Improvements in the Frames of Velocipedes.
Year: 1895

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Frames of Velocipedes.
We, EDWARD ARTHUR WILSON, of the Firm of George Patterson and
Company trading as The "New Hudson" Cycle Company, of Summer Hill
Street, Parade, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Cycle Manufacturers,
and ALFRED HENRY WEBSTER, of No. 145 Alston Street, Birmingham,
aforesaid, Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
The said invention relates principally to the connecting of the arms or branches
of the back stay fork of the rear or driving wheel of a safety bicycle which
connection is commonly called the bridge of the fork, but the said invention is
applicable to the bridge pieces or short stay tubes employed in other parts of
velocipedes.
In order that the said invention may be the better understood we remark that
the bridge or short stay tube is usually connected to the arms or branches of the
tubular frame by brazing and it frequently happens in case of the back stay fork
of bicycle wheels that in slightly opening the fork to introduce or remove the
wheel one or other of the brazed junctions is injured or broken.
We will describe the said invention in connection with the bridge or short stay
tube of the back wheel fork.
The said invention has for its object to connect the short stay tube or bridge
piece to the arms of the fork without brazing and for this purpose we employ in
conjunction with the said stay tube a narrow metallic band or strip, preferably of
steel, of a length about double that of the said bridge. The said metallic strip is
passed through the tubular bridge in contact with the interior of the tube and
emerges through notches in the ends of the tube. The ends of the said band are
then passed round the outer sides of the arms or tubes of the fork and are made
to bind tightly on the said arms, the extreme ends of the fastening strip or band
being fixed preferably by screws to the side of the short stay tube or bridge at
points opposite the notched side of the same.
Instead of employing a separate binding strip or band of sheet steel passing
through the tubular bridge piece, the said tubular bridge piece may be made with
flat end strips in one piece therewith for binding the outer sides of the tubular
arms of the fork. In constructing the combined tubular bridge piece and
binding strips we preferably form them from blanks of thin sheet steel the
middle part to form the tube being of a width much greater than the end or strip
parts.
The said middle part is bent into the form of a tube and the said bridge piece
is attached to the fork by bending its strips around the outer sides of the tubular
arms of the fork and attaching the extreme ends of the strips to the bridge piece
by screws or otherwise.
The said bridge piece may be applied to forks made either of cylindrical or
semi-cylindrical tubes or elliptical tubes the ends of the bridge being shaped to fit
the part of the tube against which it bears.
The application of the said invention to the connecting of short stay tubes to
other parallel tubes of a velocipede frame differs in no essential respect from its

page_text: mprovements in the Frames or velocipedes.
We EDWARD ARTHUR WILSON, of the Firm of George Patterson and
Company, trading as The "New Hudson" Cycle Company, of Summer Hill
Street, Parade, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Cvele Manufacturers,
and ALFRED HENRY WEBSTER, of No. 145, Alston Street, Birmingham,
aforesaid, Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of the said invention and in
what manner the same is to he performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :—
The said invention relates principally to the connecting of the arms or branches
of the back stay fork of the rear or driving wheel of a safety bicycle, which
connection is commonly called the bridge of the fork, but the sail invention is
applicable to the bridge pieres or short stay tubes employed in other parts of
velocipedes such for example as the chain stay fork.
In order that the said invention may be the better understood we remark that
the bridge or short stay tube is usually connected to the arms or branches of the
tubular frame by brazing and it frequently happens in case of the back stay fork
of bicycle wheels that in slightly opening the fork to introduce or remove the
wheel one or other of the brazed junctions is injured or broken.
We will describe the said mvention in connection with the bridge or short stay
tube of the back wheel fork.
The said invention has for its object to connect the short stay tube or bridge
piece to the arms of the fork without brazing and for this purpose we employ in
conjunction with the said stay tube a narrow metallic band or strip, preferably of
steel, of a length about double that of the said bridge. The said metallic strip
is passed through the tubular bridge in contact with the interior of the tube and
emerges through notches in the ends of the tube. The ends of the said hand are
then passed round the outer sides of the arms or tubes of the fork and are made
to bil tightly on the said arms, the extreme ends of the fastening strip or band
being fixed preferably by screw to the side of the short stay tube or bridge at
points opposite the notched side of the same.
Instead of employing a separate binding strip or band of sheet steel passing
through the tubular bridge piece, the said tubular bridge piece may be made
with fat end strips in one piece therewith for binding the outer sides of the
tubular arms of the fork. In constructing the combined tubular bruge piece
and binding strips we preferably form them from blanks of thin sheet Steel the
midlle part to form the tube being of a width much greater than the end or strip
parts. The said middle part is bent into the form of a tube and the said bridge
piece is attached to the fork by bending its strips around the outer sides of the
tubular arms of the fork and attaching the extreme ends of the strips to the bridge
piece by screws or otherwise.
The said bridge piece may be applied to forks made either of cylindrical or
semi-cylindrical tubes or elliptical tubes the ends of the bridge piece being
shaped to fit the part of the tube against which it bears.
Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings represent respectively in side
and back elevation a portion of the frame of a safety bicycle the branches of the

page_text: back stay and chain stay torks being connected by bridge pieces according to the
said invention;
Figure 3 represents in side elevation, partly in section and Figure 4 in end
elevation one of the tubular bridge pieces detached.
Figures 5 and 6 represent respectively in plan and side elevation the thin
metallic (preferably steel) strip or band which is employed to connect the tubular
bridge Figures 3 and 4 to the arins of the fork.
Figures 7 and 8 represent respectively in horizontal section and elevation
the portion of the fork with the improved bridge piece attached thereto.
Figures 9, 10 and 11 represent a modification of the said invention hereinafter
described.
Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 6, 9, 10 and 11 are drawn to a larger scale than Figures 1
and 2.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several figures of
the drawings.
In constructing the tubular stay or bridge according to the said invention we
take a short tube a of a length equal to the distance between the arms d, d of the
fork at the parts of the said fork to be connected together and we make in
opposite ends of one side of the said tube a notches or cut-away parts a', a'. In the
side of the tube a opposite the notched side and near each end we make a hole a²
and cross slot a³. The holes a², a² are formed by forcing inwards the metal of the
said tube at those parts so as to provide around the said holes inwardly
projecting tubular sockets (see Figures 4 and 7) which are screw threaded
internally.
We employ in conjunction with the tubular bridge Figures 2 and 3 the steel
or other metallic strip or band (Figures 5 and 6) the said band being passed
through the tube a at the notched side and emerging from the said tube through
the notches a', a'. The strip then passes round the outer sides of the arms of the
fork as is best seen in Figures 7 and 8 and the free ends 3, which are bent
inwards are engaged in the slots a³, a³. The metallic strip or band is secured to
the tubular bridge piece by the screw pins c, a passing through the holes b², 2 in
the metallic strip or band and engaging in the internally screwed tubular
sockets a², a².
According to a modification of the said invention we make the tubular bridge
and fork gripping bands in one piece from a blank of thin sheet metal.
Figure 9 represents one of the said sheet metal blanks the middle part a having
a width suitable to form when bent the tubular bridge as is represented in
Figure 10. The end strips b, b are bent into the figure represented in the plan
Figure 11 and the tubular bridge piece is ready to be applied to the fork. The
free ends of the strips b, bare secured to the front of the tubular bridge a in the
manner described with respect to the arrangement Figures 1 to 8.
By constructing and arranging the parts of the bridge pieces in the manner
described and represented brazing of the tubular bridge piece or stay a to the
arms d, d of the fork is rendered unnecessary and the parts are more firmly and
securely connected together.
The application of the said invention to the connecting of short stay tubes to
other parallel or nearly parallel tubes of a velocipede frame differs in no essential
respect from its application to the fixing of the bridge piece or stay tube of the
fork of the back wheel of a safety bicycle as herein before described and
represented in the accompanying drawings.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that we
claim as the said invention of "Improvements in the frames of velocipedes” :—
The construction and arrangement of the parts of the bridge pieces or tubular
stays for connecting the arms of the back stay forks and other like parts of the

page_text: frames of velocipedes hereinbefore described and represented in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7 and 8 of the accompanying drawings whereby brazing of the ends of the
said bridge pieces to the arms of the forks or the like is rendered unnecessary
the said construction and arrangement of parts consisting in providing the tubular
bridge pieces or stays at one side with end notches and at the opposite side with
screwed holes or with screwed holes and slots and using therewith a thin metallic
strip or band passing along the inner notched side of the tube and round the
outer sides of the arms of the fork and being secured to the side of the bridge
picce opposite the notched side preferably by screw pins substantially as
described and illustrated; also the modification hereinbefore described and
represented in Figures 9, 10 and 11 in which bands for encircling the outer sides
of the fork arms are formed at opposite ends of and in one piece with the tubular
bridge piece or stay.
Deted the Second day of July 1896.
EDWARD ARTHUR WILSON
ALFRED HENRY WEBSTER.