DISRAELI GEARS
Charles Montague Linley was a serial inventor and entrepreneur of the late 19th and early 20th century. He was based in London. Among his many inventions, some shared with colleagues, were a sprung bicycle frame (for solid tyred wheels - pneumatic tyres were not yet available) and two transmission systems that used variable gearing.
The sprung frame was used on bicycles that Charles Linley manufactured which he branded ‘The Whippet’. These bicycles enjoyed considerable commercial success, and at one point Linley & Biggs Ltd claimed to run the largest cycle factory in London.
The first of the transmission systems was an expanding chainwheel system (see UK patent 1894 # 17,908) called ‘The Protean’. It is of interest to historians of the derailleur, partly because it included an early design for a freewheel and partly because it used a sprung pulley wheel system to maintain chain tension - possibly the first instance of this in a recognisably modern form. The Protean gear system may have been used on bicycles correctly called ‘The New Whippet’, although many seemed to still call them plain Whippets.
The second transmission system used a two speed rear freewheel and a fork derailleur (see UK patent 1899 # 18,240). This impressive device was called ‘The New Protean’. On its appearance, the New Protean received rave reviews and does appear, even in modern terms, to have been a genuinely practical and useful derailleur system.
The New Protean cannot quite claim to be the first commercial derailleur system - that honour probably goes, by a year or two, to Edmund Hodgkinson’s Gradient, but it can claim to have been more influential. Paul de Vivie, who was better known by his pen-name ‘Vélocio’ and is generally considered to be the father of the derailleur, owned a Whippet cycle probably fitted with a New Protean gear, and initially referred to all derailleurs as ‘Whippets’.
Charles Linley appears, from an item in the London Gazette in 1896 to have been involved with a number of companies including Linley & Biggs Limited, The Protean Variable Gear Syndicate Limited and the Whippet Cycle Syndicate Limited. As with many serial entrepreneurs, Charles Linley also seems to have been a consummate networker, and his adverts list the many aristocratic users of his fine products.
As an aside, one of the employees of Linley & Biggs Ltd was William Chater-Lea, who went on to manufacture many famous British cycle components of his own.
see also The Science Museum - The Whippet 1885
see also The Science Museum - The Whippet 1885
see also UK Patent 1894 # 17,908 - Whippet
see also UK Patent 1894 # 17,908 - Whippet
see also The London Gazette 10/1896 - Whippet
see also The London Gazette 10/1896 - Whippet
see also TCF Rev Mens 08/1899 - En Montagne
see also TCF Rev Mens 08/1899 - En Montagne
see also UK Patent 1899 # 18,240 - Whippet
see also UK Patent 1899 # 18,240 - Whippet
see also TCF Rev Mens 10/1899 - Bicyclettes à roue libre
see also TCF Rev Mens 10/1899 - Bicyclettes à roue libre
see also The Engineer 1899 - The Cycle Shows
see also The Engineer 1899 - The Cycle Shows
see also Unknown UK magazine 1899 - Whippet ad
see also Unknown UK magazine 1899 - Whippet ad
see also TCF Rev Mens 01/1901 - Un peu plus de lumière
see also TCF Rev Mens 01/1901 - Un peu plus de lumière
see also The Engineer 1902 - The Cycle Shows
see also The Engineer 1902 - The Cycle Shows
see also The London Gazette 02/1904 - Whippet
see also The London Gazette 02/1904 - Whippet
see also The London Gazette 06/1904 - Whippet
see also The London Gazette 06/1904 - Whippet
see also The London Gazette 09/1905 - Whippet
see also The London Gazette 09/1905 - Whippet
see also The London Gazette 03/1906 - Whippet
see also The London Gazette 03/1906 - Whippet
see also TCF Rev Mens - 11/1910 L’Avenir du tandem mixte (part II)
see also TCF Rev Mens - 11/1910 L’Avenir du tandem mixte (part II)
see also TCF Rev Mens 01/1911 - La Bicyclette au Salon
see also TCF Rev Mens 01/1911 - La Bicyclette au Salon
see also TCF Rev Mens 04/1911 - Un Nouveau Concours?
see also TCF Rev Mens 04/1911 - Un Nouveau Concours?
see also TCF Rev Mens - 01/1912 Aux débutants les solutions simples
see also TCF Rev Mens - 01/1912 Aux débutants les solutions simples
see also TCF Rev Mens 03/1913 - La Bicyclette hors du Salon
see also TCF Rev Mens 03/1913 - La Bicyclette hors du Salon
see also TCF Rev Mens 03/1914 - Pour le Cyclotourisme
see also TCF Rev Mens 03/1914 - Pour le Cyclotourisme
see also TCF Rev Mens 04/1914 - Nos Ennemis (part VI)
see also TCF Rev Mens 04/1914 - Nos Ennemis (part VI)
see also TCF Rev Mens 05/1914 - Boizot ad
see also TCF Rev Mens 05/1914 - Boizot ad
see also TCF Rev Mens 06/1914 - Boizot ad
see also TCF Rev Mens 06/1914 - Boizot ad
see also TCF Rev Mens - 12/1920 La Bicyclette de Tourisme en 1921
see also TCF Rev Mens - 12/1920 La Bicyclette de Tourisme en 1921
see also Cyclo - Origine du dérailleur 1959
see also Cyclo - Origine du dérailleur 1959
