Improvements in Frictional Driving Gear for Motor Cars and Machinery Generally.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Feb., 1899
Complete Specification Left, 25th Nov., 1899-Accepted, 27th Jan., 1900
Improvements in Frictional Driving Gear for Motor Cars
and Machinery Generally.
We, ARNOLD HAWKES, of 48, Earl Street, Coventry, in the County of Warwick,
Engineer, and ALFRED ERNEST COOMBS, of Aston Brook Street, in the City of
Birmingham, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:-
This invention relates to variable frictional driving gear for motor cars
and other vehicles, lifts, hoists and other appliances, and for com-
municating motion at variable speeds and transmitting power in machinery
generally, and the object of the said invention is to provide an efficient form of
gearing by which the driving speed can be varied, the direction of motion
reversed and a vehicle or machine instantly stopped or started without the setting
up of shocks or jar such as usually occur with driving gear of the ordinary
construction.
According to our invention we propose to communicate movement from the
face of a driving wheel to a driven shaft through a series of three intermediate
friction wheels, mounted upon the said driven shaft so as to be capable of rota-
tion with and longitudinal movement along the same and with their differential
rates of rotation equalized and transmitted to the said shaft through the medium
of balance gearing.
In carrying out our invention as applied to the driving gear of a motor-
propelled vehicle, the middle friction wheel of the balanced triple series has an eyed
boss with a sleeve directed from either side which take upon a motion-trans--
mitting shaft having a feather which engages in a key way in the said sleeve so
as to admit of the said sleeve or double bush and the friction wheels carried by
it having a longitudinal movement upon the said shaft in addition to rotating
with it. The outer pair of friction wheels have their bosses encircling the said
bush or sleeve and are capable of rotating freely thereon whilst the inner or
opposed faces of the said bosses are formed with bevel teeth or carry bevel
wheels which gear in common with a pair of bevel pinions which are loosely
mounted upon arms or axes carried by the rotating and sliding sleeve and running
in a direction across the diameter of the middle friction wheel. The bevel teethi
of the outer frictional wheels, whose contact surfaces or peripheries are in line
with one another and with that of the middle wheel, are kept in gear with the
aforesaid bevel pinions by end stop collars screwed onto or otherwise made fast
to the central rotating and longitudinally adjustable bush of the middle friction
wheel.
The peripheries of the whole of the friction wheels may be faced with slightly
yielding material to ensure the uniform contact of them against the face of the
driving wheel, which may be the fly wheel of the motor.
It will be understood that when the friction wheels are moved along the driven
shaft inwardly from the parts of the driver nearest the periphery to the parts

page_text: near to the centre the motion transmitted is reduced and that when the middle
driven wheel is brought over the centre of the driver, then the outer wheels are
caused to rotate idly in opposite directions and no movement is imparted to the
driven shaft as the loose pinions are thereby caused to rotate freely and idly
around their shafts on the middle driven wheel, whereas when the whole of the
said friction wheels are in driving contact with the face of the driving wheel
and are all rotating in the same directions at varying rates corresponding to the
velocities of the different surface parts with which they are respectively in con-
tact, then the said loose pinions serve to equalize the differential motion of the
two outer and auxiliary driving wheels in conveying the same to the middle wheel
whose rate of motion is always the same as that of the driven shaft, it being
understood that the said bevel pinions are only slowly rotated around their shafts
on the middle wheel by the bevel teeth on the opposed faces of the outer friction
wheels consequent upon the differential relative speeds of the said outer wheels,
the outermost one of which goes on slightly in advance of the inner one.
It is also understood that when the triple series of friction wheels are in con-
tact with the driving wheel on one side the centre they are driven round in a
direction which will propel the vehicle forward, whereas when they are carried
along the driven shaft and into contact with the other side of the said driving
wheel, they are rotated in the opposite direction and the driven shaft is reversed.
We propose that the motion of the driven shaft should be communicated to
the road axle of the vehicle by a worm upon the former gearing with a worm
wheel in connection-with-the-latter, whilst in-order-to-compensate for or neutralize
the movement of the road wheels due to them running over uneven surfaces, the
driven-shaft, upon which the friction wheels are carried may be mounted within
a rocking or yielding framing or bearing suitably journalled to the under carriage
or main framing.
The application of our invention to gearing for communicating movement or
transmitting power in machinery generally differs in no essential respect from its
application to a motor-propelled vehicle as herein before described.
