GB416032A - Improvements in and relating to variable speed and reversing gearing - Google Patents

Abstract

416,032. Variable-speed gearing; gyroscopic apparatus. RICHARDS, R. W., 824, Coventry Road, Small Heath, Birmingham. March 15, 1933, No. 7903. [Class 80 (ii).] Variable-speed gearing suitable for vehicles comprises a spherical gyroscopic mass 25 universally connected at its periphery to a driving housing 24, Fig. 1, and adapted to transmit precessional motion to an axially slidable shaft or member 2 in line with the housing 24. A pin 30 passes diametrally through the mass 25 and is supported in bearings 31, 32 so as to turn freely relatively thereto. Between the pin 30 and the shaft 2 is a universallyjointed link 14. Springs 16 on bolts 34 carried by the housing 24 through a bell 19 and bearing 17 pull the shaft 2 to the right so as to produce a couple tending to tilt the pin 30 in the plane of Fig. 1. This couple causes precession in the mass 25 so that the pin axle 30 revolves conically and so drives the shaft 2. Control is superposed by opposing to the pull of the springs 16 thrust exerted by a lever 35, which thrust may be produced by foot pressure, or by engine suction in a cylinder 46. A drive in which speed and torque vary automatically is passed on through a universal joint 43 which has slots 42 permitting longitudinal displacements of the shaft 2. Rollers 29 carried by the housing 24 engage slots 28 in the periphery of the mass 25 so as to drive the latter while allowing angular adjustment, and the rotary speed of the mass 25 is rendered uniform by a cam formation of the slots 28 shown in Fig. 2. By reversing the axial thrust on the shaft 2, the torque transmitted may be reversed so as to exert a braking action upon or so as to reverse the drive imparted to, the driven shaft. In the arrangement described in the Provisional Specification, the gyroscopic mass is an inclinable flywheel driven universally on one side and carrying on the other side a stub shaft turning freely in a bearing supported in trunnions in a balance-weighted crank link corresponding to the link 14 of Fig. 1.