Читать книгу The Modern Bicycle and Its Accessories - Julius Wilcox - Страница 41

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The Featherstone chainless, called the “King,” in order to match with the name borne by the line of bicycles made by this concern, is of the same type as the foregoing in respect of driving, but embodies new and peculiar features, which are in the patent recently issued to Michael McAmeny of Denver. Double driving rods are used with two pairs of short cranks, and the rods are made slightly adjustable in length at their rear ends as indicated in the cut. It is claimed, however, that when these rods are once properly adjusted, they will need no further attention, “as the driving connection itself adds to the rigidity of the lower frame members of the machine and prevents any variation in the distance from rear wheel hub to the crank shaft and the other shafts in the crank-hanger case.” As the cut shows, this hanger contains three shafts instead of two. The third one is necessary because—since a spur gear is used instead of a “link belt” or chain—a second reversing of the direction of movement is completed in order to avoid the dilemma which one of the witless inventors whose contrivances were described in our article of a week ago accepted without hesitation, namely, that either the bicycle wheel must travel backward or the rider must pedal backward. The pedals being run in the forward direction, the crank shaft is driven forward and the shaft gearing with it runs backward; the third shaft gearing with that, of course, runs forward again, and this carries the pairs of cranks which work the wheel. This introduction of a third shaft within the hanger (which is avoidable only by using a belt or an internal gear) is cleverly utilized to produce the novelty of chainless driving, combined with a changeable gear having two speeds and the old notion of making the pedals footrests at will.