The Velocipede: Its History, Varieties, and PracticeGoddard, J. T.
History
The Velocipede: Its History, Varieties, and Practice
Goddard, J. T.
Bicycles -- History; Tricycles -- History
Richard C. Hemming of New Haven, Conn., invented the machine herewith
represented, two years ago; but has only recently brought it into the
market and applied it to practical purposes. The main wheel has a
double rim, or has two concentric rims, the inner face of the inner
one having a projecting lip for keeping the friction rollers and the
friction driver in place; each of these being correspondingly grooved
on their peripheries. The frame on which the rider sits, sustains these
friction wheels in double parallel arms, on the front one of which is
mounted a double pulley, with belts passing to small pulleys on the
axis of the driving wheel. This double wheel is driven, as seen, by
cranks turned by the hands. The friction of the lower wheel on the
surface of the inner rim of the main wheel, is the immediate means of
propulsion. A small binding wheel, seen between the rider’s legs,
serves to keep the bands or belts tight. The steering is effected
either by inclining the body to one side or the other, or by the foot
impinging on the ground, the stirrups being hung low for this purpose.
By throwing the weight on these stirrups, the binding wheel may be
brought more powerfully down on the belts. Over the rider’s head is
an awning, and there is also a shield in front of his body to keep
the clothes from being soiled by mud and wet. When going forward, the
driving wheel is kept slightly forward of the centre of gravity by the
position of the rider. By this means the power exerted is comparatively
small. Every turn of the crank is equivalent to a rotation of the great
wheel.
Mr. Hemming says that this machine can be manufactured for fifty
dollars, of a weight of only thirty pounds; that it will ascend
steep grades, and that it can be driven on the roads with but little
exertion, at the rate of twenty or even twenty-five miles an hour. This
wheel is of a diameter of from six to eight feet.
Mr. Hemming’s boy of thirteen has one five feet in diameter, the first
manufactured, crude in construction, and heavier than necessary, which
he propels at the rate of a mile in three minutes.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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