Improvements in Speed Changing Gear for Cycles, and the like.
Year: 1898

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Speed Changing Gear for Cycles, and the like.
I, FRED PEARLY SNOW, of 15, Rockingham Street, in the City of Lynn, County
of Essex, in the State of Massachusetts, United States of America, Inventor, 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 in general to that class of bicycle gearing by which the
driving-wheel of the vehicle is rotated variably either at one or the other of two
predetermined rates of speed, relative to the rate of pedalling. In particular the
invention relates to those gearings of the specified class wherein the lower speed of
the driving wheel is derived from a pinion, ineshing with a pair of gear-wheels, and
having an orbital motion between them. Gearings of this description, as heretofore
constructed, and enclosed in the necessary casing, have been too little accessible, have
been difficult to be taken apart and to be put together, and have not been easily
adjustable in respect of their bearings. To obviate these difficulties, and at the same
time to attain simplicity and strength of mechanism, are the objects of this invention.
To accomplish these objects I place in the hub of the driving-wheel, and upon the
stationary axle of the same, two separate sleeves, two bevel gear-wheels, which are
united with those sleeves respectively, an intermediate pinion, which is journalled to
the cylindrical shell of the hub, and two mutually adjustable bearings, which are
located between the axle and the sleeves, and which hold the gear-wheels and the
pinion together.
The best manner in which I have contemplated applying my invention is shown in
the accompanying drawing in which:
Figure is a side view of a portion of a bicycle, and includes an end view of the hub
of the driving-wheel, all constructed in accordance with the requirements of my
invention.
Figure 2 is an axial section of Figure 1 on line z z.
Figure 3 is a cross section of the hub on the broken line xx of Figure 2.
Figure 4 is a cross section of the hub, taken on the broken line y y of Figure 2,
and viewed in the direction of the arrows in that figure, and
Figure 5 is a detail, showing part of the locking mechanism.
In these views the numeral 1 denotes the axle of the driving-wheel. This axle is
rigidly attached to the bicycle frame 2 by means of the terminal nuts 8 and 9 and the
adjustable cone nuts 10 and 11. On this axle and at one side of its middle, is placed
a rotary sleeve 3, which is provided at its outer end with a flange 4, having notch 39,
and at its inner end with a rigidly attached bevel gear-wheel 5, as shewn in Figure 2.
On the same axle, and at the other side of its middle, is placed a rotary sleeve 19,
which carries the sprocket-wheel 6, a flange 14, and a bevel-gear wheels 7, all rigidly
connected. The cylindrical hub shell 15, which is provided with internal bearing-
pieces of hardened steel, 12 and 13, and with perforated external ribs or flanges, 26
and 27, to which the spokes of the wheel may be attached, is mounted rotarily between
flange 14 and the bearing-piece 38 of flange 4, by ball bearings 16 and 17. Between
the gear-wheels 5 and 7, and meshing continually with them, is placed a pinion, or

page_text: a pair of pinions 21, duplicates of each other, journalled to a frame or spider 22
which spans the axle 1 and is fastened to shell 15 by screws 23, as shown in Figures 2
and 3. These pinions, which are preferably equal in size to gear-wheels 5 and 7,
are provided with ball bearings 24, to facilitate their rotation upon the arms of
spider 22. The sleeves 3 and 19 are provided at their outer ends with suitable
annular bearing-pieces 36 and with ball bearings 18, whereby the whole structure is
held together between said cone cuts 10 and 11.
The locking mechanism of this gearing may be observed from Figures 1, 2, 4
and 5. The principal feature of the lock is a pair of flat bolts 30, which are shown
in cross section in Figure 2; both a face view and an edge view of one of these
bolts is shown in Figure 5. These bolts are adapted to slide radially in grooves 20,
which are formed in bearing-piece 38, and which are shown in Figure 2, and are
indicated by broken lines in Figure 4. When pushed out, bolts 30 engage hub
shell 15 by means of notches 37 in that shell. Each of these bolts is provided
with a pin 25, which extends into the oblique slot 28 of the annular slotted cam 29.
This can, which is fully shown in Figure 4, is seated on the inner face of flange 4,
and is actuated in one direction by springs 31 and in the opposite direction by
engagement with catch 32 by means of the cam notch 33. In order that catch 32
may be made to engage or disengage the cam, I provide suitable catch-actuating
mechanisin 34, arranged within easy reach of the rider, as indicated in Figure 1.
The operation of the invention requires but little description. When catch 32
occupies a position of disengagement, as shown in Figure 1, cam 29, being actuated
solely by springs 31, operates by pins 25 to force bolts 30 radially outward into
notches 37 of shell 15 as shown in Figures 1 and 2; then sprocket-wheel 6, being
locked to shell 15 by the intervening mechanism, drives the hub in unison with
itself. But whenever catch 32 is advanced to its position of engagement, not
shown in the drawings, it first enters notch 33, and so stops the cam 29; by the
consequent drawing of bolts 30 radially inward, out of notches 37 in shell 15, the
described engagement between that shell and the bearing-piece 38 in flange 4 is
released; and then catch 32 enters notch 39 at the periphery of flange 4, and so
stops the rotation of gear-wheel 5. As the pedalling continues, the consequent
rotation of the driving gear-wheel 7, relatively to the stationary gear-wheel 5,
imparts to pinions 21, which roll between them, both a rotary and an orbital motion
about the axle 1. This orbital motion, being communicated to shell 15 through
the journals of pinions 21, drives the hub in unison with those pinions at an
angular velocity equal to one half that of the sprocket-wheel. So that by the
mere manipulation of mechanism 34 the rider causes the driving-wheel of the
bicycle to take either the full rate of rotation of the sprocket-wheel or one half
that rate, as he may please, or as the conditions of travel may require; and
changes either of those rates for the other without dismounting. Operating in
this general manner, the invention is distinguished from all others of the specified
class in respect of the adjustment and accessibility of the bearings. The main
bearings 17 and 18, being the only bearings between the axle and the hub, are
but two in number. By them alone the whole intermediate mechanism is held
together, and is so held with a degree of closeness which is dependent upon the
relative positions of adjustment of the cone nuts 10 and 11.
either of those nuts affects in an equal degree both of those bearings, and likewise
A slight turning of
affects in a uniform manner not only the ball bearings 16 and 17 but also the
engagement of the pinions with the gear-wheels. To this feature of my invention,
therefore, it is due that all the bearings of the device may be adjusted by the
turning of a single nut, and that the wear may be taken up without opening the
At the same time the interior mechanism of the hub may be conveniently
dissected, and from both ends of the shell 15, for the purpose of cleaning and
repairs. Sleeve 19, with its flange 14, its gear-wheel 7, and its sprocket-wheel 6,
may be removed from the axle and from the shell 15 by simply taking off the cone
nut 10; and in like mauner sleeve 3, with its flange 4, its cam 29 and its
hub.