We wish it to be understood that we do not confine ourselves to the particular
form of balanced gear (of the "Starley" type) described in connection with the
series of intermediate friction wheels, as we may employ any known form of
balance gearing which will obtain the same result, and we also wish it to be
understood that in order to reduce the grinding friction of each separate wheel
upon the driving wheels, each of the latter may be provided with a loose tyre,
consisting of an inner steel band and an outside of leather or the like, so that
should slipping or grinding occur, it will take place on the steel inside (as having
a less co-efficient of friction) and so save wear on the leather or rubber part.
1000
ARNOLD HAWKES,
ALFRED ERNEST COOMBS,
By Henry Skerrett,
Agent for Applicants.
Improvements in Frictional Driving Gear for Motor Cars
and Machinery Generally.
We, ARNOLD HAWKES, of 48, Earl Street, Coventry, in the County of Warwick,
Engineer, and ALFRED ERNEST COOMBS, of Aston Brook Street, in the City of

page_text: Birmingham, Manufacturer, 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:-
com-
This invention relates to variable frictional driving gear for motor cars
and other vehicles, lifts, hoists and other appliances, and for
municating motion at variable speeds and transmitting power in machinery
generally, and the object of the said invention is to provide an efficient form of
gearing by which the driving speed can be varied, the direction of motion
reversed and a vehicle or machine instantly stopped or started without the setting
up of shocks or jar such as usually occur with driving gear of the ordinary
construction.
According to our invention we propose to communicate movement from the
face of a driving wheel to a driven shaft through a series of intermediate friction
wheels, mounted upon the said driven shaft so as to be capable of rotation with,
and longitudinal movement along, the same and with their differential rates of
rotation equalized and transmitted to the said shaft through the medium of
balance gearing.
Figure of the accompanying drawings represents an elevation, partly in
section, of portions of a motor-driven vehicle provided with variable frictional
gearing constructed and arranged in accordance with our improvements, whereby
the vehicle may be started, stopped, reversed, or the running speed of the same
varied or changed without shock or jar being set up.
Figure 2 is a plan, partly in horizontal section, of the vehicle and gearing
represented in Figure 1.
Figure represents, upon an enlarged scale, a longitudinal vertical section of
the series of intermediate friction wheels, showing the arrangement of the
balance gear by which their differential rates of rotation are equalized to the
driven shaft.
Figure 4 is an end elevation of the said series of wheels, with the driven shaft
being shown in section upon the dotted line, Figure 3.
The same letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several
figures of the drawings.
a is the framing of the vehicle, which may support any suitable superstructure
or body, are the front wheels with axle 1, and are the rear driving wheels,
whose axle e, may run in a sleeve, suitably connected to the said framing a.
d is the motor, which may be of any known type and is mounted upon or secured
to the vehicle framing in any convenient manner, and the crank shaft, has a
plain faced fly wheel e, at one end, preferably disposed as shown in Figures 1
and 2 in a vertical plane and in the longer direction of the vehicle, or at a right
angle relative to the axle c', to be driven.
f is the balanced triple series of friction wheels by which motion is transmitted
from the motor fly wheel to a countershaft g, which in turn drives the axle c¹, by
suitable gearing. The middle friction wheel f¹, of the said series has an eyed
boss f, with a sleeve f, directed from either side which take upon the motion-
transmitting shaft g, having a feather gl, which engages in a key-way f in the
said sleeve so as to admit of the said sleeve or double bush and the friction
wheels f f f carried by it having a longitudinal movement upon the said shaft
in addition to rotating with it. The outer pair of friction wheels f, f, have
their bosses f. f, encircling the said bushes or sleeves f³, and are capable of
rotating freely thereon whilst the inner or opposed faces of the said bosses are
formed with bevel teeth at f³, f10 respectively, or carry bevel wheels which
gear in common with a pair of bevel pinions fi, f, loosely mounted upon arms
or axes ff, carried by the rotating and sliding sleeve and running in a
direction across the diameter of the middle friction wheel. The bevel teeth of
the outer frictional wheels, whose contact surfaces or peripheries are in line
with one another and with that of the middle wheel, are kept in gear with the

page_text: aforesaid bevel pinions by end stop collars h, screwed onto or otherwise made
fast to the central rotating bush of the middle friction wheel, which may be
longitudinally adjusted along the shaft by the forked end of a rocking lever
engaging with a groove or channel at 15, or by any other suitable means.
The peripheries of the whole of the friction wheels may be faced with slightly
yielding material at i, to ensure the uniform contact of them against the face of
the driving wheel, which instead of being the fly wheel of the motor, as shown,
may be a separately-driven plain faced wheel or dise conveniently arranged for
the desired purpose.
