Improvements in Wheels for Wheel Carriages.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Dec., 1894-Accepted; 2nd Feb., 1895
COMPLEIN DIUINICATION.
Improvements in Wheels for Wheel Carriages.
I, SYDNEY PITT, of Sutton, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman, (a communi-
cation to me from abroad by Edward Sabine Renwick, of Millburn, New Jersey,
in the United States of America,) do hereby declaro 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 :-
The subject matter of this Patent relates to wheels for wheel carriages, such as
bicycles, sulkies, etc., and the object of the invention is to provide a caritage wheel
having an elastic tyre, one or more of which wheels may be applied to a caritage as
may be required.
Previous to this invention, such wheels have been made with elastic tires of solid
rubber; they have also beeu made with flexible tubular tiles distended with air
under high pressure; they have also been made with what are known as cushion
Lyres, consisting of tubes of rubber and canvas sufficiently thick to be stiff enough
to stand the pressure upon them; and they have been made with tyres of ordinary
It has also been
cork or of coik and india rubber enclosed in a covering of canvas
proposed to make such tyres of cork combined with a resilient material, such as the
compound of gelatine and glycerine or sponge iubber These kinds of elastic tyre
are objectionable; the first kind, because if the tyre be made of sufficient cross area
to present the requisite elasticity its weight and its cost are both great The
second kind of tyre or pneumatic tyre as it is commonly called, is objectionable
because of the leakage of air and the consequent necessity of occasionally injecting
an additional quantity into it, and also because the tyre is apt to be punctured in
use, so as to permit the air to escape whereupon the tyre collapses. The cushion
tyres are comparatively heavy when made with sufficient material to withstand the
pressure upon them and the wear; and the cork tyres, which have hitherto been
made, are defective because the cork when dry is deficient in resiliency and is liable
to cumble in use; and although it has been proposed to steam the cork, this
operation does not remedy the detect because the water, incident to the condensation
of steam, 1apidly dries out, and the cork tyre speedily becomes the same as if made
originally of dry cork with its inherent defects. On the other hand, tyres made of
cork combined with a resilient material, such as the compound of gelatine and
glycerine or sponge rubber, owe then elasticity mainly to such resilient material,
as the cork being dry has the defects previously mentioned
The invention which constitutes the subject of this Patent consists in part of a
carriage wheel having its body fitted with a tyle of permanently moist cork,
and it consists further of the permanently moist cork tyre and tyre-core adapted
to be fitted to a caringe wheel body. The improvements which constitute the
several parts of the invention are specified in the claims at the close of this
Specification.
In order that they may be fully understood, I have represented in the accom-
panying diawings, and will proceed to describe, a wheel for a bicycle embodying
the said invention, it being understood that the construction of the wheel may be
modified (without ceasing to embody the invention) as evidenced by sundiy
modifications which I shall also describe.
In the said drawings,
Figure 1, represents a side view of a bicycle wheel embodying the invention.
Figure 2, represents a vertical transverse section of the same.
Figure 3, represents a central vortical section of a part of the permanently moist
cork tyre of the wheel upon a large scale than the preceding figures.

page_text: Figure 4, represents a transverse section of the said tyre.
Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, represent severally, as hereinafter described,
sections of modifications of the permanently moist cork tyre.
The bicycle wheel represented in the accompanying drawings has a body
composed of the hub, A, a gutter formed rim or felly, B, and the spokes C;
and it is preferred to construct it as a suspension wheel with wire spokes C,
connecting the hub and the run or felly, B. It is preferred also to construct the
hub with ball bearings, or other friction reducing bearings, but as such bearings
are well known and in common use, it is not deemed necessary to describe them 10
detail or to represent them in the diawings The cork tyle D, is made of
permanently moist cork, that is, of the material commonly called cork (of which
bottle corks are made) which has been impregnated with a non-drying liquid or
equivalent substance. This tyre may be constructed in various ways: Thus, the
coik tyre may be composed, as represented in Figures 3 and 4, of oylindrical
sections, d, d, d, connected together so as to form a continuous tyre or hoop for the
wheel. The mode in which it is preferred to connect the cork sections is represented
in those figures, aud consists of a sheath or hoop-tormed tubular cover or envelope, e,
of canvas or other cloth, cemented together with india rubber and vulcanized, the
cover being made substantially like ordinary inbber hose for conveying liquids, and
circulai o hoop-formed to suit the circumference of the felly of the wheel. In
constructing the tyre the cucular tubular sheath may be first made of the requisite
diameter for use, then it may be slit open longitudinally at its inner side and cork
sections inserted in it; subsequently the slit may be closed by cementing upon it &
strip,, of canvas or other cloth by means of rubber cement and if pieferied the
lips of the shit may be sewed or laced together before the strip of cloth is applied.
