IMPROVEMENTS IN TRICYCLES
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Walsh at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th June 1880.
JOHN HENRY WALSH, of No. 9, The Cedars, Putney, in the County of Surrey,
Editor of "The Field." "IMPROVEMENTS IN TRICYCLES."
My Invention relates in the first place to a mode of locking and guiding tho
steering wheel, so as to leave the arms at liberty to be used with the legs in
driving the tricycle, and consists in the arrangement and combination of the parts,
in the manner hereinafter stated, whereby the steering wheel can be locked or
steadied, as required, by the pressure of the rider's back, and receive the necessary
guiding from the action of either of his shoulders respectively.
The locking or steadying of the steering wheel, as required, is effected by means
of a stud or projection on a pivoted arin or lever, which stud is caused to fix tho
guide bar by the pressure of the back of the rider against the back-board, thereby
acting on one end of the said arm or lever, and is withdrawn therefrom (so as to
liberate the guide bar) by the reaction of a spring against the opposite end of the
arm or lever on the removal of the pressure from the backboard.
When the guide bar is thus liberated it is free to be acted upon by the pressure
of either of the shoulders of the rider against a cross piece at the upper part of the
back-board, so as to guide the steering wheel either to the right or left hand
through the connection of the guide bar with the fork of the said wheel. By the
arrangement of the parts, as above stated, when the shoulder of the rider is about
to press on the transverse limb of the back-board, his back naturally assumes a
position which takes the pressure off the vertical limb thereof, and liberates the
end of the arm or lever connected therewith, the opposite end of the arm or lever
being then acted upon by the spring so as to withdraw the locking stud from the
guide bar, and leave it free to be acted upon, as required, for the purpose of guiding
the tricycle. And when straight driving is again required, the steering wheel is
locked by the pressure of the back on the vertical limb of the back-board causing
the stud to press against the guide bar.
And my Invention consists in the second place in the adaptation and application
to tricycles of the parts and arrangements hereinafter stated.
One wheel is rigidly fixed in the usual way on the axle which is double cranked,
the other rotating with an ordinary box but with the friction increased con-
siderably by means of a ring of india rubber impinging on the collar of the spindle
[Price 2d.1

page_text: and also on the hub, so that when not rotating at the same speed as the driving
wheel the friction is great but not so great as to interfere with turning, but when
rotating at uniform speed with the driving wheel, nearly half the driving power is
communicated to it by the said ring of india rubber. The cranks are acted upon
by rods connected to the lower ends of two oscillating bars, the centres of which
are on each side of the fork of the small or steering wheel. These bars extend to
the same length above and below their centres, and have the pedals fixed at their
upper parts, so that the force of the legs is applied in a horizontal direction or
nearly so.
A handle is fixed. to each connecting rod at a short distance from the crank in
such a manner as to admit of the tricycle being worked by the bands independently
of the feet, or vice versa, and also to admit of the handles with their connections
being used for the purposes of a break.