A REVERSIBLE ATTACHMENT TO A SHAFT OR ARBOR FOR CONVERTING RECIPROCATING RECTILINEAR INTO ROTARY MOTION
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Ormrod Coffeen Evans at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
May 1862.
I, ORMROD COFFEEN EVANS, of 20, Church Street, Old Kent Road, in
County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"A REVERSIBLE ATTACHMENT TO A SHAFT OR ARBOR FOR CONVERTING RECIPROCATING
RECTILINEAR INTO ROTARY MOTION," to be as follows:-
The attachment consists in affixing upon a shaft or arbor a smooth and
level faced wheel, and on each side of this wheel so adjusting a bridle as that
it clasps the shaft or arbor and also the journals of a roller which runs upon
the face of the wheel. The bearings in the bridles for the shaft, instead of
being round, are,oblong, so as to leave an open space on each side of the shaft
of half an inch, more or less, and have a curvature which in radius is equal to
about one half the radius of the wheel. The bridles extend above the face
of the wheel about twice its radius and are firmly fastened together above the
roller so as to keep the roller in a fixed position across the face and at right
angle with the sides of the wheel, and also to form the arm to which the
power is applied. Now if this bridle arm is moved in one direction by a
sudden force an axis of motion is established by impingement at the point
where the roller happens to be in contact with the face of the wheel at the
time the force is applied. From this axis the lower end of the bridles move
across the sides of the wheel until the bearings impinge the shaft; these

page_text: hearings being eccentric to the axis of motion above described. By thus
impinging the face of the wheel and the shaft the bridles become so affixed to
the wheel and shaft as that they all move forward as one as far as the bridle
arm is carried in that direction, and at the instant the stroke is spent the
bridles are released and carried back to their former position by return stroke,
and the shaft and wheel continue to move forward by the momentum thus
imparted, according to the velocity of the force applied; but after the force
of the stroke is spent the bridles cannot be carried back to their former
position or the wheel continue its motion unless impingement of the bearings
in the bridles upon the shaft is prevented at the return stroke. And for this
purpose sliding stops (not unlike sliding bolts) are fastened to the bridles in a
manner so that when pushed down, the bridles being in line with the shaft,
they touch the shaft on either side. Now if the one on the side towards which
the shaft is to revolve is pushed or lifted up, that side of the eccentric bearing
is left free to impinge the shaft; and to reverse the motion, if the stop now
up is pushed or drawn down and the other pushed or drawn up, impingement
will take place in the opposite side of the bearing, and hence the shaft and
wheel made to revolve by the same reciprocating force in the opposite direc-
tion. An important difference in the wear of some of the parts may be made
by inserting rollers so arranged and supported in the bridles as that their
surfaces will not only run upon the surface of the shaft while in motion, but
will impinge its surface in like manner to the eccentric slot or bearing above
described at each change of the bridles from a central position to the centre of
the shaft. From this it may be seen that when the power applied is accom-
modating instead of arbitrary, as by the use of the hand or foot, or any
mechanical force equally accommodating in its arrangement of application, a
velocity may be attained by imparting velocity to velocity and momentum to
momentum, as when applied to velocipedes, foot lathes, and even carts and
carriages used for heavy burthens, or in any other place alike susceptible of
use, which is not and in most such cannot be imparted by the use of the
crank.