USRE73E - blake - Google Patents

Description

' declare that the of casters which have a l' eral use, for the reason that the y For these reasons the casters hitherto in use i ficulty that they have in a strength, and material.

A UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELI W. BLAKE, JOHN A. BLAKE, AND PHILOS BLAKE, OF-NE\V HAVEN, CONN.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MODE 0F CONSTRUCTING Specification forming part ofLcttcrs Patent No.

CASTERS AND APPLYING THEM T0 BEDSTEADS.

821, datedV June 30,1833; Reissue No. 73, (lated July 3U, 1845.

.To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that we, ELI W. BLAKE, JOHN i BLAKE, and PHILos BLAKE, of N ew Haven, in fhe county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Casters; and we do hereby following is a full and exact description thereof.

Our improved caster belongs to that class revolving vertical axle or pintle.

The improvement consists, chiefly, in a new manner of constructing the fixed part of the caster, 0r that part which governs the pintle, and which is xed to the fabric to which the caster is applied.

The chief object which we have sought to accomplish by the improvement is to diminish the expense of fabricating the caster when the pintle is made of unusual length. The freedom with which a caster will traverse about thevertical axis, as well as its permanence and durability in use, other things being equal,is, within certain limits, nearly in proportion to the length of the pintle. This fact has been knownto the makers of casters, and accordingly,when it has been intended to secure an j unusual degree of freedom of traverse and dn- I rability, the pintle has sometimes been made of unusual length; but the casters so made gone into geni manner of constructing the ixed part has been either such as to make the caster too expensive for common use or such as to unsuit it to most pn-rposes and to limit its use to particular fabrics.

prior to our invention had not for household-furniture have usually had their pintles very short, seldom exceeding one and a quarter inch in length, and have in consequence not only traversed with so much difgreat measure failed to perform their appropriate oce, but have soon worn out and broken down, giving rise to great complaints on the part of housewives.

By means of our improvement we are enabled to give to the pintle all the length requisite to secure the best result, and vet to fabricate the entire caster at less than the expense of fabricating the heretofore in use when m short-pintle casters ade of the .same size,

l' upper7 bearings.

At the same time the improved caster has a general adaptation to most articles of househol be applied with less ex facility and dispatch, and with greater firmness and stability than any before known. Thus the great advantages of the long pintle, hitherto enjoyed only to a very limitedextent and at great expense, are by our improvement made available for the most cheap and common purposes.

Having thus indicated the natu re and purpose of our improvement, we will proceed to describe our improved caster and the manner of its application.

We make the moving parts ofthe caster,con sisting of the wheel, the arms or cheeks between which the wheel revolves, and the'pintlc, substantially in the usual form. These parts will be respectively recognized in the annexed drawings, Figure l, where they are shown in perspective. When the wheel is two inches in diameter, we make the pintle about four inches long, and, in general, We deem it best to-lnake the pintle equal in length to about 'twice the diameter of the wheel employed. The pintle may be made ,tapering throughout its whole length, as shown in Fig. l, and it terminates in a conical point, (not seen in Fig. 1, but shown in Fig. 2, where Pis the section of a pintle slmllar in thisrespect.) In this part ofthe caster, (the moving part,) in itself considered, and so far as now described, there is nothing that we claim as our invention.

