CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AND ADDITIONS TO THE SADDLES, HARNESS, AND OTHER GEAR NECESSARY OR USEFUL FOR THE EMPLOY OF HORSES AND OTHER CARRIAGES, IN RIDING, OR IN CARRYING LOADS, OR IN. DRAWING CARRIAGES OF ANY DESCRIPTION WHATEVER
Year: 1801

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
DICKINSON, of Long Acre, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,. by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Tenth day of November,
in the forty-second year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Robert
Dickinson, His especial licence, that I, the said Robert Dickinson, during the
term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AND ADDITIONS
TO THE SADDLES, HARNESS, AND OTHER GEAR NECESSARY OR USEFUL FOR THE
EMPLOY OF HORSES AND OTHER CARRIAGES, IN RIDING, OR IN CARRYING LOADS, OR IN.
DRAWING CARRIAGES OF ANY DESCRIPTION WHATEVER;" in which said Letters-
Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Robert Dickinson,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the:
same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within one calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters..
Patent, as in and by the same, (relation being thereunto had,) may more,
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Dickinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,.

page_text: .
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is herein-after particularly
described and ascertained, that is to say:-
Whereas in the construction of the saddles and other gear and appendages
hitherto made or manufactured the several parts have generally possessed no
elasticity, except that slight degree which might depend upon the nature of the
inaterials themselves, and it consequently follows that saddles and cruppers are
either girthed too tight, so as to impede the respiration of the animal, and so as
to endanger their breaking, or so loosely as to render the seat of the rider more
or less unsafe, and very seldom can be fixed with that exact degree of tension
which is best adapted to every useful purpose; and moreover, in the adjustment
of the crupper and with the breast plate, a difficulty of the same nature presents
itself, namely, that in the first tension of these, if the same be too loose, the
saddle will not be duly confined to its place, or if the same be too tight the
animal will be very much incommoded, and in either case, when, by sudden
jerks, or other motions, the breast plate, or crupper, or girth shall be required
to produce their respective effects, the parts will either break or else the
action, particularly of the crupper upon the tail of the animal, will be sudden,
unqualified, and pernicious.
K
Now, my said improvements in the construction of and additions to the
saddles, harness, and other gear, aforesaid, consist in certain springs or
elastic portions interposed between, and in effect constituting parts of the
said instruments of parts; that is to say; more particularly, I: improve the
construction of saddles by affixing one or more spiral springs,.similar to
those used in the small instrument for weighing commonly called spring-steel-
yards, into those parts of the saddle to which the girths; the crupper, and
the breast plate are respectively to be fastened: Tlie said spiral springs are
so lodged in certain cavities, sheaths, and receptacles that a piece of catgut
or wire, or chain, or other fit material, passing within the cavity of the
spring and fastened to or bearing against one end of the said. spring,: shall,
when drawn or acted upon, cause the turns of the spring to approach more
nearly together, and consequently cause it to re-act against the said catgut, or
rod, or chain, or other fit materiál and tend to draw the same towards the
saddle itself. I fix to the end-of-the-said-catgut, rod; chain; or other fit
material straps, or buckles, or other fastenings; for the ready fixing of the
girth, breast plate, and crupper in the usual manner; and moreover, in some
cases, where convenience or choice may cause the preference, I fix. the. said
spiral springs within proper sheaths or receptacles of metal, wood, cloth,
leather, or other fit material, só as to form a separate piece capable of being
applied or attached between the saddle and the extremity of the girth, breast

page_text: plate, or crupper, respectively, so as to communicate to the said appendages
the effect of its own elastic extensibility, in the longitudinal direction or other-
wise.
I fix the said springs, so fitted up in the breast plate and crupper, in
such a manner that the same shall constitute parts of those appendages to the
saddle, and communicate the same effect as in the other cases just described.
And, further, I do hereby declare that I do not confine myself in the struc-
ture and use of the springs and elastic parts of my said Invention to any such
precision of figure or material as not to allow of considerable variations. The
springs may be made to act by drawing the convolutions or turns farther apart
instead of compressing the same together as before, described; the wire of
which the springs are made may be taken of any fit metal, but steel is the
best, and it may be either round, square, or of any other figure as to its section
or base, and the springs may be either strait or curved according to the
numerous well-known forms of springs, and the application thereof; but I
consider the spiral or helix, as before described, and applied, as the cheapest,
most convenient, and as good as any. On some occasions I make use of a
simple strap or piece of indian-rubber or caoutchouc, instead of the springs,
the use of which springs is supplied by the natural elasticity of the said
caoutchouc; but I do not consider this last material as deserving any general
• preference, because its spring or elastic force is greatly weakened by heat, and
in cold weather it becomes rigid and liable to snap.
In witness whercof, I, the said Robert Dickinson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and one.
ROBT DICKINSON. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of December, in the
forty-second year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, the said
Robert Dickinson came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and
acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the instrument aforesaid
was stamped according to the tenor of the several Statutes made in the sixth
year of the reign of the late King and Queen William and Mary of England,