{"id":1258,"date":"2011-06-04T19:32:43","date_gmt":"2011-06-04T19:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/?p=1258"},"modified":"2011-06-04T19:32:43","modified_gmt":"2011-06-04T19:32:43","slug":"OConnor-bicycle-capable-of-climbing-any-San-Francisco-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/04\/OConnor-bicycle-capable-of-climbing-any-San-Francisco-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"O’Connor bicycle capable of climbing any San Francisco hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

the amazing new cog bicycle in San Francisco, circa 1895. Included are a few other ads for basically the original fixie bikes, or fixed gear. Gears weren’t invented until 1905<\/a><\/p>\n

\"sfcall.8.4.95.bike1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

From the San Francisco Call, August 4, 1895<\/a><\/p>\n

THE IMPROVED BICYCLE
\nArchitect O’Connor Thinks He
\nHas Overcome All the
\nDifficulties.
\nFRICTION NEARLY DESTROYED.
\nThe New Machine Said to Be Capa
\nble of Climbing the Steepest
\nHill With Ease.
\nBicycles in bewildering variety are con
\ntinually appearing on the market these
\ndays. There are over 300 makes of cycles,
\ndiffering only in style, cost and name.
\nFully 90 per cent of these machines use
\nthe chain and sprocket as a means of
\ntransmitting the applied power, but owing
\nto the limited leverage and enormous fric
\ntion it has hitherto been impossible to
\nutilize more than 30 per cent of this force.
\nP. J. O’Connor claims to have overcome
\nall these difficulties in a bicycle which he
\nhas just had patented. He has been ex
\nperimenting in this direction for several
\nmonths, and has at last perfected a ma
\nchine that does away with sprocket-wheels
\nand chains, makes hill-climbing an easy
\nmatter and attains a rate of speed that is
\nonly limited to the exertion of the rider,
\ninstead of sprocket-wheels and chain Mr.
\nO’Connor employs a system of cogs, which
\ndestroys all friction except at one point of
\ncontact. The force is applied by means of
\na swinging lever, with an adjustable foot
\nrest, which equally distributes the exertion
\nthat must be applied by the rider. The
\ninventor thus describes his cycle:
\nThe accompanying diagram represents my
\nidea for a bicycle that will give the best re
\nsults for the power employed. In my machine
\nI propose to substitute a swinging lever for
\nthe chain and sprocket wheel of the bicycle
\nnow used. The rise and fall of the lever does
\nnot exceed 10 inches, though if great speed is
\ndesired this can be given a fall of 11)$ inches.
\nThe ankle of the rider passes through a flat
\nsegment of a circle 20 inches, and it gives as a
\nresult a stroke of nine-sixteenths of the diam
\neter of the driving wheel. This result cannot
\nbe accomplished by a stiff lever, fc the reason
\nthat its motion does not give half a revolution,
\nand consequently it aoes not pass the dead
\ncenter. A stiff lever also requires the momen
\ntum of the wheel to carry it around.
\nThe foot of the rider rests upon a pivoted
\nplate made to the shape of the foot, so that at
\nthe commencement of the motion the full
\nleverage or power is present and so continues
\nfor three-fifths of the down stroke. The other
\ntwo-fifths, which is the full depth, is four
\ninches less. The levers work in double slots to
\nprevent eide action, so that there is an alter
\nnate rise and fall, thus giving them full play
\nand receiving the entire weight of the body.
\nMy driving levers have a rise and fall of
\ntwenty inches, while by the present chain
\nbicycle the rider’s foot travels from thirty
\neight to forty-two inches. The levers being
\nnearly double the length of the present pedal
\ncrank’s, I am able to ootaiij about 80 per cent
\nof the applied power, and consequently a
\nhigher rate of speed.
\nMr. O’Connor has exhibited his model to
\na number of bicycle experts, and they are
\nof the opinion that he has solved the
\nproblem of securing the greatest amount
\nof force from the power employed. The
\nUnited States Government has its experts
\nat work endeavoring to overcome the force
\nlost by friction, but so far they have
\nthought of nothing better than the chain
\nand sprocket wheel. The Presidio officers
\nthink Mr. O’Connor has not only done
\nthis, but has invented a machine capable
\nof climbing any incline short of a precipice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and a few other bikes for sale in San Francisco, circa 1895<\/p>\n

\"sfcall.8.4.95.bike2\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

the amazing new cog bicycle in San Francisco, circa 1895. Included are a few other ads for basically the original fixie bikes, or fixed gear. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-1258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-San-Francisco","tag-san-francisco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}