Improved Spring-wheel for Street and Railway Vehicles.
Year: 1898

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improved Spring-wheel for Street and Railway Vehicles.
I, NICOLAUS REIF, of 2, Entenfang, Hanover, Germany, Engineer, do hereby.
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention concerns a spring wheel applicable to all kinds of vehicles, the
object of which is to deaden the shocks resulting from the running of the vehiclo
over rough surfaces or from its contacts with hard bodies.
My wheel has the general aspect of ordinary wheels from which it differs only in
the special construction of its nave and the axle which passes through it. This
axle-tree is provided with two fixed plates having an interior shoulder on their
periphery and between which is located a cylindrical band provided with shoulders
to which the spokes of the wheel are fixed and in the interior of which a metallic
spring-band is fixed, rolled up in a spiral.
This metallic band completely surrounds and compresses a rubber chamber fixed
around the axle and held laterally by the plates of the axle and the shoulders of
these plates which, at the same time hold the metallic band; moreover this rubber
chamber is filled partly with uncongealable liquid and partly with compressed air.
When shocks take place during the running of the vehicle, the axle of the nave
is displaced and approaches the outside cylindrical envelope, but as the spring band
is held by the shoulders of the plates, it cannot give way and rolls up, at the same
time increasing the compression of the air contained in the rubber chamber without
transmitting the trepidations of the wheel to the vehicle..
When the shoulders of the plates and the spring band are in the interior of the
rubber chamber, the compressing band rolls up in a contrary way to the preceding
one but acts in the same way.
I may fill the rubber envelope completely with liquid, instead of compressed air,
and make it then communicate with a closed cylinder provided with a piston
pressed by a spring acting upon the opposite face of the piston to that which
receives the action of the liquid of the nave.
The action of this nave is the same as that of the preceding, that is to say that
when a shock is produced the liquid of the nave acts upon the piston and compresses
the spring and the air which is behind the piston, and then brings this latter back
to its normal position.
I may also apply the contrivance which produces the elasticity of the wheel, to
the rim of the wheel, for this purpose I provide the hollow rim with edges projecting
on the inside and upon which the compressing spring-band which surrounds the
rubber-chamber filled with compressed air, rests.
Dated this 10th day of Tonnor 1000
;
L. DUVINAGE,
Patent Agent, 8, Rue des Princes, Brussels, Belgium.

page_text: I, NICOLAUS REIF, of 2, Entenfang, Hanover, Germany, Engineer, 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:-
This invention relates to improved spring wheels for street and railway vehicles
and consists in the novel arrangement and combination of parts, as hereinafter
described, illustrated by the drawings and finally embodied in the claims.
The accompanying drawings illustrate the arrangement of the parts for producing
the clasticity of these spring wheels, applied to a bicycle. Fig. 1 shows the hind or
driving wheel hub, tho upper half being in longitudinal section and Fig. 2 the cross
section of the hub along the line 1-2. The capsule-shaped hub a receives the
hub b of india-rubber or leather, which is filled with compressed air or liquid by
means of a valve and surrounds a pressure band of thin sheet steel. The border so
this pressure band (the longitudinal ends of which lie freely movable one over the other
at 1,) are pushed over the inward projecting borders n of the hub a.
The pressure
band, (which may if desirable have a trough shape in cross-section as in Fig. 1ª,)
surrounds also the discs i¹ of the axle bearing i, which slide between the borders n,
serving as a support for said bearing.
The side wall m of the hub a is connected with this by means of a screw thread,
and carries the chain-wheel d. The borders c of the hub a serve for receiving the
spokes. When the axle bearing i is normally weighted, the tube filled with
compressed air holds the pressure band with the axle in the central position;
nevertheless if there be any jolting or shaking on the felly, the wheel with the
hub a is displaced radially in relation to the axle-bearing i, and as the pressure
band is prevented by the discs or say the borders n from yielding, the band is
correspondingly expanded, whereby the air in bheing further compressed re-acts,
compensating, or neutralising the shocks and produces the elasticity of the spring.
Fig. 3 illustrates the hub of the front wheel, the upper half being in longitudinal
section, and Fig. 4 the cross section of the same along the line 1-2. The action of
this hub is the same as that previously described, but the arrangement of the same
parts is different, since, in this case, the ends of the pressure band l, which are fixed
in the hub a and are freely moveable one over the other at l, surround the tube b, and,
the latter the connecting tube of the axle bearing i. The borders of the pressure
band are fixed in the inward projecting borders n, of the discs m placed on the
axle-bearing and sliding on the hub a; the extremities c of the nave a also receive
the spokes of the wheel. If, owing to shocks on the circumference of the wheel, the
latter, with the hub a, is radially displaced in relation to the axle bearing i, the
pressure band which is prevented from yielding by the borders n is pressed
together whereby the air in b becomes still further compressed, and, reacting,
compensates, or neutralises the shocks. The connecting tube is screwed to one of
the discs m.
If it be desired to make use of this hub construction on the driving wheel, the
chain wheel dis screwed to i, as in Figs. 5 and 6 and an angle-lever or carrier
arranged on the disc m, which is connected with an additional piece fof the hub a
by means of the sliding piece g, rotating around a pin, in such a manner that any
desired radial displacement of m in relation to a may be effected.
Fig. 7 shows a cross-section through the line 1-2 of Fig 8, which illustrates,
partially in longitudinal section, an application of the hub construction shewn in
Figs. 3 and 4 to the felly.

page_text: The rim m of n-shaped section is provided with two annular removable flauges m,
having a number of holes m2 in their periphery, into which pass headed pins or
screws m³ fixed into rim m¹ near the inuer edge thereof and allowing a certain play
in the vertical direction to said flanges at the same time fixing them to the rim."
These flanges m are elbowed at n as shewn and form a widened channel in
which are lodged the steel band and the liquid chamber b. The running
surface or covering occupies the exterior position and is attached to the flanges m
by any known means.
In the like manner, Figs. 9 and 10 shew the application of the hub construction
(Figs. 1 and 2) to the felly m or in other words to the crown a, as will be
seen by a comparison of the respective drawings. If, in the tube there is a
fluid and the latter be connected with a compression cylinder (as shewn in
Fig. 11) in which a piston moves which is under spring or air-pressure, the liquid,
which owing to the occurrence of shocks is forced back by the pressure band out of
the tube b, pushes the piston forwards, thus compressing the spring or the air in the
cylinder & and so in the form of an air or spring buffer, compensating or neutralising
the shocks.
In Fig. 11 the application of the pressure cylinder to the hub and felly is shewn.
One of the cylinders is illustrated with a pressure spring, while the other is under
the action of compressed air.
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. A spring wheel for street and railway vehicles, the distinguishing feature of
which is that the edges or borders n of the axle bearing i or of the hub a, in conse-
quence of the radial displacement of the axle-bearing in relation to the hub, compress
a pressure band arranged on the outer or inner periphery of a tube filled
with air or liquid or of a metal casing b furnished with pistons, in such a
manner that the ends of the band which overlap one another, and are freely
moveable, are pushed in a longitudinal direction, whereby the width of the band is
increased or diminished and the air in the tube or in the metal casing b compresses
the spring and the air in a compressing cylinder d, the shock effecting the wheel
being thus removed or neutralised.
2. The arrangement of a carrier e f g formed as an angle lever or connecting
link.
HUGHES, SON & Co.,
38, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., for the Applicant.