page_text: gear-wheel 5; may be similarly removed at the other end of the shell by taking off
the cone nut 11.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. In the hub of a driving-wheel, two separate rotary sleeves, confined on the
axle by two mutually adjustable bearings, and provided each with a fixed bevel gear-
wheel, in combination with an intermediate bevel pinion, attached to the hub shell,
and continually engaging said gear-wheels, substantially as and for the purpose
specified.
2. A stationary axle, two rotary sleeves thereon, two bevel gear-wheels, united with
said sleeves respectively, and an intermediate bevel pinion, which is attached to a hub
shell, and which continually engages both said gear wheels, in combination with two
ball bearings, which hold said sleeves and intermediate pinion between them,
and are mutually adjustable on said axle, substantially as and for the purpose
specified.
3. A stationary axle, two rotary sleeves thereon, two bevel gear-wheels, united with
said sleeves respectively, an intermediate bevel pinion, a hub shell, attached to the
journal of said pinion, and two mutually adjustable bearings, which are located
between said axle and said sleeves respectively, and are adapted to hold said gear-
wheels continually in mesh with said pinion, in combination with alternate locking
mechanism, substantially as and for the purpose specified.
4. A stationary axle, two rotary sleeves thereon, two bevel gear-wheels, united with
said sleeves respectively, a sprocket-wheel, united with one of said sleeves, a hub
shell, a bevel pinion, which is attached to said shell and continually engages both
said gear-wheels, and two mutually adjustable bearings on said axle, which hold said
sleeves, gear-wheels and pinion between them, in combination with alternate locking
mechanism whereby all the rotary parts of the hub may be fastened to rotate in
unison with the sprocket-wheel, and whereby one of said gear-wheels may be locked
so as not to rotate at all, substantially as and for the purpose specified.
5. In the hub of a driving-wheel, two rotary sleeves, two bevel gear-wheels, united
with said sleeves respectively, and two intermediate bevelled pinions, which are
attached to the hub shell, in combination with two ball bearings, which hold the
gear-wheels and pinions in continual engagement, and which are mutually adjustable
on the axle of the wheel, substantially as and for the purpose specified.
6. In the driving-wheel of a bicycle, or other like vehicle, a stationary axle, two
rotary sleeves thereon, two bevel gear-wheels, united with said sleeves respectively,
a pair of pinions which are journalled to a spider, spanning said axle, and which
continually engage both said gear-wheels, in combination with a rotary cylindrical
hub shell, made fast to said spider, and mechanism for locking one of said gear-
wheels alternately to the frame of the vehicle and to the hub shell, substantially as
and for the purpose specified.
7. In the hub of a driving-wheel, an axle, two separable sleeves, which are rotary
thereon, and are provided each with a fixed bevel gear-wheel, in combination with
an intermediate bevel pinion, all held together with variable closeness of engagement
by and between two cone nuts upon the axle, substantially as and for the purpose
specified
Dated this 20th day of December 1898.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.