A New or Improved Method of and Apparatus for Supporting Vehicles or parts thereof or Devices attached thereto.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Apr., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 24th Jan., 1898-Accepted, 22nd Apr.,
1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved Method of and Apparatus for Supporting Vehicles
or parts thereof or Devices attached thereto.
We, ALEXANDER JOSEPH MORISON. Merchant, and the EsMOND CYCLE SADDLE
COMPANY LIMITED, both of 10, Eastcheap, in the City of London, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to a new or improved method of and apparatus for
supporting vehicles or parts thereof or devices attached thereto, by means of which
certain advantages are obtained.
In carrying our invention into effect we employ rollers, runners or wheels to
which are attached the bodies of the vehicle or parts thereof or devices attached
thereto which it may be desired shall have an independent motion.
The said rollers, runner or wheels are adapted to travel upon rails or races
which are so curved as to be upwardly concave when seen in side elevation that is
to say the curse is such that under the action or gravity the runners shall tend to
descend to the centres or other intermediate parts of the said rails or races.
In order that our invention may be more readily understood we shall now refer
briefly to two contemplated applications thereof, the first of the said applications
being in the case of a bicycle saddle and the second of the said applications being
in the case of a railway truck.
In the case of the bicycle saddle application I fit to the fore end of the frame of
the saddle a concave roller and I cause this to bear upon a rail which is in fact
an extension of the fore part of the steel strap by means of which the saddle or
its frame is attached to the L-pin or crutch-bar of the bicycle. The said rail is
curved in an upwardly concave manner when seen in side elevation or in other
words is depressed at the centre. The rear end of the saddle may be supported by
means of two such rollers and rails or it may be supported at the rear end by
hanging and standing links similar to those set forth in the specifications of
Esmond No. 14,669 of 1896 or of Drummond No. 7779 of 1897. A saddle so
supported is capable of free longitudinal motion as well as of lateral rocking
motion; and it will be seen that when the saddle moves bodily fore and aft it will
always tend to return to its normal position on account of the rollers descending
by gravity to the centre or lowest part of the curved rail.
In the second of the said contemplated applications, namely, that to a railway
truck, I suspend the body of the truck upon rollers or their equivalents which are
free to move on rails or in races which are upwardly concave the said rails or
races being attached to blocks or the like affixed to the axle boxes of the trucks.
By this means the bodies of the trucks are capable of motion to and fro indepen-
dently of the axle upon which they are sustained. In this case the action is similar
to the last. When the truck body moves independently the rollers move to a
higher part of the rails or races and gravity tends to bring them back again to
their positions at the centres or lowest parts of the said rails or races.

page_text: which the strap 8 of the saddle support is attached to the said crutch-bar or L-pin.
These parts, that is to say, 8, 9, and 10, do not form any part of this invention.
They are well known in the art and need not be further described here. It will be
seen that the fore part of the strap 8 is so shaped as to constitute the curved rail 3
upon which the roller
runs,. but a separate curved rail may be employed. The
said roller is mounted upon a spindle between the two cheeks 11, 11. 12 is a pin
passing between the said cheeks and is intended to keep the roller 2 from being
lifted away from the rail 3. 13 is a stop piece attached to the end of the curved
rail for the purpose of preventing the roller from escaping over the end of the rail
on forward movement of the saddle 1. 4, 4 are the standing links for supporting
the rear end of the saddle. The said standing links in this case, instead of con-
sisting of a mere rod as in Figure 1, consist of a rigid frame which is continued
through the parts 4" to the front part of the saddle support. To this frame, that
is to say to the said standing links, are articulated at the points 5, 5, the hanging
links 6, 6, the said hanging links consisting, in the form illustrated, of a single
wire bent into an arch shape. The bend or upper part 6 of the said arch passes
through an orifice 8° in the strap 8. The hanging links and the standing links
are loosely articulated at the points 5, 5 by screwing or rivetting the lower
extremities of the hanging links 6, 6 to the blocks 14, 14, the said blocks being
loosely articulated to the lower extremities of the frame.
In the form which we have illustrated in Figures 2 to 5 we place round the
hanging links helical springs 15, 15, the lower ends of which abut against the
blocks 14, 14, whilst the upper ends abut against the stops 16, 16. These stops 16
consist of plates bent to L-shape as shown so that whilst their lower limbs are in
contact with the upper ends of the helical springs, their upper limbs are in contact
with the strap 8. The object of the stops 16 and the helical springs 15 is to retain
the saddle always in a horizontal position in so far as lateral rocking movement is
concerned; for it will be seen that any lateral rocking movement of the saddle will
compress one or other of the said springs. Thus referring to Figure 4 let us
assume that the right hand side of the saddle is depressed. In that case the right
hand spring will be compressed, and will tend to reassert itself by raising the right
hand side of the saddle until the latter is again horizontal. Such rocking of the
saddle, or in other words alternate depression of the right and left sides of the
saddle, takes place with each half revolution of the pedals the said rocking being
brought about by the action of the rider with the upward and downward movement
of his legs. Such rocking of the saddle takes place freely as the arch 6" is free
to rock within the orifice 8ª of the strap 8, whilst the fore part of the saddle rocks
through the free lateral motion of the roller over the rail 3 as is illustrated in
Figure 5. In this figure, which is a section of the parts indicated, the full lines show
the relative positions of the rail 3 the roller 2 and the cheeks 11 when the saddle
is in its normal or horizontal position, whilst the dotted lines show the position
taken up by the said parts when one side of the saddle has been depressed.
We desire it to be understood that, although in the cases illustrated we show
the fore part of the saddle as being supported by means of a curved rail and roller,
and the rear part of the saddle as supported by hanging and standing links, it is
obvious that the said arrangement may be reversed. That is to say the fore part
of the saddle may be supported by a combination of hanging and standing links
and the rear part of the saddle by a combination of roller and curved rail:
"
The combination of hanging and standing links is a known device for supporting
one end of a cycle saddle and in our present application for Letters Patent we lay
no claim thereto unless used in conjunction with a combination of roller and
curved rail for supporting the other end of the saddle, so as to obtain the herein-
before mentioned movement of the saddle as
a whole. Any other means of
supporting one end of a cycle saddle which would give the same effect when used in
conjunction with a roller and curved rail at the other end of the saddle, would
answer our purpose.

page_text: reversing the positions of the roller and rail, that is to say attaching the one end
of the saddle to the rail and causing the latter to travel over its roller substantially
as set forth.
7. The employment of a combination of roller and curved rail to support one
end of a cycle saddle substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
8. The arrangement and combination of parts substantially as set forth with
reference to Figures 6 and 7.
9. The arrangement and combination of parts substantially as set forth with
reference to Figure 8.
10. The arrangement and combination of parts substantially as set forth with
reference to Figure 1.
11. The arrangement and combination of parts substantially as set forth with
reference to Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5.
12. The means for returning the saddle to its horizontal position after lateral
deviation therefrom substantially as set forth.
Dated thin outh
T
1000
For the Applicants,
J. G. LORRAIN, M.I.E.E., M.I. Mech. E.,
Norfolk House, Victoria Embankment, London, W.C.,
Chartered Patent Agent.