IMPROVEMENTS. IN DRIVING MECHANISM FOR VELOCIPEDES, ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1885

page_text: We, PHILLIP LOUIS CHARLES FREDERICK RENOUF, of 46 Roland Gardens, in the
County of Middlesex, Student of the Inner Temple, and ISAAC WATTS BOOTHROYD,
of 15'Circus Street, Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Manager, do hereby declare
the nature of our invention for "IMPROVEMENTS. IN DRIVING MECHANISM FOR
VELOCIPEDES, ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES" to be as follows:-
This invention has for its object improvements in driving mechanism for
velocipedes also applicable to other purposes, and relates principally to a safety
bicycle for which Letters Patent were granted to John Beale, No. 332 of 1878, and
is designed to apply speed increasing gear to such bicycle whereby the. driving
wheel is driven at a greater speed than the crank spindle. Such improved arrange-
ment according to our invention can be applied for driving blowers of smiths'
forges, sewing machines, lathes, fret or circular saws, chaff cutters, or like machines
driven by foot levers communicating motion to a crank spindle.
In applying our invention to such a bicycle as before referred to we fix a toothed
wheel on the hub of the driving wheel and mount the toothed wheel and the hub
on a tube or sleeve free to revolve on a spindle carrying the driving cranks which
are driven by connecting rods as specified in the above recited Letters Patent.
One of the connecting rods is fitted with a stud revolving in a boss on the end
of one of the cranks and is itself attached to a toothed wheel which gears with the
central gear wheel attached to the hub. Thus when the connecting rods are moved
up and down by the oscillation of the pedal levers as specified in the said Letters
Patent the driving wheel will revolve at a greater speed than the spindle to which
the cranks are attached.
We also mount the sun wheel on the tube by means of a slot and feather and
place one bearing on the opposite end of the hub and axle in such a way that
the wear and side shake on both bearings can be taken up by adjustment on one
side only.
Sometimes the stud carrying the planet wheel is not rigidly attached to the
connected rod: in this case it carries a sliding or a swivelling clutch which may fix
it either to the connecting rod (in which case the wheel is geared up), or else to
the crank, in which case the wheel will make only one revolution to every alternate
stroke of a lever.

page_text: Improvements in Driving Mechanism for Velocipedes, also
Applicable to other Purposes.
We, ISAAC WATTS BOOTHROYD of 15 Circus St Greenwich in the county of
Kent, Manager, and PHILIP 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 DRIVING MECHANISM OF
VELOCIPEDES, ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
the
We pass through the hub or nave of the wheel which is to be driven a crank-
shaft A, which is propelled by a suitable lever and connecting rod mechanism;
connecting rod B is fixed to a planet wheel C, gearing into a sun wheel D; the
latter is mounted on a tube rigidly fixed to the hub or nave in such a way that
one or more keys, K, K¹ allow the planet wheel to approach the hub or nave when
constrained to do so. The bearings F, F are coned out, the ends of the hub or
nave are coned to fit the same either directly or, as shewn in the drawings by the
interposition of balls; one side of the planet wheel is coned to fit the bearing F,
the other side being fitted over a cone on crank D either directly or by the inter-
position of balls; a cone G is provided on the shaft A, which by screwing or other-
wise can be made to approach the hub or nave; such lateral motion on the part of
cone G will take up the wear and slack not only on the side where it is situated
but also on the further side, and between the planet wheel D and the hub, as the
planet wheel is capable of moving along the keys or feathers K, K¹.
We sometimes mount on the spindle of the planet wheel C a sliding or swivelling
arm H; when this arm is moved towards the crank E it disengages itself from the
connecting rod B and engages in a recess provided in crank E, thus freeing the
planet wheel C from the control of connecting rod B and locking it to the crank E.
When this is done the whole gearing mechanism is locked, and the hub or nave
travels at the same rate or speed as the crank shaft A.
We are aware that geared axles have been designed or used in which a hub was
mounted on a revolving spindle and itself revolved at a rate different from that of
the revolving spindle, but such arrangements have proved defective owing to the
wear set up in the bearing of the hub which was made to work on the spindle, and
on account of the great difficulty of taking up this wear, which must prove
destructive to the mechanism, but having now particularly described and ascer-
tained 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 Sun and Planet gearing in which the internal or middle parts are sus-
pended in the bearings as described in the letterpress and the drawings accompanying
the specification of this invention.

page_text: 2. A compound or multiplying gear in which a hub or nave is caused to travel
at a different speed from the shaft or spindle round which it revolves, such shaft
or spindle travelling in the same direction, and in which the slack caused by the
wear of the working parts can be taken up by a simple cone adjustment on the
outside of such mechanism.
4. The arrangement substantially as described and illustrated by the accom-
panying drawings for causing the hub to travel either at the same as, or at a
different speed from, the internal shaft or spindle.
POPPLEWELL, COLTON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicants.