| 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.