It will be understood that when the friction wheels are moved along the driven
shaft inwardly, or in the direction of the arrow Figure 1, from the parts of the
driver nearest the periphery to the parts near to the centre, the motion trans-
mitted is reduced and that when the middle driven wheel is brought over the
centre of the driver, then the outer wheels are caused to rotate idly in opposite
directions and no movement is imparted to the driven shaft as the loose
pinions f, f, are thereby caused to rotate freely and idly around their shafts
on the middle driven wheel, whereas when the whole of the said friction wheels
are in driving contact with the face of the driving wheel and are all rotating
in the same directions at varying rates corresponding to the velocities of the
different surface parts with which they are respectively in contact, then the said
loose pinions serve to equalize the differential motion of the two outer and
auxiliary driving wheels in conveying the same to the middle wheel, whose rate
of motion is always the same as that of the driven shaft, it being understood
that the said bevel pinions are only slowly rotated around their shafts on the
middle wheel by the bevel teeth on the opposed faces of the outer friction wheels
consequent upon the differential relative speeds of the said outer wheels, the
outermost one of which goes on slightly in advance of the inner one.
It is also understood that when the triple series of friction wheels are in con-
tact with the driving wheel on one side the centre they are driven round in a
direction which will propel the vehicle forward, whereas when they are carried
along the driven shaft and brought into contact with the other side of the said
driving wheel, they are rotated in the opposite direction and the driven shaft is
reversed.
We propose that the motion of the driven shaft should be communicated to the
road axle c, of the vehicle by any suitable gear, such as a worm j, upon the
former gearing with a worm wheel k, in connection with the usual balance
gear, m, of the said axle whilst in order to compensate for or neutralize the move-
ment of the road wheels due to them running over uneven surfaces, the driven
shaft, upon which the friction wheels are carried, may be mounted within a rocking
or yielding framing or bearing such as n, suitably journalled to the under carriage
or main framing a.
Instead of driving the intermediate friction wheels off a flat disc or wheel, they
may be driven off the inside or outside surface of a friction cone, with the inter-
mediate wheels being either all of the same size (in which case the driven counter-
shaft would run parallel to the inclination of the cone) or of different sizes, to
enable the driven shaft to be disposed at a right angle to the driving conc.
The application of our invention to gearing for communicating movement or
transmitting power in machinery generally differs in no essential respect from its
application to a motor-propelled vehicle as hereinbefore described.
We wish it to be understood that we do not confine ourselves to the particular
form of balanced gear (of the "Starley" type) described in connection with the
series of intermediate friction wheels, as we may employ any known form of
balance gearing which will obtain the same result, and we also wish it to be
understood that in order to reduce the grinding friction of each separate wheel
upon the driving wheels, each of the latter may be provided with a loose tyre,
consisting of an inner steel band and an outside of leather or the like, so that

page_text: should slipping or grinding occur, it will take place on the steel inside (as having
a less co-efficient of friction) and so save wear on the leather or rubber part.
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:-
:-
First In motor-driven vehicles, and machinery generally, communicating
motion or transmitting power from the face of a driving wheel or equivalent
rotating surface, to a driven shaft, through a series of intermediate friction
wheels, mounted upon the said shaft so as to be capable of rotation with, and
longitudinal movement along, the same, and with their differential rates of rota-
tion equalized, and transmitted to the said shaft through the medium of balance
gearing, substantially as and for the purposes herein described, and also as set
forth in the accompanying drawings.
Secondly A frictional gearing for starting, stopping, reversing and driving
at varying speeds, motor-propelled vehicles and machinery generally, comprising
a driving wheel or rotating friction disc, and a driven shaft to which motion is
communicated from the driving surface through the medium of a series of three
friction wheels, the middle one of which is carried by a sleeve or bush free to
slide upon, but rotating with, the driven shaft, whilst the outer wheels are
mounted and are free to rotate upon the said bush or sleeve and are formed with
teeth or provided with fixed toothed wheels, engaging in common with a pair of
loose pinions carried by the arms of, or connected with, the middle friction wheel,
whereby the differential rates of motion of the said friction wheels are equalized
and transmitted to the driven shaft, substantially as herein described, and also as
set forth in the accompanying drawing.
1 17
ARNOLD HAWKES,
ALFRED ERNEST COOMBS,
By Henry Skerrett.
24, Temple Row, Birmingham, Agent for Applicants.