IMPROVEMENTS IN TRICYCLES AND OTHER VELOCIPEDES
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Walter John Lloyd at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st July 1882.
WALTER JOHN LLOYD of the firm of Lloyd Brothers of Harborne in the
County of Stafford Manufacturers "IMPROVEMENTS IN TRICYCLES AND OTHER
VELOCIPEDES."
My invention has reference principally to tricycles and consists of the
construction and arrangement herein after described of the parts connected with
the hind or steering wheel and the steering apparatus of the tricycle, whereby
great steadiness and stability in the vehicle are obtained and the vehicle can be
driven at a high speed with safety.
Instead of supporting the hind or steering wheel of the tricycle by means of a
vertical fork as usual the head of which swivels in a bearing at the end of the
framing, I support the hind or steering wheel and construct the parts connected
with it in the following manner. Instead of using a small hind or steering wheel,
I use a hind wheel preferably of the same diameter as the driving or travelling
wheels on the cranked shaft. The said large hind wheel is furnished with a
horizontal axle projecting some distance on either side the wheel.
The said axle is supported at its extreme ends in curved bearing plates fixed
to the rear ends of the framing of the tricycle, which framing is thus made
considerably broader at its rear end than usual.
The concave faces of the said fixed bearing plates are turned to each other, the
curve of the said plates being struck from the middle of the axle of the large hind
wheel. The said concave bearing plates are slotted and in the slots, sliding brasses
or bearing blocks work, V shaped ribs on the upper and lower sides of the slotted
plates taking into V depression in the bearing blocks. In these sliding bearing
blocks the ends of the axle of the hind wheel are supported and turn, spheres or
balls or cylindrical rods being interposed between the axle and the interior of the
bearing blocks to reduce friction.
The said balls or rods are kept in their places in the bearing blocks by means of
a cap or cover screwed to the front of the said block.
By moving the sliding bearing blocks simultaneously in opposite directions in
their slots in the fixed bearing plates, the desired inclination can be given to the
large hind or steering wheel for guiding or steering the tricycle.
The steering mechanism is constructed as follows.
To each of the caps or covers of the bearing in which the ends of the axle of the
hind wheel work, a connecting rod is jointed.

page_text: The inner ends of these connecting rods are jointed to the ends of a horizontal
lever, turning on a centre situated under the seat for the driver.
To this lever the rod of the steering handle is jointed near one end of the said
lever. Or a steering handle at each side of the tricycle may be connected to the
lever described.
By operating upon the steering handle the lever is turned in one or other
direction upon its centre.
This motion is transmitted through the connecting rods to the bearing blocks of
the axle of the hind wheel and a like motion is given to the said wheel so as to
effect the steering of the tricycle, the bearing blocks on the motion of the said
lever sliding in opposite directions in the slotted bearing plates as before described.
The construction and arrangement of parts described, may be applied to
velocipedes, having more than three wheels.