Patents and References: United States Patents for Cycles and Velocipedes, 1789-1893
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Citation
James T. Allen. Patents and References: United States Patents for Cycles and Velocipedes, 1789-1893. 1894. cyclearchive.com, https://cyclearchive.com/books/patents-and-references-us-cycle-patents-j-allen-1894/
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Contents
- A year-by-year reference table giving the number of the first US patent issued in each calendar year from 1876 (171,641) through 1894 (511,744), letting a reader date any patent from its number alone.
- Corrects several page and patent-number misprints elsewhere in the digest, including a garbled classification line under the safety-bicycle headings and a mistyped patent number on page 10 (corrected to read 448,442).
- Chain-driven safety-bicycle frame and drive patents from 1887 onward, opening with George M. Collicutt's frame patent and Charles H. Goodsell's 1888 entries, and including Emmit G. Latta's repeated chain-drive frame patents (360,101; 378,253; 384,150).
- Safety-bicycle frames patentable either with a chain drive or as a direct-drive machine, running through 1891 entries including Emery E. Hardy's December 1891 frame patent and Claude Jolly's December 1891 patent.
- Low, step-through 'drop frame' safety-bicycle construction (favored for women's and juvenile machines), opening with Mahlone H. Marlin's June 1888 patent and including Herbert E. House (1888), William F. Stevens (1888) and Herbert S. Owen (1889).
- Two-rider tandem safety-bicycle frame and drive patents, including Emmit G. Latta's March 1891 tandem-drive patent citing prior art from Starley, Owen and Warwick.
- Upright ('ordinary'-style) cycles fitted with a small trailing rear wheel for stability, with 1891 patents from Louis Rastetter and Crist Siebold (joint patent) and Christian Sonnesen.
- Machines steered by a small leading 'pilot' wheel ahead of the main driving wheel(s), including James E. Evans's June 1888 patent, Harrie B. Hart's July 1888 patent and George Kibbe's July 1888 patent.
- Hand-cranked or hand-levered tricycles for riders unable to pedal, a class of mechanically propelled invalid and general-purpose tricycles distinct from the later foot-propelled tricycle classes.
- Tricycles drivable by a combination of foot pedals and hand cranks/levers on the same machine, letting a rider vary or share the propulsive effort between arms and legs.
- Multi-seat tricycles for two or more riders sharing one frame, an early social/family-riding class predating the later two-wheeled tandem safety.
- Tricycles fitted with a seat that oscillates or rocks to absorb road shock, opening with David Hunt Jr.'s September 1868 patent and John E. Hawkins's January 1869 patent.
- Side-by-side two-wheel tricycle layouts with a suspended, swinging seat, opening with Joseph Beck's February 1869 patent and William McKerahan's March 1869 patent.
- Conventional foot-pedal-driven tricycles, opening with Samuel W. Barr's October 1860 patent, one of the earliest entries in the whole classified list.
- Four-wheeled hand-propelled velocipedes spanning Nehemiah Hodge's 1852 patent, Henry Kruse's 1856 patent, William K. Chase's 1866 patent and Benjamin P. Crandall's repeatedly-reissued 1868 patent (79,553).
- Four-wheeled multi-seat pleasure vehicles, opening with John Bolton Jr.'s 1804 patent (one of the oldest patents cited anywhere in the digest) and Samuel M. Skidmore's 1868/1869 entries.
- Foot-pedalled four-wheeled machines, including William C. Moores's May 1864 patent, William Quinn's April 1865 patent and John G. Wilkinson's May 1867 patent.
- Bicycle and tricycle seat/saddle patents, including Adam Rugally's July 1885 spring-saddle patent and Aaron Vreeland's September 1885 patent, plus the earlier 'McClellan Army Saddle' cited as prior art.
- Toy and children's velocipedes, opening with Elijah Eaton's May 1869 patent, distinct from the juvenile-market machines classed elsewhere under the safety and tricycle headings.
- Water velocipedes and paddle/float-driven cycles for use on water, opening with Warren M. De La Rue's August 1869 patent (subject of an interference decided in favor of Wederkinch and Starkweather) and Townsend's and Bunn's 1869 patents.
- Amphibious cycles convertible between road and water use, including Charles Jorgensen's October 1889 patent, the subject of a patent-office interference decided in Jorgensen's favor over Seth Curlin.
- Ice- and snow-velocipedes fitted with runners or spiked wheels for riding on frozen or snow-covered ground, a small class of cold-weather cycling patents.
- Railroad velocipedes and hand-cars fitted to run on rails, including George B. M. Ribble and Charles C. Spencer's joint August 1888 patent, Herman H. Holtkamp's October 1888 patent and Leopold Terski's July 1891 patent.
