IMPROVEMENTS IN TRICYCLES
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Walsh at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 24th December 1880.
JOHN HENRY WALSH, of No. 9, the Cedars, Putney, in the County of Surrey,
Editor of The Field." "IMPROVEMENTS IN TRICYCLES."
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My Invention relates in the first place to a mode of locking and guiding the
steering wheel, so as to leave the arms at liberty to be used with the legs in driving
the tricycle, and consists in the arrangement and combination of the parts in the
manner hereinafter stated, whereby the steering wheel can be locked or steadied as
required by the pressure of the rider's back, and receive the necessary guiding
from the action of either of his shoulders respectively. The locking or steadying
of the steering wheel as required is effected by means of a stud or projection on a
pivoted arm or lever, which stud is caused to fix the guide bar by the pressure of
the back of the rider against the back board, thereby acting on one end of the said
arm or lever, and is withdrawn there from (so as to liberate the guide bar) by the
reaction of a spring against the opposite end of the arm or lever on the removal o
the pressure from the back board.
When the guide bar is thus liberated it is free to be acted upon by the pressure
of either of the shoulders of the rider against a cross piece at the upper part of the
back board, so as to guide the steering wheel either to the right or left hand through
the connection of the guide bar with the fork of the said wheel.
By the arrangement of the parts as above stated, when the shoulder of the rider
is about to press on the transverse limb of the back board, his back naturally
assumes a position which takes the pressure off the vertical limb thereof and
liberates the end of the arm or lever connected therewith, the opposite end of the
arm or lever being then acted upon by the spring so as to withdraw the locking
stud from the guide bar and leave it free to be acted upon as required for the
purpose of guiding the tricycle.
And when straight driving is again required, the steering wheel is locked by the
pressure of the back on the vertical limb of the back board causing the stud to press
against the guide bar.
One wheel is rigidly fixed in the usual way on the axle, which is double cranked,
the other rotating with an ordinary box but with the friction increased considerable,
by means of a ring of india rubber or steel infringing on the collar of the spindly

page_text: and also on the hub, so that when not rotating at the same speed as the driving
wheel the friction is great but not so great as to interfere with turning, but when
rotating at uniform speed with the driving wheel, nearly half the driving power is
communicated to it by the said ring of steel or india rubber. The cranks are acted
upon by rods and pedals connected to the lower ends of two oscillating bars, the
centres of which are attached to the side frame in such a way that the force of the
legs is applied in a horizontal direction, or nearly so.
A handle is fixed to each rod at a short distance from the crank in such a
manner as to admit of the tricycle being worked by the hands independently of
the feet, or vice versa, and also to admit of the handles with their connections being
used for the purposes of a break, and also to get over the dead points.