IMPROVEMENTS IN BICYCLES, TRICYCLES, AND OTHER VELOCIPEDES, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN PARTS OF BICYCLES, TRICYCLES, AND OTHER VELOCIPEDES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Warwick at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 26th January 1881.
THOMAS WARWICK, of Aston, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN BICYCLES, TRICYCLES, AND OTHER VELOCIPEDES,
AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN PARTS OF BICYCLES, TRICYCLES, AND
OTHER VELOCIPEDES."
My improvements in bicycles, tricycles, and other velocipedes consist of the
following methods of transmitting the rotary motion of the crank shaft to the
shaft of the driving wheel. On the ends of the said shaft I fix driving pulleys, and
on the peripheries of the said pulleys, or in the bottoms of the grooves of the
pulleys, I make a series of equidistant holes; I gear the said pulleys together by
means of an endless band of sheet steel, to the inner or working face of which a
series of heads are rivetted, the said heads being of such size and shape, and
situated at such a distance apart as fits them to take into the holes in the pulleys;
or the said heads may be otherwise formed on the endless bands of steel. The
motion of the crank shaft is by means of the said endless band of sheet steel
transmitted to the shaft of the driving wheel without liability to the derangement
caused by the stretching of the chain used in the ordinary method of
construction.
My improvements in the manufacture of certain parts of bicycles, tricycles, and
other velocipedes are as follows:-In making for the wheels spokes of the kind
called butt ended spokes, I make on the outer ends of the said spokes heads having
the figure of a rivet head, and immediately behind the head I make a shank equal
in diameter to the other or inner end of the spoke. The holes in the felloe are of
the same size as the shank at the back of the head. By this method of manufacture
the spokes can be introduced into the felloe at its outer or convex side, and can be
readily removed in case of need.
In making the sides of the hubs of the wheels I employ a circular disc of metal
of the thickness which the marginal parts of the hub are intended to have, and by
means of dies and pressure or precussion I cup the middle part of the c, and at
the same time force the metal situated between the marginal parts and the centre
towards the centre so as to furnish sufficient metal at the centre to form the

page_text: tubular part in which the shaft is situated. The required form is obtained by a
succession of blows or pressures, and the metal is annealed as required.
I manufacture the elliptical tapering steel tubes, of which the forks of bicycles
and other parts of bicycles, tricycles, and other velocipedes are made, by passing
heated cylindrical steel tubes between a succession of pairs of rolls having in them
progressive tapering grooves. The said pairs of rolls are situated in front of one
another, so that the tube being operated upon on leaving one pair immediately
enters the next, and is thus rapidly operated upon and tapered at one heat.
Three or four pairs of rolls suffice to give the required degree of tapering, and the
flattening is effected by the last pair.