wheels and Pulleys.
Year: 1885

page_text: wheels and Pulleys.
We, ISAAC WATTS BOOTHROYD, of 15 Circus Street, Greenwich, in the County
of Kent, Manager, and PHILIPP LOUIS CHARLES FREDERICK RENOUF, of 46 Roland
Gardens, Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, Student of the Inner Temple,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION AND MANUFACTURE OF TENSION WHEELS to be as follows:-
"
This invention relates to the construction of tension wheels and to the method
of manufacturing such wheels, and our invention is designed to produce wheels
which while equally strong, if not stronger, shall be considerably lighter than those
at present in use.
Our invention relates to rim, tyre, spokes, and manner of fitting the latter.
We use certain hollow rims of U. Y, pear, or other section, preferably made
with perfectly flat tops; such rins may be made out of tube or by brazing or
otherwise joining the edges of moulded sheet metal or instead of joining the bottom
edges of the rim directly we may insert a filling-in piece or strip or strips between
the said edges, brazing or rivetting the whole together, so leaving material or a
strong web for drilling through.
We may roll our strip to the section of the rim, and instead of leaving the bottom
edges of equal length we may crank or angle one edge, brazing it to the opposite
cranked or angled edge of the other side of the strip which extends downwards to
form the rib for holding the spokes, or as hereafter described brackets, nipples,
screws, or pegs, and the rib may be bent or crimped if desired. Or, a rib or web
may be inserted between the edges of strip projecting into the hollow rim and the
whole brazed together extending downwards as before.
For use in velocipedes, carriages, perambulators, and the like, we vulcanize flat
bottomed tyres directly to such dat topped rims without projecting edges as above,
or we may vulcanize such tyres to metallic strips and bed these strips on the
rims, securing the same by nuts or otherwise.
And for use in transmitting motion the endless band, belt, cord, or equivalent
may run on the rims of the wheels.
For our spokes we use thin piano or light wire very strong and easily bent and
according to our invention provide devices on the rim or hub or both for straining
such spokes.

page_text: We may fit pegs in the webs or bottom edges of our rims aforesaid kept up by
nuts and shoulders and turned by key or spanner or otherwise, or place such pegs
in the hubs to turn horizontally. The wire is thus wound on such pegs or put in
tension thereby. The pegs may pass through brackets on the rims instead of
through the webs of the rims and these brackets may be separate or continuously
formed by stamping and bending steel to shape.
The pegs may be threaded if desired and work towards the axis in the hub or
towards the periphery of the wheel in the rim, in nuts capable of turning in the
hub or rim, the wire passing up through and being twisted round or otherwise
secured to the pegs so that the wire is put in tension without being put in torsion,
and the wires may be linked over friction or guide rollers or studs forced towards
the axis or from the axis by screw or other devices, so tightening the said wire
and giving rigidity to the wheel.
Where the tension is on the rim we often secure one length of wire forming two
or more spokes by bedding the same in grooves recessed on the outer surface of
the hub flanges, an undercut groove being previously turned in the latter to allow
of the looping or bending of the wire.
We may considerably vary our methods of fitting and tightening or straining
wires to form such light wheels.

