Improvements in Metallic Springs or Frames for the Saddles of Bicycles, Tricycles, and other Velocipedes.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Feb., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 11th Nov., 1896-Accepted, 23rd Jan., 1897
Improvements in Metallic Springs or Frames for the Saddles of
Bicycles, Tricycles, and other Velocipedes.
I, HENRY ARTHUR LAMPLUGH of No. 61 Wellington Road, Birmingham in
the County of Warwick, Mechanical Engineer do hereby declare the nature of
this invention to be as follows:-
My invention consists in making metallic springs or frames for the saddles of
bicycles, tricycles and other velocipedes from elastic wire, preferably steel, which
wire has been coiled in the form of a compact helix, that is, a helical coil the
convolutions of which are in contact or nearly in contact.
In making a spring, say of steel wire, according to my invention I proceed as
follows. I take soft steel wire and coil it upon a core or mandril to which rotary
motion is given in a lathe or otherwise; or I form the said compact helix by
forcing the soft steel wire through the coiling instrument called a "giraffe."
I will hereinafter call the compact helix described the hollow wire.
In order to make a bicycle saddle spring or frame from the hollow wire, I treat
the said hollow wire as though it were an ordinary cylindrical wire bending it into
the shape which it is desired the saddle spring or frame shall have. At one or
both ends of the frame or at any other part I may make a coil the axis of which
may either be in a vertical plane or in a horizontal plane. After having given to
the wire the required shape I harden and temper it by any of the processes by
which steel may be hardened and tempered.
The spring or frame thus made has a greater range of elasticity than a spring
or frame of the same strength made from plain or cylindrical wire, that is, the
spring frame made from the hollow wire, may be bent to a much greater extent
without taking a permanent set than a spring or frame of the same size and form
made from plain or cylindrical wire.
If for any purpose it is desired to give to any part of the spring or frame
greater rigidity than the other parts, this may be effected by inserting in that part
of the hollow wire where extra rigidity is required a plain or cylindrical wire of
the required length and baving a diameter approximately the same as that of the
interior of the hollow wire. The introduction of the plain or cylindrical wire into
the hollow wire is effected while the hollow wire is straight, that is, before it is
fashioned into a spring or frame. By the hardening and tempering process
herein before referred to the plain or cylindrical wire is hardened and tempered
at the same time as the other parts of the frame.
Dated this Fourteenth day of February 1806
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicant.

page_text: '
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Metallic Springs or Frames for the Saddles of
Bicycles, Tricycles, and other Velocipedes.
I HENRY ARTHUR LAMPLUGH, of No. 61 Wellington Road, Birmingham, in
the County of Warwick, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
my invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My invention consists in making metallic springs or frames for the saddles of
bicycles, tricycles and other velocipedes from elastic wire, preferably steel, which
wire has been coiled in the form of a compact helix, that is, a helical coil the
convolutions of which are in contact or nearly in contact.
In making a spring, say of steel wire, according to my invention I proceed as
follows. I take soft steel wire and coil it upon a core or mandril to which rotary
motion is given in a lathe or otherwise; or I form the said compact helix by
forcing the soft steel wire through the coiling instrument called a "giraffe."
I will hereinafter call the compact helix described the hollow wire.
In order to make a bicycle saddle spring or frame from the hollow wire I treat
the said hollow wire as though it were an ordinary cylindrical wire bending it into
the shape which it is desired the saddle spring or frame shall have. At one or
both ends of the frame or at any other part I may make a coil the axis of which
may either be in a vertical plane or in a horizontal plane. After having given to
the wire the required shape I harden and temper it by any of the processes by
which steel may be hardened and tempered. The spring or frame thus made has
a greater range of elasticity than a spring or frame of the same size made from
plain or cylindrical wire, that is, the spring frame made from the hollow wire may
be bent to a much greater extent without taking a permanent set than a spring or
frame of the same size and form made from plain or cylindrical wire.
If for any purpose it is desired to give to any part of the spring or frame
greater rigidity than the other parts, this may be effected by inserting in that part
of the hollow wire where extra rigidity is required, a plain or cylindrical wire of
the required length and having a diameter approximately the same as that of the
interior of the hollow wire. The introduction of the plain or cylindrical wire
into the hollow wire is effected while the hollow wire is straight, that is, before it
is fashioned into a spring or frame. By the hardening and tempering process
herein before referred to the plain or cylindrical wire is hardened and tempered at
the same time as the other parts of the frame.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in side elevation a velocipede
saddle the cantle end of which is supported upon coiled springs made according to
my invention and Figure 2 represents one of the said springs detached.
Figure 3 represents in side elevation and Figure 4 in plan (partly in section)
a saddle frame made according to my invention ;
Figure 5 represents a short length of compact helically coiled wire before it is
bent to form a spring or frame and
Figure 6 represents a short length of a nearly compact helically coiled wire.
The springs represented in Figures 1 and 2 are made from a compact helix of
the kind represented in Figure 5 or from a nearly compact helix of the kind
represented in Figure 6, the said helix having a wire or metallic core a introduced
into it, the said wire or core a passing through the whole length of the helix for
the purpose of strengthening the springs made therefrom. Or instead of intro-
ducing a wire or core into the helix, the said helix may be formed on a soft steel
mandril the said mandril being left in the helix and constituting the core. It
must be understood however that the said springs may be made from the helix

page_text: Figure 5 or from the helix Figure 6 without a core as is represented in the
said Figures 5 and 6 or with a core in a part or parts only of their length.
The saddle frame Figures 3 and 4 has only at the parts marked a¹, a', a' metal
wires or cores, the other parts being hollow.
I wish it to be understood that saddle springs or frames made according to my
invention may be formed of any desired shape the compact helix or hollow wire
being bent or coiled as if it were a piece of solid wire and after shaping or
bending the steel of which the spring or frame is made is hardened and tempered
in the ordinary way.
Although I have only shown in Figures 1 and 2 springs made according to my
invention applied to the rear or cantle end of the saddle I wish it to be understood
that they may be applied to any part and be arranged in any position; that is to
say, they may be used in a vertical, horizontal or inclined position as may be
desired and instead of making the coils of the coiled helix of the same diameter
throughout the said coils may be made of a gradually decreasing diameter.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that I claim
as my invention ;-
Making metallic springs or frames for the saddles of bicycles, tricycles and
other velocipedes by first forming a compact or nearly compact helix of steel wire,
cutting up the said helix into lengths suitable to form the springs or frames to be
made and strengthening the said cut off lengths or helices, if thought necessary
or desirable, either throughout their whole length or through a portion or portions
only of their length, by inserting in the cut off lengths or helices a solid
cylindrical wire or wires, or where the strengthening is to extend through the
whole length of the helix by the employment of a soft steel mandril on which to
coil the wire and leaving the said mandril in the coil, and bending or coiling the
said cut off lengths into the shape which it is desired the said springs or frames
shall have, and finishing them by the process of hardening and tempering
substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accompanying
drawings.
Dated the Seventh day of November 1896.
HENRY ARTHUR LAMPLUGH.