Improvements in Friction and Belt Driving Gear for Cycles, Auto- Cars, and for other purposes.
Year: 1896

page_text: Improvements in Friction and Belt Driving Gear for Cycles, Auto-
Cars, and for other purposes.
We, THOMAS MEACOCK, and OWEN JONES MEACOCK, both of 18, Burlington
Chambers, New Street, in the City of Birmingham, Engineers, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of improvements relating to driving gear for cycles,
auto-cars, and for other purposes, our object being to provide more convenient and
effective means for the quiet and steady transmission of power between adjacent
axes than exists with the ordinary driving gears at present in general use.
In carrying our invention into effect we employ wheels of cast iron or other
material, and mount the same upon their respective axes in any ordinary manner.
The sum of the radii of a pair of our gearing wheels is rather less than the distance
between the centres of their axes, and thus the ordinary peripheries of the wheels
do not actually touch each other.
Upon the periphery or driving face of either the driving or the driven wheel
or upon both of such faces we mount an india-rubber or other elastic tube or
receptacle or receptacles and arrange the same to be charged with compressed air
or other fluid, by means of a hand pump or in any other suitable manner. When
thus charged or inflated the expansible tube or other receptacle or receptacles are
forced against the face of the adjacent wheel and thus when the one wheel is
revolved or set in motion, such motion is transmitted from its periphery to the
periphery of the adjacent or driven wheel, which is caused to revolve in. the
opposite direction. The pneumatic contact between the wheels is controlled by
the extent or degree of the pressure within the tube or chambers, such pressure
being so regulated as to prevent slipping between the wheels. In this manner we
are enabled to quietly and steadily transmit the power from a driving to a driven
wheel, and by the employment of intermediate wheels and axles or by an endless
band preferably of non-elastic material the driven wheel and its axis may be fixed
at a remote distance from the driving wheel.
When employing our pneumatic driving gear in connection with dynamos or
other like services we preferably arrange for the inflation or charging of the elastic
peripheries of the wheels whilst one or both or all of such wheels are in motion,
by admitting the compressed air through a pipe which we pass into a suitable
stuffing box. With this method of inflation the prime mover can be started
independently and the dynamo brought gradually from a state of rest as the
inflation progresses until the desired driving torque is effected.
We preferably employ an outer covering for the inner tube or elastic periphery,
and we sometimes provide projections on the surface of the same for the better.

page_text: We employ our improved driving gear either for parallel driving or for the
transmission of power between axes arranged at an angle with each other.
Dated this 8th day of August. 1896.
MARKS & CLERK,
18 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., &
13,Temple Street, Birmingham, Agents for the Applicants.
Improvements in Friction and Belt Driving Gear for Cycles, Auto-
Cars, and for other purposes.
We, THOMAS MEACOCK, and OWEN JONES MEACOCK, both of 18, Burlington
Chambers, New Street, in the City of Birmingham, Engineers, 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:-
This Invention consists of improvements relating to driving gear for cycles,
auto-cars, and for other purposes, our object being to provide more convenient and
effective means for the quiet and steady transmission of power between adjacent
axes than exists with the ordinary driving gears at present in general use....
In carrying our invention into effect we employ wheels of cast iron or other
material, and mount the same upon their respective axes in any ordinary manner.
The sum of the radii of a pair of our gearing wheels is rather less than the distance
between the centres of their axes, and thus the ordinary peripheries of the wheels
do not actually touch each other.
Upon the periphery or driving face of either the driving or the driven wheel or
upon both of such faces we mount an india-rubber or other elastic tube or receptacle
or receptacles and arrange the same to be charged with compressed air or other
fluid, by means of a hand pump or in any other suitable manner. When thus
charged or inflated the expansible tube or other receptacle or receptacles are forced
against the face of the adjacent wheel and thus when the one wheel is revolved
or set in motion such motion is transmitted from its periphery, to the periphery
of the adjacent or driven wheel, which is caused to revolve in the opposite direction.
The pneumatic contact between the wheels is controlled by the extent or degree
of the pressure within the tube or chambers, such pressure being so regulated as
to prevent slipping between the wheels. In this manner we are enabled to quietly
and steadily transmit the power from a driving to a driven wheel, and by the
employment of intermediate wheels and axles or by an endless band preferably of
non-elastic material the driven wheel and its axis may be fitted at a remote distance
from the driving wheel.
When employing our pneumatic driving gear in connection with dynamos or
other like services we preferably arrange for the inflation or charging of the elastic
peripheries of the wheels whilst one or both or all such wheels are in motion, by
admitting the compressed air through a pipe which we pass into a suitable stuffing
box. With this method of inflation the prime mover can be started independently
and the dynamo brought gradually from a state of rest as the inflation progresses
until the desired driving torque is effected.
We preferably employ an outer covering for the inner tube or elastic periphery,
and we sometimes provide projections on the surface of the same for the better
prevention of slipping.
We employ our improved driving gear either for parallel driving or for trans-
mission of power between axes arranged at an angle with each other.
In order that our invention may be the more readily understood we append
hereunto one sheet of explanatory drawings to be hereinafter referred to..

page_text: Figure 1, is a sectional plan representing a pair of driving wheels as A and B,
each consisting of a hollow drum forming a reservoir for containing expansible
fluid, and fitted with a peripheral driving face as A and B composed of rubber,
canvas, or other suitable material, the faces being caused to impinge upon each
other at the adjacent sides by the internal pressure in the drums, thus enabling the
motion of the one wheel to be transmitted to the other by rolling contact without
wedging or scraping action detrimental to the durability of the surfaces in contact.
We employ a pair of such compressed air or fluid charged drums, as illustrated, of
such respective diameters as may be required for the particular service to which
they are to be applied, or we sometimes employ one such air charged wheel to
run in contact with an ordinary friction wheel. Figure 2 represents a similar
pair of wheels to the pair illustrated at Figure 1, but with each of the driving
faces A and B bolted the drums A and B respectively to effect a powerful driving
torque.
Figure 3 illustrates a pair of bevel wheels or wheels with inclined driving faces,
constructed in accordance with our invention.
Figure 4 is a sectional view illustrating a packed journal stuffing box as C for
the wheel shaft D whereby the wheel can be charged or inflated whilst in motion
by compressed air or fluid admitted by the pipe E. The wheel can be readily
deflated when required by lifting the valve F from its seating on the opposite end
of the shaft D.
Instead of running our pneumatic wheels in contact with each other we employ
for some services an ordinary connecting band such as G, Figures 5 and 6.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is:
1. The improved means for the transmission of power from one axis to another,
substantially as described.
2. In driving gear for cycles, auto-cars, and for other purposes, the use of a
wheel consisting of a hollow drum forming a reservoir for containing expansible
fluid, and having a peripheral driving face for impingement against an adjacent
wheel, substantially as and for the purposes described.
3. The combination of pneumatic or like driving gear with means whereby the
inflation may be effected whilst the gear is in motion, substantially as described.
4. The combination with pneumatic or like driving gear of a connecting band
transmitting the motion of one wheel to another, substantially as described.
Dated this 7th day of May 1807
MARKS & CLERK,
18 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., &
13 Temple Street, Birmingham, Agents for the Applicants.