Improvements in Electrical Driving Gear for Vehicles.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Feb., 1895
Complete Specification Left, 20th Nov., 1895-Accepted, 21st Dec., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Electrical Driving Gear for Vehicles.
I, WALTER CHARLES BERSEY, of Grosvenor House, Gore Road South
Hackney, London, Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:-
My invention relates to improvements in the driving gear of electrically propelled
common road vehicles, and has for its object to render the gear more compact and
more efficient in operation, to provide an improved form of clutch for the two-
speed gear, and to provide means of adjustment for the tension of the driving
chains.
The driving wheels of the vehicle are driven through endless chains from
separate motors, as usual, each motor driving through a two-speed gear an inter-
mediate hollow spindle carrying the sprocket wheel from which the chain derives
its motion, the hollow spindle revolving upon the laterally projecting end of a
dead spindle. In order to resist bending strain, the dead spindle is supported in
two bearings one towards each side of the vehicle, the same spindle being common
to both sets of driving gear whose intermediate hollow spindles revolve upon the
opposite ends of said spindle. In order to render the apparatus more compact the
middle or between bearing portion of this dead spindle is cranked so as to enable
it to bridge over or past the yoke and coil portion of the motor which may thus be
arranged closer up to the intermediate gear than would be possible were said
spindle straight.
The motors and gearing are mounted in bearings upon a bed plate which is fixed
by set screws on a fore and aft frame which is connected at one end to the driving
wheel axle and which rests at the end where the motors are situated upon the
frame or body of the vehicle through the medium of friction rollers permitting
freedom of motion necessary to allow for the play of the vehicle springs and
maintain constant the tension of the driving chains, notwithstanding the relative
vertical movements of the vehicle body and driving wheel axle consequent on the
play of the springs. The set screws by which the bed plate is fixed enable its
adjustment in the fore and aft direction for the purpose of regulating the tension
of the chains. Each intermediate hollow spindle is mounted to run on ball bearings
on the projecting end of the dead spindle and has splined upon it a sleeve carrying
the male member of an eccentric friction clutch which is situated between, and is
adapted to engage with one or other of, two gear wheels of different diameters
mounted loose on the sleeve portion of the clutch and in gear with pinions of corre-
spondingly different diameters fast on the motor spindle. The sleeve portion of
the clutch revolves with the intermediate hollow spindle but may be slid thereon -
by means of an ordinary clutch lever to throw the clutch into engagement with
one or other of the two gear wheels. The male member of the clutch is a boss
having a double coned or flattened V-shaped periphery which is turned eccentrically
to the sleeve that carries it, the sockets in the gear wheels being also coned and
eccentric to correspond, so that the engagement of the two members of the clutch
will be due partly to friction of the coned surfaces and partly to the jamming of
the one member in or on the other consequent on the slightest divergence of their
eccentricities due to relative angular motion of the one with regard to the other.
The degree of eccentricity is however such that it is less than the difference
between the diameter of the male member at the summit of its coned periphery'

page_text: and of the sleeve from which it springs so that the male member will always enter
the female member in whatever relative position in the circular direction they
may be.
Dated this 20th day of February 1895.
A. M. & WM. CLARK,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.
Improvements in Electrical Driving Gear for Vehicles.
I, WALTER CHARLES BERSEY, of Grosvenor House, Gore Road, South
Hackney, London, N.E. Electrical 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 :-
My invention relates to improvements in the driving gear of electrically propelled
common road vehicles and has for its object to provide an improved form of clutch
for the two-speed gear and to render the gear more compact and more efficient in
operation.
The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawing
wherein
Figure I represents in sectional plan view the mechanism for driving one of the
vehicle wheels, Fig. 2 being a transverse section on line 2. 2 Fig. 1 of the male
member of the improved clutch.
The two mechanisms are similar, and independent, and each comprises an electro-
motor A driving through a two-speed gear B B¹, C C, and clutch M N N¹, an
intermediate spindle E carrying a sprocket pinion F which is geared by an endless
chain G with a sprocket ring fixed to the rim or spokes of the vehicle wheel. The
spindle E is hollow and revolves upon a dead spindle or axle H which projects
through the side X of the vehicle and necessarily overhangs its bearing or support
and in order to resist bending strain the dead spindle or axle H is made common to
both sets of driving gear whose intermediate hollow spindles E revolve upon the
opposite ends of the dead spindle H which is supported in two bearings such as I,
the middle or between-bearing portion being cranked as shewn to render the
apparatus more compact than would be possible were the axle straight. Each
motor and the gearing which it drives is mounted in bearings rising from a bed
plate fixed on a frame which extends in a fore and aft direction, the one end of the
frame being connected to the axle of the driving wheels whilst the other end at
which the motors are situated passes through the floor of the vehicle or enters a
well below the vehicle body, this end of the fore and aft frame resting upon the
floor or other part of the vehicle body through the medium of friction rollers, the
purpose of the arrangement being to maintain constant the tension of the driving
chains notwithstanding the relative vertical movements of the vehicle body and
driving wheel axle consequent on the play of the vehicle springs. The bed plate is
capable of adjustment on the fore and aft frame for the purpose of regulating the
tension of the chains.
The fore and aft frame and mode of mounting the mechanism thereon is, however,
well known and forms no part of my invention.
The intermediate hollow spindle E is mounted to run on ball bearings K, K, on
the dead spindle or axle H and has splined upon it a sliding collar M forming the
male member of an eccentric friction clutch which is situated between the two gear
wheels C C¹, of different diameters mounted loose on the spindle E and in gear with
the pinions B B', of correspondingly different diameters fast on the motor spindle.
The part M of the clutch revolves with the hollow spindle E but may be slid
thereon by connection through rods L with a collar O operated by means of an

page_text: ordinary clutch lever to throw it into engagement with one or other of the two
gear wheels C C¹. The male member M of the clutch is a circular collar whose
periphery is turned eccentrically to the bore that fits on the hollow spindle E, the
eccentric periphery being also of double coned or flattened V-shape in section, so
that it is adapted to readily enter the one or other of the circular sockets N N',
formed in the bosses of the wheels C C¹, these sockets being bored conical and
eccentric to correspond. The driving engagement of the two members of the clutch
will therefore be partly due to friction of the coned surfaces and partly a positive
engagement due to the binding of the one part on the other when by relative
angular motion of the parts the eccentricities of the driving and driven members
do not coincide in direction. The degree of eccentricity is less than half the
difference between the diameter of the male member M at the base and summit of
its coned periphery, so that the male member can always enter the female member
whatever may be the relative position of the two parts in the circular direction.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, declare that what I
claim is :-
1. A combined eccentric and friction clutch, substantially as specified.
2. The herein described combined eccentric and friction clutch, substantially as
described, in combination with two-speed gear, as described.
3. In electrical driving gear for road vehicles, the spindle intermediate of the
motor and the driven wheel, made tubular and mounted to run on ball bearings
upon the projecting or overhanging end of a dead spindle as described.
4. The general combination and arrangement of parts constituting the improved
driving gear as shewn and described.
.
5221 1
0 AY
1.
1005
A. M. & WM. CLARK,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.