THE WOOD WHEEL.

A number of attempts were made a few years ago to introduce hickory wheels in place of the wire suspension wheels, among the most notable being a bicycle built by Sterling Elliott, and called the “Hickory.” The frame was built of tubing as was usual, but the wheels—hubs, spokes and rims—were made of hickory, the spokes being known as radial spokes. In order to maintain its rigidness and to carry the pneumatic tire the rim was surrounded by a metallic band in which the tire was placed. The public did not take to this style of bicycle wheel, and their manufacture was discontinued, not however before Mr. Elliott placed a pair of these ball bearing hickory wheels with pneumatic tires on a high wheel sulky, which had been converted to carry these wheels. The result was astonishing, and today no other wheels are used on sulkies but 28 and 30-inch bicycle wheels with ball bearings and pneumatic tires, and the result of their use had been that the times of the trotting horses have been reduced six to ten seconds per mile. Of course the present type of sulky is built specially with arched axles and frames to carry these wheels, and the old high wooden wheel is as rarely seen on the trotting track as the good old “[ordinary]” is seen on the bicycle track.

WOLFF-AMERICAN HUB.

Hubs using a spoke having a hooked end with a rivet head on the end thereof, which are drawn through the holes in the flanges of the hubs are not as popular as formerly, a great many of the makers having departed from this method, now using a spoke which is straight from the hub to the nipple. They claim for this method that the absence of the bend in the spoke minimizes the liability of crystallization which is so apt to exist in spokes of the bent variety. This style of direct tangent spoke was first shown in this country in 1892 by the makers of the Liberty, and among the most prominent users of this style of hub are the makers of the Spalding, Victor, Crawford and the Iroquois, and which are almost duplicates of the [Liberty hub]. The [Keating] differs somewhat from these, inasmuch as the projections from the sides of the flanges are not opposite each other, but are placed alternatively to receive a single spoke. The [Liberty hub] may be best described as follows: It is a one-piece hub, with lateral projections from the sides, or flanges, and these projections are drilled to carry the heads of two straight spokes, each spoke running in a straight line to the opposite side of the rim. The usual style of hub has a plain circular flange with holes drilled in it to receive the spokes; this makes it necessary to bend the spokes at a right angle at the end, where they are inserted over the face of the hub. This sometimes rendered them liable to break, and, therefore, what is known as the direct tangent spoke was invented.

CLEVELAND HUB.LIBERTY HUB.

PLYMOUTH RIM JOINT.

In this method of construction the hub end of the spoke is not bent, but has a head made upon it like that of a rivet; the strain comes in a direct line from end to end of the spoke, and the entire spoke is in tension. The early makers of direct tangent spokes found it necessary to make these of a somewhat heavier and softer wire than the tangent spokes which were bent at right angles to form a hook. The use of this soft thick wire proved rather objectionable, as it was with difficulty that the wheels could be kept true, and the spokes were apt in compression to slide through the end of the flanges on the hub and make a noise. However, all makers who use direct tangent spokes are making them very much thinner than heretofore, and of a harder quality of wire. In fact, the makers of the [Crescent] (also having these direct spokes) use probably as light and as thin a wire as any of the makers who use a spoke with a bend at the end. The makers of the [Wolff-American] (who are also renowned as great makers of wire) claim that there is no necessity for the use of a direct tangent spoke if the proper quality of wire is used for making the spoke which has its end bent at right angle, and that while it is undoubtedly true that the spoke bent at right angles at the end does stretch its fibres on one side of the bend and compress them on the other, still, if the spoke flanges and spoke holes and the nipple holes at the rim were only drilled at a proper angle to each other, there would be no danger of a broken spoke. All 1898 spokes are swaged and butt-ended. Formerly spokes were known as upset and butt-ended. Upsetting a spoke consists in heating the ends and driving it backwards, thus making it thicker than the rest of the spoke. The objection to this practice consisted in its tendency to crystallization where the “upset” ended. Swaging a spoke consists in leaving the butt ends of the spoke the original thickness of the wire, and reducing the diameter between the ends by a hammering process in a machine built for the purpose, to a gauge or two smaller than the original thickness. This method of making spokes reduces the weight, leaves the heavy portion where it is most needed, and adds great tensile strength to the spoke. In making a spoke by this method the wires are at first made somewhat shorter than the length required, as the swaging has a tendency to draw them out in length, and in the best of modern practice of spoke making the threads are rolled on by machinery instead of having them cut on by a die, as formerly. The rolling process has this advantage, that it does not reduce the diameter of the spoke and cut away so much material as the die threading process.

