IMPROVE-- MENTS IN BICYCLE AND TRICYCLE LAMPS AND OTHER LAMPS
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Tongue and Thomas Edward
Bladon at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th January
1881.
THOMAS TONGUE and THOMAS EDWARD BLADON, both of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Lamp Manufacturers and Tin Plate Workers. " IMPROVE--
MENTS IN BICYCLE AND TRICYCLE LAMPS AND OTHER LAMPS."
Our Invention consists of the construction and combination herein after
described of the parts of bicycle and tricycle lamps, the said construction and
combination of parts being also applicable to other lamps which require to be
suspended after the manner of bicycle lamps.
We will describe our Invention in connection with a bicycle lamp. The objects
of our Invention are so to construct the lamp that it may readily be passed
between the spokes of the bicycle wheel for suspending it to the hub of the said
wheel, and also to effect the fastening of the lamp to the hub in a simple and
efficient manner.
We make the front of the lamp containing the front glass or lens separate from
the body of the lamp, the said separate front being connected to and disconnected
from the body by a vertical sliding motion, the body of the lamp being furnished
with hollow beadings or grooves at its edges, in which beadings or grooves the
edges of the sliding separate front may engage. At the top of the sliding separate
front is a semi-circular hook, which when the sliding front is secured to the front
of the body embraces and closes the ordinary divided hinged barrel or spring clip
on the head of the lamp by which barrel or clip the lamp is suspended. At the
bottom of the body of the lamp is a horizontal spring sliding bolt passing from
back to front, the said bolt having a hook at its front end, and on the bottom of
the sliding separate front is a bevilled or inclined cross bar upon which the hooked
end of the bolt snaps to fasten the sliding front to the body of the lamp. The
bolt described is released by pressing upon a projecting part or pusher at the back
of the lamp. When the sliding front is withdrawn from the body of the lamp,
the said body can be conveniently passed between the spokes of the bicycle wheel,
and the fixed half of its clip or barrel passed onto the hub of the said wheel. The
separate front is now passed by a sliding motion into its place at the front of the
body and fixed to the said body by the spring sliding bolt snapping upon the cross

page_text: bar at the bottom of the separate front. As the sliding front is pushed home in
the body the hook at the top of the sliding front presses down the jointed half of
the barrel or spring clip upon the hub. The sliding front is thus fixed in its place
at the front of the lamp, and the lamp is at the same time suspended to the hub of
the wheel.
To disconnect the lamp from the hub of the bicycle wheel the projecting end of
the spring sliding bolt is pressed inwards and the hooked inner end withdrawn
from the cross bar on the sliding front, and the latter may be removed from the
body, the act of removing the sliding front unfastening the barrel or clip, which
springs open and releases the lamp from the hub.
The oil reservoir is passed into and removed from the body of the lamp and the
wick trimmed at the open front of the said body.