IMPROVEMENTS IN TRICYCLES AND BICYCLES
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Daniel Pidgeon at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 20th September 1882.
DANIEL PIDGEON, Gentleman, of Holmwood, Putney Hill, in the County of Surrey
IMPROVEMENTS IN TRICYCLES AND BICYCLES
My invention relates, firstly, to, the construction of Tricycles and, secondly, to a
mode of making the travelling wheels of Tricycles and Bicycles.
The first part of my invention consists in constructing a Tricycle as follows. I
employ two large travelling wheels, both of which act as drivers for the propulsion
of the machine, and one smaller steering wheel, placed, by preference, in advance of
the rider. The driving wheels are operated by means of treadles, whose alternate
reciprocating movements are communicated, either by straps, cords, chains or racks
to two pullies turning loosely on the main axis of the machine. This is divided
into two pieces, each of which carries one of the loose pullies already referred to and
has one of the driving wheels fixed on its outer extremity. Each loose pulley
carries a frictional pall, or palls, which, engaging and disengaging with suitable
surfaces at every oscillation of the treadles, converts their downward strokes into
rotary motion and imparts it to a system of gearing connected with the divided
axle of the machine in such a manner that, whether revolving at similar or different
speeds, both driving wheels always receive equal impulses from the riders feet. By
this arrangement, not new in regard to the differential gearing, or, so far as the use
of this alone is concerned, in its application to Tricycles, both driving wheels are
made effective for propulsion whether the machine is travelling in a straight or
curved path. When I desire to make the movements of the treadles inter-
dependent, so that the depression of one causes the other to rise and vice versa, I
connect the peripheries of the loose pullies, or pall-carriers, by a band, or its
equivalent, which, passing over an idle sheave, imparts the rotation of one pall-
carrier to the other, but in an opposite direction. Or, if I desire to make the
treadles independent of each other's movements, I omit this connection and employ
springs to raise the treadles after they have been depressed by the foot. The last
arrangement is not new in its self but only in connection with machines in which
such a differential gearing as that already described is made use of for the purpose
of causing both travelling wheels to act as drivers whether the machine is moving
Prins I

page_text: in a straight or curved path. The palls which turn the differential gearing around
may be either single or double-acting. In the former case the rider cannot pedal
the machine backwards, while in the latter case he can pedal it either forwards or
backwards. With a view to the easy climbing of hills, the chains, or their
equivalents, which give motion to the pall-carriers are attached to the treadles in
such a manner that the rider can alter the leverage with which the latter act on
the former at will, the same amount of effort being thus employed to propel the
machine slowly up an incline, or quickly along a level road.
The framework of my Tricycle is simpler than any heretofore in use, and consists
of a main casting, with tubes socketed thereto. One of these tubes supports the
fore carriage, while, at the same time, it forms a bearing for the steering rod which
passes through it, thus hiding from sight a part which is visible in all other Tricycles
and giving, generally, an increased appearance of lightness and simplicity to
the machine..
The second part of my invention consists in a new method of making the
travelling wheels of Tricycles and Bicycles. According to this plan I make the
tire of the wheel, as usual, of channel-iron. The hub is made in two pieces, from
which the spokes radiate alternately. These pieces are united by an axle-box,
screwed with a right and left-hand thread, by turning which the half-hubs can be
made either to approach or recede from one another, or any equivalent device may
be used for separating the two parts of the hub one from the other. The wheel
spokes are headed, and are all of exactly the same length between the heads; this
dimension being such in relation to the wheel that, when the half-hubs are near
together, the spoke heads drop easily into suitable recesses provided for them in the
tire and hubs. The spokes of one half-hub then lie parallel, or nearly so, with
those of the other half-hub, but they become inclined to each other as these are
separated by turning the screwed axle-box, an operation which is continued until
the radius of the wheel has shortened sufficiently to pull the channel-iron tire into
a tiue circle and put the spokes themselves into the proper state of tension. By
this method of construction wheels can be put together very rapidly in the first
instance, while damaged spokes can easily be replaced by un-skilled person.