What kind of bearings did early bikes have? Early bearing/chain lube?
02-17-23, 07:37 PM
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The problem with A Tale of Two Cities is the beginning of it. After I got through the first chapter or so it was better than Great Expectations in my opinion. From what I've read, Dickens was a drunkard and I think the early part of A Tale of Two Cities was either during a bender or between two of them.
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02-17-23, 08:29 PM
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While the potential for extreme friction under poor lubrication was an annoyance on early bicycles, it was an especially big problem for trains. Trains took much longer than bicycles to transition away from plain bearings due to their extreme loads, but these same extreme loads meant that the worst-case scenarios for plain bearings were extremely bad.
02-17-23, 09:53 PM
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Plain bearings are often misnamed “friction bearings.” I’m quite familiar with them as the vintage steam locomotive I work on has them. Brass bearings sitting on steel axles, with 40 or 50 tons on top of that. The only thing between the brass and axle is a layer of oil maybe a few molecules thick.
Until then axle bearings were kept oiled by oil weeping oil of oil soaked cotton. It was a job to walk the length of a train and pour oil into the "hotbox" to keep things working.
Hotbox related axle seizure and derailment were all to common.
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02-18-23, 04:50 AM
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Some vegetable oils do seem to go gummy quite quickly but so did 3-in-one oil (the original variety) and that was good enough for many people for a long time.
02-18-23, 08:58 AM
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A "hotbox" (axle bearing failure) may have been involved in the recent massive train derailment in Ohio. One of a car's trucks was recorded on fire shortly before the wreck.
Last edited by sweeks; 02-18-23 at 09:02 AM.
02-18-23, 09:28 AM
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Les Misérables, The Count of Monte Cristo...Last of the Mohicans!
Mark Twain on James Fenimore Cooper:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3172/3172-h/3172-h.htm
I don't think 19th-century folks were in a particular hurry to finish a novel. They didn't have the entertainment options we do here in the 21st. That, plus many 19th-century novels were serialized and the author was paid by the word.
3inOne was a chain oil. Any gummy part was supposed to be cleaned off by the next application. When cycling went bust in America in the early 20th century, 3inOne remarketed itself as an all-purpose lubricant.
Mark Twain on James Fenimore Cooper:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3172/3172-h/3172-h.htm
I don't think 19th-century folks were in a particular hurry to finish a novel. They didn't have the entertainment options we do here in the 21st. That, plus many 19th-century novels were serialized and the author was paid by the word.
3inOne was a chain oil. Any gummy part was supposed to be cleaned off by the next application. When cycling went bust in America in the early 20th century, 3inOne remarketed itself as an all-purpose lubricant.
02-18-23, 09:28 AM
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I'm not sure that low friction bearings were used in all hubs in early bicycles. There's a book (if i can remember or find it I'll report back) by a really interesting guy who became a machinist in the late 1800s/early 1900s. He wrote a book about 40 years in a machine shop. Early in his career he was in a bike race and the front wheel seized up, throwing him over the bars. IIRC that was a bronze bushing bearing.
02-18-23, 09:34 AM
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Not that it pertains specifically to the subject at hand, but reading through reminded me about something. When we were little riding around the farm, our paw paw used to always keep the used motor oil out of his truck in a large can which was used to refill one of the metal "squirt trigger" spout cans. If there was anything rusty, squeaking, seized, needing lubricated it was getting the old drained oil. And quite generously.
02-18-23, 09:40 AM
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I'm not sure that low friction bearings were used in all hubs in early bicycles. There's a book (if i can remember or find it I'll report back) by a really interesting guy who became a machinist in the late 1800s/early 1900s. He wrote a book about 40 years in a machine shop. Early in his career he was in a bike race and the front wheel seized up, throwing him over the bars. IIRC that was a bronze bushing bearing.
Some children's cycles - and even some pedals on adult bikes - use plain bearings to this day.
02-18-23, 09:44 AM
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Plain bearings are often misnamed “friction bearings.” I’m quite familiar with them as the vintage steam locomotive I work on has them. Brass bearings sitting on steel axles, with 40 or 50 tons on top of that. The only thing between the brass and axle is a layer of oil maybe a few molecules thick.
02-18-23, 10:11 AM
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They generally used plain bearings, just like nearly all wheels had through all of history up to that point. "Plain" means that there are no rolling elements such as balls or rollers: as the shaft or wheel spun, it simply rubs against the opposing element.
This wasn't because folks were ignorant: engineers at the time were entirely aware of rolling-element bearings, and had been since ancient times. But rolling-element bearings require that those rolling elements be made in substantial numbers to very precise and consistent size and shape. And this made them very expensive to make until well into the industrial revolution.
Furthermore, rolling-element bearings have to resist their loads on very narrow point (in the case of ball) or line (in the case of roller) areas of contact. This means that the bearings need to have very high strength and hardness, or they need to be very large. Ideally, they should also have at least some corrosion resistance. In the year 2023 where we can buy oodles of nearly-perfectly-made balls of 52100 Chrome Steel for pennies, this might not sound like a big deal, but once again: two hundred years ago, it's going to be adding meaningful cost to the assembly.
Plain bearings are an elegant way to achieve good tolerance to high loads, which works even when your materials and manufacturing aren't totally up to snuff. They big drawback is, unsurprisingly, that they suffer from very high friction, particularly when they're not perfectly clean and well-lubricated.
While the potential for extreme friction under poor lubrication was an annoyance on early bicycles, it was an especially big problem for trains. Trains took much longer than bicycles to transition away from plain bearings due to their extreme loads, but these same extreme loads meant that the worst-case scenarios for plain bearings were extremely bad. The railroad operators needed to be very diligent in maintaining oil-soaked material within the boxes that housed the wheel axles; if a bearing ran dry under high load, it could overheat catastrophically (a "hot box" failure) and potentially cause a deadly derailment. Railroad workers were expected to watch trains as they went by, to keep an eye out for any wheels that were smoking or on fire.
By the beginning of the 20th century, bicycles had largely transitioned to ball bearings for their hubs.
This wasn't because folks were ignorant: engineers at the time were entirely aware of rolling-element bearings, and had been since ancient times. But rolling-element bearings require that those rolling elements be made in substantial numbers to very precise and consistent size and shape. And this made them very expensive to make until well into the industrial revolution.
Furthermore, rolling-element bearings have to resist their loads on very narrow point (in the case of ball) or line (in the case of roller) areas of contact. This means that the bearings need to have very high strength and hardness, or they need to be very large. Ideally, they should also have at least some corrosion resistance. In the year 2023 where we can buy oodles of nearly-perfectly-made balls of 52100 Chrome Steel for pennies, this might not sound like a big deal, but once again: two hundred years ago, it's going to be adding meaningful cost to the assembly.
Plain bearings are an elegant way to achieve good tolerance to high loads, which works even when your materials and manufacturing aren't totally up to snuff. They big drawback is, unsurprisingly, that they suffer from very high friction, particularly when they're not perfectly clean and well-lubricated.
While the potential for extreme friction under poor lubrication was an annoyance on early bicycles, it was an especially big problem for trains. Trains took much longer than bicycles to transition away from plain bearings due to their extreme loads, but these same extreme loads meant that the worst-case scenarios for plain bearings were extremely bad. The railroad operators needed to be very diligent in maintaining oil-soaked material within the boxes that housed the wheel axles; if a bearing ran dry under high load, it could overheat catastrophically (a "hot box" failure) and potentially cause a deadly derailment. Railroad workers were expected to watch trains as they went by, to keep an eye out for any wheels that were smoking or on fire.
By the beginning of the 20th century, bicycles had largely transitioned to ball bearings for their hubs.
Speaking of doing a rollby..I'm getting ready to look for hot boxes as the train departs
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02-18-23, 10:39 AM
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02-21-23, 06:51 AM
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A lot of heavy duty lathes and other machine tools were made with Babbit back in the day. Super rigid.
02-21-23, 09:08 PM
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my experience with babbit is like it’s a soft metal like tin. I’ve seen this poured into worn brasses.
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