Improvements in the Construction and Arrangement of Driving Gear for Velocipedes and other Vehicles.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 3rd Nov., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 30th July, 1897-Accepted, 3rd Feb., 1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Construction and Arrangement of Driving Gear
for Velocipedes and other Vehicles.
We, THOMAS HANN, Mechanical Engineer, WILLIAM BROMLEY, Wine and Spirit
Mehant's Traveller, JOHN PRICE, Mechanical Engineer, all of 18, Upper
Kennington Lane, ALFRED HENRY SMITH, Gentleman, of 89, Marney Road,
Clapham Common, and DICK EDWARDS RADCLYFFE, Gentleman, of 56, Gloucester
Crescent, Regent's Park, all in the County of London, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention to be as follows:-
In the Specification of a prior Patent granted to Thomas Hann and William
Bromley dated 16th August 1893, No. 15558 and in a Patent granted to John Price,
Thomas Hann, and William Bromley dated 21st December 1895 No. 24525 certain
constructions and arrangements, and combinations, of mechanism, were described
for driving velocipedes and other vehicles. The salient features of the mechanism
described in the Specifications of those Patents consist of a pair of cranks on the
axle of the wheel to be driven, connecting rods from each crank supported and
guided by arms swinging from the fixed framework of the machine, while the
connecting rods were acted upon indirectly or directly by a cam or cams keyed
upon the pedal or driving shaft.
Now the object of our present invention is to so arrange such mechanism, that
the cam or cams may act by their peripheral edges or surfaces upon the rollers or
bowls or other equivalent parts carried by the connecting rods or levers, instead
of such cams being grooved upon the plane faces thereof, as described in the
specifications and shewn in the drawings of the aforesaid Patents.
With this object in view and when "plate" cams are employed we provide
means whereby the bowl or cam contact end of the connecting rod is prevented
from becoming displaced laterally with respect to the acting periphery of the cam,
and in this connection we groove or make the cam periphery concave and form
the end of the rod, or the bowl carried thereby, to take into such peripheral groove
or concaved edge.
Instead of grooving the cam periphery or edge, the latter may be plain and the
bowl connecting rod end or equivalent part may be grooved or recessed to receive
the cam edge and prevent relative lateral motion.
The connecting rods may be supported at or near the cams, by trunnions or parts
on the rods, taking into slides or sliding bearings, and such may be employed
either alone or in conjunction with the swinging arms aforesaid.
When desired excentrics may be employed as a mechanical equivalent for the
cranks upon the rear axle, as is well understood.
In some cases instead of employing cams of "plate" variety, we form the cam
groove upon the periphery of a cylinder and such a cam is then keyed upon the
driving shaft; a bowl carried upon one arm of a lever (say a bell crank lever)
takes into the cam groove, and the lever is operated a suitable number of times
for each revolution of the cylinder, according to the character of the cam groove

page_text: formed or cut thereon. By connecting rods or links the motion is communicated
to the cranks or excentrics or equivalent mechanism by which the road wheel is
driven.
1000
BREWER & SON,
London & Leeds, Agents for the Applicant.
Improvements in the Construction and Arrangement of Driving Gear
for Velocipedes and other Vehicles.
We, THOMAS HANN, Mechanical Engineer, WILLIAM BROMLEY, Wine and Spirit
Merchant's Traveller, JOHN PRICE, Mechanical Engineer, all of 18, Upper
Kennington Lane, ALFRED HENRY SMITH, Gentleman, of 89, Marney Road,
Clapham Common, and Dick EDWARDS RADCLYFFE, Gentleman, of 56, Gloucester
Crescent, Regent's Park, all in the County of London, 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:-
In the Specification of a prior Patent granted to Thomas Hann and William
Bromley dated 16th August 1893 No. 15558 and in a Patent granted to John
Price, Thomas Hann and William Bromley dated 21st December 1895
No. 24525, certain constructions and arrangements, and combinations
of mechanism were described, for driving velocipedes and other vehicles.
The salient features of the mechanism described in the Specifications
of those Patents consists of a pair of cranks on the axle of the wheel
to be driven, connecting rods from each crank supported and guided by arms,
swinging from the fixed framework of the machine, while the connecting rods
were acted upon indirectly or directly, by a cam or cams, keyed upon the pedál or
driving shaft.
Now the object of our present invention is, to so arrange such mechanism as here-
after described, that the cam or cams may act by their peripheral edges or surfaces
upon the rollers, or bowls, or other equivalent parts, carried by the connecting rods
or levers, instead of such cams being grooved upon the plane faces thereof, as
described in the Specifications and shown in the drawings of the aforesaid Patents.
