Improvements in the Manufacture of Metallic Hubs for the Wheels of Bicycles and other Velocipedes, Motor Carriages and other Road Vehicles.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Jan., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 1st Oct., 1897-Accepted, 1st Apr., 1898
Improvements in the Manufacture of Metallic Hubs for the Wheels of
Bicycles and other Velocipedes, Motor Carriages and other Road
Vehicles.
We, GEORGE HENRY MIDDLETON and GEORGE MACBETH, trading together as
Middleton and Macbeth, of 53, Oliver Street, in the City of Birmingham, Metal
Spinners, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:
This invention consists of the herein described improvements in the manufacture
of metal hubs for the wheels of bicycles and other velocipedes motor carriages and
road vehicles generally.
Heretofore the said wheel hubs have usually been turned in a lathe from solid
stampings, that is to say, the central tubular part of the hub and the flanges to
which the wire spokes are connected and the end bosses in which fit the steel cups
for the ball bearings have been made in one piece. The wheel hubs made in this
way are comparatively expensive.
According to this invention we form the flanges and end bosses of the said wheel
hubs from sheet steel or other suitable sheet metal blanks raised to the proper
shape as hereinafter described and fixed to a central tubular part of the hub thus
reducing the cost of manufacture of the said hubs and enabling them to be made
lighter than at present.
In carrying out this invention we raise by dies worked in a stamp or press or by
spinning or other means a circular sheet metal blank into the form of the boss at
one end of the wheel hub and the adjacent flange and we pierce out the central part
leaving the boss with a small turned in edge for the periphery of the ball bearing
cup to bear against. The flange has a projecting rim formed with it for the purpose
hereinafter described. The hardened steel cup for the balls of the ball bearing is
placed in the hollow boss from the inside and is there secured by what we call the
seating ring which is also raised from sheet metal and is made of the proper size
to fit within the boss against the bottom of the ball bearing cup so that the latter
seats itself upon the seating ring. The periphery of the said ring is turned up
slightly so as to strengthen the same and fit inside the said boss and the said cup
and seating ring are secured in position in the boss by the metal at the base of the
latter being necked inwardly behind the seating ring. A dished disc made with a
central hole of the size to fit on to the tubular part of the hub is secured to the
said flange by fitting within the rim of the same and the said rim being closed
down all round on to the periphery of the disc thus making the flange of an enclosed
hollow form. The two flanges of the hub complete with their ball bearing cups
are secured on to a central piece of cold drawn steel or other tube which forms
the tubular part of the said hub. This can be done by any convenient means as
by screwing the said combined flange and bosses on to the said tube or by the
combined bosses and flanges being brazed or soldered on to the tube and for extra
security the ends of the tubular part may be flanged so as the better to ensure
the flanges of the hub running perfectly true. The metal round the central hole

page_text: of the disc may be bulged outwardly or inwardly so as to give longer bearings on
the tube and in the same way the metal round the central hole of the bearing
ring may be bulged outwardly or inwardly to fit upon the tube or within the ends
of the same.
In fixing the parts together we may find it convenient to thread the two disc
parts on to the central tube and then to fix. the two seating rings on to the ends
of the tube to run perfectly true therewith and then to secure the seating rings in
the bosses and against the ball bearing cups by necking the bosses down as stated
above and lastly to close the edges of the flanges around the edges of the discs.
Instead of the said discs being fixed to their respective flanged parts of the hub
by the edges of the latter being closed round the periphery of the edges of the
former this arrangement may be reversed, that is to say, the edges of the disc may
be closed round the periphery of the flanges.
When the boss of the hub is required to be screw threaded to receive the sprocket
wheel of the driving chain and the lock nut we make the said boss with an enlarged
part or parts which is or are screw threaded to receive the said sprocket, wheel and
lock nut.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Metallic Hubs for the Wheels of
Bicycles and other Velocipedes, Motor Carriages and other Road
Vehicles.
We, GEORGE HENRY MIDDLETON and GEORGE MACBETH, trading together as
Middleton and Macbeth, of 53, Oliver Street, in the City of Birmingham,.Metal
Spinners, 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 in making metal hubs in the manner herein described
for the wheels of bicycles and other velocipedes motor carriages and road vehicles
generally.
In carrying out this invention we form the flanges and end bosses of the said
wheel hubs from blanks of sheet steel or other suitable sheet metal raised to the
proper shape as hereinafter described and fix them to the central tubular part of
the hub all in the manner herein described thereby reducing the cost of manufac-
ture of the said hubs.
We will describe our invention by referring to the accompanying drawings on
which Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of a hub constructed according
to this invention for the back wheel of a bicycle; Fig. 2 is an end view of the
same; Fig. 3 is an end view of one of the parts of the said hub; Fig. 4 shews in
section the parts of the said hub separately; Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation. illus-
trating a slightly modified form of our invention; and Figs. 6, 7, 8 and 9 illustrate
a further modification.
The same letters of reference indicate the same or corresponding parts in all the
figures of the drawings.
We will first describe the arrangement of our invention as shewn by Figs. 1 to 4.
In carrying out this invention we raise (by dies worked in a stamp or press or by
spinning or other means) a circular sheet metal blank into the form of the boss A¹

