IMPROVEMENTS IN VELOCIPEDES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Sidney Johnson at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 4th November 1878.
SIDNEY JOHNSON, of 93, Hatton Garden, in the County of Middlesex, Surveyor
and Instrument Maker. "IMPROVEMENTS IN VELOCIPEDES."
In velocipedes with three running wheels, I have my driving wheels in front and
the guiding wheel behind.
Underneath
The rider mounts by means of a step placed between the treadles.
the step is a fork supporting a small wheel, the lowest point of the circumference
of which, when the velocipede is in motion, is about half an inch from the ground.
The step and wheel are kept in position by iron supports coming forwards and
downwards from the frame of the machine. When the rider mounts, his weight on
the step tends to tilt the machine forwards, but the wheel underneath the step
immediately coming into contact with the ground prevents this tilting.
I construct my break as follows:-
Fixed to the crank, between the near driving wheel and the frame of the
machine is a small grooved wheel, the axis of the crank passing through the centre
of the wheel. The groove is shaped. A lever of the shape of the letter U is
fixed to the side of the machine, so that it can turn in a vertical plane about one
end, and the other end can be raised or depressed at will by means of a screw or
lever handle. The lever is so placed that when it is raised it presses into the
groove. From the shape of the lever a considerable portion of its length will fall
into the groove, and a great retarding force is thus produced.
The off driving wheel is made to run loose on the crank, or turn with it as
required by the following contrivance.
The part of the crank between the frame of the machine and the off driving
wheel is made square in cross section.
A clutch is capable of sliding along this square portion of the crank. By means of
a lever the clutch can be made to slide. On the side of the clutch are horizontal
projections which fit into or leave corresponding holes in the boss of the driving
wheel, according as the clutch is pushed into contact with the boss of the driving
Price 2dr

page_text: wheel, or the side of the machine.
The driving wheel runs.loose-on-the-crank, and
gear.
is fixed when needed by the clutch
The lever is worked in the following manner by means of two cords attached to
its end.
To the side of the frame of the velocipede are fixed two vertical tubes at a
distance of about a foot from each other. A horizontal tube is placed with its
ends resting on the top of-the-vertical tubes, so that these three tubes communicate
with each other. On the horizontal tube slides a ring. The cords from the lever
run through these tubes, one cord entering one vertical tube, and the other cord the
remaining vertical tube, and the end of each cord is attached to the ring.
Pullies are placed at points at which the cords suddenly change their direction.
Thus at the wish of the rider by sliding the ring along the horizontal tube the
lever is moved. The above combination of tubes is on the off side of the machine.
On the near side of the machine there is a combination of tubes similar to that
herein before described as applied to the clutch gear. These tubes are used as
follows: The guiding wheel is supported by a fork, the end of which turns in a
taper socket.
From the end of the fork project two horizontal arms at an angle with each
other.
Each of these arms has a cord attached to its extremity.
These cords are led by means of pullies, one through one vertical tube, the other
through the other vertical tube, and the end of each cord is attached to the ring
sliding on the horizontal tube.
If we start from the extremity of either arın, and travel along the cord attached
to it, the direction of the cord is as nearly as possible at right angles to the arm
till the first pulley is arrived at, supposing the guiding wheel placed so that the
velocipede goes straight.
Thus at the wish of the rider, by slipping the ring backwards and forwards along
the horizontal tube, the guiding wheel is turned as required.
I may dispense with the tubes in connection with the steering apparatus and
simply have two cords leading from a cross piece on the top of the fork, exactly as
in a boat.