IMPROVEMENTS IN BICYCLES, TRICYCLES, AND OTHER VELOCIPEDES, AND IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PARTS OF THE SAME
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Warwick at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 16th January 1880.
THOMAS WARWICK, of Aston, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN BICYCLES, TRICYCLES, AND OTHER VELOCIPEDES,
AND IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PARTS OF THE
SAME."
The improvements constituting my Invention relate principally to bicycles and
machinery or apparatus for mauufacturing the wheels of bicycles, but ny said
improvements aro also applicable, wholly or in part, to tricycles and other
velocipedes, and to the manufacture of the wheels of tricycles and other
velocipedes.
I will describe my Invention in connection with a bicycle. Instead of making
the rim of the wheel of the figure of the letter U in cross section, I make it of the
following figure:-I first roll the strip of sheet metal of a trough shape, the sides of
the trough being at right angles to the bottom, and both sides and bottom being
flat. I then operate upon it a second time by rolls, so as to make on the opposite
sides and near the bottom of the trough longitudinal depressions or corrugations. A
rim of a bicycle wheel made of metal of this configuration is very rigid, and may
be made very light.
In place of connecting the hub of the wheel with the rim by means of spokes, I
connect them by means of discs of papier mâché; I make two slightly conical discs
of papier mâche having central openings, and connect them to the hub and rim by
rivets or screws, the concave sides of the said discs being turned towards each
other. In order to give great rigidity to these discs I form corrugations in them,
the said corrugations have a direction more or less approaching the direction of
radii.
In order to diminish the jarring motion of the spring carrying the seat, and to
reduce the wear of the loose end of the said spring, I attach a roller to the fore end
which enters and slides in a recess in the neck of the bicycle. In the said recess
is a cushion of india-rubber, and upon that a plate of metal. The roller works
on the said plate of metal, and is pressed thereon by a small supplementary spring
and roller acting on the scat spring at a point near its roller.
My improvements in machinery or apparatus for the manufacture of parts of
bicycles, tricycles, and other velocipedes, consist in the following arrangement

page_text: of the parts of machinery or apparatus for drilling the holes in the rims of
the wheels, and screwing the spokes in their places so as to connect the hub and
rim of the wheel:-
On the bed or to the framing of the machine a central stationary vertical axis
is fixed. On this axis the hub of the wheel is placed and turns, the hub having
previously had made in it at the proper distances the screwed holes into which the
spokes screw.
The rim of the wheel is supported on a rotating support, concentric with the
hub, the rim and hub rotating together. By means of a stop pin passing through
a hole in the fixed framing, and taking into one of the screwed holes in the hub,
the hub and rim after having been turned through the angle which it is intended
the spokes shall make with one another, can be fixed by means of the said stop
pin. In the framing of the machine, and at a distance from its centre, somewhat
greater than the radius of the wheel being made, two radial drills are situated,
these being respectively inclined slightly upwards and downwards, so that their
axes shall have the direction of the spokes of the finished wheel. By working the
said drills they drill two holes in the positions and directions required. After
removing the stop pin, turning the hub and rim through such an angle as brings
the next hole in the hub opposite the stop pin, and fixing the hub and rim in that
position, two other holes may be drilled in the rim, and so on till all the required
holes have been drilled in the rim. While the drilling of one part of the rim is
going on, the insertion of the spokes in the parts already drilled is being effected.
The workman passes the screwed end of the spoke through the hole in the rim, and
inserts its screwed end in the hole in the hub. In order to give the required rotation
to the spoke to screw it home in the hub, a tool resembling a brace used for drilling
is employed. This brace is provided at its lower end with bevil gearing, whereby
the rotatory motion given in a vertical line is transmitted to a horizontal axis, in
which the spoke is clamped; by working the brace the spoke is rapidly screwed
home in the hub.