US670937A - Furniture-caster. - Google Patents

Description

c. H. MGCAULEY.

FUBNITURE'GA8TEB.

(Application filed Mar. 10, 1900.|

Patented Apr. 2, I901.

(No Model.)

-: IIIIIIII/III/IIIIIII/M/IIIIIIIIIIIO CHARLES H. MCGAULEY, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

FU RNITU RE-CASTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 670,937, dated April 2, 1901.

Application filed March 10, 1900. Serial No. 8,204. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that LOHARLns I-LMOCAULEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Furniture-Casters, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in furniture casters, and particularly to that class in which a tubular socket is stationarily secured to the article and adapted to receive a pintle or stem which extends upwardly from a suitable roller.

The invention consists in providing such a socket with means for engaging the pintle and preventing it from falling out when the article to which the caster is applied is lifted from the floor and in so arranging such retaining devices that they will be outside of the tubular portion of the socket and also be protected from injury when the roller and pintle are removed and the socket bears directly on the floor.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is an elevation of a caster having its parts constructed and arranged in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the same. Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a portion of the caster, showing the position of the pintle-retaining devices when the pintle is partially inserted in the socket. Fig. 4 is a bottom view of the socket member of the caster. Fig. 5 is a sectional view through the lower portion of the socket, the pintle being removed.

Like letters of reference designate corresponding parts in all of the figures of the drawings, referring to which- A designates the tubular or body portion or the socket of my improved furniture-caster, which tubular portion may be formed in any preferred and suitable mannerthat is,it may be either cast in one or two pieces or sections or rolled up from a sheet-metal blank, as is common in the manufacture of such articles. Preferably it is provided with two longitudinally-extendingribs CL, which act to hold it from rotation within the socket formed in the article to which the caster is to be applied.

About the lower end of the tubular portion A is secured a base-piece or annular flange B. This is made of the cross-sectional form shown particularlyin Figs. 2 and 3, so as to provide a central recess or chamber 1), which is connected' at its highest point with the abovedescribed portion A of the socket. The outer portion of this flange or base-piece is bent upwardly, providing a groove or depression 1), into which more or less of the lower end of the portion of the furniture to which the device is applied extends. The upper edge of this upwardly-extending flange may be smooth, as shown in the drawings, or serrated, as preferred. By reference to Figs. 2 and 3 it will be seen that the base-piece or flange B is thus provided with a depending ring-like portion 11 which surrounds the aforesaid chamber or recess 1) and the lower substantially horizontal face of which is some distance below the lower end of the tubular portion A. This ring-like portion b is the only part of the basepiece 13 that contacts with the door when the roller D is detached from the socket member of the caster.

The roller D is mounted in the ordinary manner between two arms 6, secured to the lower end of the pintle E. The latter is preferably made cylindrical throughout its length and of a diameter to fit within the tubular portion A of the socket. This pintle maybe secured to the arms e in any suitable manner. In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings it is provided near its lower end with an annular boss e and is of reduced size from such boss to its lower end. This reduced end is passed through an aperture in the cross-bar connecting the upper ends of the arm 6 and secured thereto by being upset. About the said reduced portion of the pintle is fitted a washer F, which is of a diameter greater than that of the boss 6 and when the pintle is secured as above described to the arms e is firmly clamped between said boss and cross-bar. This washer F is concaved somewhat on its upper face, as shown, so that its edge or periphery lies somewhat above its center or point of attachment to the pintle. By this construction and arrangementit will be seen that the pintle is provided with an annular flange which when the parts of the caster are all assembled lies within the chamber or recess 1) in the base 13 of the socket,- and within the said recess 1) I arrange means for engaging said flange on the pintle and normally preventing its movement outwardly or longitudinally away from the socket. These pintle-engaging meansin the embodiment of the invention selected for illustration here consist of a plate G and any suitable number of depending yielding or flexible lips or projections g. The plate G is provided with a central aperture and is secured against the upper wall of the recess 6 by any suitable means, so that said aperture will be in alinement with the tubular portion A. The lips g, which may, as shown, be formed integral with the plate G, are bent so as to extend first inwardly and then outwardly at their free ends. Said lips are so situated that the radial distance from the axis of the pintle to the innermost portion of anyone of said lips is slightly less than the radius of the flange F, and when the pintle has been inserted in the socket sufficiently far to bring the flange F above said inwardly-extending bends in the lips g it will be supported in such position.

It will be understood that while the springlike lips are of sufficient strength to sustain the weight of the pintle and roller they do not prevent the withdrawal of the pintle from the socket when desired, and when the pintle is thus removed the lower ends of the said lips lie in a plane above that of the lower face of the ring-like portion b of the basepiece B, so that the weight of the furniture is not applied to said lips and they are surrounded and protected from damage.

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

In a furniture-caster, the combination of a socket having an annular base-piece at its lower end, said base-piece havinga recess or chamber in its lower face, yielding or flexible pintle-engaging fingers connected to said socket and lying wholly within said recess or chamber, and a pintle fitting said socket, said pintle having an annular flange F which is engaged and detachably held by said fingers, substantially'as described.

In testimony whereof I affiX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHAS. H. MOGAULEY.

Witnesses:

CHARLES H. lVIILLIKIN, JAMEs F. JOHNSON.

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