IMPROVEMENTS IN FLEXIBLE WHEELS AND PULLEYS
Year: 1885

page_text: I, WALTER GEORGE GREGORY, of the Royal Indian Engineering College Cooper's
Hill, Egham, in the County of Surrey, Demonstrator in Physics, do hereby declare
the nature of my invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN FLEXIBLE WHEELS AND PULLEYS
to be as follows:-
The object of the invention is to provide a wheel, the rim of which is capable of
elastic deformation in its own plane.
This is secured by the following construction:-The spokes, proceeding from the
hub of the wheel do not extend to the rim, but each of them divides into two or
more branches which are secured to the rim either directly or by means of a net
work of other peices.
This invention may be usefully applied to the wheels of vehicles, or any other
wheels, and for pulleys.
100K

page_text: Improvements in Flexible Wheels and Pulleys.
I, WALTER GEORGE GREGORY of the Royal Indian Engineering College, Coopers
Hill, in the parish of Egham in the County of Surrey, Demonstrator in Physics do
hereby declare the nature of my invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN FLEXIBLE WHEELS
AND PULLEYS and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The construction is such that a flexible rim or tyre is provided with a suitable
arrangement of spokes so that it is capable of elastic deformation in its own plane.
The arrangement of spokes may be thus described: The hub A (figs. 1 and 2)
may be of any convenient shape and material. To it are connected the spokes a b,
the ends b of which are capable of motion in the plane of the wheel, either by. a
hinge-joint at a or by the flexibility of the spoke. From the ends proceed two
branches bc, b Co which are capable of angular movement in the plane of the wheel
relatively to one another and to the spoke b a, either by means of a hinge joint
at bor by their own flexibility.
According to one method of construction the ends c₁ c₂ are connected directly to
the rim or tyre. This is shewn in fig. 1.
According to a second method (see fig. 2) the branches such as b₁ c₁, b₂ C₂, are
joined together and by means of an additional link c₂ d₂ connected to the rim or
tyre.
.
The connections of the branches bc to the links c d are such as to allow an
angular motion in the plane of the wheel relatively to one another either by hinge
joints at c and d or by the flexibility of the branches and link.
In both these methods of construction the deformation of the rim or tyre is
accompanied by alteration of the relative angular positions of the spokes a b, the
branches bc, and of the links c d if used as in the second method.
The spokes branches and links may be proportioned to one another so that their
length need not alter with the deformation of the rim or tyre.
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
The method of constructing a flexible wheel or pulley in which the rim or tyre
is capable of elastic deformation in its own plane by alteration of the relative
angular positions of various spokes branches and links substantially as described.
Dated this twenty-seventh day of October 1885