Hay Gravity-Feed Oiler, Patent Model

This oiler was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Peter D. Hay (assignor to the Michigan Lubricator Co.), of Detroit, Michigan, June 9, 1888, no. 384762.

The model represents a sight-feed oiler in which the oil is contained in a cylindrical glass reservoir and flows by gravity through a needle valve to the bearing into which the oiler is screwed. The needle of the needle valve when closed is held against its seat by a light spring. It is opened by lifting the needle and giving it a short turn so that a pin on the shaft rises out of a slot and rests on the top edge of a brass thumb nut screwed into the central pot of the oiler. This nut may be run up or down on its threads and so determine the amount by which the needle will be raised and held from its seat and so control the rate at which oil is fed from the reservoir. The nut carries a spring-held pin that rests in shallow recesses in the top of the oiler and holds the nut in the position in which it is set and will not permit the nut to be jarred around by the vibration of the machine to which it is attached.

Reference:

This description comes from the 1939 Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States Museum Bulletin 173 by Frank A. Taylor.

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