Untitled record

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AM! PHOTO-LITHO. CO. N.Y. (OSBORNE’S PROCESS)

United States Patent Office.

O. 0. FORSYTH, JR., OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

SKATE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 44,176, elated September 13,18G4.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, O. C. Forsyth, Jr., of . Washington, in the District of Columbia, have invented, a new and useful Improvement in Skates; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which—

Figure! is a view of a vertical and longitudinal section of my improved skate. Fig. 2 is a view of a cross-section of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts.

The object of my invention is to produce a skate which shall possess great elasticity combined with sufficient strength, which shall be adjustable to suit as many different sizes as are ordinarily required, and whose runners shall be independent of each other, and each be so attached to the skate-body as to adjust itself to every change in its contour, so that therunners may always restsquarely or evenly upon the surface of the ice.

D represents the sole or body of the skate, which I make of steel or any other elastic material, which has also the requisite strength. It is to be perforated with a number of holes, 3, to admit screw-bolts 2, whose office is to attach to the sole the metallic brackets B, which carry the runners. The brackets B are made in the shape shown in the figures, and if they are constructed out of sheet-brass or other metal they can be swaged to that shape, the blank being first cut out to the required outline and holes cut therein to receive the bolts 2, and also slots 2 cut therein for the passage of the fastening-straps of the skate.

It will be observed that the brackets B have a broad base, so as to receive at least two fastening-bolts, 2, and that its sides gradually diminish to a rounded point, j, which is to be left sufficiently strong to serve as bearings for the journals or fulcrum-pins of the runners, which are hung within the sides of the brackets by the fulcrum bolts and nuts 1. The runners are to be of metal or other suitable material, and may be shaped like those marked A, or like that marked A'. It will be seen that the runners will rock or have a rotating movement about their points of attachment to the brackets. This rotation will, if uncontrolled, bring their upper ends, 4, against the sole D. In order to control their rotating movement, I fasten elliptic springs e to the inner faces of the brackets by cutting slots through the shank of the springs so that they can be clamped against the brackets by the same screw-bolts 2 which secure the latter to the sole D. These slots in the springsare elongated to permit of their adjustment in position, and also to increase and decrease their elasticity, which latter object is effected by shortening or lengthening the limbs of the spring, or the distance from its ends to the bite of the bolthead. The bolt cl iu Fig. 2 is seen to pass through the shank of one of these springs e through such a slot.

Although I have shown the springs of this form, and a mode of adjusting and operating them, yet I do not confine myself to the use of springs of this character, as I can use other springs with equally good or better results—as, for instance, rubber springs or spiral springs •fixed between the sole D aud the upper or plane edges of the runners, one or more ou each side of a vertical plane passing through the axis of their fulcrums 1. One or more springs are required to bear upon each end of the runners when they are shaped like those marked A; but if all the runners are made like that marked A' a spring bearingi's needed only at or toward its end 4. The runner A' in this example is meant for a back or heel runner, and is therefore provided with a rudder, 5, which is to be omitted when used under other parts of the sole. A bearing, /, whose upper surface is parallel with and contiguous to the sole D when the runner is in its normal state, is formed upon the back part of the runner A', so that its rotation cannot take place in that direction. The rest Of the upper edge of the runner is cut away down to the height of its end 4, so as to allow of a clear space between it and the sole at that end. The arc described by that end of the runner may be increased or decreased by raising or lowering the end 4 of the runner. The bolts 2 are secured by nuts or nuts aud washers, and these aud all the screw-bolts in the skate are to be so constructed and secured as not to be liable to loosen. The sole D is to be covered by an elastic bed-piece, C, which is to be cemented or otherwise fastened upon the sole D, the nuts and bolt ends 2 being embedded therein, as shown in Fig. 1. I propose to use for this

44,176 purpose vulcanized rubber or other equivalent material.

By means of the perforations in the sole D for bolts at the points 3,1 am enabled to alter tbe position of the runners, and also to increase or decrease their number, so that the same sole D maybe used for a skate with two or more runners, each to be placed at such points as may be chosen, in order to adjust the skate for feet of different sizes or to suit those who desire to increase the steadiness of the skate by increasing the number of runners, and vice versa.