IMPROVEMENTS IN VELOCIPEDES
Year: 1885

page_text: I, WILLIAM CLARK, of the firm of A. M. and Wm. Clark, of 53, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN VELOCIPEDES
a communication to me from abroad by James Martin Dillon of Birmingham in
the County of Jefferson and State of Alabama United States of America, Marble
Cutter, to be as follows:-
This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in the driving or
working gear of velocipedes, such as tricycles quadricycles etc, either for use on
railways or ordinary roadways.
In tricycles for common roads, one or both driving wheels are fast on the axle,
to which the ends of the side shanks of a U shaped frame are hung, the steering
wheel fork being pivotted in the rear cross bar of said frame.
A fork projects forwards from the lower ends of the steering wheel fork and a
pin on the front end of the said fork passes loosely through a block arranged to
slide on a transverse bar of the frame.
Wires are secured to opposite sides of the block and passed around pulleys at the
sides of the frame and pulleys on the ends of a cross bar supported above the axle,
the wires passing through a longitudinal groove in the cross bar and being
attached to a handle, sliding on the said cross bar. The tricycle may also be
arranged as a front steerer The driving gear whether for common road or railway
velocipedes is as follows:-
On the axle is keyed a double ratchet wheel, between grooved pulleys loose on
the axle, said pulleys having sliding bolts or pawls adapted to engage with the
corresponding rings of ratchet teeth.
Or separate ratchet wheels, each fast on the shaft may be enclosed within the
boxed or cupped hubs of the pulleys, loose side by side on the axle.
Pedal levers are pivoted on the frame, the front ends of the said levers being
below the driving axle and provided each with two points of attachment for
driving bands, said points of attachment being respectively in line with the two

page_text: pulleys on the shaft. These points of attachment consist of two prongs on one
lever and a single prong on the other lever, adapted to pass between the other two.
Over each pulley a belt is passed and is made fast to the rim of the pulley; the
front end of one belt being attached to the lever and the rear end to the other
lever and similarly for the other belt, so that at each stroke, one pulley will be
rotated forward and the other backward, the one lever being raised by the
depression of the other.
In case the device is to be used for propelling boats, etc and the motion is to be
reversed, two additional ratchet wheels are used and the pawls are so arranged
that they can be thrown out of gear, so that either set of pawls may be used
according to the direction in which the vessel is to be propelled.
In a common road tricycle a brake block is held by a spring above the rim of
one wheel, which spring is secured to one side standard. Or a brake lever pivoted
to one standard, or a brake shoe carried by a lever and connected by a wire with
a lever handle may be used.

page_text: I, WILLIAM CLARK, of the firm of A. M. and Wm. Clark, of 53, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents, do
hereby declare the nature of this Invention (a communication to me from abroad
by James Martin Dillon (Marble Cutter) of Birmingham Jefferson County
Alabama United States of America), and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
This Invention relates to an improved foot power specially designed for driving
or working velocipedes such as tricycles, quadracycles, etc.
Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this
specification in which figure 1 is a side elevation (the near side wheel being
removed) of a velocipede provided with the improved foot power; figure 2 is a
plan view of the same; figure 3 is a plan view of the swinging ends of the foot
levers; figure 4 is a rear elevation Figure 5 is an enlarged side view of the ratchet-
device on a belt-pulley; figure 6 is a cross-section of the pair of pulleys and
ratchets; figure 7 shows one pawl and the bolt to which it is pivoted separately.
The driving wheel is fast on the axle A, the opposite wheel being loose in order
to permit the velocipede to turn. The axle is journaled in the brackets B B¹
secured on the frame C, these brackets serving also to hold the rods D D¹ of the
brake and steering handles E E. The brackets B B¹ also carry a cross-bar F on
which are fixed stops G G to limit the ascent of one pedal lever and thereby the
descent of the other. H is a brake wheel fast on the axle A. I is an elastic metal
band surrounding the brake wheel, one end being secured to the bracket J fixed
on the frame and the other end being attached by a pin to an arm K on the rod D,
so that by turning the handle E the band I is tightened against the wheel H and
acts as a brake. The steering-rod D¹ has an arm L which is coupled by the
connecting rod M to the elbow lever N pivoted on an upright pin O secured on
the frame and coupled by a rod P to a forwardly projecting part Q of the steering
wheel fork R so that by turning the handle E¹ the steering wheel S is guided.
The fork R is pivoted in the part T. The foot levers W are pivoted on rods V
hung in brackets U depending from the rear part of the frame Ĉ and the pedals X
are pivoted on the swinging ends of the said levers.
The driving gear is constructed as follows; On the middle of the axle A is
keyed a double-ratchet wheel d between a pair of grooved band pulleys c loose on
the axle and enclosing the double ratchet wheel as shown. In brackets a¹ fixed
to the inner faces of the pulleys within their rims are fitted to slide bolts a to
which are pivoted pawls b which are caused by springs c pressing on the outer
ends of bolts a to engage with the ratchet teeth, each of said pawls being in one
with a segment 61 whose curved lower edge is concentric with the pivotal pin of
the pawl and rests and rolls upon a plain circular flange or rim d¹ on the ratchet
wheel beside the ratchet teeth, the effect of this combination being that when the
corresponding pulley c is turned backwards the rolling of the segment 6' on the
rim d¹ causes the pawl b₁ to be thrown up out of engagement with the ratchet
teeth until arrested by the guide bracket a¹ in which position it remains until

page_text: when the pulley is turned forwards the rolling of the segment on the rim of the
ratchet wheel causes the pawl to be brought down again into engagement with
the ratchet teeth, the operation of the pawls being thus rendered noiseless. The
front or swinging ends of the pedal levers W are below the axle A and are
provided each with two points of attachment g g¹ for driving bands or chains h,
the one point of attachment of each lever being in line with the one and the other
point of attachment of the same lever being in line with the other band pulley on
the driving axle. These points of attachment are formed by two prongs on the
one lever and one on the other lever passing between the other two as shown in
figure 3.
Over each pulley e a band h is passed and made fast thereto at its
middle the one end of the one band being attached to the point g of the one pedal
lever W and its other end to the point g¹ of the other pedal lever and similarly
for the two ends of the other band so that each pedal lever is connected to both
pulleys in such manner that at each downstroke of each pedal lever the one pulley
will be rotated forwards and the other backwards, and the other lever will be
raised. The rear-ends of the bands are attached to the pedal levers at the
points g g through the medium of springs h¹ in order to neutralize the differential
motion of the pulleys, caused by the angular motion of the levers and by the
point of attachment g¹ being at a less radius than the point g, and to keep the
bands always taut and prevent loss of motion.
In case the device is to be used for propelling boats etc; and the motion is to
be reversed two additional ratchet wheels are used and the pawls are so arranged
that they can be thrown out of gear so that either set of pawls may be used
according to the direction in which the vessel is to be propelled.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
Invention; and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is;
i
2:
t
1. An improved foot power driving gear consisting in the combination with a
ratchet wheel or wheels fast on the axle or shaft to be driven of pulleys loose on
the axle or shaft, pawls carried by the pulleys, and engaging with the ratchet teeth
a band secured on each pulley and a pair of foot levers, each band having one end
attached to each foot lever so that each lever will operate both pulleys in opposite
directions substantially as herein set forth.
2. The herein described foot power driving gear for velocipedes etc; constructed
and combined for operation substantially as specified and illustrated in the
drawings.