We make the fixed part of the casterin two distinct pieces, which we oallthe lower and These are shown in perspective at A and B, Fig. l, and in section at A and B, Fig. 2. The lower bearing, A, is a simple hoop or bush, consisting of a strip of sheet-iron of suitable length, and about half of an inch in width, bent into a circle or hollow vcylinder of such internal diameter that the pintle will revolve freely in it, the ends of the strip being merel y'butted together. One end of this cylindrical bush is beveled o" on the outside, as represented in the drawings. The upper bearing, B, is a cylindrical piece of cast-iron, slightly tapered, being a little the smallest at` the 'upper end. It is about liveeighths of an inch in length, andthe diameter of its'lower end is equal to that of thelower bearing. In the lower end of this piece is a d furniture and can pense, with greater tle. For important reasons, which will be the upper bearing will guide the point of -the Vdeem it better, however, always to employ the v it may be applied, we cast the pintle with a at F F, Fig. 2. The lower bearing is placed upon the pintle below this flange, which may be done by making it in one piece and bending it around the pintle, or by making it in two semicireular or two semi-cylindrical pieces, and in applying the caster, the upper bearing having been first driven to its place, the pintle and lower bearing are to be introduced together into the hole in the leg, and the bearing is then driven in carrying the pintle with it.- Ve have also contemplated securing the pintle to the leg through the medium of the upper bearing by causing the pintle to terminate in a wire or pivot ruiming up through a holein said bearing, and securing it .there vby riveting it over a collet above said bearing.

Having now described our improved caster and shown the mode of its application, we will proceed to point out the differences between it and other casters before known, and to show the utility. and importance of these points of novelty. So far as is known to us, all other casters which have had a revolving pintle, and which have been designed and suitedv for application concentric with the legs of furniture, (which is the only manner of application well suited to most articles,) have had the fixed part of the caster made in one piece, either in the form of one continuous sheath covering lthe whole pintle .or in the form of a frame consisting of an upper and alower bearing joined together by bars extending from one to the other. Either of these .modes of constructing the iixed part of the` caster, in whatever form the .same may be put, is much more expensive than to make the two bearings herein described, and more especially sowhen the pintle is made as long as we have described it to be in our caster. Thesheath and frame when suited to such a pintle, are also much more difficult of application. They will not bear forcing into a hole which is slightly crooked, or which they do not exactly fit,but will be broken by the process or will burst the leg. On the other hand, the two bearings described being small will be little liable to split the leg though driven into a hole somewhat smaller in diameter than themselves, and will follow such hole, though it be crooked, as it is quite likely to be when bored in the direction of the grain of the wood.

VVie are aware that casters have heretofore been made for iron safes and for some other articles which have had their fixed parts in two distinct pieces; but in such cases the distinct bearing-pins were not designed for ap-A plication in the manner herein set forth, nor

conical cavity to receive the point of the pinhereinafter explained, we make this cavity broader than the conical termination of the pintle, and its angle more obtuse than that of the point of the pintle, as shown in the drawings.

Y To apply the caster when constructed as above set forth a hole is to be bored in the center of the leg of the bedstead or other fabric of a diameter a little less thanthat of thebearings, and of a depth a little lessthan the united length of the pintle and upper bearing when placed together, as shown in the drawings. 'lhe upper bearingis then to beinserted and firmly driven down upon the bottom of the hole, after which the lower bearing is to be placed with'itsbeveled end upon the mouth of the hole and drivenin. The pintleis then to be introduced. The converging cavity in pintle to its proper position at the center, when its further progress will be arrested and the weight of the fabric will rest upon that point.

In Fig. l the dotted lines represent aleg in section to which the caster has been thus applied. This caster would operate tolerably well though the lower bearing be dispensed with, as the length of the pintlesoreduces the lateral pressure at itslower end thatthe wood, if hard, might be competent to sustain it.' XVe lower bearing, for it has another important oice besides that of resisting the pressure and wear. It serves to fur the pintle off from the sides of the hole, and thus to insure the lateral pressure to come at the lower end of the pintie. 1f this bearing be not employed. and if the hole should happen to be slightly crooked, the lateral pressure might come at a point higher up, which would cause the pintle tov bind and endanger it to be broken.