In order that our said invention may be readily understood we will describe
same with reference to the accompanying drawings whereon Fig. 1 shows so much
of a rear driven bicycle fitted with our improved driving gear, as will be necessary
for the purposes of this description. Fig. 2 is an elevation, drawn to a larger
scale than the previous figures, shewing our cam and lever carrying the rollers,
detached from the machine. Fig. 3 is an end elevation of a pair of cams and
roller-carrying levers such as shewn at Fig. 2, Fig. 4 is a horizontal section of the
cam, shewing the peripheral contact edges, and rollers against which the edges
act. Figs. 5 and 6 are similar views shewing respectively a cam with convex
edges, and a similar cam with concave edges.
AA are the cams, one being mounted at or near each end upon the crank axle B
of the machine. In constructing a cam A so that it may act by its peripheral
edges or surfaces, we form the latter surfaces A' A to project laterally from the
plane surface of the cam as at Figs. 2 and 4, and we provide for each cam a pendant
lever C supported from a bearing carried by a bracket 1 Fig. 3 from the frame-
work of the machine. Each lever C carries rollers or bowls C¹ C2 at, or near, the
pendant ends thereof, the roller C¹ being acted upon by the peripheral surface A¹
and the roller C by the surface A2 of the cam A.
To the rocked end of each lever C we pivot one end of a connecting rod E, which

page_text: rods E extend to eccentric straps or sheaves E' and actuate eccentrics F fixed one
upon each side of the axle of the rear wheel G. If desired cranks may be
employed on the rear wheel, as described in the prior Patent Specifications herein-
before referred to. The connecting rods E E may conveniently pass through the
lower bottom stay tubes HH, as was described in one of the Patent Specifications
previously referred to, namely No. 24525/95.
In constructing the cam A to act by its peripheral surfaces A' A2, we have found
it desirable to make the flange of varying thicknesses as shewn at Figs. 1 and 2 so
that when a part of the flange as at Fig. 2 passes between the rollers C₁ C in an
angular position, it shall fit the distance between the said rollers, while when a
part of the flange passes in other positions the thickness shall be greater or less
in order to equally occupy the space between the said rollers.
In order to accurately adjust and set the distance of the rollers C₁ C² from each
other, we divide the end of each lever and fit a bolt or screw C3 whereby the
distance of the rollers may be adjusted. Generally we find that the elasticity of
the divided ends of the levers C allow of sufficient adjustment, but if desired, and
as will be readily understood, one of the divided ends carrying one of the rollers
might be hinged to the main part.
In some cases, with the object of preventing the bowls or rollers C¹ C³ from
becoming displaced laterally with respect to the acting peripheries of the cam
we groove or make the surfaces of the cam either convex as at Fig. 5 or concave
as at Fig. 6, and form the edges of the rollers CC to fit such cam surfaces but
generally we have found the plain edges as at Fig. 4 to answer the purpose well.
The cams are shewn on the drawing, as calculated to impart three revolutions
to the rear wheel at each revolution of the cam, but we may employ cams with
other numbers of throws if desired, and the cams may be interchangeable, that is
the three throw cams may be removed and four throw or two throw cams substituted
therefor, on the same machine if desired, and in this connection instead of fitting the
cam flanges to face outwards as shewn at Fig. 1 we arrange same to face inwards
whereby the cam can obviously be removed from the shaft without disarranging
the levers C or connecting rods E.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is:-
1. In driving gear for velocipedes and other vehicles, the two flanged multiple-
throw cams fixed upon the driving axle, each cam flange forming peripheral
surfaces A¹ A to act upon a pair of rollers C1 C2, carried by a pendant lever C,
connecting rods jointed to the pendant levers and extending on each side of the
driven wheel, to act upon eccentrics or cranks thereon substantially as described.
2. In driving gear for velocipedes and other vehicles the combination with the
mechanism as claimed by Claim 1, of the formation of each cam with a cam flange
of varying thicknesses whereby at all times the said flange fits the distance
between the two rollers carried by the pendant lever, substantially as described.
3. In driving gear for velocipedes and other vehicles the combination with the
mechanism as claimed by Claim 1, of the construction and arrangement of the
cam, and the roller adjustment, substantially as shown and described with reference
to Figs. 2 and 4 of the accompanying drawings.
00.1
CTI 1007
BREWER & SON,
London & Leeds, Agents for the Applicants.