The cover may consist of a single layer of canvas coated with india rubber,
strengthened, it desued, at the exterior which uns on the ground, by an additional
longitudinal strip cemented to the cover in like manner. Or, the circulai cover
may be secured upon the cork sections or core, as represented in Figure 5, by
wrapping spirally upon it a tape or stup of cloth or of india rubber, g, secured with
rubber cement, or the cover or envelope itself may be made of india rubber without
cloth, as represented at Figure 6. The tyre when constructed 13 applied in the
usual way to the gutter-formed 11m or felly of the wheel as represented at D,
Figures 1 and 2, and may preferably be cemented at its inner periphery to
the felly.
Instead of constructing the cork tyre as represented in Figures 2 and 3, of
cylindrical sections of considerable length relatively to their diameter, it may be
constructed of a series of circular discs of cork similar to what are known as
flat corks as represented at Figure 7, the said dises being enclosed and connected
by a hoop formned tubular envelope or cover as previously described, or, the cork
core may be composed of cork sections intercalated with india rubber as represented
at 1, Figure 3; or, the cork core may be composed of two or more layers of
cylindrical segments, as represented at Figures 8 and 9, and in this case it 14
preferred to airange the segments to break Joints with each other as represented
in Figure 9. If deemed best the cork segments or sections may be sewed togethei
or otherwise connected by twine or by a flexible cement, so as to form them into a
core for a tyre before enclosing them in a cover. In fact auch uncovered tyres or
tyle-coles of cork (treated as hereinafter described) may be made and sold by
manufacturers and may be subsequently covered to suit the views of particular
users.
The cork tyres thus far described are composed of sections or segments cut from
solid cork bark, this being the method of construction which is preferred, but the
cork tyre may be constructed of cork shavings or cuttings, as at d, Figure 10, com-
pressed into a circulat tubular envelope, such as is previously described, or, the
tyre may be made as represented at d, Figure 11; in which case the cork core or
tyre is composed of cork in fragments aud in this case it is preferred that the
fragmentary cork shall be held together by a flexible cement, such as india rubber

page_text: cement. When the wheel tyre is constructed in this last mentioned mode the
elasticity of the cementing iubber is made available in addition to that of the
permanently moist cork; and it is prefered that the core tyre 30 produced should
be enclosed in a sheath or cover of canvas or other cloth as previously described.
Whatever be the mode in which the tyre may be constructed, the cork (whether
solid, o in cuttings, or fragmentary) of which it is composed must, according to
this invention, be unpregnated with a substance which has the property of
reudering it permanently moist in usc. The substance which it is prefeued to
employ for this purpose is glycerine, but some substitute or equivaleat for
glycerine may be used for the purpose of keeping the cork permanently moist or
clastic in usc. The node in which it is prefered to impregnate the cork with
glycerine is to place the cork sections in a vessel and cover them with glycerine,
the sections being held down by a grating or other suitable device to prevent them
from floating. The whole is then heated, the practical effect of which is to cause
the air in the pores of the cork to expand to a greater or less extent, depending
upon the temperature. A portion of this expanded an escapes through the
glycerine, so that when the whole is permitted to cool, the pressure of the
atmosphere forces more or less of the glycerine into the pores of the cork to
replace the au expelled. Or, the cork sections may be plunged into a bath of
hot glycerine, and when heated sufficiently may be taken from it and plunged
into a bath of cold glycerine and permitted to cool therein. The cork sectious
treated by either mode are impregnated or partially saturated with glycerine,
which being a non-diying liquid does not diy or handen but keeps them moist
for an indefinite period, or permanently moist or elastic, thereby enhancing their
resiliency and preventing in whole or in part the tendency to crumble or dis-
ntegiate in use, as a substitute for glycerine a solution of chloride of calcium in
water, in the proportions of 100 parts by weight of diy chloride to 120 parts of
water may be used, this solution being a substance which has the property of
keeping the cork permanently moist. This substance is not recommended as
preferable to glycine, but the latter is pielered and if ordinary commercial
gly cene be used it may have nearly as much water added to it before use as it
will absorb from the atmosphere, say twenty per cent. of its weight
It is preferred to squeeze or pound the cork sections previous to connecting
them in the wheel tyres, the practical effect of such treatment being to lender
them more supple when the wheels are first used, it is also prefered to arrange
the sections with the grain of the cork so as to be parallel with the axis of the
wheel
If the felly of the wheel be flat instead of gutter formed, the form of the inner
cu cumter once of the tyre and of its core on body should of course be made fai to
suit the felly, to which it is applied.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be formed, I declare that what I
claim 18:
1. The carriage wheel consisting of the wheel body fitted with a permanently
moist tyle of cork impregnated with a non-diying substance substantially as before
set forth.
2 The permanently moist hoop-formed cork-tyre core for a carriage wheel
composed of cork impieguated with a non-diying substance, substantially as before
set forth.
3. The permanently moist cork tyle for a callage wheel constructed sub-
stantially as before set forth, of cork impregnated with a non-drying substance and
enclosed in a tubular cover of hoop form.
SYDNEY PITT.