Improvements in the Manufacture of Driving Chain for Velocipedes and Machinery.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 26th Sept., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 2nd June, 1891-Accepted, 11th July, 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Driving Chain for Velocipedes
and Machinery.
ROBERT FREDERICK HALL of The R. F. Hall Manufacturing Co. Limited
of Sampson Road North Birmingham in the County of Warwick Manufacturers
of Cycle Materials do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My invention is especially applicable to the manufacture of driving chain for
velocipedes but is also applicable to driving chain for machinery driven by chain
gearing.
My invention consists in making the links of the said driving chain by the process
or combination of processes hereinafter described whereby links of great strength
and durability are produced.
My said invention consists principally in making the said links from rolled or
drawn bars of steel iron or other hard and strong metal or alloy having the sectional
figure and operated upon in the manner hereinafter described."
In carrying my invention into effect I take a plain bar of steel or metal and
produce from it. preferably by rolling a bar having a trough form; that is to say
the bar is flat on one of its faces and has along the longitudinal edges of the other
face projecting parts or ribs the said ribs being joined by the thin web forming the
bottom of the trough bar. The width of the said trough bar is about equal to the
length of the link to be made.
I cut
From this trough shaped bar I form half links in the following manner.
transversely by sawing from the said bar narrow pieces or strips four or five of the
said narrow pieces or strips being preferably cut off at a time. From each
of these narrow cut off strips a half link is made and the half links are rivetted
together to form a complete link as hereinafter described.
I treat these narrow strips to convert them into half links preferably in the
following manner. From the thick end or rib portions of the strips I first form
roughly by a shaping operation the half bosses of the link situated at the ends of
the strip these roughly formed half bosses being square externally and drilled
axially for receiving the rivets of the link. I next give the square half bosses a
cylindrical form externally for forming the bearing surfaces of the loose friction
rollers used with the link and I also give a nearly circular figure to the ends of the
half link concentric with the cylindrical tubular bosses. The half link is now
complete and two of the said half links being placed side by side with the ends of
their half bosses in contact the said half links are secured together by rivets passed
through the holes in the concentric half bosses the rivets by which the half bosses
are connected together being the rivets which are fixed in the ordinary side links
of the chain. Before the half links and side links are rivetted together a loose
friction roller of the ordinary kind is placed around each pair of half bosses. I
do not limit myself to the particular details described by which the trough shaped
bar of steel is converted into half links as the said details may be varied without
departing from the nature of my invention.
Dated this 26th day of September 1890
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicant.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Driving Chain for Velocipedes
and Machinery.
I ROBERT FREDERICK HALL of The R. F. Hall Manufacturing Co. Limited of
Sampson Road North, Birmingham in the County of Warwick Manufacturers of
Cycle Materials do hereby declare the nature of my 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 is especially applicable to the manufacture of driving chain for
velocipedes but is also applicable to driving chain for machinery driven by chain
gearing.
My invention consists in making the links of the said driving chain by the process
or combination of processes hereinafter described, whereby links of great strength
and durability are produced.
My said invention consists principally in making the said links from rolled or
drawn bars of steel iron or other hard and strong metal or alloy having the sectional
figure and operated upon in the manner hereinafter described.
In carrying my invention into effect I take a plain bar of steel or metal and
produce from it preferably by rolling, a bar having a trough form; that is to say,
the bar is flat on one of its faces and has along the longitudinal edges of the other
face projecting parts or ribs, the said ribs being joined by the thin web forming the
bottom of the trough bar. The width of the said trough bar is about equal to the
length of the link to be made.
I cut
From this trough shaped bar 1 form half links in the following manner.
transversely by sawing from the said bar narrow pieces or strips, four or five of
the said narrow pieces or strips being preferably cut off at a time. From each of
these narrow cut off strips, a half link is made and the half links are rivetted
together to form a complete link as hereinafter described.
