US694231A - Wheel. - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN T. ASHLEY, OF BROOKLYN, NEYV YORK.

WHEEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 694,231, dated February 25, 1902.

Application filed November 30, 1901- Serial No. 84,233. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN T. ASHLEY, a citizen oftheUnited States, and aresident of New York, Brooklyn borough, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Wheels, which improvements are fully set forth in the following specification.

My invention relates to improvements in structures of that class commonly known as wheels, the same being employed 'for various purposes and extensively used in connection with traction-vehicles, as locomotives, cars, and the like; and the object of my invention is to provide a wheel which shall be simple, inexpensive, and novel as regards construction, which shall embody a novel balancing distribution of the material of the peripheral member thereof, whereby in practical service a maximum efficiency of the wheel as a whole is insured, which shall be durable and reliable in operation, and which shall possess certain well-defined advantages over prior analagous structures. I attain the fore going objects by employing certain novel features of construction which are clearly illustrated in the accompanying drawings, where-- in similar numerals denote like parts throughout the several views, and as to which-=- Figure 1 is a side elevation of a wheel constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a diametrical section taken as along the line a a of Fig. 1.

My invention consists in providing a wheel-center, so called, with a peripheral member novel as to form,and whereby marked advantages are gained in the practical operation of the wheel as a whole, and in certain details of construction, all of which will be specifically referred to hereinafter, and set forth in the appended claims.

Having reference to the accompanying drawings, as there illustrated my improved wheel comprises a hub 2 and spokes 3, these respective parts being of any approved external contour and construction and formed as a unit or in segments, to be thereafter duly assembled, as in common practice and as by the well-known process of casting, the said parts constitutingthe wheel-center, so called. Where it is desired to impart to the wheel as a whole the character of a drivingwheel, a crank member 4 may be formed adjacent to the hub 2 in the'process of casting the wheel-center, as will be readily understood. The hub 2 is provided with the usual opening 5 to receive an axle, shaft, or the like, and where the crank member 4 is embodied in the construction of the wheel-center this may also be provided with a suitable opening, as 6, to receive the usual crank-pin.

7 denotes the peripheral member of my improved wheel, and this possesses novelty in that it varies continuously in radial thickness, the same havingan arc of maximum radial thickness, as at 8, and therefrom diminishing continuously in radial thickness in opposite directions to and forming an arc of minimum radial thickness, as 9, here shown as located diametrically opposite the said are of'maximum radial thickness.

It will be understood that the elements of the respective side surfaces of the peripheral member of my improved wheel need not nec essarily be regular or conform to any definite geometrical figure, and the same is true of the continuous elements of the inner surface of the peripheral member of my improved wheel or that surface lying next to the wheel-center, though as to the latter surface I prefer that it comprise continuous lines or elements conforming to a true circle whose center is located out of the axis of the wheel proper and within a radius thereof, substantially as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the inner surface of the peripheral member of my improved wheel is thus formed, the said member will uniformly and continuously vary in the matter of radial thickness from its arc of maximum radial thickness in opposite directions to its arc of minimum radial thickness aforenamed.

\Vhere it is desired to employ the wheel in too such a wheel must necessarily be more or less intermittent or irregular, and when employed as in connection with a locomotive this intermittentor irregular movement is not only injuriously communicated to the car or cars attached to such locomotive, but results in needless friction between said wheel and the track-rail along which it moves, such friction taking the form of so-called ham merblows or pounding, and accordingly resulting in unnecessary wear on the flanged rim of the wheel and likewise on the track-rail along which the wheel moves. My improved wheel, in which the balancing material is distributed continuously along the peripheral member thereof, substantially as shown in the drawings, effectually overcomes the foregoing objections, for the reason that in operation its peripheral member glides, as it were, into and out of its center of gravity, thus insuring for said Wheel a high degree of uniformity or regularity in its movement, and the efficiency of the wheel is accordingly enhanced.

It will be observed that my improved wheel may be modified to some extent, particularly as regards the continuous lines of the inner surface of the peripheral member thereof, without materially departing from the spirit and principle of my invention.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1: A wheel of the class herein described comprising a wheel-center and a peripheral member, the latter mounted on the former, and continuously varying in radial thickness, substantially as herein specified.

2. A wheel of the. class herein described comprising a wheel-center and a peripheral member, the latter mounted on the former, and having an inner surface the continuous elements of which are lines conforming substantially to a true circle whose center is away from the axis of the wheel proper and within a radius thereof, substantially as herein specified.

JOHN T. ASHLEY. Witnesses:

W. H. R BY, DINAH STANDER.

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