IMPROVEMENTS IN TRICYCLES, VELOCIPEDES, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE-VEHICLES
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Francis Beauchamp at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th July 1882.
FRANCIS BEAUCHAMP, of Edmonton, in the County of Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS
IN TRICYCLES, VELOCIPEDES, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE-VEHICLES."
This invention consists;―
Firstly, in certain improvements in the means and apparatus for effecting the
steerage of the tricycle or other such like vehicle. For this purpose I arrange the
seat or saddle on which the rider is seated when operating the vehicle so as to
pivot or swivel to the right or left by the simple twisting round or turning of the
body of the said rider in the corresponding direction. This movement of the seat
to the right or left is communicated to the spindle of the steering wheel by means
of levers and connecting rods, chains, cords or wires, by toothed gearing, or other
suitable mechanical devices.
Secondly, in arrangements connected with the seat or saddle, whereby the same
is enabled to rock forwards or backwards in harmony with the movement of the
body when pushing or pulling the actuating levers, or when treading the pedals of
the crank axle. For this purpose I mount the seat or saddle on bearing springs of
a construction similar to those ordinarily employed but so arranged as to bear
against a cross spindle or axle placed under the said seat or saddle, and having its
ends guided in slots cut in brackets or other parts formed on or fixed to the frame
of the tricycle or other vehicle. Instead of the said cross spindle, projecting pins
may be attached at each side of the seat or saddle and caused to take into the said
slots. By these arrangements the seat or saddle is free to rise and fall in response
to the action of the springs and at the same time to rock forwards or backwards
on the aforesaid spindle or axle or on the aforesaid pins to any extent required by
the movement of the body in the action of propelling the tricycle or other vehicle.
Thirdly, in improved mechanism for propelling the tricycle or other vehicle,
which consists in connecting to the propelling lever a toothed rack so arranged and
guided as to partake of the to and fro motion of the said lever; this rack gears
into a toothed wheel which turns loosely on the boss of the driving wheel or on
the axle thereof. On the boss of the driving wheel or (when the latter is fixed on
its axle) on the axle itself is fixed a ratchet wheel into which take a pawl or

page_text: pawls centred on the aforesaid toothed wheel and kept in action by springs or by
gravity. When the propelling lever is pushed or drawn in one direction the rack
is moved longitudinally so as to turn the toothed wheel and thereby through the
medium of the pawl or pawls, the ratchet wheel and consequently the driving
wheel. When the propelling lever is pushed or drawn in the opposite direction
the rack is moved also the other way, turning the toothed wheel in the reverse
direction and the pawl or pawls slip back over the teeth of the ratchet wheel
without turning it so as to take up a fresh number of ratchet teeth ready for the
next movement of the propelling lever.
Instead of the toothed rack being connected with and moved to and fro by a
hand lever as above described it may be operated by a connecting rod driven by a
treadle or other crank or by other suitable means.
Instead of a pawl or pawls mounted on the aforesaid toothed wheel as above
described, grip, or pinch levers similar to those described in the specification of a
patent granted to me and bearing date the 24th November 1881, N° 5139, may be
mounted on the said toothed wheel and adapted to act upon and to cause the
rotation of a plain wheel fixed on the driving wheel or axle instead of the aforesaid
ratchet wheel.
When required two or more sets of these rack and pawl or grip lever motions
may be applied to one tricycle or other vehicle according to circumstances. By
means of this rack and pawl or grip lever motion I am enabled to obtain any
desired proportion between the movement of the driving wheel and the propelling-
lever or treadle by merely varying the diameter of the toothed wheel carrying the
actuating ratchet pawls or grip levers.