IMPROVEMENTS IN VELOCIPEDES AND OTHER VEHICLES OR CARRIAGES MOUNTED ON RUNNING WHEELS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT
to William Francis Reynolds, of 16, Albert Square,
Commercial Road E., in the Parish of Ratcliff, in the County of
Middlesex, and Jonathan Aldous Mays, of 2, West St., Finsbury
Circus, in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
left by the said William Francis
Reynolds and Jonathan Aldous Mays at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 21st
21st
1869.
April
We, WILLIAM FRANCIS REYNOLDS, of 16, Albert Square, Commercial
Road E., in the Parish of Ratcliff, in the County of Middlesex, and
JONATHAN ALDOUS MAYS, of
ALDOUS MAYS, of 2, West St., Finsbury Circus, in the
City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN VELOCIPEDES AND OTHER VEHICLES OR CARRIAGES MOUNTED ON
RUNNING WHEELS," to be as follows:-

page_text: As regards the improvements in velocipedes this Invention consists
in so constructing such said vehicles as to reduce the weight and
increase the strength thereof, and to apply the driving and steering
power thereto in a more convenient manner than heretofore, and further
to enable the velocipede to be stowed away more conveniently when
⚫ not in use.
We propose to accomplish these objects by the following means, that
is to say In constructing the frame or body of a velocipede or such
like carriage we make it to hinge or bend horizontally by means of a
joint or joints placed about midway between the front and back axles,
so that the said hinge or joint being bent the said axles necessarily
assume a position corresponding or nearly corresponding to the radius
of the curve which the carriage will describe on being set in motion. The
form of the carriage may be varied to any extent provided that it is horizon-
tally jointed in or near its centre. The rider is thus enabled both
to propel and steer the apparatus much more conveniently than when
the horizontal joint upon which the front wheel is usually made to
move is placed above, or nearly above, its axle, as in the case of
the French or American bicycle, wherein the steering fork is vertical,
or nearly so, to the front wheel, and wherein also part of the wheel passes
under the legs of the rider when the apparatus moves in a curved
course. The steering of the apparatus is to be effected by a steering handle
working in a socket formed in the front half of the carriage or
frame, and connected by suitable connecting rods with the back half of the
frame, so that the turning of the handle to the right or to the
left causes the two halves of the carriage to fold or turn either from
or towards each other.
To enable the apparatus to be more conveniently stowed away the steering
handle is to be made to fasten with a screw easily removable without the
aid of a tool, so as to allow of the shifting and unshipping of the handle.
The cranks attached to the
nave or to the axle of the front
wheel are to be hinged so that they may be folded back and
placed between the spokes or rods of the wheel. Thus by shifting the steering
handle to the line of the front and back wheels and folding the cranks the
apparatus may be stowed away in a space equal to little more than the extreme
width of the wheels.
Another improvement in velocipedes consists in making the wheels thereof
lighter and stronger than heretofore, and with a spring felloe, as presently

page_text: described. And as regards that part of this Invention which relates to
vehicles or carriages other than those known and distinguished as velocipedes.
these improvements have reference to the wheels thereof, and consist in con-
structing the same in the following manner:-In making a wheel we
propose to connect the felloe with the nave or stock by means
of wires or rods, or light bars of metal or other suitable material. These
rods, wires, or bars are to take the place of the ordinary spokes, and instead of
letting the nave of the wheel take its support from that part of the felloe
beneath it as in the case of an ordinary spoked wheel we make it to depend
or hang from the upper part of the felloe by means of a number
of rods, wires, or bars of the kind just mentioned, which are to be made
to radiate from the nave to the felloe in the following manner:-Each rod
or wire having been first made fast at one end to either the
front or the back end of the nave or near thereto is
is to be
fastened to or rove or threaded over or through the felloe, or to or through
eyes or other suitable fastenings affixed thereto, and thence brought down to
the opposite end of the nave and tightly set up or strained in its place by
nuts or screws or other suitable means. The nave may be made in parts,
the two ends being separate, and (the rods or wires being already
fastened to each end respectively) the said ends of the nave may be drawn
apart and a tube or other suitable strut inserted between the two.
This will cause the wheel to be tightly set up or strained from the felloe
towards the nave, and what is called a double dished wheel will
be formed. The strength and elasticity of a wheel made in either
manner will depend entirely upon the tensile principle upon which
it is constructed.
SPECIFICATION
in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Francis Reynolds and Jonathan Aldous Mays
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st October 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
FRANCIS REYNOLDS, of 16, Albert Square, in the Parish of Ratcliffe, in the
County of Middlesex, and JONATHAN ALDOUS MAYS, of 2, West Street, Finsbury
Circus, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord

page_text: One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said William Francis Reynolds and Jonathan Aldous Mays, Her special
licence that we, the said William Francis Reynolds and Jonathan
Aldous Mays, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said William Francis Reynolds and Jonathan
Aldous Mays, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Channel Islands, and
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Invention for
an
"IMPROVEMENTS IN VELOCIPEDES AND
Isle of Man,
OTHER CARRIAGES MOUNTED ON RUNNING WHEELS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said William Francis Reynolds and Jonathan Aldous
Mays, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should parti-
cularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William Francis Reynolds and
Jonathan Aldous Mays, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being
had to the Drawings annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
(that is to say);-
We make the framing and support the spring of a velocipede so that as
a whole the velocipede may be bent or curved horizontally when it is to run
out of a straight course. A velocipede with its frame thus jointed is repre-
sented in the accompanying Drawings, wherein like letters and figures refer
to like parts.
Fig. 1 is a side view in elevation, and Fig. 2 a view from above partly in
plan; Fig. 3 shews a steering apparatus.
a, a, represent the framing of the front part, and b, b, the framing of the
hind part of the velocipede; c, c, is a rod serving as a pivot upon which
the parts turn horizontally; d is a yoke which is joined to the hind part
of the frame. The rods e, e, are attached by pivoting joints f, f, to the

page_text: ends of this yoke, and from the rod ends the band g, g, goes round a loose
sheave h and crosses to the drum j fixed on the steering spindle. The
hind wheel revolves between a vertical stay k rising from each side of the
axle to support the hind end of the spring 1, 1, which is free to turn horizon-
tally upon a pivot at 1, and the forward end of the spring is held upon a
similar pivot at m. By the handle n turning the steering spindle to right
or left the axles of both the wheels will be caused to incline at new angles
to the line of the spring and to each other, and the two parts
will occupy the relative positions shewn in dotted lines in Fig. 2.
The steering gear may be dispensed with and the velocipede may be
steered by making the steering handle a fixture to the front part of the frame,
but when this is done it is advisable to place the joint or pivot
of the frame forward of the rear of the front wheel instead of between the
wheels.
In making wheels according to our Invention we form a ring of bent wood
into a continuous felloe, and upon this we shrink a metal tire. Holes are
bored through the felloe and the tire. The outer edges of the holes in
the tire are countersunk, and eyes, staples, or other suitable fastenings are
passed through the felloe and the tire from the inside, and rivetted into the
countersunk holes of the tire. Suspending rods of a V-shape or in pairs are
then passed through the eyes or staples of the felloe, so that
they hang therefrom towards the centre of the wheel with their legs opposite
to each other in the line of the axle, the ends thereof are also bent inwards
at right angles and form hooks for insertion in holes in the stock. The stock
is formed in two parts, as shewn in Figs. 4, 5, and 7, a circular piece of
metal, Fig. 7, having a hole o in its centre to receive the axle is drilled with
a number of smaller holes p, p, p, corresponding in diameter to the ends of
the suspending rods already described in a circle round and at a
convenient distance from the central hole. From each of these
smaller holes a radial groove q is made. Around the central hole of the
stock and within the circle of smaller holes a collar screwed on its outer
diameter is formed, and a shifting collar or nut 7 of a sufficient diameter to
cover over the smaller holes is screwed upon its inner diameter,
so as to match the thread of the collar around the central hole. The
suspending rods being attached or passed through the eyes or staples rivetted
through the felloe, the ends of the same are inserted in the smaller holes
of the stock, and the shifting collar is then screwed down; the
rods are thus pressed into and
within the smaller holes
retained

page_text: be
and the radial grooves of the stock. The same thing being done
to each of the opposite parts of the stock, a wheel
wheel will
will
formed presenting the appearance shewn in part section in Fig. 4,
where s is the rim; t, the tire; u,
the tire; u, the eyes or staples; v, the
suspending rods; Fig. 7 the stock, and
and T,
the shifting collar or
nut thereof. The two parts of
parts of the stock thus formed are now
drawn apart from each other and fixed by a tube or a suitable strut w shewn
in position between them in Fig. 5. All the suspending rods are thus
tightened or set up at the same time and to the same extent, and a double
dished wheel is formed, as shewn in part section in Fig. 5, and in part
elevation in Fig. 6.
Having particularly described our Invention, and the manner in which it is
to be formed, we claim as our Invention,-
1. Making the frame of a velocipede in parts so jointed between the
axles of the front and rear wheels as to admit of a horizontal bending
thereof.
2. The construction of wheels for velocipedes and other carriages
with eyes, staples, or other fastenings in the rims and tires thereof, as
described.
3. The construction of wheels for velocipedes and other carriages with
suspending rods opposite each other, as described.
4. The construction of the stocks of wheels in separate pieces with holes,
collars, and grooves therein, as described.
5. The drawing apart of the separate parts of the stock, and the forming of
double dished wheels as described.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Francis Reynolds and Jonathan
Aldous Mays, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-first
day of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-nine.
WILLIAM FRANCIS REYNOLDS. (L.S.)
JONATHAN ALDOUS MAYS.
(L.S.)
WILLIAM FRANCIS REYNOLDS. (L.S.)
JONATHAN ALDOUS MAYS.
(L.S.)