Draft:SPLIT ROLLER BEARINGS

Thomas C. Cooper pioneered the worlds first split roller bearing in 1907 among many more patents including the penny-in-slot weighing machine. A Shorter Guide to Split Roller Bearings published in 1932 illustrates “The Cooper split roller bearing is a cylindrical roller bearing with the added benefit of being split right down to the shaft. The benefit of the split roller bearing spread by word of mouth and the initial customers included: Babcock and Wilcox, I.C.I., Simon Carves, Allis Charmers, Vickers Armstrong and the Admiralty. Overseas customers included Demag, Schloemann, Bethlehem Steel Corporation and Brown, Boveri. Cooper housings (Cartridge and Pedestals) did not conform to other bearing manufacturers housing in terms of bolt holes and center heights which did not matter as most Cooper bearings were supplied to Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) companies listed above. Through the British Empire Cooper bearings found their way into all the colonies via the OEM companies supplying plants throughout the empire. In the early years all bearing were made to imperial system dimension with the British Empire using 1/8 of an inch fraction and the America’s using 1/16 inch fractions. Cooper now makes full range of Metric as well as Imperial size bearings. Over the years the Cooper split bearing underwent many changes and improvements and changes in the series as can be seen from catalog published in October 1989 the series were changed as follows: 01 replaces Medium, 02 replaces Heavy and 03 replaces Extra Heavy including E series Extract from Cooper Catalog G13 metric “Cooper company has a team of Area Managers in Great Britain, an extensive organization covering the North American continent from companies in Norfolk Virginia, Mississauga Ontario and associated companies in West Germany and agent appointed in 40 countries through the world. “