Positive drive system

Claim 1

A positive drive system for rotatably coupling a drive means to a driven means, said drive system comprising: a drive sheave having a groove formed around its curved surface and a plurality of cylindrically-shaped pockets formed along said groove means, said pockets being separated from adjacent pockets by a distance defining the pitch of the sheave and having a depth beneath the bottom of said groove greater than one-half of the cylindrical diameter thereof; means for driving said first sheave; a first drive cable disposed to engage said sheave including; a single length of flexible 7×19 preformed and lubricated multistrand cable having its ends attached to each other to form a continuous, endless loop, said cable having an outside diameter less than the width of said groove; a plurality of nodules each consisting of a mass of material formed into a regular, geometric spherical solid having a diameter slightly less than the diameter of said pockets, said nodules being swagedly attached to said cable in regular, spaced apart disposition, the distance between adjacent nodules being substantially equal to the pitch of said sheaves, such that at any point in time a plurality of adjacent nodules engage a corresponding plurality of adjacent pockets on said sheave; means linking said drive cable to said driven means; whereby motion of said drive sheave is transferred to said driven means by said drive cable.