APPARATUS FOR CONVERTING RECIPROCATING INTO ROTARY MOTION."
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Lewis Owen Michael at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th April 1880.
LEWIS OWEN MICHAEL, of the Town and County of Bristol.
APPARATUS FOR CONVERTING RECIPROCATING INTO ROTARY MOTION."
"AN IMPROVED
My Invention relates to an improved combination of machinery for converting
reciprocating or alternate motion into continuous rotary motion. My Invention is
designed to avoid the dead points inseparable from the use of a crank, and thus
render a fly wheel unnecessary, and to enable an increase of power to be obtained
without any loss of speed, or conversely, an increase of speed without loss of power.
It is particularly adapted for working a velocipede or other pedomotive, or manu-
motive machine, but may also be applied for converting the reciprocating rectilinear
motion of a steam piston or other motor into the rotary motion of a shaft.
The Invention consists mainly in the combination of two pairs of racks arranged,
as hereafter described, with two pairs of pinions loose on a shaft or axle, and with
clutches by which the pinions when rotated in one direction are caused to engage
with and turn the shaft, each pair of racks being connected to and operated by a
lever or treadle.
The two racks of each pair are on opposite sides of the shaft or axle, and they
gear with different pinions which are independent of one another, and of those of
the other pair. Each pinion is furnished with a spring or other clutch which
engages with a corresponding clutch on the shaft or axle, whereby when the pinion
is rotated in one direction the shaft is carried round with it, but when revolved in
the other direction it runs loose on the shaft. As the two racks of one pair are
attached to the same lever they move together in the same direction, and being on
opposite sides of the shaft the two corresponding pinions are revolved in opposite
directions, the one pinion being in gear with and turning the shaft or axle when
the other is running loose, and vice versa. The operation of the other pair of racks
is similar, but opposite in direction, so that the rack of the one pair, which for the
time being is operating to turn the shaft, shall be on the opposite side of the shaft,
and moving in the opposite direction to the rack of the other pair, which is at the
same time operating to turn the shaft. Both these racks therefore turn the shaft
in the same direction, and there are consequently at each stroke two racks (one of
each pair) rotating their pinions in the one direction together with the shaft, and two
racks (the other ones of each pair) turning their pinions in the reverse direction
loose on the shaft.

page_text: In the case of a velocipede each pair of racks is jointed to a lever or treadle, and
the two levers or treadles may be connected together, if necessary, so that part of
the power applied to one may be transferred to the other. In the case of a steam
engine or other motor the piston rod might be connected to and operate the levers,
which in this case alone also may be connected together with the object above
mentioned; or the piston rod may be connected directly to the racks themselves
without the intervention of levers.