How long have flip flop hubs been around?

[PpPete]

Hi
Not really into fixed/single speed myself but just taken on a restoration project of an old BSA that was (so family legend has it) used by a district nurse in the 40s or 50s.

It was rebuilt in the late 70s for use by a Cambridge uni student (as a bike that would not be worth stealing) with (probably) some non-original components.

Rear wheel has sprockets either side - one seems fixed, the other mounted on what might be a freewheel - although currently seized up.

Could this be original?

 

[tyred]

Flip flop hubs go back a long, long way as far as I know but I would have thought a district nurse would be more likely to have a 3 speed hub than a fixed gear.

 

[PpPete]

3 speed Sturmey Archer would have made sense... but I'm old enough to remember what the hubs for those look like - and this ain't one !

 

[chewa]

My next door neighbour has just acquired a Rattrays Queen of Scots which I think dates from the late 50's or 60's, and it has a flip flop on it.

 

[e-rider]

my father had an armstrong from the 50s with a flip flop rear hub (original) - shame the frame snapped when I got my hands on it!

 

[Hilldodger]

1890's