Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Jan.. 1888
Complete Specification Left, 13th July, 1888
Complete Specification Accepted, 7th Sept., 1888
LOUIS VON LÜBBE 30 Grove Road St. John's Wood N.W. Gentleman do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-

page_text: Improvements in Saddles and Saddle Springs for Bicycles and
Tricycles.
I LOUIS VON LÜBBE of 30 Grove Road, St. John's Wood, London, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
The invention has for its object improvements in saddles for bicycles, tricycles
and other velocipedes.
The seat of the saddle, whether made of leather or other material, is cut through
at the back so as to divide the seat and give each hip a separate resting place and
prevent any jar on the spinal nerve of the rider.
The first peculiarity to be noted about the spring is, that the parts which pass
through the eyes of the clamp fixing it to the machine are not straight but bent so
that the moving of them forwards or backwards regulates the inclination of the seat
and permits its being placed at the angle most convenient to the rider. As a necessary
consequence of this the parts of the clamp upon which the ends of the spring rest,
and through which the eyes fixing the spring pass, are made of a convex form, so as
to give the ends of the spring a solid resting place when the eyes through which they
pass are tightened upon them.
I make my spring of a single rod of steel and it is first bent in the middle so as to
form two rods and at the bend is formed an eye through which a bolt passes to fix the
spring to the front part of the seat. From the point at which the eye is formed the
two rods widen a little and then in an almost parallel direction are carried to the back
part of the seat sufficiently apart to secure the advantages of the opening in the back
part of the seat. They are then bent round in opposite directions, each following the
form of its own half of the divided seat, until the two assume the shape of the handles
of a pair of shears. From this point, at which the rods have again approached each
other, they are carried downwards and forwards towards the front part of the seat
and then bent downwards in a curved form and carried backwards under the point of
fixture and then bent again upwards and inwards in a curved form and carried
forwards to the clamp upon which they are secured in the manner above described.
For the purpose of fastening the back part of the seat to the parts of the spring
which are made into the shears-handle form, two pieces of leather or other material
are attached to the back edge of the seat and then brought over the spring so as to
enclose those parts of it, and then in a taper form are stretched tightly forward to the
front part of the seat and there securely fastened.
At the front part of the seat I place a steel plate corresponding in shape with
that part of the seat and extending inwards about two inches from the extreme
point of the seat and this plate is secured to the seat by two rivets or bolts which
also pass through the ends of the two pieces of leather or other material used to
cover the spring at the back part of the seat and which are stretched forward to
the front. And through this plate the bolt passes which secures the front part of
the spring to the seat.
I have described my spring as made of a single rod of steel, but the spring may
be made of two rods, and in that case the ends under the front part of the seat may
be fixed together in any way that will permit of their being also fixed to the front
part of the seat.

page_text: And in order that the said invention may be more clearly understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed by the aid of the accompanying drawings more
ully to describe the same.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of the saddle.
Figure 2 is an underside view.
Similar letters of reference are used to indicate the several parts in both drawings.
a represents the seat of the saddle which stretches from a¹ to a² and folds down
on each side to a³ as shown in Figure 1. Figure 2 shows the opening in the back
part of the saddle extending from a¹ to a*.
b represents the ends of the spring at the part where they pass through the eyes
of the clamp and in figure 1 is shewn the bent form that is given to them and the
dotted line shows the convex groove that is made in the clamp in order to receive
them and which insures that on their being pushed forward or backward the inclination
of the saddle is altered.
Tracing the shape of the spring from the points of fixture the ends first take a
bent form downwards as shewn at c figure 1 and outwards as shewn at c figure 2
and then proceed in the direction of the front part of the seat under the level of
the point of fixture until having passed the point of fixture they take a bent form
upwards as shewn at d figure 1 and inwards as shewn at d figure 2. They then slope
upwards as shewn in figure 1 and spread out and then round again into a shears-
handle form as shewn in figure 2, the letter e marking in both drawings the forms
taken.
From the back part of the saddle at e¹ figure 2 the two halves of the spring
extend in a nearly parallel form towards the front where the two parts come close
together and are formed into an eye through which a bolt is passed for fastening
the front part of the seat to the spring as shewn at f figure 2.
The pieces of leather or other material for enclosing the back parts of the spring
are attached to the back part of the seat between the points e¹ and e² figure 2 and
then extended as shewn in the drawing to a² where the steel plate is shewn
extending from a² to g.
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-The opening which divides the back part of the seat of the saddle.
2-The bent form of the spring, whether the steel employed be round, flat,
square, octagonal or any other, at the part where it is fixed to the clamp.
3-The convex form given to those parts of the clamp through which the eye
bolts pass which fix the spring and which secures for the spring a solid resting
place.
4-The form of the spring from the point at which it is fixed to the machine
until it reaches the seat which virtually makes the spring suspend from the machine
instead of rest upon it and thus gives to the seat a suspensory buoyancy.
5-The shears-handle shape of that part of the spring upon which the divided
part of the seat rests.
6-The arragement by which that part of the spring upon which the front part of
the seat rests is furthest removed from the point at which the spring is fixed to the
machine and that intermediately there is nothing interposed that can interfere with
the springiness of the seat.
T 1
1000