Omaha daily bee., 1897-02-28
MECHANISM OF THE BICYCLE
How the Various Parts Are Made, Tried
and Assembled.
THE WORK OF AUTOMATIC MACHINERY
Novel Processes Employed In Maising
the vital Pnrts-Trufng the Wheel
and Testing the Balls
for the hearings.

The history of mechanical industries in the
United States contains no parallel for the
development of b~icycle-making and Its ac-
ceseories Twenty years ago 1t was regarded
as a mechanical freak; ten years later, 1t
was a hobby of athletes, and FIVE years ago
It was the fad of a class burdened with a
surplus of leisure. Now the bicycle is a
popular necessity, amounting to a craze; it's
votaries are numbered by the hundreds OF
thousands; 1t rolls over every highway in
civilized lands; 1t has penetrated Africa and
the Orient. In the United States there are
now $50 bicycle factories, with a capital Of
$40, 900, 900, and capable of turning out 1,OOO,-
600 bicycles per annum.
Less than five years ago, II an engineer
was told to take twenty pounds of steel,
wood and rubber and make a bicycle which
was to carry 200 pounds of humanity over
1000 miles of American roads, he would have
thrown up his hands in despair. Today the
factories are turning out machines weighing
less than twenty pounds which will do the
job without straining a screw.
DISTRIBUTION OF STRAIN.
Scientists and engineers unite in lauding
the bicycle as the NEST wonderful example of
scientific distribution Of material ever put
together since the world began. Hollow
steel tubing, diamond frame, drop forgings,
ball bearings, pneumatic tire, wooden rim
ard mechanical perfection in putting these
PARTS together have made the bicycle of
today the eighth wonder of the world, and
yet so common have bicycles become that
hundreds of thousands of wheelmen never
stop to marvel at the wonderful mechanism.
Take the wheel, for instance. A mere
child can hold both of the cobweb affairs
out at arms length. The spokes are scarcely
Lsa1.A, tIa- ayr 1 nv ri Thn urnn1nnI
rim weighs but a few ounces. The delicate
drop-forged steel hub looks as though 1t
could be squeezed fiat between the thumb
and finger. When held from the ground
the slightest touch sets the wheel to revolving
a score of times, and yet four men can stand
on it when it is laid in a horizontal position,
and with its pneumatic tire full OF
air it can be dropped from a
third-story window without buckling or
breaking. This is because every particle
of material in the wheel does its full duty
all of the time. There is not a dead or lazy
~pennyweight in it's entire makeup.
SUSPENSION WHEELS.
The bicycle wheel belongs to the order OF
suspension wheels. Buggy and wagon wheels,
whether straight or dished, are rigid wheels,
and wheels used on agricultural implements
are frequently "staggered'-that is, the
spokes are set in the hub in a zigzag line
so as to have them on a spread In
the rigid wheels the weight-carryirg spokes
ere those under the hub, but in suspension
| wheels the weight, it is claimed, is carried
by the upper spokes alone. This Is a dis
puted point. however. for it is said by others
that in a perfectly constructed suspension
wheel all Of the spokes, at all times, carry
| the same degree of tension, so that the work
is evenly distributed. In ordinary suspen-
sion wheels the rim or tire is generally
stiff and i~relestic, but this cannot be said of
the steel or wooden rims of the bicycle
wheel. which may be stiff, but are decidedly
rptnr and n1o1ttnH
Rid of those features which have
minimized friction, the ball bearings
and pneumatic tire, the bicycle
wheel is made up Of a drop
steel or wooden rim. 1t is conceded that,
weight for weight, the wooden rim is
stronger than a steel rim, so that for the
same amount Of work the wheel with the
! wooden rim is a few ounces lighter than the
| wheel with a steel rim.
WOODEN RIMS.
Indiana is the state which furnishes the
majority of wooden rims, and they are
shipped in crates to the bicycle makers
ready to be bored for the spokes and valve
stem.
The Grated wooden rims are carried into
the basement of the works and there young
lads 16 or IS years old drill the spoke holes
in them. This of course is done by ma
chinery, and, like everything else in an up
to-date bicycle factory, it is novel and in
teresting. The "set" of the spokes requires
~slanting holes in the rim and every other
hole must slant in the opposite direction, so
the boring machine bores two holes at once.
Thus, after the rim has gone around once,
there are sixteen spoke holes, II for a front
wheel, and eighteen, IL for a rear wheel, bored
in 1t. The lad then turns the rim around and
bores the other holes, which of course slant |
the other way. Besides boring holes for the |
wire spokes the machine 'countersinks' the |
holes for the washer, which fits under the |
heads of the spOkes, for without the washer
the spoke would pull through the wood and
split it. The steel washers are pushed into
place and the rim is now ready for the
spokes. |
The wire for the spokes comes In spools or
bundles and requires to be Strengthened out
before it is cut into the proper spoke lengths.
A boy cuts the wire into the required lengths
and passes the spokes to another lad, who
each end Of the spoke, for the spoke
at the tire and hub ends is twice as thick as
the original wire. This upsetting is done in
a machine fitted with side dies and plungers,
which come together SO as to drive the metal
onto Itself, thus giving the spoke more
body at the ends. Another machine cuts a
thread on the rim end of the spoke and still
another bends the head or spoke end SO that
1t will hook into the fange of the hub. Then
the spokes are carried to the nickel plating
department OF the works and after being