Year: 1897

page_text: I, GEORGE EDWARD REES, of Harwood Vicarage, Bolton, in the County of Lancaster,
Clerk in Holy Orders, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
I fit to the toothed wheel driven by crank a box (circular in elevation) hinged on
the side where the chain when running engages, the two parts connected by the
hinge, (semicircular in elevation), meeting about the horizontal line by an overlap,
fitting round the axle and being further secured. At top and bottom in the two
places where the chain leaves the wheel there are chainways (of circular tubing or
otherwise) firmly fastened into the box, reaching nearly half the distance between
crank and hub chain wheel. A similar box similarly arranged with similar chain
ways is fitted to the hub chain wheel.
Before joining up the chain it is passed through the chainways and passed round
the chain wheels. The boxes are then closed the chain is joined up and the chainways
fastened together by sliding out a telescopic tube (checked on one chainway by a
ring and screwing onto the adjacent chainway.) The chainways may be stayed by
connection with rear back stay. Parts of boxes may be cut out to make room for rear
back stay, or strengthened by lips.
Dated this noth
1005
I, GEORGE EDWARD REES, of Harwood Vicarage, Bolton, in the County of Lancaster,
Clerk in Holy Orders, 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 :-.
It is a gearcase intended for the casing of two wheels, (as, for instance, the crank-
chain-wheel and hub-chain-wheel in a safety bicycle,) and also of the chain running
between and around them.
The gearcase consists of two wheel-boxes and two chain-ways secured together.
The wheelboxes are approximately circular in elevation, and similar in construction.
Each is hinged by means of an ordinary or other hinge on the side where the chain
when running engages. The upper and lower half thus hinged together meet along
the horizontal line, and the lips are suitably fitted and fastened together so as to
encase the wheel. Each wheelbox is, where necessary, cut away, and securely fixed
by means of flanges, lips, or stays, to the non-rotating parts, (crank-bracket, com-
pression-stay, and the like). Each wheelbox is preferably flanged at its central part,
[Price 8d1

page_text: and near its circumference clipped to the compression-stay.
The screw or stud
fastening the clip on the wheelbox may be on the top of the compression-stay,
instead of at the side, to avoid inconvenient projection. I fasten the two wheel-boxes
separately and independently of each other, so as to increase the firmness of the
attachment and the closeness of the adjustment, thus tending to prevent the swaying
and lashing incidental to the great length of an ordinary gear-case, and the consequent
friction, vibration, and admission of dust. Ordinarily the rear wheelbox can be fitted
clear of the back-stay, compression-stay, and chain-adjusters. In each box there are
two orifices to admit of the passage of the chain. Rings or bands of indiarubber, or
felt, or other suitable material are fitted at points of juxta-position or contact with
the framework, where necessary, in order to exclude dust, and prevent escape of
lubricant. The larger wheelbox being fitted in two approximately semicircular halves
along a horizontal line, substantially as described, can contain oil or other lubricant
in its lower half.
Each chainway preferably consists of three lengths; viz., a connecting-piece of
sufficient length to permit free access to the chain, and two end-pieces, the one next
the crank in a safety bicycle being preferably longer than the other, for the sake of
pedalling clearance. In some cases one chainway may be formed in a single length,
the other being in three lengths. There are several methods of forming the chain-
ways. In one method the longer end piece is preferably circular in cross-section
near each extremity, but may be oval near the middle, (if desired to correspond to a
catenary curve.) The shorter end piece and the connecting piece are preferably both
circular in cross-section. The connecting-piece is adjusted by sliding on the shorter
end piece by means of two checkrings or flanges, or without check or attachment,
and by then fastening on the longer end piece by means of two corresponding screw-
threads, one on the outer surface of the longer end piece, and the other on the inner
other well
surface of the connecting-piece; or it may be adjusted by means
known adjustment.
J
For the advantage of diminishing the evil of swaying, the central part of the
connecting-piece, or the whole connecting-piece, or any parts of the chain way, may
be of rubber, or elastic, or other suitable material, stretched over corrugated rigid
rings, or tubes, of oval or other section, and of metal, vulcanite, celluloid, or other
material. Such a use of suitable material has the advantage of tending to prevent
the lashing of the gear-case, by dividing it into two rigid sections, and also of stopping
any blow on the chainways from affecting the adjustments of the wheelboxes. The
end-pieces are secured to the orifices in the wheelboxes by being manufactured in
one piece with them, or by being fixed by means of flanging, soldering, or other
suitable method. If the catenary curve be great enough, the longer end-piece may
itself be an oil-receptacle. The chainways may be stayed to the compression-stay by
clips or other suitable device. This method is suitable for motor-cars.
Each
A second method is more convenient for bicycles having a narrow clearance. The
chainways are of similar oval or oblong section throughout. The connecting-piece
has projecting ends or extensions, overlapping the two end-pieces when fitted.
extension may have two or more screwholes, and each endpiece a single screwhole :
any one of the screwholes on an extension may then be placed over the screwhole on an
endpiece, and screwed down, and the adjustinent so effected; or it may be effected
by the method illustrated in the drawings, or by some other method.
The gearcase is secured by the following or other equivalent method. The chain
(being disconnected) is passed through the connectingpiece and endpiece of the
lower chainway, round the crank wheel, through the upper chainway, round the
hub wheel, and out through the short end-piece of the lower chainway, (necessarily
passing inside both wheelboxes). The wheelboxes are closed, the upper chainway
connected, and the two ends of the chain being in position are screwed together, the
lower chainway connected, and the final adjustments made.
In the drawings Figure I represents the gearcase viewed in elevation from the side
on which it is fixed, at the stage when the ends of the chain are about to be screwed

page_text: together. The compression-stay is not shown. A, A are the hinges; B, B, B, B are
the chainway fastenings, (slot-and-stud, screws or other suitable devices, that may
have feet or leather washers), of which two only need in some cases be used in other
cases, for nice adjustment, the other two would be used as chain way adjusters, the
washers being variable in number and thickness; C, C are the wheelbox fastenings;
D, D, D, D are the wheelbox orifices; E, E are the connecting pieces; F, F shew
where the boxes are cut away for the axles to pass through; H, H are the ends of
the chain; I is the oil-receptacle. Figure II represents the projection on a horizontal
plane of the connecting-piece E.
To prevent the chain when slack catching an opposing edge, in cases where there
is not much clearance, the connecting-piece may be contrived to slide over the longer
end-piece and under the shorter endpiece in the lower chain way, and vice versâ in
the upper chainway. This would involve a shifting of the stud-and-slot or screw
arrangement shewn in the drawings.
•
By pulling back the connecting-piece after disconnecting its fastening and tilting
the machine, oil can be poured out or in, as occasion requires, through either top or
bottom longer end-piece; an alternative method being to use capped holes for this
purpose: but the former method is preferable as reducing to a minimum the possible
entries for dust.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
1. I claim to make a gear-case, substantially as described, that, being practically
when fitted a long continuous outer sheath to the chain, (with projections, it is true,
that protect the two wheels) at a certain point of the chain's revolution has its point
of junction exactly over the point of junction of the chain; so that sheath and chain
(in the simplest form of the Invention) are practically removable together and again
replaceable together by a very quick and easy method, viz., the manipulation of a few
screws or studs. It is thus obvious that, in this relation, the connecting and
disconnecting of the chain as part of the process of fitting and removing the gearcase
or any part of it is an essential feature of the novelty of my invention.
2. I claim the combination of parts, substantially as described, as a new and useful
invention.