page_text: wheels and Pulleys.
We ISAAC WATTS BOOTHROYD of 15 Circus Street, Greenwich in the County of
Kent Manager and PHILIPP LOUIS CHARLES FREDERICK RENOUF of 46 Roland
Gardens, South Kensington in the County of Middlesex Student at Law do hereby
declare the nature of our invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION &
MANUFACTURE OF TENSION WHEELS & PULLEYS and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
We prefer to construct the rims or felloes for our improved tension wheels with
flat instead of crescent shaped tops in order to gain full use of the india rubber on
the wheel for the purpose of leadening vibration & in order to obviate the
possibility of the rubber being damaged by the protruding sharp edge of the rim ;
the flat top of the rim or felloe acts as a side stay & prevents the rim from
buckling. The construction of our improved rims will be understood by referring
to the drawings accompanying this Specification.
Fig. 1 shows a hollow rim A the top part of which nearest to the rubber tyre is
flat; when we use this form of rim the spokes of the wheel may be attached in
any of the usual ways.
Fig. 2. shows a rim consisting of two pieces, the piece of sheet steel A drawn to
the required shape and the solid piece B fitted between & brazed to the edges of
the part A. The spokes on wheels fitted with this rim either are screwed into the
solid piece B or they are tensioned by nipples screwing into the piece B.
The rim shown at fig. 3 is provided on its lower or inner side with a projecting
flange and is preferably drawn out of a strip of sheet metal in such a manner that
one edge forms this projection whilst the other edge is turned inwards & brazed
up just above the angle or set-off formed by the other or projecting edge as shown
on the drawing. In constructing wheels with the latter form of rim or felloe the
flange is usually pierced laterally to receive a series of small screws or nipples B
provided with a small hole at b. and a nut C; the wire used for the spokes is of
very fine guage & its extremities being passed through the hole at b, tension is
applied by winding the screw or nipple B & locking it with the nut C, when the
right position is ascertained.
The wire may be laced through the hub or nave of the wheel in the manner
known to the trade; but we prefer to fix on the hub a series of projecting studs
& pass the wire round the same. It will be found advantageous to bring both ends
of the wire to the rim in the same direction instead of in opposite directions as
is usually done; thus one stud may serve as a support for two such pairs of spokes,
thus on tig. 4 the wire a, a² & the wire b, b' are passed round stud B. In some
cases these studs are provided with large heads, protrude through the hub and are
furnished with a screwed end and nut for the purpose of locking the spoke wire
firmly to the flange of the hub. Sometimes the studs are provided with small
rollers round which the wire is bent & the two ends of the wire brought back to
the same pin or nipple which by turning winds up both sides or one side of the
wire the two sides of wire thus taking the place of a single spoke. Figs. 5 & 6

page_text: Ꮳ
show an improved hub to be used with spoke wire of very fine guage. Instead of
piercing the hub or providing it with studs as above described the hub is turned
down and undercut at b. on fig. 6 leaving a projecting flange. This projecting
flange is cut half way through with a series of fine grooves (c, c, on fig. 5) in which
the spokes are bedded, every two spokes usually consisting of one piece of wire
bent round at the undercut edge of the flange b. It will be readily understood
that the system of tensioning spokes by means of winding them on a pin as above
described may be applied at the hub instead of at the rim and inside a hollow rim
or hollow flange instead of outside; but wherever possible we prefer to avoid
piercing the shell of the rim. We fix the rubber tyre on our rims either by
vulcanizing or by cementing; but sometimes for the purpose of easy removal we
fix the rubber C as shown in section on fig. 1 to a strip of thin material B; the
inner side of the top of the rim is thickened in one or more places as shown at D
and the strip B is fixed by one or more screws E; when the strip B consists of
steel or other metal it materially increases the strength of the rim.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is:
1. A rim or felloe with a perfectly flat top without projecting sides and covered
with rubber as described.
2. A rim formed with a solid inner piece attached to it capable of holding the
screwed end of a spoke, or a nipple, as illustrated in fig. of the drawings
accompanying this Specification.
3. A rim constructed with a flat top and a projecting flange on the lower or
inner side substantially as described.
4. The method of tensioning spokes of fine wire by winding on a stud and
locking by means of a nut or screw substantially as described.
5. The method of attaching several spokes consisting of one piece of wire to the
hub by returning the two ends to the rim in the same direction.
6. A spoke consisting of a piece of light wire bent double, passed round a stud
or roller at its central part, the two extremities being wound round a stud or
nipple.
7. A hub provided with recessed grooves and an undercut edge for the purpose
described and illustrated in figs. 5 & 6 of the drawings.
8. The combination (and construction of an improved tension wheel consisting)
of a hollow rigid rim and fine wire of very light guage wound round studs and
locked when properly adjusted.
9. Constructing light wheels by means of a rigid hollow rim joined to the hub
by light wire which is neither screwed nor headed at its extremities and capable
of adjustment.
10. A rubber tyre fixed to a strip of flexible material such strip of flexible
material being readily attachable to and detachable from the rim, substantially as
described.
11. A strip or band of sheet metal cushioned with rubber and attachable to the
rim or felloe in such a way as to render the same more capable of resisting lateral
strains.
POPPLEWELL, COLTON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicants..