improved means which I employ for holding the wicking continually and constantly in contact with the axle or journal with the necessarydegree of pressure to cause the soft flexible wicking material to embrace the sides of the axle-journal and cause the oil which rises through the said fibrous material to bathe said journal, the whole operation being to the end of effecting perfect lubrication of the journal with an economical use of the lubricating material; and the invention may also be said to consist in numerous details of the combination and arrangement of parts, substantially as will be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating my invention, Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of my improved self-lubricating journal-box, the journal being shown in side elevation. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the wickcarrying frame, showing the two wicks arranged in operative position therein.

Like symbols of reference designate like parts throughout the different figures of the drawings.

1 designates the lower half of a car-axle box, the part that is commonly denominated the cellar box. This is intended and adapted to contain the lubricating liquid, and I use any good lubricant which is sufficiently fluid to rise through the wicking or fibrous sheets which depend thereinto.

3 denotes the journal spindle or axle, on which is the brass part 2, which is designed to be covered by the upper half of the journal-box (not shown) in the usual manner.

I lay no special claim to the shape or form of the frame of the box, and hence have not attempted to show all the details thereof in the present drawings, as the mode of construction may be varied and is well known and as my only purpose in showing the frame of the box is to indicate the manner of arranging the parts of my improvement in reference thereto. Hence it will be perceived that my invention is equally applicable to a large number of diverse forms of boxes, it being only necessary that the frame below the journal should provide the cavity or receptacle to contain the lubricating material and to permit the arrangement therein of the Wick-carrying means,which constitutes a part of my mechanism.

The form of the cellar-box 1 in the present example of my invention is rectangular, and arranged therein I place a rectangular skeleton frame 13, supported a short distance above the bottom of said box on suitable corner shoulders or lugs 14:, cast on the interior of the box 1. Pivoted to this frame 13, preferably to the longitudinal or longer sides thereof, are pairs of weighted arms 6 6, which I will presently speak of in greater detail. Supported on the frame 13 is the wick-carrying frame 4, which has a general rectangular shape, as indicated in Fig. 3, in order to allow it to fit easily but not too loosely within the box 1, said carrier being preferably made of sheet metal in substantially the form represented, having vertical longitudinal sides and ends to slip into convenient proximity to the sides and ends of the box 1 when the carrier is in its normal position and having like wise a concave upper face 5 substantially concentric with the journal or axle 3 and situated below the same in convenient proximity thereto. The longitudinal edges of said.

concave face 5 rise into horizontal ribs 15 15, that come into actual contact with the cylindrical face of the journal or would come into such actual contact were it not for the intervening Wicks 11 11, that are carried by the frame 4 and which spread over the concave face 5 and pass around the longitudinal ribs 15 15.

At the center of the concave face 5 of the wick-carrying frame 4 is a longitudinal slot 10. Through this slot pass two wicks or fibrous sheets 11 11 (see Figs. 2 and 3) from the bottom of the interior of the box 1, which, We have seen, is filled with lubricating liquid, upward to the upper side of the concave face 5, where said two wicks diverge and lead to the longitudinal ribs 15 15, passing over the latter and then downwardly through slots in the longitudinal sides 16 16 of the wickcan rying frame 4. These ends of the wicks 11 engage the latter slots simply for the purpose of being attached at these points to the frame 4. Thus it will be seen that the lubricating material which rises through the wicks is applied to the under side of the journal 3 by reason of the fact that the wicks lie in contact therewith.

It is essential in my improved self-lubricating journal-box that the wicks 11 11 should be kept constantly in contact with the journal, bearing thereon with the requisite degree of pressurethat is to say, with a yielding gentle contact which will be kept constant, but yet will not be so strong as to cause friction and constant wear upon the wicking--and hence means must be employed to lift the wick-carrying frame 4 with a constant upward tendency. Said means in my present example consists of the weighted levers hereinabove alluded to. These levers G 6 are pivoted at 7 7 to the sides of the horizontal longitudinal frame 13, the lower ends of said levers being formed as weights 8 8, while the upper ends are shaped with the curved lugs 9 9, that bear against the under or convex side of the concave face 5 of frame 4. There are preferably two of these weighted levers 6 on each side of frame 13, and consequently there will ordinarily be four points of contact against the under side of concave 5 to cause elevating pressure against the wickcarrier and the Wicking. Manifestly the weights 8 will under the action of gravity force the curved lugs 9 firmly against the concave 5 and exert a lifting effect upon frame 4. In this manner the wicks are kept constantly in lubricating and bathing contact with the journal, so that the oil that is fed through the Wicks may be applied for service.

Numerous changes may be made in the exact construction and precise arrangement of the parts I have herein shown and described. The weighted levers, for example, may be e'rejso pivoted directly "to the inner walls of the cellar-box 1 instead-of to the frame 13, in which A making such adjustments and changes in form and shape of the parts as may seem best adapted for them in the actual making of them for use without going outside of the proper scope of the invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a self-lubricating journal-box, the combination with a lubricant containing chamber, and a journal, of a slotted wickcarrying frame and levers acting loosely against said frame to lift the same sufiiciently to cause the wicking to remain in constant lubricating contact with the journal.

2. The combination witha journal, and the lubricant-containing chamber below it, of a wick-carrying frame having a concave upper face with a central slot and lateral longitudinal ridges, wicks or fibrous sheets passing through the central slot and over the lateral ridges,and weighted levers beneath the frame for exerting a lifting effect thereon.

3. The combination with a journal, and a lubricant containing chamber below it, of a wick-carrying frame through which the Wicks pass from the lubricant, said wicks lying in contact with the face of the journal, and pivoted levers having weights at one end and having their opposite ends in loose bearing contact with the under side of the wick-carrying frame for the purpose of lifting the frame so as to keep the wicks in constant inbricating contact with the journal, as set forth.

4. The combination with a journal, and a lubricant-containing chamber below it, of a Wick-carrying frame having a concave upper face provided with a central slot and longitudinal lateral ridges, wicks passing from the lubricant up through the central slot and into contact with the journal, and pivoted levershaving weights at one end and having their other ends in contact with the under portion of the concave so as to lift the frame and cause the wicks to exert a lubricating contact upon the journal, substantially as described.

Signed at New York city this 8th day of March, 1901.

GEORGE NEUBER.

Witnesses:

FRED E. TASKER, RITA BRADT.

IIO

Images