AN IMPROVED SPRING ARRANGEMENT FOR SUPPORTING OR CARRYING THE SEATS OR SADDLES OF VELOCIPEDES
Year: 1884

page_text: I EDWARD RICHARD SETTLE of Fleet Street Coventry in the County of
Warwick, Velocipede Manufacturer do hereby declare the nature of my invention
for AN IMPROVED SPRING ARRANGEMENT FOR SUPPORTING OR CARRYING THE
SEATS OR SADDLES OF VELOCIPEDES to be as follows:-
This invention relates to an improved arrangement of spring for supporting the
saddles or seats of bicycles tricycles or other velocipedes.
Hitherto such saddles or seats have been supported on springs capable of both
lateral and vertical movements this causes the rider not to sit in such a stable
position as to enable him to fully exert his strength.
Now by my invention I arrange a spring so that it shall only have vertical play
affording a firm yet easy soat for the rider and being further enclosed or protected
from the weather or external influences.
To a plate or base I attach firmly, a piece of tubing. I arrange another piece of
tubing to slide within this and secured to another plate to which the clip of the
saddle or seat is bolted.
The two tubes are concentrically grooved or seamed at one or more points to
prevent the revolution of one on the other but freely allowing vertical movement.
Within the tubes I arrange a spring such as a plain or corrugated pillar of rubber
or other elastic material, or a steel or other spiral metal spring.
In the case of a spiral spring a short piece of tube on the lower plate or base
can partly support and assist in keeping it in a central position.
In the case of the rubber spring it may be partly supported by a rod of square or
other section.
To adjust the springs and assist in guiding the tubes in their vertical motion I
bolt a rod or rods to the top plate and pass their lower ends through a hole or holes
in the base plate the rods being furnished with regulating and stop nuts.
The base plate can carry a split lug to fix on a backbone or can be fixed to a
pillar or can be brazed to the frame of the velocipede or in other suitable manner, or
instead of this I may fix a central rod to the upper plate to pass through the tubes
working through the base plate and furnished with regulating and stop nuts.
The springs may be readily exchanged to suit the weights of riders.
Dated this third day of Annil 100%.
POPPLEWELL, COLTON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: 5.
same so as not to allow any lateral motion in the upper tube C, this pin screws into
the tube C when the spring F. has been placed in the lower tube B and the upper
tube C fitted in it, the spring F being compressed between their abutments, or in
place of this slot and pin I might attach a headed pin from the upper tube to pass
through a hole in the bracket A and so answer the purpose or by pins L L pinning
each end of the spring to one of the tubes as hereinafter described with reference
to figs 7 and 8 but I prefer for a single spring to use the former arrangement as
the parts are so compact and self-contained.
I can place a thin piece of metal over the slot I attached to the pin J and so
further protect the rubber from external influences, it unlike the other springs
referred to being enclosed and so protected from injury. of the usual character.
The rubber springs also are cheap, elastic and not liable to get readily spoilt
through being so enclosed.
It will be apparent that the seams or grooves in the tubes might be dispensed
with and another slot or pin substituted if desired.
Referring to sheet 2 I shew in Fig. 6 a double spring in elevation and in Fig 7
the same in section.
In these figures A is the plate or boss B the lower tube C the upper or telescoping
tube secured to or carried by the upper plate D. F is the rubber pillar which I pin
to the tubes B. C. as shewn by bolts L. L. passing through the same and through
the pillar.
By such means the use of the slot I and pin J in the former plan is avoided and
the construction simplified while the double spring prevents lateral twist of the.
seat or saddle.
In figure 7 designed as an improvement on the said John Cox's spring one of the
springs is shewn as a spiral one, pinned at L. L. to the tubes instead of being free
or confined as in the before recited patents.
By putting a cup leather M round the upper tube C the space between the tubes
can be filled with oil or lubricant, the spring working in oil and so being prevented
from becoming rusty and so less liable to break.
When metal springs are used for the single seamed-tubed spring they are of
course like the rubber spring F grooved to fit the tubes and this can be effected by `
pressing or denting one side of the spring before hardening the same.
Of course in practice both springs would be of the same kind. In the drawings
rubber and metal being shown. together for the sake of example.
The double spring admits of its use on bicycles or "bicycle-type" tricycles.
In Fig & side elevation and Fig 9 section on a-b this is shewn.
The lower tubes B are secured by clips N round the backbone thus bringing the
saddle close to the same instead of supporting a single spring above the backbone
and so unduly raising the height of the saddle-O is a spring connected to the
upper tubes and pivoted at P to the neck.
I do not claim the mere use of rubber in a spring arrangement for supporting the
saddle or seat of a velocipede neither do I claim broadly the arranging of a spring
as to have only a vertical as opposed to a vertical and lateral motion (as shewn by
the said Davis) or a "cradle or universal movement so generally used, neither do
I claim the slot 1 and set screw J to limit the play of the saddle or seat but having
now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention and in
what manner the same is to be perforined, I declare that what I claim is―
1. In spring arrangements of the kind and for the purposes referred to, enclosing
the springs within telescopic tubes connected respectively to the machine and to
its saddle or seat substantially as and for the purposes described.
2. In the before described spring arrangement for supporting or carrying the
saddles or seats of velocipedes the method of preventing the twisting of the

page_text: tubes B. C. one on the other by grooving or seaming the same substantially as
described.
3. The spring F of rubber metal or other suitable elastic substance formed with
a groove or dent to fit the seamed tubes B. C. substantially as described. ;
☐ Dated this 3rd day of January 1885.