- Process and machine patents for forging, forming and manufacturing bicycle frame tubing and metal components, including Thomas Taylor's 1877 patent, William Newlin's 1880 patent and Henry T. Russell's repeated 1881 manufacturing patents.
- Anti-friction ball-bearing hardware for wheel axles, crank spindles, fork steering heads and pedals, opening with Albert E. Wallace's November 1881 patent.
- Rowing-motion or lever-propelled cycles imitating a rowing stroke rather than a pedaling motion, including Thomas M. Kenney's October 1890 patent, Samuel A. Donnelly's March 1891 patent and Abe L. Teetor's July 1891 patent.
- Single-wheel monocycles and unicycles, including the joint September 1890 patent of Palmer Wardman and William Hollister and Richard J. Fleischer's October 1890 patent.
- Two-wheeled machines carrying the rider's seat inside the wheel track or slung to one side of it rather than above it, opening with Jerome S. Carr's March 1883 patent.
- Individually patentable frame components sold or claimed separately from a complete machine - backbones, forks and steering heads - opening with George Illston's August 1881 patent.
- Pedal-crank mechanisms, opening with McClintock Young's November 1869 patent citing earlier crank patents from Pickering, Laubach and Haskell.
- Bicycle pedal patents, opening with Thomas W. Moran's December 1880 patent and William Hillman's May 1881 patent.
- Drive-gearing patents (sprockets, gear ratios and drive-train mechanisms), including Reinhard T. Torkelson's October 1888 patent and Emmit G. Latta's October 1888 gearing patent.
- A short class of trouser/clothing-suspender patents adapted for cyclists, including Seth W. Babbitt's November 1886 patent and Thomas B. Jeffery's October 1887 patent.
- Bicycle stands and rest supports for parking a machine upright, opening with Charles Wicksteed's April 1882 patent and John W. Fry's January 1884 patent.
- Mechanical odometer/cyclometer devices for measuring distance ridden, opening with David L. Branning's February 1871 patent and John Richardson's later entry.
- Warning bells and alarm devices for cycles, including Harrie B. Hart's April 1883 patent, Edgar M. Senseney's June 1883 patent and Harold Serrell's October 1883 patent.
- Whistle-type warning devices as distinct from bells, opening with Henry Bogel's June 1862 patent and Frederick L. Johnson's September 1885 patent.
- Anti-theft locking devices for securing a cycle, opening with the joint May 1883 patent of William Kenfield and Henry M. Stilwell.
- Frame-mounted luggage and parcel carriers, including George R. Fuller's two November/December 1890 patents, Quitman A. Smith's December 1890 patent and Charles L. Fortier's April 1891 patent.
- Trouser-guard/clip devices to keep a rider's trouser leg clear of the chain, opening with Phillip H. Radford's May 1871 patent, Robert S. Manning's March 1876 patent and Ezekiel C. Bickford's February 1877 patent.
- A brief class for velocipedes designed to run on an elevated railroad track, comprising William P. Wood's January 1888 patent and Amos L. Grinnell's December 1889 patent.
- The largest class in the book, tracing tire patents from James H. Rogers's 1836 patent and Robert W. Thomson's 1847 patent through the pneumatic-tire boom of 1888-1893, including numerous Frank H. Bolte patents citing Dunlop's foundational pneumatic-tire patent (453,550).
- A short class for cycle-related stage and exhibition apparatus, comprising James B. Elliott's two November 1883 patents (288,413 and 288,414) for theatrical appliances.
- Rubber hose and tubing manufacture, tracing back to James Riley's February 1833 patent, Samuel D. Breed's June 1833 patent, Horace H. Day's 1845/1850 patents and A. D. Puffer's 1856 patent - early vulcanized-rubber patents underlying later pneumatic tire construction.
- Repair patches for rubber hose and, by extension, tire casings, opening with Ralph Bulkley's May 1840 patent and John S. Mackay's January 1861 patent.
- A short run of ornamental Design Patents (a distinct US patent category from utility patents, numbered separately in the low thousands) for rubber hose and tire goods, including four Design Patents granted to John L. Pope in late 1882 and one to Samuel F. Pratt in 1869.
- The book's second major part, a separately paginated month-by-month supplement listing cycle patents issued between January 1892 and July 1893, opening with Ferdinand L. Lyruburner's and William E. Bartlett's patents of January 5, 1892 and continuing through prolific patentees Thomas B. Jeffery, Frederick Schrader and Emmit G. Latta to the book's final entries in mid-1893.