1903 ‘The Hub’ 2-speed gear #8074
(Now sold)
This rare early gear is on a wheel, ready to install on your c1900 bicycle
THE HUB’ TWO-SPEED GEAR Model ‘No 2’. Patent no 6062.
‘The Hub’ is the granddaddy of all British bicycle gears, being the first to go into production, in 1898. The gears on early models were fixed plus freewheel, and the toggle was on the near side. This is hub #8074 with the toggle on the drive side, so I assume it’s a 1903 2nd pattern gear, with two freewheel gears.
The Hub Two-Speed Gear Co Ltd, of 8 Collier Street, Manchester, was liquidated in 1903.
HUB GEAR HISTORY: The first effective hub gear was patented by Seward Thomas Johnson of Indiana, USA, in 1895. It housed the epicyclic mechanism in a drum adjacent to the drive sprocket; engagement of either gear gave a fixed wheel condition.
William Reilly was the inventor of this two-speed hub. It was similar to Johnson’s, but had a hollow axle. It was patented in 1896 (#6062), and put into production in 1898 by the Hub Two-Speed Co. An additional 1899 patent (22,342) was for the toggle chain familiar on most hub gears.
Reilly’s contract with the Hub Two Speed Co gave the company the rights to any of his future gear inventions, which became a point of contention between them and led to his departure: he went to work for Royce, a Manchester electrical engineering company and forerunner of Rolls-Royce.
Incidentally, because Reilly was under contract to the Hub Two Speed Co for all future inventions, he could not put his own name on further patents. Instead, he got a colleague James Archer to sign his patent applications.
On 2nd August 1901, Archer submitted a patent for ‘improvements in variable gearing.’ This three-speed patent was accepted on 12th June 1902. Henry Sturmey, owner of ‘The Cyclist’ magazine, submitted his own three-speed patent eleven days after Reilly’s, on 13th August 1901.
When Frank Bowden of the Raleigh Cycle Co put the new three-speed gear into production, it was Reilly’s gear, but was named the Sturmey-Archer.
