ROAD WHEELS WITHOUT BEARINGS.
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A Résumé .of Recently Published Patent
Specifications.
An ingenious method of supporting a vehicle from its road wheels whilst at the same time eliniinating bearings as they are ordinarily understood and fitted, is the subject of specification No. 129,867, by J. M. Wilkie. Downwardly depending cylinders at the end of each axle accommodate turned shanks of what are termed anti-friction shoes, the shoe itself being rectangular in form and hollow. The interior of the cylinder on the
axle, of the shank of the shoe, and of the shoe itself are in communication, and connected to some source of oil under pies.. sure. The shoe is also fitted with some means of returning the oil to a reservoir. These means are not depicted or deacribed in detail. The inner side of the wheel rim is formed with an endless channel into which the anti-friction shoe beds. Three or more rollers conneeled with the axle through the medium of springs also bed in this .channel, and help to centralize the wheel itself. For the driving wheels of vehicles pinions working in internal racks on the wheels provide the best method of transmitting
power, and preferably the driving pinion is on the same axle as one of the supporting rollers.
Other Patents of Interest.
H. and J. P. Garner, in No. 130,251, describe an interesting and what should prove one of the best arrangements of
spuds for tractor wheels. A skeleton rim, divided into three or four, pieQes, and consisting of narrow circumferential B52
bands which are intended to be disposed with this outer edges level with, the edges of the main wheel rim, are joined together by any number of spuds or strakes, which may be of any preferred design. At intervals along -the edges of the skeleton rim are secured brackets. On one side these brackets are merely hooked, and designed with a bevelled lip to engage with the underside of the wheel rim On the other side the brae ket projects a little beyond the rim to accommodate the pins of an eye bolt. This eye bolt is fitted with a loose running nut which supports a wedge-like pad. (Reference to the drawing will here be useful.) The skeleton rims are slipped ,into place with the permanent brackets just hooked under the edge of the main rim. The eye. bolts with their wedge-like pads are then swung mead. so that the sloping edge of the pad engages with the under side of the wheel rim. The running nut is then tightened, and has the dual effect of pulling in The permanent hooked bracket, and at the same time tightening the wedge on its own side of the rim. By this means the whole of a set of spuds for any wheel may be secured by means of fewer than a dozen bolts, the nuts for which are lifted up as far as poSsible out of the mud, and are therefore easily accessible.
Crossley Motors, Ltd. have surmounted tee difficulty which arises when a chain-driven magneto bracket has to be designed so as to be. movable in order to provide adjustment for the tilting gear chain. The bracket upon which the magneto is bolted is formed in one piece with the bearings for the pinion shaft, the outer end of which takes the fan or dynamo driving pulley. It is bolted only to the rear face of the timing gear case, with the usual provision of slotted holes to allowof its being moved for purposes of adjustment. The bracket projects right through the timing gear ease, and out at the front end, the opening between the. two being closed by suitably designed felt picked glands. The specification is No. l30,289.
Specifications No. 130,104 and No. 130,109 concern a method of radiator construction which is snore particularly Ppplicable to aeroplane construction. The water conduits are built of corrugated plates set between plain flat plates. They are made extremely thin, only three hundredths of a millimetre, the construction lending itself to the use of this light material whilst embodying the necessary strength. The patentee is Charles Dian.
Another radiator patent is No. 130,117, J. L. -Davies. The radiator is in two parts, an upper and a lower, made with a single outer casing to form one unit. The upper part is used in the ordinary way for the water-cooling system: the lower is intended to keep the lubricating oil cool.
A pay-as-you-enter bus body is the subject d a patent, No. 130,215, by J.
Hardy. The entrance is at the front nearside of the body, and the passenger passes quite close to the driver in entering the bus.
A week or so ago reference was made in these columns to a patent, No. 127,762, by J. Foster, which covered the use of an external eccentric rim for a driving wheel, the object being to provide better traction. The same patentee, in, No. _ 130,169, modifies and improves upon his previous construction. The outer wheel, it may be remembered, takes a bearing upon an eccentric boss which itself forms a bearing for the delving axle. In the present construction, the inventor attaches a lever to this eccentric boss, and couples the free end of the lever to a hand lever arranged very much the same as an ordinary side brake lever. Manipulation of the last-named varies the position of the driving wheel within the eccentric, a rim bringing the farmer forward, and so disposing its weight more advantageously if it be desired to surmount small.gradients in the roadway.
J. Kinoch. in No. 130,195, describes an instrument for ascertaining if the piston is at the precise top dead centre.