Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
There was a need for a thrust bearing in flour-milling machinery. The moving millstone was
driven by a vertical shaft that was supported by some sort of footstep bearing. I have shown an
arrangement for a footstep bearing in figure 16-16. The sliding surfaces are just the flat end of
the shaft and the face in the base. There can be no wedge action with such an arrangement and
lubrication was from a reservoir in the base with a radial groove in the shaft to carry oil to the
centre of the shaft where it might find its way between
the two surfaces. Wear must have been inevitable.
When the screw propeller began to be used on ships in
about 1850 there was a need for a thrust bearing to
transfer the force produced on the propeller, that had
been transmitted through the shaft, on to the structure
of the ship and, of course, bearings to support this long
shaft. For 50 years the thrust bearing was the plain
annular bearing shown in figure 16-17 derived from the
footstep bearing possibly with several bearing collars on
Fig 16-16
century
the
Navier
and
of the thrust
called Michell.
invented the