Resilient Wheel. Page: 2 of 8
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UITTED STATES PATENT OFFICE
WALTER E. ROBERTSON, OF VENUS, TEXAS.
RESILIENT WHEEL.1,254,270.
Specification of Letters Patent,
Patented Jan. 22, 1910.
Application filed August 13, 1914. Serial No. 856,561.
To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that I, WALTER E. ROERTsON,
citizen of the United States, residing at
Venus, in the county of Johnson and State
5 of Texas, have invented certain new and
useful Improvements in Resilient Wheels,
of which the following is a specification.
The present invention relates to improve-
ments in resilient wheels, and has for its
10 primary object the provision of a wheel of
the character stated, and wherein the yield-
able or adjustable, shock-absorbing and
cushioning elements are located remote from
the hub, or specifically within a rigid rim
15 portion of the wheel, to the end that the
wheel-bearing and rigid spokes radiating
therefrom nay remain at all times inher-
ently relatively fixed or non-yielding ele-
ments, with respect to which the rim-with-
20 in which the outer ends of the said spokes
'are elastically suspended,-may bodily yield
under the varying conditions incident to
road travel to distribute and absorb through-
out the 'rim circumferentially thereof, the
25 shocks flowing from undulating surfaces or
obstructions- encountered by the periphery
of the wheel. In this manner, the axle and
fixed spokes may move substantially con-
tinuously through a plane paralleling the
30 road surface, and in what might well be
said to be a floating condition within the
self-adjusting rim surrounding said rigid
spokes.
The development of what is known as the
35 "spring-wheel" art, coupled with my per-
sonal observation and experimentation, cov-
ering a wide period of time, have demon-
strated the fact that perhaps innumerable
arrangements of spring-members, including
40 spring-spokes may be utilized in a wheel to
afford varying degrees of elasticity while
rolling under a comparatively low speed, but
many and great difficulties present them-
selves which must be overcome in a -spring-
45 wheel designed to be operated under high
speeds such as must be expected .of wheels
employed in connection with motor vehicles.
Among these difficulties are the tendencies
to exert severe end thrusts longitudinally of
50 a spring leaf or member tending to bi-eak or
shear its fastening means;- to create com-
pound bending of elongated spring mem-
bers, correspondingly increasing the reluc-
tance of the spring to restore itself speedily
55 to normal condition, and by undue bending,
to crystallize and break the spring in thebending regions thereof; and to permit a
too great freedom of movement of the spring
so that the same violently vibrates or moves
convulsively, here, again, resulting in crys- 0
tallization, and causing the spring to, waste
its energy in correcting or righting itself to
its normal expected operative association
with the other wheel elements, instead of be-
ing immediately prepared to resist subse- 65
quent shocks, etc., the result of which latter
is a severe conflict of forces entirely frus-
trating the harmonious action of the springs
necessary in a field of service, such as rapidly
rotating vehicle wheels. 70
It has been with a view to meet and over-
come the foregoing objections that I have
conceived the construction (and utilized the
principles underlying the same) herein set
forth, and which construction is, of course, 75
merely one exemplification or embodiment
of my invention, it being clear to persons
skilled in the art that the invention is capa-
ble of incorporation in other forms and de-
vices than that specifically disclosed. 80
The underlying idea of the specific em-
bodiment which I have elected to illustrate,
as well as others as may be in keeping with
the hereto appended claims, involves, as
previously stated, the use of rigid spokes, 85
and means resiliently suspending said
spokes within a bodily displaceable rim
adapted to be engaged and steadied through-
out and at all times by a cooperating action
between the suspending means, and the in- 90
terror of the rim, so that while the rim may
promptly yield to accommodate obstructions,
and relative depressions and elevations, in a
road bed, such yield will not be a loose or
tremulous movement, but will be more like a 95
rolling action around the ends of the spokes
within predetermined safety limits: and the
yieldable suspension means being consti-
tuted, in part, by uniform, bowed springs,
the opposite terminals 'of which are adapted 100
to spread and contract to afford a progres-
sively increasing seating engagement of the
springs lengthwise thereof with adjacent
portions of and in the rim, and a correspond-
ing retraction of the springs away from 105
such seating engagement.' This action in-
sures the rim being held by the springs at
approximately all points around the rim,
'no matter what the nature of, its displace-
ment vertically or around the axis of the 110
wheel, and the restoration of the rim to its
initial or normal relation to the ends of the
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Reference the current page of this Patent.
Robertson, Walter E. Resilient Wheel., patent, January 22, 1918; [Washington D.C.]. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1258571/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.