IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH VELOCIPEDES
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Crompton Fletcher at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th October 1882.
ROBERT CROMPTON FLETCHER of Tarleton Rectory near Preston in the County
of Lancaster, Clerk in Holy Orders IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH
VELOCIPEDES
My invention relates first to improvements in the double driving of velocipedes
and consists in new methods of what is known as balance gear, and in a new
method of ratchet gear, and secondly to an improvement in velocipede lamps...
In my first method of double driving the motion is carried from the treadle
shaft by any suitable connections to a wheel loosely mounted upon a spindle the
Baid wheel being made of two circular discs firmly attached together but held at
a little distance asunder by means of a flange or flanges upon them so that when
mounted upon the spindle they present somewhat the appearance of a closed pill
box: upon the interior surfaces of these discs are two studs on which two pinions
are fitted, and a part of each disc is removed so as to allow the stud and pinion on
the other disc to project through it, and the studs and apertures are so placed that
the inner portions of the pinions gear into one another between the discs. Two
wheels with internal teeth are arranged upon the same spindle as the disc-wheel
already explained and one at each side of the said disc-wheel so that each of them
is actuated by one of the projecting pinions. To each of these internally toothed
wheels a driving wheel is attached.
In straight running the motion given from the treadles to the disc wheel is
communicated through the pinions directly and equally to the internally toothed
wheels, inasmuch as the overlapping portions of the two pinions lock one another
and the whole mechanism revolves as if the disc wheel and the internally toothed
wheels were all one solid piece. In turning however from a straight course the
difference of speeds between the right and left hand driving wheels is compensated
for by the interlocked portions of the pinions revolving upon one another thus
allowing one of the internally toothed wheels to run faster than the other.
In my second method two compound pinions are placed parallel to one another
upon studs projecting inwardly from the circumference (or outwardly from the
centre) of the wheel to which power is communicated from the treadles The
bases of these pinions are armed with straight teeth and the two pinions gear into
מ

page_text: one another their upper portions are fitted with bevelled teeth and each one
gears with a bevelled wheel connected with a driving wheel. These bevelled
wheels work upon the same spindle as the wheel which carries the pinions. The
bevelled wheels are placed one to the right of each pinion or one to the left of each
if both are placed centrally between them or if both are put outside with the pinions
between them they will not work-The result attained is precisely similar to
that given by my first detailed method In any ratchet driving I employ the
following contrivance a circular disc carries a flange around it fitted with ratchet
teeth which are set at a little distance from one another this disc is mounted
by a boss in its centre upon a shaft through which passes a short stout pin or bar
so pointed as to gear with the ratchet teeth and of such length as to just miss the
teeth at one side when in full gear on the opposite side. The teeth and spaces
between them are so arranged that on reversing the driving motion this
bar is driven backwards and forwards alternately through the shaft each
tooth that passes under one end of it raising the other end into gear and
vice versa, until the forward motion is again resumed by the operator, when the
bar at once gears with the ratchet without that delay which occurs in many so
called "gravity" clutches. This contrivance may be attached to either the shaft of
the treadles or driving wheels or any other part as may be found convenient, and if
desired two or more of the above described shifting pawls may be put in each box
in various positions to diminish the distance between the gripping points of the
apparatus I also make an improved. ratchet. driver by forming recesses in the
periphery of a disc that is fitted inside the toothed wheel on either the treadle or
driving shaft in the recesses I place loosely balls which may partly enter recesses
in the toothed wheel these recesses being deep at one side and tapered at the other
Bide so that the balls may drive the disc and shaft when the wheel turns in one
direction and so that the tapered sides of the recesses in the wheel when it is
reversed press the balls into the holes in the disc and do not turn the shaft A set
of similar recesses tapered in the opposite direction are brought into play by a
guide fork which moves the disc to drive in either direction. My improvement in
lamps consists in fixing to the lamp what is virtually a small file or a small tube
with a roughened interior leading from an aperture in the outside to the inside
of the lantern part of the lamp, so that a match being thrust through the aperture
is ignited by friction when the lamp may be at once lighted with it. By this
means the annoyance of matches and lamps being blown out by the wind in vain
attempts to light an outdoor lamp will be avoided. The aperture is made to
close by a spring arrangement, or otherwise on the withdrawal of the match
thus excluding all draught.