IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF VELOCIPEDES."
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Alexander Calvert, of Manchester, in tho
County of Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF VELOCIPEDES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Alexander
Calvert at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 30th October 1874.
I, CHARLES ALEXANDER CALVERT, of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF VELOCIPEDES," to be as follows:-
This Invention is intended principally for the construction of
velocipedes to be used upon rails, which it is proposed shall be laid down
to a gauge of about three feet apart in the six-foot way between the
ordinary permanent rails of railways, the object being to give facilities
for sending messages, letters, small parcels, or signal lights from place
to place without the use of an engine.
The machine is composed principally of two large light flanged wheels
(say, about nine or ten feet diameter) keyed one at each end of a cranked
axle about threc feet long. From the axle immediately within the

page_text: wheels a seat for the passenger is suspended by means of tie rods, so
that his weight is hung entirely below the axle, and thus there is no
fear of overturning. The cranks are connected to treadles by means of
connecting rods, and these rods are also provided with loops or handles,
so that the cranks can be worked either by hand or foot, or by both
together if preferred.
These velocipedes can be used upon railways on all occasions where it
is desirable to send a single person from one point to another with
rapidity; or if made with three or four wheels it may carry more than
one person. A break worked by a hand lever is also provided for 1
arresting or stopping the machine when required.
If the velocipede is to be used on common roads the tyres of the
wheels will be made plain, and a steering wheel for guiding the same
will also be added, but on railways the latter is not necessary.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Alexander Calvert in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 30th April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
ALEXANDER CALVERT, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, send
grecting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Alexander Calvert,
Her special license that I, the said Charles Alexander Calvert, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Charles Alexander Calvert, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ircland, the Channel Islands, and Isle
of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
VELOCIPEDES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
'

page_text: Charles Alexander Calvert, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
scals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Scal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Alexander Calvert, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement and accompanying Drawings (that is
to say) :—
This Invention is intended principally for the construction of
yelocipedes to be used upon rails, which it is proposed shall be laid
down to a gauge of about three feet apart in the six-foot way between
the ordinary permanent rails of railways, the object being to give
facilities for sending messages, letters, small parcels, or signal lights
from place to place without the use of an engine, but they can be used
upon railways upon all occasions where it is desirable to send a singlo
person from one point to another with rapidity.
If the wheels are made without flanges they may also be used for
travelling on common roads, and if made with three or four wheels may
be adapted to carry more than one person.
Such being the nature and object of my said Invention I will now
proceed to describe more in detail the manner in which the same is to be
or may be performed or carried into practical effect, and in order that
the same may be clearly understood, I have annexed hereunto a Sheet of
Drawings illustrative thereof, and have marked the same with figures
and letters of reference corresponding with those in the following
explanation thereof :-
Fig. 1 in the annexed Drawing represents a side clevation of a
velocipede constructed according to my Invention, and Fig. 2, a front
view of the same.
The machine is composed principally of two large wheels a, a (flanged
or otherwise, and, say, of about nine or ten feet diameter), keyed or
otherwise fixed, one at each end of a cranked axle b, b, about three feet

page_text: long. From this axle immediately within the wheels the seat c, c, for
the passenger is suspended by a frame d, d, in such a form as to throw
the seat somewhat behind the centre of the axis, so that the occupant
can more conveniently grasp. the hand cranks e, e, the axle turning
loosely at each end through the eye or boss to which the frame d, d, is
hung. The weight of the passenger is thus suspended below the axle,
and thus there is no fear of overturning. The cranks e, e, arc also con-
nected to the treadles f, f, by means of connecting rods g, g, the lower
ends of which are attached by tic rods h, h, to the frame d, d. The
cranks can thus be worked either by hand or foot, or by both combined,
which latter method is preferable, as the "dead point" is thus
avoided.
The velocipede should also be fitted with a break of any suitable form
or construction to be worked by the hand or foot for arresting or
stopping the machine when required, and if it is to be used on common 1
roads a steering wheel for guiding the same may also be provided, but
on railways the latter is not necessary.
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention,
together with the manner in which the same is to be or may be per-
formed or carried into practical effect, I wish it to be understood that I 2
claim as my Invention, the improved construction of velocipede herein-
before described and represented on the annexed Drawing, or any mere
modification or imitation thereof, constructed and operating in sub-
stantially the same or a similar manner.
In witness whercof, I, the said Charles Alexander Calvert, have 2
hereunto set my band and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of April,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five
CHARLES ALEXANDER CALVERT. (L.s.)
Witnessed by
THOMAS E. DAVIES,
Patent Office,
4, St. Ann Square,
Manchester.