Bicycling for Ladies / The Common Sense of Bicycling; with Hints as to the Art of Wheeling—Advice to Beginners—Dress—Care of the Bicycle—Mechanics—Training—Exercise, etc., etc.

by Maria E. Ward

“A nut is a piece of metal adapted to screw on the end of a bolt.” “A bolt is a stout metallic pin adapted for holding objects together.” The nut is to the bolt what the knot is to the thread, to keep it from slipping through. Iron and steel are fibrous materials, and very hard; though strong, they are also brittle. Indeed, these metals, and metals generally, resemble molasses candy in their nature more than any other familiar substance that will serve for illustration. When heated, they become soft and liquid; when cold, they are tough, hard, and even brittle. A few powerful, sharp blows with a heavy object are enough to fracture a piece of metal. Direct, heavy blows or tapping on the end of a bolt will flatten and alter its shape sufficiently to cause the edges to project, a very little seemingly, but enough to render it useless.

APPLYING POWER.

If you wish to remove a bolt that seems to fit too tight and resists ordinary methods, place the nut on the bolt, and screw it on level, so that the end of the bolt will be flush or even with the top of the nut. Then lay your piece of wood, quite smooth and flat, on the nut and bolt, covering both, and hammer gently on that with a heavy hammer, with gentle, short, sharp, even strokes. The most obstinate bolt will usually yield to this method of persuasion. Should a burr have formed on the end of a bolt, a file is necessary to remove it; and filing off a burr is a somewhat lengthy and tedious operation.

Unscrew a nut gently and examine it. On the inside will be found a spiral groove and a spiral ridge or thread. Examine the bolt, and observe a similar spiral groove and thread. These, when screwed together, prevent slipping, and the nut cannot be pulled or pushed off. To remove the nut, it is necessary to turn it; and always turn one way, from left to right, if the nut lies uppermost.

To keep a nut from unscrewing by jarring, etc., screw it down until it jams, as it is called, firmly against the surface it rests on. If screwed too tight, it will burst or break the thread, or if enough force is applied the bolt may break. This hardly seems possible until we realize that in the wrench we possess a very powerful lever, capable of destroying quite a large bolt and its accompanying nut. If pains be taken always to start a nut on square and to turn gently and firmly and not too fast, the previous instructions may prove unnecessary.

There are usually two kinds of wrench in a bicycle outfit—an adjustable wrench with sliding jaw, and one or more key-wrenches, so called because made to fit particular parts of the machine, and to be used for them only. The adjustable wrench with sliding jaw should be used with the pressure or pull coming on the angle of the head, and the sliding jaw so placed as to hold its position, the wrench applied so that the greatest strain is taken at the strongest part; then the faces of the jaw keep smooth and true, and will not deface the plating or polish of the machine.

There is another point to note—that a properly adjusted wrench starts a nut easily, while if the strain is taken on the movable jaw of the wrench, there is give enough in the wrench itself to prevent the nut from starting, and the wrench slips off the nut without effecting its object. The handle of the wrench acts as a lever, and the head of the wrench forms a right angle with the handle; it is here that the power is centred, not at the angle made by the movable jaw. Of course, this position seems the reverse of proper until it is analyzed; but once understood and adopted, it will prove most effective.

There are various screws in and about the machine. A screw is defined as a bolt or bar having a thread cut upon it spirally, so that it will enter a hole in which a corresponding spiral groove and thread have been cut, or on which they will be formed by the screw entering the hole. The thread and screw interwind and prevent the screw from being withdrawn unless it is turned. To turn the screw, a notch is cut on one end, which is made flat for that purpose, and the other end of the screw is pointed, to enable it to enter the hole easily. After a screw is placed and started in its proper hole, it is only necessary to turn it until it is driven home. To turn the screw, a short bar is flattened thin to enter the notch on the end of the screw.