Improvements in Treadle Mechanisms for Vehicles, and for other purposes.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Dec., 1895-Accepted, 1st Feb., 1876
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Treadle Mechanisms for Vehicles, and for other
purposes.
I, HERMANN GANSWINDT, of 70 Herbert Strasse, Schöneberg near Berlin, in
the Empire of Germany, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to a treadle mechanism for vehicles of all kinds and for
other purposes, by means of which mechanism the fulcrum of the treadle lever
may be quickly changed according to the power required, or, when employed on
vehicles, the nature or gradient of the ground to be traversed; this may be
effected by a single adjusting hand lever and without stopping the vehicle.
Referring to the accompanying drawing,
Fig. 1 is a plan view of part of the treadle mechanism.
Fig. 2 is a side view of part of the treadle-lever,
Fig. 3 is a section on line a- of Fig. 1 seen in the direction of the arrow,
Fig. is a section on line y-y of Fig. 1,
•
Fig. 5 is a side view of part of the mechanism without the treadle lever.
Fig. 6 is a perspective view of part of the left treadle mechanism & Fig. 7 a
plan of the latter, and part of the right mechanism.
The parts of the treadle mechanism illustrated in Figures 1-5 consist of a
frame a of sheet metal plates bent as shown in Fig. 3 and braced by u-like flat or
other suitable supports b, and of the frame-like treadle-lever c. The latter is
provided at the under side with a series of notches or recesses o' (Fig. 2) the
number of which corresponds to the number of bolts in frame a, which bolts are
controlled by springs g. To securely guide the bolts 9 (each pair of which acts
as fulcrum for the lever c) they are made to slide in the frame a and supports b
respectively, the plates a for such purpose being strengthened by small iron
plates b. A standard e is bolted to the frame a and carries the adjusting arm d,
whose fork-like lower ends are in alignment with each other at the outer sides of
the frame a (Fig. 3). Bent cross pieces f acting like wedges are passed through,
or attached to, the ends of the arm dat about the height of the bolts g, while
such ends slide on the curved rail and fall into notches ' in same.
In the lower edges of the frame c and between the bolts g, bolts i are provided,
such bolts being guided in holders k¹ and controlled by springs k, which latter
force out the bolts i so as to wholly or partly cover the recesses c¹. Guide rails r
are provided for preventing the cross pieces f being displaced.
The fulcrum of the frame-like lever c is changed by altering the position of the
arm d, viz. by forcing the forked ends of d out of the notches in rail and
abutting same against another set of bolts g brought in alignment with the
notches corresponding to the power required or the weight of the vehicle to
be moved. The distance apart of the bolts g is such that on slightly moving the
arm d in either direction, the sheet-metal wedge-like pieces come in contact with
the next pair of bolts g, so that the latter are forced under the notches e' in the
lever c.
The bolts g which have acted as fulcrum for the lever c and which were
in the advanced or outer position, are now released from the picces f, and returned
to their normal position by the springs g'. Immediately the bolts g are free of the
lever c the latter, owing to its weight, necessarily falls, and those bolts y which

page_text: are then opposite the notches c¹ and in the outer position thus strike against the
bolts, force same against their springs and thus enter the notches c'; the
springs k then return the bolts i so as to almost cover or close the notches c', and
hence the bolts g cannot get out of position.
This treadle mechanism may be used for driving all kinds of vehicles, especially
where varying gradients and the different nature of the ground are to be contended
with. This may be effected with a single lever and without it being necessary to
stop the vehicle, no matter how steep the grades are.
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 a treadle-mechanism for vehicles of all kinds and for other purposes the
fulcrum of the treadle-lever of which mechanism may be changed at will, spring-
controlled bolts (9) brought into engagement with holes or notches in the arms of
lever (c) by wedge-like acting pieces (f), an adjusting arm (d) having forked ends
which fall into notches (¹) of rail (h), substantially as described and shown in the
drawing.
2. In combination with a treadle-mechanism for vehicles and for other purposes,
treadle-levers (c) the arms of which are provided on their under sides with a
series of holes or notches for receiving bolts (9) and spring controlled bolts (i)
guided in holders (k) substantially as and for the purposes described and shown.
Dated this 20th day of December 1905,
H.
GANSWINDT,
Per W. H. Beck,
115 Cannon Street, London, Agent.