8600/12511
Home / Albums /

Flying Yankee Velocipede

ThumbnailsPreviousNext
Photo sizes slideshowdownload
Flying Yankee Velocipede.jpg English one-wheeled VelocipedeThumbnailsCallihan's VelocipedeEnglish one-wheeled VelocipedeThumbnailsCallihan's VelocipedeEnglish one-wheeled VelocipedeThumbnailsCallihan's VelocipedeEnglish one-wheeled VelocipedeThumbnailsCallihan's VelocipedeEnglish one-wheeled VelocipedeThumbnailsCallihan's Velocipede
Google+ Twitter Facebook Tumblr

HEMMING'S UNICYCLE, or "FLYING YANKEE VELOCIPEDE."

The single-wheeled velocipede has at length received a palpable body, and " a local habitation and a name." 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 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.

Author
The Velocipede; Its History, Varieties and Practice
Published 1869
Available from books.google.com
Dimensions
548*723
Visits
1018
Downloads
25