I treat these narrow strips to convert them into half links preferably in the
following manner. From the thick ends or rib portions of the strips I first form
roughly by a shaping operation the half bosses of the link situated at the ends of
the strip, these roughly formed half bosses being square externally and drilled
axially for receiving the rivets of the link. I next give the square half bosses a
cylindrical form externally for forming the bearing surfaces of the loose friction rollers
used with the link and I also give a nearly circular figure to the ends of the half
link concentric with the cylindrical tubular bosses. The half link is now complete
and two of the said half links being placed side by side with the ends of their half
bosses in contact the said half links are secured together by rivets passed through
the holes in the concentric half bosses, the rivets by which the half bosses are
connected together being the rivets which are fixed in the ordinary side links of
the chain.
Before the half links and side links are rivetted together a loose friction roller
of the ordinary kind is placed around each pair of half bosses.
I will now proceed to describe with reference to the accompanying drawing the
manner in which my invention is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents in plan and cross section the rolled or drawn trough shaped
bar of steel or other hard metal or alloy from which the half links of the inner
links of the driving chain are made. It will be seen by an examination of the said
Figure 1 that the bar is flat on one face and has along the longitudinal edges of the
other face projecting parts or ribs a, a which are joined by the thin web b forming
the bottom of the trough bar.
The trough shaped bar Figure 1 is divided transversely by sawing at the dotted
lines indicated into narrow pieces or strips, one of which is represented in Figure 2.
From each of the narrow cut off strips Figure 2 a half link is made in the following

page_text: manner. From the thick ends or rib portions a², a² of the strip Figure 2 the roughly
formed half bosses of the links are made by first roughly shaping or machining them
and afterwards piercing or drilling them in the manner represented in Figure 3
and marked c, d; that is, the sides of the partly made bosses parallel with the sides
of the strip are reduced in width so as to give a square figure to them as represented
at c and these square bosses are afterwards pierced or drilled axially so as to
produce the rivet holes d. The partly made half link Figure 3 is next operated
upon or machined in the manner represented in Figure 4; that is, the body b of
the half link is reduced to the width of the finished half link, its ends are rounded
or made nearly circular and the pierced partly made bosses e, e also rounded on
their sides concentrically with the rounded ends of the link body. The partly made
half link Figure 4 is finally operated upon or machined in the manner represented
in Figure 5 by which last operation the partly made half bosses e Figure 4 are
made into a cylindrical tubular form as represented at f, Figure 5, for forming
the bearing surfaces of the loose friction rollers as hereinafter described. The half
link is now complete.
I do not limit myself to the particular details described and represented by which
pieces of the kind represented in Figure 2, cut from the trough shaped bar Figure 1,
are made by machining and drilling or piercing into half links, as the said details
may be varied without departing from the nature of my invention. I prefer however
to adopt the series of processes I have described.
In order to make a link from the half links shown in Figure 5, two of the said half
links are placed side by side with the ends of the half bosses f, f in contact as
represented in Figure 6 in combination with loose friction rollers g, g which are
placed around each pair of half bosses before the latter are brought together. One
of the loose friction rollers is represented detached in Figure 7. After the half
links and loose friction rollers have been arranged as represented in Figure 6, the
half links are secured together by rivets passed through the holes in the concentric
half bosses, the rivets used being those fixed in the ordinary side links of the
chain as in building up ordinary driving chain.
Figures 8 and 9 represent elevations taken at right angles to one another of a
piece of driving chain the inner links of which are made according to my invention.
In the said Figures 8 and 9 the inner links are marked h h each link being composed
of two half links with their tubular bosses in contact; the loose friction rollers
around the pairs of bosses are marked g g and the side links by which the inner
links are secured together by rivetting are marked i i.
It will be seen by referring to the sectional part of Figure 9 that the rivets k k
pass through the cylindrical tubular bosses of the inner links h h and are rivetted
outside the side links ii for securing the links of the chain together.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my invention
and the manner in which the same is to be performed I declare that I claim as
my invention of "Improvements in the manufacture of driving chain for velocipedes
and machinery:
"
Making the halves of the inner links of driving chain from rolled or drawn
trough shaped bars of steel iron or other hard and strong metal or alloy by the
process or combination of processes substantially as hereinbefore described and
illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
Dated the Wirst der of Tune 1801
ROBERT FREDERICK HALL.