When the caster is constructed and applied in the manner above described,the wheel and pintle may be instantly removed from the leg and replaced at pleasu re,whieh is in some cases a useful property in a caster, and particularly when applied to bedsteads, because the bedstead may thereby be more easily taken to pieces and put together, and may be transported with less danger of breaking the casters. It also allows the caster at anyl moment to be taken oi and oiled to prevent the queakiug noise which will occur in all casters after long use. This is anew property in a caster, no other caster having been designed for use in this manner, and all others having had their xed and movable parts so secured together that the latter cannot be removed without the employment of tools for that pur- They were designed for attachment to the exterior of the fabric, and were in all cases provided with wings, flanges, shanks, or other ad junets suiting them to that purpose, and unsuiting them to be inserted in a hole in the manner herein described.

We believe that before our invention ,no

se. When we do not desire to have the caster ess the property above named, but tov have the entire caster secured -to the fabric to which small iiange surrounding it, as shown in section were theysusceptible of such application.

l again come down caster has been made whose fixed part cousisted of two distinct pieces of cylindrical or other analogous form, suiting'them to be driven into a hole in the manner herein set forth.

ome few of the casters heretofore in use have had thev end of the pintle formed into a conical point entering a conical cavity in the fixed part vof the caster, and have borne the weight of the fabric resting upon that point; but in such cases the breadth of the cavity has been made equal to but never designedly greater than that portion of the point of the pintle which entered into and was brought into actual contact with it, and the angle of the said cavity has been made equal to that of the point of the pintle, or nearly so, both being I carefully fitted together. In distinction from this mode of ladapting these two parts to each other we make the cavity in the upper bearing-piece several times broader and deeper than the touching surface upon the point ofi the pintle, and we make the angle of the cavity more obtuse than that of the point of the pintle. The importance of these new features will appear from the following considerations: The bearing-surface upon the point of the pintle should be made as small as practicable, because, other things being equal` the friction upon that point is in proport-ion to the diameter of the touching surface. lf, then, the cavity were made no larger it would be diicult l to confine the point of the pintle within it. The slightly raising the fabric to which the I Custer Was applied, 0r the passing over a fold i in the carpet or anY unevenness in the floor, would throw it out of place, and it would not return when the weight of the fabric should the cavity broad and deep enough to catch the point of the pintle in whatever position it may present itself, and conduct it di its small bearing place at the center.- By Inakl ing the angular point of the cavity more obtuse than that of the pintle we insure the re duction of the touching surface to a small diameter. We also thereby avoid the binding l effect upon the point of the pintle which would otherwise occur in case the upper bearing l should not stand in an exact line with the pintle. Such are the useful results of these new considered severally. Their features when upon it. We therefore make l th said pintle and ed to each oth rectlyto I' set forth.

made thereon for the purpose set forth.

united eect is such as yto accomplish the following important end, which greatly facilitates the fabrication of the caster, to wit: It enables us to cast the pintle ready pointed,

and to cast the bearing formed 1u 1t, and

with the cavity ready bring them together as cast without any fitting, notwithstanding both may have in a considera casting. This, we been done, of a useful result if ble degree the imperfecmade, as heretofore, of the same dimensions and angle.

vBefore our inven tion various modes were employed of securing the pintle to the fixed part ofthe caster,

these modes have weaken the pintle u first described.

lWe believe that never before made ing therefrom above purpose, as herein descri `What We claim to secu re by Letters 1. The combination of parts consisti the wheel, the pintle, and

bea rings or bearin pieces being and through that to the fabric on which the caster might be set.

Most of been such as materially to ear the point of greatest n to us,

herein he pintle of a caster was with a solid llange projectthe lower bearing for that bed.

as our invention, and wish Patent, is as follows:

the two distinct g-pieces, said bearingmade as set forth-that is to say,

being made in a cylindrical or oth er analogous '3. The flange on Witnesses:

er substantially in the in the form, for the purpose of suiting them to be inserted in a hole, as

2.4 The combination of parts consisting of pintle, and the upper set forth.

bearing, ng being made and adaptmanner the, pintle located and place and manner and ELI WV. BLAKE. JOHN A. BLAKE. PHILOS BLAKE.

' WILLIAM LLOYD,

.CHESTER WARNER.

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