IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR THE BETTER OR MORE DIRECT AND EFFECTIVE APPLICATION OF RECIPROCATING OR INTERMITTENT MOTIVE POWER UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES, AND WHICH IS ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO LATHES, SEWING MACHINES, VELOCIPEDES, AND A GREAT VARIETY OF MANUAL AND PEDAL APPARATUS
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edwin Augustus Curley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th August 1869.
I, the said EDWIN AUGUSTUS CURLEY, of 19, Bartholomew Close, in
the Parish of Saint Bartholomew-the-Great, and in the City of London,,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR THE BETTER OR MORE DIRECT
AND EFFECTIVE APPLICATION OF RECIPROCATING OR INTERMITTENT MOTIVE POWER
UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES, AND WHICH IS ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO LATHES,
SEWING MACHINES, VELOCIPEDES, AND A GREAT VARIETY OF MANUAL AND PEDAL
APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
The machines to which my Invention is applied are constructed with
a fixed and a loose pulley or wheel on the main driving shaft or on two
separate shafts in the same axial line. These are so fitted together that
the loose pulley by means of a ratchet and pawl, or a locking wedge, a
cam, a roller, or other coupling will carry the fixed pulley and con-
sequently the machinery with it when moving in one direction. When
reversed it will leave the machinery free to go forward by its own*

page_text: momentum, aided if necessary by a fly wheel. As soon as the foot or
other moving power has returned into the proper position therefor
another stroke may be made, when the two pulleys will be coupled
together and will move the machinery as before. The reciprocating or
intermittent action of the motive power is imparted to the loose pulley
by means of a driving strap, or cord, or chain which is wound one or
'more times around it. In some cases the moving strap is directly
*fastened to the loose pulley, and in other cases it is attached to the pawl,
"the roller, the cam, or other intermediate coupling. In these latter
cases the strap has a little play on the barrel or drum of the loose pulley,
and when the motion of the strap and the coupling attached thereto is
reversed the momentum of the loose pulley and parts immediately
connected therewith carries it forward sufficiently to lock or unlock the
coupling, as the case may be. When the moving strap is attached
to the loose pulley and not to the coupling the latter may be brought
into proper play by means of a spring. I also apply friction to the
coupling for the same purpose, being careful to make this greater than
the resistance it must overcome in retarding or modifying the motion of
the coupling until the momentum of the machinery and the change in
direction of the motion of the strap. and loose pulley shall have locked or
unlocked the coupling as required. Used with the ratchet and pawl
this friction movement has some advantage over a spring in producing
the effect required without the noise which is made by the trailing of
the pawl.
But the means of locking and unlocking the coupling which I
consider most generally useful is an application of the principle of
momentum. A weighted rod, a "balanced bar, or a third wheel moving
on the driving shaft is attached to the coupling. Whenever there is a
change in the direction of motion of the driving strap and loose pulley
this rod, or balanced bar, or wheel resists such change with sufficient
force to lock or unlock the coupling as required.
.In a machine made in accordance with my Invention it is evident that
¡if the barrel or drum of the loose pulley be three inches in circumference
where the driving cord is wound around it, that cord in a stroke or total
movement of twelve inches in one direction will cause the pulleys and
the main shaft to perform very nearly four revolutions, and during the
return stroke the momentum attained can be made to carry the shaft
nearly four revolutions more in the same direction, thus producing a

page_text: continuous motion of nearly eight revolutions of the main shaft to one
complete action of the motive power. It is evident also that these pro-
portions of velocity and power may be modified in either direction
without the loss of power consequent upon the use of gear wheels or
multiplying pulleys.