VARIOUS STYLES OF HUB AND
SELF-OILING DEVICES.

The makers of the Sterling, who have always used a direct tangent spoke in connection with a hub having a corrugated flange, show a new hub this season. It is machined from a piece of bar steel. The flanges or teeth are somewhat like a small rear sprocket. They are, however, of the double hollow construction, and on the rear hub on the sprocket side part of the flange is cut away on the outside, leaving a large opening in the tooth, which sits between the teeth of the sprocket wheel, so that a spoke can be readily inserted without removing the sprocket wheel, and through the first-mentioned hole the spoke is pushed forward and upward through a buttonhole, and is then slid in a T-slot either right or left to its seat, each tooth in the flange thus carrying two spokes, one to each side of the rim. On the left hand side of the rear hub the construction is reversed, the flanges not being cut away as on the right hand side, and the spokes are inserted through a similar opening as before described on the inside portion of the hub and flange. On both sides of the front hub a similar construction is employed as that in use on the left side of the rear hub.

STEARNS SELF-OILING CRANK-HANGER MECHANISM.

The Windsor hub is of the corrugated pattern, having a double flange in which the spoke holes are drilled, and with a buttonhole device for inserting the same.

The [Crescent hub] is built with a straight flange over the body of the hub, and this hub flange is turned over, forming a wide bearing surface, which is drilled for the spoke holes, and underneath this outer edge a buttonhole device is placed in the body of the flange by which the spokes can be easily removed and replaced, and without the removal of the rear sprocket.

The [Columbia hub] has a series of studs inserted in the body of the hub and through these studs holes are drilled, and the direct tangent spokes are inserted therein.

The Eclipse hub is turned from the solid bar of steel and has two flanges at each end; these flanges have alternate slots and holes. A T-head spoke is inserted by passing the head down the slot and pushing it sideways down the opposite hole in the adjoining flange.

The [Wolff-American hub], which was one of the first large tubular hubs shown in this country, is made of steel tubing without either projection or flanges, but has a buttonhole device which greatly simplifies the replacing of spokes. Inside the hub and underneath the spoke holes is placed a dust-proof ring which prevents the intrusion of dust into the bearings. They use a hollow axle containing an absorbent wick saturated with oil. In the axle over the wick is a minute hole on each side, through which the oil is drawn by centrifugal force by the revolving of the balls, and thus is supplied to the bearings in the crank-hanger in the same way and automatically the supply is regulated by the demand.

The makers of the [Cleveland] also have an automatic oiling device on their hubs. The wheel and crank axles are tubular and hollow. This space forms an oil receiver. In order to prevent the oil from escaping from the hollow axles the end is plugged with a screw; under the head of the screw is a piece of packing, making the joint perfectly tight. The flow of oil is regulated by wicking drawn through small holes drilled in the axles close to the bearings. These holes are plugged so tightly that the oil will not escape when the bicycle is not in use. The moment the wheel begins to revolve capillary attraction produces a drop of oil at the end of the wicking.

There is this to be said in favor of both the [Wolff-American] and [Cleveland] devices that there is no danger of losing any oil cups, and that after a long, dusty ride oil has not surrounded the hubs and crank hanger bracket to which the dust can be attracted, and the bicycle is therefore very much easier to keep clean. The makers of these styles of automatic oiling devices claim that they will carry a season’s supply of oil, but even if this should not prove to be true, it is only necessary to lay the bicycle on its side, remove the plugs in the ends of the axles and pour oil into the reservoir.