Improvements in Driving Gear for Velocipedes.
Year: 1896

page_text: Improvements in Driving Gear for Velocipedes.
I, WILLIAM HENRY STARNES of 12 Kings College Road, South Hampstead,
London N., Coach Builder, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:-
This invention relates to improvements in driving gear for velocipedes and has
for object to provide a new or improved chainless driving mechanism calculated
to allow the cycle or other vehicle to be driven at very high speed without requiring
excessive or unduly increased expenditure of muscular energy on the part of the
rider of the machine, or increase of other motive power if applied to velocipedes
propelled by other than animal power.
My invention consists in the application of a double fork to the fore part of
the machine, in one of the apertures of which a wheel of suitable diameter and
having a turned-in flange, provided with teeth or cogs on its inner periphery,
is mounted in such a manner that the teeth or cogs of the lowermost part of the
wheel flange can be brought into gear with a cogwheel or pinion mounted on the
asie-end of the road- or travelling-wheel, which is placed in the other aperture of
the before described double fork, the extremity of its axle, on which the small cog-
wheel or pinion is mounted protruding through the middle arm into the first
mentioned aperture of the fork.
It is obvious that the axle of the road or travelling wheel must in this case be
integral with, or securely fixed within the hub of, said wheel, the axle and the wheel
receiving their rotary motion through the pinion from the superposed flanged
wheel mounted in the herein before described manner. The axle of the flange
wheel which is also integral therewith or securely fixed within its hub, passes
through the three arms of the fork and forms at the same time the crank axle, the
crank arms being mounted in the usual manner on the free ends of it. The gear
parts may be covered in by a suitably fashioned dust-excluding device and suitable
ball or other antifriction bearings may be employed throughout.
It will be seen that when the rider of the cycle by muscular energy effects one
revolution of the pedals, the superposed flange or driving wheel also revolves once,
while the road or travelling wheel makes as many revolutions as is provided for by
the gearing.
313
1000
HUGHES, ELI & HUGHES,
Agents for the Applicant

page_text: improvements in Driving Gear for velocipedes.
I, WILLIAM HENRY STARNES of 12 Kings College Road, South Hampstead,
London, N., Coach Builder, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:
This invention relates to improvements in driving gear for velocipedes and has
for object to provide a new or improved chainless driving mechanism calculated
to allow the cycle to be driven at very high speed without requiring
excessive or unduly increased expenditure of muscular energy on the part of the
rider of the machine, or increase of other motive power if applied to velocipedes
propelled by other than muscular power.
I attain this object by employing the mechanism hereinafter described, and in
order to render my invention more readily understood and carried out in practice
I have hereunto attached two sheets of drawings upon which the said driving
mechanism is fully illustrated, Fig. 1 representing a side elevation of a velocipede
fitted with the new or improved driving gear, Figs. 2 and 3 show a front view,
partly in section, of the front fork of the velocipede illustrated in Fig. 1. Figs. 4,
5, 6, 7 and 8 illustrate details hereinafter more fully described.
In carrying out my invention in practice I apply to the fore part of the machine
a double fork, having three downwardly extending arms a, b, and c, the arm a
being shorter than the others. In the aperture formed by arms a and b I mount
in convenient manner a wheel A of convenient diameter, secured to its axle d,
which rests in proper bearings of the ball or other anti-friction type provided in
arms a and b, the said axle extending through three arms a, b, and c as shown
in Fig. 2 and having secured to its extremities the pedals e in the usual manner.
The wheel A has an inwardly turned-in flange A' provided with cogs or teeth on
its inner periphery.
The road- or travelling wheel B is mounted in the aperture formed by arms b
and c, in such fashion, that a cogwheel C of suitable diameter and construction,
and mounted on the extremity of the axle f protruding from its bearing in arm b,
is placed in gear with the cogs or teeth provided on the inner periphery of flange A¹
of wheel A as herein before described. It is obvious that the axle of the road- or
travelling-wheel B must also be securely fixed in the hub or be integral therewith.
When the pedals e are being worked by the rider of the machine, the flange
wheel A is rotated, transmitting by means of cogs on flange A' and cogwheel C
its rotatory motion to the road- or travelling-wheel B, causing it to revolve at great
speed. One revolution of the pedals (or the driving crank when the improvement
is applied to other machines than velocipedes) effects or coincides with one revolu-
tion of flange wheel A, while the road wheel B revolves in the same interval as
many times as may be provided for by the gearing i.e., the number of cogs or teeth
on cogwheel C relative to the number of cogs provided on the inner periphery of
flange A'.
In order to admit of an exchange of cogwheel C, for the purpose of altering the
gearing to higher or lower speed (corresponding to smaller or larger diameter of
wheels C) I provide for the bearings of the axle common to roadwheel B and cog-
wheel C, a vertical slot g at or near the lower extremity of arms b and c, said bear-
ings being adapted to be vertically displaced within said slots g as shown in Fig. 7,
or in any other suitable manner.
A device for suitably protecting the gearings parts from dust and mud may be

page_text: provided and be conveniently placed and secured to the flange wheel A as suggested
in Fig. 3.
In Fig. 4 the method of gearing the flange wheel A with cogwheel C is illustrated
and Figs. 5 and 6 show two different constructions of the front fork of a velocipede,
arranged for the application of my invention.
Figs. 7 and 8 show, respectively in front- and side-view, the end portions of
fork arms b and c and the suggested method of vertically displacing in slots g
the bearing boxes f¹ of axles by means of set screws f. In order to prevent
spontaneous displacement of the bearing boxes in slots g, one side of the end
portions of the fork arms and the bearing box cheeks may be corrugated or similarly
adapted to close locking of the respective parts.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
A new or improved driving gear for velocipedes, essentially consisting of
a rotatable wheel A having an inwardly turned-in flange A¹, gearing with a
cogwheel C mounted on the axle of the road- or travelling wheel B, the device being
suitably mounted in a double fork consisting of arms a, b, and c, and being operated
ly cranks e, substantially as described and illustrated in the annexed drawings.
Dated this 30th day of July 1897.
HUGHES, ELI & HUGHES,
76 Chancery Lane, London, W.C., For the Applicant.