Improvements in or Appertaining to Cycle Brakes.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Dec., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or Appertaining to Cycle Brakes.
I, CHARLES WENTWORTII ELAM, of Oakland House, Oakfield, Aufield, in the
City of Liverpool, Veterinary Surgeon, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
This invention has for its object a brake which will not tear or injure a
pneumatic tyre and yet will have strong braking power. With ordinary brakes
too they being applied to the front wheel if they are applied with too great force
the rider is apt to be sent headlong over the handle.
Now my invention is applied to the hind wheel and the invention consists
essentially in using the ordinary carriage brake with an extended surface to
the hind wheel. This is pivoted on the frame and is held from the wheel by
a spring also attached to the frame. From the handle. bar a .rod
descends to a crank on the pivot and puts the brake on and off. This rol
is also arranged with a flat place or treadle so that the brake can be put on if
desired at any time by the foot only or by the hand as preferred. It is obvious also
that under some circumstances a cord can be used instead of a rod and in order
to prevent the cord interfering with the treadles it could pass over a guard
pulley fixed to the frame. Any arrangement for winding up the cord or for
pulling it can be adopted. The brake can be either above or below the central
axis of the wheel. I prefer to have it below. One advantage of my brake over
the ordinary roller and spoon brakes is this, that it can extend its bearing sur
face over a considerable distance of the circumference of the wheels. whereas
other brakes bite at one point only consequently while in other brakes great
strain is brought on the pneumatic tyre at one point tending to tear it, in mine
the strain is distributed over a considerable distance and thus the bearing strain
is very greatly reduced, and while I am well aware that the carriage brake has
before now been placed to ordinary hard wheels I am not aware that it has
ever been applied to the pneumatic or to the safety or other bicycle at all, but
it is the combination of this carriage brake made with contour to suit the wheel
and the pneumatic tyre which constitutes one of the principal points of my
invention:
1
1000
Improvements in or Appertaining to Cycle Brakes.
I, CHARLES WENTWORTH ELAM, of Oakland House, Oakfield, Aufield, in the
City of Liverpool, Veterinary Surgeon, do hereby declare the nature of this
Price 8d1

page_text: 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 has for its principal object a brake device which shall not tear
or injure a pneumatic tyre and yet shall have strong braking power. Ordinary
. brakes being generally applied to the front wheel are liable if a great pressure
be used to send the rider headlong over the handle.
Now my invention is applied to the hind wheel.
It is best described by aid of the accompanying drawings, in which
Fig. 1 is a part of a bicycle showing the brake applied by the foot only.
Fig. 2 part of the same view in which the brake is applied by hand only.
Fig. 3 the same device as Fig. 2, but showing the handle hooked in place.
Fig. 4 a variation with the usual form of handle.
Fig. 5 an enlarged view of the treadle device shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 6 a smaller sixed view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 6 with the brake
locked.
Fig. 7 a view of brake block and accompanying parts.
Referring to the drawings, A is the brake block best shown in Fig. 7. 'It is
pivoted at B to a clip C on the frame and is held from the wheel by a spring D.
À link E from the brake block but pivoted to it is carried to the foot or hand
gear. In Fig. 5 a foot gear is shown. In this a guard plate F is attached to
the frame by a socket f and on this socket works the treadle G which is linked
to the rod É and works in the guard plate F. The guard plate is preferably
of springy steel and the whole is so arranged that a slight side pressure on the
treadle will set the latter clear from the teeth H, but the ordinary springy
nature of the connections preferably cause the treadle G to. normally interlock
with the teeth H. In treadle G and guard F are two holes II which when
the treadle is pushed far forward come opposite each other and through the two
holes a padlock can be placed as shown in Fig. 6. When in this position the
brake is hard on so that the bicycle cannot be used. In Fig. 2 the ordinary
lever handle is shown. This lever handle has a hook K which can at any time
be hooked on to the frame as shown in Fig. 3 and can be locked in this position
by a padlock if required. In Fig. 4 the ordinary sido lever arrangement is
shown operating the brake rod E through a bell crank E which latter is curved
as shown in Figure 4 to allow play for steering. This plan and that shown in
Fig. 1 can be united if desirable so that both hand and foot or either of them
can be employed to put on the brake. In thus describing and illustrating my
invention, I have not of course shown all the ways by which it can be effected,
thus a cord from the handle or even a pneumatic ball on the handle could be
used for propelling the connecting rod E, provided the brake were so linked
to the connecting rod E that a pull on the rod or its equivalent, the cord,
put on the brake instead of taking it off. A slight difference in the mode of
pivoting would accomplish this result, but I do not consider a cord' and a pull
to be anything like as good as the handle and push thereon. The brake can-
either be above or below the central axis of the wheel or even on the central'
axis. I prefer to have it below. One advantage of my brake over the ordinary
roller and spoon brakes is this, that I can extend its bearing surface over a
considerable are of the circumference of the wheel, whereas other brakes bite at
one point only, consequently while in other brakes great strain is brought upon
the cover or pneumatic tyre at one point tending to tear it, in mine the strain
is distributed over a considerable distance and thus the tearing strain is very
greatly reduced, while the braking power remains the same. I am aware of
course that carriage brakes have been used on ordinary hard wheels, but there is an
advantage as will be at once seen in using them on pneumatic tyres which is not
found in a hard wheel, namely, in distributing the strain over a large surface
and this kind of brake is especially useful in a safety bicycle and it is the com-
bination of this carriage brake made with a contour to suit the wheel with the
pneumatic tyre which constitutes one of the principal points of my invention.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. The combination of a pueumatic tyre a shoe or carriage brake bearing over
a considerable surface of the wheel and held normally from the wheel by spring
pressure, and mechanism for actuating the brake from the handle bar or by
the foot substantially as described.
2. The arrangement of foot gear and also of locking device in connection there-
with substantially as described and illustrated in Fig. 5.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and Loudon, Patent Agents.