IMPROVEMENT IN BICYCLES."
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Edwin Howard at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th March 1877.
RICHARD EDWIN HOWARD, of Blackheath Hill, in the County of Kent.
IMPROVEMENT IN BICYCLES."
"AN
The object of my Invention is to enable the rider of a bicycle to shift his position,
placing himself further from or bringing himself nearer to the fork without dis-
mounting or even rising from his seat, thereby accommodating his position upon the
bicycle to the inequalities of the road, and permitting him to apply a break on the
front wheel without thereby occasioning a kicking of the machine, or incurring the
danger of pitching out of the saddle, as now frequently happens in consequence
of the rider being unable to shift his position excepting very slightly, and subject to
great inconvenience.
I propose to attain this object by making the saddle which has hitherto been a
fixture, moveable horizontally to and from the fork, sliding or running upon any
kind of bearings or supports connecting it with the back bone of the bicycle or upon
the backbone itself, according to the make of the bicycle, or as may be found in
practice most desirable.
I may use the following arrangement for giving a horizontal motion to the seat of
the bicycle at the pleasure of the rider.
I may fix a plate of suitable length, say, about one inch and three quarters wide
on to the upper side of the backbone, the end nearest the fork being a few inches
from it; on this plate I propose to place another termed the top or running plate,
say, four inches long and about one quarter of an inch wider than the plate fixed
on the backbone; on each side of this plate I propose to fix two clips, one at each
end, which will clip the edges of the botton plate, keeping the plates about an eighth
of an inch apart.
In a central line of the top plate I propose to place two rollers, half an inch in
diameter and half an inch wide (more or less, as may be required), which run on
axles fixed in the top or running plate, these rollers being intended to run on the plate
fixed to the backbone.
On the top or running plate I propose to fix the saddle spring, making it with a
top and bottom plate, the bottom plate of the spring behind the running plat
being free to spring. The top plate of the spring to spring its entire length. I

page_text: propose to make the spring in one piece, turned over or welded at the front end,
the back end of the top plate of the spring being connected with the bottom
plate of the spring by a stud, allowing the top plate to work up and down the
end of the bottom plate as the spring may require when the weight is on it.
The manner of altering the position of the spring and consequently of the saddle
which it carries will be as follows:-A chain fixed on to the front of the top or
running plate will be passed under a pulley wheel fixed in the angle formed by the
backbone and fork. The chain will then be continued up to and attached to a pulley
wheel fixed on the steering bar, so that when the steering bar is turned round by
the handles, the chain will be wound up, drawing up with it the top or running
plate carrying the spring and saddle. It will be maintained in this position by a
spring catch taking into one of a series of notches, according to the distance the
rider wishes to be from the fork. I propose to lift this catch off the notched wheel
by a small lever reaching to the handle, which can be pressed with the thumb or
finger of the left hand when the rider wishes to move backwards the spring and
saddle while he is on it.
I may modify the above as follows:-In lieu of the plate fixed on the backbone
and the top or running plate, I may fix a piece of iron of the required length on
each side of the backbone, these pieces of iron being bent to the diameter and to
the curve of the backbone with a flange a quarter of an inch wide (more or less)
projecting from the side of the backbone; on these is placed what may be described
as a chair, which is a piece of iron with its ends bent downward vertically and then
inward horizontally. In each side of this is placed a small wheel, say, about half
an inch in diameter, and a quarter of an inch wide, which runs on an axle fixed to
the chair. There will be two of these chairs with their wheels and fittings; these
chairs will be placed, across the backbone with the wheels resting on the upper side
of the flanges, the piece at the bottom of each side of the chairs being under the
flanges, and the chairs about four inches apart from outside to outside, and the
bottom plate of the spring will be fixed to them. I propose to attach the chain to
the front part of the front chair, the other parts being the same as in the arrango-
ment first described; or I may cut a hole in the backbone about six inches long by
half an inch wide, putting a piece of metal about ten inches long inside the backbone,
and fixed along the bottom inside under the hole, then two more pieces of inetal
about the same length to be put in the backbone, and fixed one piece at each side
within the backbone above the bottom piece. This will make the space inside this
part of the backbone about one inch deep and half an inch wide. Into this space I
propose to put a piece of metal suitably curved to fit into this space, and carrying
on its under side two rollers placed about five inches apart to allow it to run up and
down freely on the bottom piece of metal fixed within the backbone. From the top
of the said curved piece, and of one piece with it will be a projection wrought into
a shape suitable to fix the saddle spring upon. The chain to be fixed to the front
part of the spring, or to that part which the spring is fixed on to.
The other parts will be the same as in the first described arrangement.
It will be understood that the above described arrangement may be greatly
modified, and that other known mechanical means may be substituted to obtain the
horizontal to-and-fro movement of the saddle at the will of the rider while seated
thereupon, which is the object of my Invention.