IMPROVEMENTS IN BICYCLES AND OTHER VELOCIPEDES
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Norman Law and Thomas
John Law at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th November
1877.
JOSEPH NORMAN LAW, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer,
and THOMAS JOHN LAW, of Wolverhampton, in the County of Stafford, Gun Lock
Filer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN BICYCLES AND OTHER VELOCIPEDES."
Our Invention consists in constructing or arranging or combining the parts of
bicycles and other velocipedes in the manner herein-after described, whereby great
safety and ease in use and efficiency in action are secured.
We will describe our Invention as applied to a bicycle, to which it is particularly
applicable, but our said Invention may also be applied to velocipedes having more
than two wheels.
.
Instead of placing the seat of the rider over the large driving or front wheel of
the bicycle as usual, we place the said seat over the small hind wheel of the bicycle,
the said seat being situated on a level with or nearly on a level with the axle of
the front or driving wheel.. In front of the said seat over the hind wheel, and
immediately behind the driving wheel, is the guiding handle by which the instru-
ment is guided. The axis of the said guiding handle is vertical, and its bottom end
is jointed to the lower part of the bicycle frame, and the upper end of the said
axis of the guiding handle is connected by two connecting rods, one on each side of
the front or driving wheel to the axle of the said driving wheel.
The frame of the bicycle, within which the driving wheel works, and in which
its axle turns, is somewhat of the figure of an inverted V, the summit of the said
frame carrying the bearings in which the axle turns. The openings in these bearings
are not cylindrical, but have the figure of short horizontal slots.
The ends of the axle protrude from these slots, and to the protruding ends of the
axle the two connecting rods of the guiding handle herein-before described are
fastened. By means of these horizontal slots in the bearings, the axle of the
driving wheel can be swivelled in a horizontal plane for guiding the bicycle. The
frame of the small hind wheel of the bicycle is forked, one half being situated
vertically and the other half horizontally.

page_text: The end of the horizontal half of the hind wheel frame is rigidly connected
with the V shaped frame of the driving or front wheel, and the top of the vertical
half of the hind wheel frame and a cross bar (through which bar the axis of the
guiding handle works) support the seat over the said hind wheel.
The bicycle is worked by a pair of treadles jointed to the front of the V shaped
frame of the front or driving wheel, the rear or treading ends of the said treadles
being situated between the front and hind wheels and within reach of the feet of
the rider, occupying the seat over the said hind wheel.
At about the middle of each of the said treadles a connecting rod is jointed, the
upper ends of the said rods being jointed respectively to the ends of the cranks on
the axle of the driving wheel. By working the said treadles the bicycle is driven
with great ease, and the maximum of speed is obtained by the expenditure of a
minimum amount of labour.
As the centre of gravity of the instrument is low, the balancing of the said
instrument, when in use, is rendered very easy, and by the position of the seat of
the rider, he can readily mount to and dismount from his seat.
The arrangement described of the rider's seat over the small hind wheel of the
bicycle, the guiding handle and its connections, and the treadles worked by the
rider's feet, may be adapted to ordinary bicycles by modifying the framing of the
said ordinary bicycles.