On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:17:46 -0800 (PST),
"
[email protected]" <
[email protected]> wrote:
>On Jan 25, 5:00 pm, [email protected] wrote:
>
>> (Hmm. I wonder if they can make me some high-compression-strength
>> derailleur cables too?)
>>
>
>Cue to Carl to dig up some patents for push-rod gizmos!
>
>Joseph
Dear Joseph,
Child's play!
Frank must have forgotten this brake, whose stiff cable pushes the
brake-spoon down onto the top of the tire when you twist the handlebar
grip:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=79luAAAAEBAJ&pg=PP1&dq=591994
To be fair, everyone else on earth forgot it, too. Maybe the worm-gear
mechanism made it too slow for practical use.
Apart from the push-cable, the patent is interesting for its comment
that "we prefer to line or reinforce its [the spoon brake's] under
side with leather or equivalent material, whereby increased friction
may be had with the periphery of the wheel in order to more quickly
and reliably retard the bicycle when in rapid motion."
(They all wrote like that--something about applying to the patent
office brought out the worst in people.)
In other words, the inventor exhorted us not to use those cheap metal
spoon brakes--riders were supposed to use a leather version, the
salmon-colored Kool Stop of the 1890s.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel