Improvements in Wheels for Vehicles.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application (in United Kingdom), 6th Dec., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 6th Dec., 1893-Accepted, 17th Mar., 1894
Improvements in Wheels for Vehicles.
I, EUGÈNE VINCENT of 3, Rue du Louvre, Paris, France, Velocipede
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
Hitherto the rims of wheels of velocipedes and other vehicles have always
been connected to the wheel either by rivetting or other means, or springs or
flexible connections have been inserted between two rims and secured by rivets to
the one or the other rim or by means of slotted connections perinitting of a limited
sliding movement of the springs either upon the rigid or flexible rim, or on both
rims, with the object of rendering the external rim flexible and preventing shocks
or vibration.
Two principal systems have been long employed in practice, the first of which
consists in providing the exterior rim with a solid, hollow, or inflated tyre of india-
rubber, while the second consists in utilizing steel springs fixed to a flexible rim.
In both these cases, whether the elasticity results from the expansion of com-
pressed air or of. springs, it is necessary that the action should take effect upon a
flexible rim of whatever kind. The flexible rim will thus exist in principle,
whatever may be the means employed to effect the compression or expansion. It
results from these arrangements that, owing to the external rim forming part of
the wheel, when said rim comes in contact with an obstacle a kind of shearing
action is produced which leads either to the breakage of the springs from one or
both of the rims, or of one of the points of connection between the two rims."
I have in another application described the external rim as being made loose
and independent of the wheel and combined with shoes connected to pistons acting
on compressed air contained in a hollow inner rim, this arrangement having for its
object to obviate the objections above indicated or resulting from the application
of pneumatic tyres to wheels. This novel construction of wheel permits of
obtaining great flexibility when running which is performed without effort or noise
by reason of the particular disposition and mobility of the independent exterior
rim which adapts itself to all the sinuosities of the ground. The same result may
also be obtained by interposing between the independent external rim and the
inner rim to which the spokes are fixed, an arrangement of rods provided with
helical springs, or an arrangement of flat ribbon springs wound in coned spiral
form.
The present application has more especially for its object to describe and claim
an arrangement of external, free and independent, rim in combination with a rigid
nterior rim.

page_text: My improvements will be readily understood from the following description,.
reference being had to the accompanying drawing in which
Figure 1 shews a portion of the wheel of a velocipede and the form assumed by
the external rim when travelling on uneven ground.
Figure 2 is a similar view shewing the form assumed by the external rim when
in contact with an obstacle encountered in its progress.
The same letters of reference denote like parts in both figures.
As shewn in Figure 1 the rigid inner rim to which the spokes a are fixed, is
constructed of two concentric rings be united by tubular distance pieces d d each
of which serves as a guide for a rod e passing through a spring and in one with
a flanged shoe g in which is received and bears an exterior metal rim 4 faced with
india-rubber or other suitable material. The outer free and independent rim is
constructed preferably of an endless band of thin teinpered steel or other flexible
material capable of adapting itself to the undulations of the ground and of
automatically resuming its original form immediately it has quitted contact with
the ground.
In the arrangement illustrated in Figure 2 the rigid inuer rim has upon its
outer circumference a number of solid, hollow, or apertured studs which are
engaged in volute spiral springs k whose opposite ends engage with short studs of
the shoes g.
Figures 1 and 2 clearly shew that the deformation of the exterior hoop or rim of
'the wheel only occurs at the points of contact with the ground and that by reason
of the action of the springs which have been compressed and which resume their
shape after the obstacle has been passed, all tremor or shaking of the vehicle is
avoided and owing to the independence of the outer rim which is free to slip to a
slight extent in the shoes, according to undulations of the-ground, all shearing and
consequent breakage are prevented. When the wheel is in motion the deformation
of the external hoop or rim, ás shewn in Figures 1 and 2, causes a slight displace-
ment of the shoes to the right or left, according to the obstacles encountered. On
the rim resuming its original form and the shoes regaining their former position a
sort of differential movement is produced between the two rims which is however
extremely slight and produces no effect upon the running of the wheel. Thus the
outer rim is arrested which is apparent by a retard in its revolution of about
one-twentieth of a millimetre, so that when the inner rim has made, say, from
twelve to fifteen hundred revolutions the outer rim will have made about one
turn less.
It will be understood from the foregoing that should the outer independent rim h
come in contact with an obstacle it will be flexed, as shewn in Figure 1, the rods e
in compressing springs will slide in their guide sockets d, at same time that the
shoes y will slip on the interior face of the independent rim which will be returned
to its original form together with the shoes g, by the action of the springs imme-
diately the obstacle has been passed over, as indicated in dot and dash lines in the
said figure.
The deflection of the outer rim and shoes in the arrangement shewn in Figure 2
and the return of said rim to the original form, indicated by the dot and dash lines,
under the action of the springs, is effected in the same manner as for the
arrangement shewn in Figure 1.
It results from these arrangements that the springs always act normally
whatever may be the position of the obstacle.
It is to be understood that the inner rim may be provided with protective
flanges and be constructed of a tube of rectangular, round, oval, or other section
provided with apertures for the passage of the rods connected with the shoes
(Figure 1) upon which the outer flexible rim freely bears. I may also, with the
object of protecting the springs from dust, dispose the springs between the
concentric rings be (Figure 1) and enclosed in a tube, in which case the rode to
which the shoeg is attached would pass through both the spring and tube placed
between the rings bc.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what 1
claim is :-
:-
The improvements in velocipedes and other vehicles principally characterized
by the arrangement of the outer rim free and independent of the wheel, that is to
say without any attachment thereto, acting upon shoes in combination with springs
or pistons interposed between suid independent exterior rim and the inner rigid
ring, whatever may be the form, disposition, nature of the springs, levers, etc.,
capable of being employed between two or three rims and designed to support by
pressure the outer free independent rim without any attachment, substantially as
described and for the purpose specified.
Dated this 6th day of December 1893.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.