page_text: at one end of the wheel hub and the adjacent flange a¹ and we pierce out the
central part leaving the boss A' with a small turned in edge a² for the periphery of
the ball bearing cup B₁ to bear against, or pierced clean out so as not to leave the
turned in edge a². The flange at has a projecting rim a³ as shewn in Fig. 4 for the
purposes hereinafter described. The. boss A3 at the other end of the hub is made
similarly to the boss A¹ above described.
The hardened steel cups B1 B2 for the balls of the ball bearings are respectively
placed in the hollow bosses A'A³ from the inside, that is to say, the ball bearing
_cup B is placed in the boss A' before the boss is necked in at as shewn in Fig. 1.
The ball bearing cup B fits tightly-in the-hollow-boss A and is there secured by
what we call the seating ring E which is also raised from sheet metal either in a
piece (see Figs. 1, 4 and 5) with the dished disc C hereinafter described, or (see
Figs. 6 and 9) the seating ring E is made separate from the dished disc C. This
seating ring E is located within the boss A¹ and fits against the bottom of the ball
bearing cup B so that the latter seats itself upon the seating ring E as shewn in
Figs. 1, 5 and 6. The periphery e¹ (Figures 4 and 9) of the seating ring E fits
inside the boss A', and the cup B is secured in position in the boss A¹ by the metal
at the base of the ball bearing cup B being necked inwardly at a (see Figs. 1
and 5). The dished disc C¹ above referred to is made with a central hole of the
proper size to fit on to the tubular part 1 of the hub and is secured to the flange a¹
by fitting within the rim of the same the rim a being then closed down all
round on the periphery of the disc C₁ thus making the combined flange a¹C of an
enclosed hollow form as shewn in Figs. 1, and 6. The two enclosed hollow flanges
of the hub complete with their ball bearing cups can be secured on to the central
tubular part D of the hub by any convenient means as by the central hole 3 of the
hollow flange being screw threaded to screw on to the end of the tube.D, or by the
ends of the tube D being made with projections & see Figure 4 which pass through
corresponding holes et in the discs CC³ and are closed over on the outside of the
same as represented in Figs. 1 and 2 before the end bosses A1 A2 are secured to the
discs.
In fixing the parts together we find it convenient to first fix the two disc
parts CC with their seating rings E on the ends of the central tube D so as to
run perfectly true therewith and then secure the hollow end bosses A'A³ by
closing the edges of the flanges round the edges of the discs CC the seating
rings EE taking against the ball bearing cups B' 133 as above described.
When the bosses A¹ A2 are made with the small internal flanges a³ as above
described the ball bearing cups B1 B2 have to be respectively inserted in the hollow
bosses before the latter are necked down at a5 and fixed on to the discs C' C³; but
if desired the open ends of the bosses A1 A2 can be left a little longer as shewn by
the dotted lines on the left hand side of Fig. 4 so that the ball bearing cups B¹ B²
can then be placed in position in the bosses A' A3 after the latter have been fixed
on to the flanges bb and then the ball bearing cups B B can be secured by turning
in the edges of the bosses A¹ A² to form the rim a² over the edges of the ball
bearing cups shewn in Fig. 1, or secured by a separate washer soldered or otherwise
fixed in the end of the boss A1 and A2.
Instead of the flange parts a¹ of the ends of the bosses A¹ A3 being fixed
respectively to the discs C1 C2 by the edges a³ of the former being closed round
the periphery of the discs C¹ C³, this arrangement may be reversed, that is to say,
the edges of the discs C¹³ may, as is the edge of the disc C₁ shewn in Fig. 5, be
closed round the periphery of the flanges ala which in this case will be made
without the rim a³.
When the boss of the hub is required to be screw threaded on the outside to
receive the sprocket wheel of the driving chain and the lock nut we make the boss A³
with an enlarged part or parts such as a as in Fig. I to receive the sprocket wheel
and lock nut but when the hub is not required to carry a sprocket wheel then the
Doss A³ would be made like the boss A¹ without the enlargement a*.
Figs. 6, 7 and 8 illustrate an alternate method of fixing the discs C¹ C² to the

page_text: ends of the tubular part D. In this case the ends of the tube D are each formed
with a raised rib d² running round the tube at some little distance within the end
of the same for the disc C or C³ to bear against and in order to prevent the disc from
turning on the tube the latter is made with one or more projecting longitudinal
ribs which engage in corresponding notches in the hole in the disc which fits
thereon as shewn in Fig. 6. The end of the tube D is then rolled over the boss or
eye of the disc thus securing the same to the tube the ribs ensuring the discs
running true with the tube 1). In this arrangement the seating ring E, shewn
separately by Fig. 9, is made separate from the disc C₁ or C and is used in each
of the hollow bosses A¹ A³ for the ball bearing cup B to bear against as shewn
in Fig. 6.
We are aware that prior to our invention the end bosses of the hubs for the wheels
of bicycles and other velocipedes motor carriages and other road vehicles have been
raised from sheet metal and therefore we make no separate claim to raising the said
hollow bosses from sheet metal apart from our particular construction of wheel hub
as herein described. It will be understood that the usual holes (not shewn on our
drawings) are formed in the flanges a¹ a¹ and discs CC for the spokes.
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:-
1. In a metallic hub for the wheels of bicycles and other velocipedes motor
carriages and other road vehicles the combination of the central tubular part 1)
the two discs CC the two seating rings EE and the hollow end bosses A¹A² these
parts being constructed arranged and fixed together (with or without the ball
bearing cups B₁ B) in the manner substantially as hereinbefore described and
illustrated by Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the accompanying drawings.
2. In a metallic hub for the wheels of bicycles and other velocipedes motor
carriages and other road vehicles, the combination of the central tubular part 1)
the two discs C1 C2 the two seating rings EE and the hollow end bosses A¹ A² these
parts being constructed arranged and fixed together in the manner substantially
as hereinbefore described and illustrated by Figs. 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the accompanying
drawings.
Dated this 29th day of September 1897.
CHARLES BOSWORTH KETLEY,
Agent for the Applicants.