IMPROVEMENTS IN LANDAUS AND OPEN-HEADED CARRIAGES
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Shanks and Robert Shanks, both of
Great Queen Street, in the County of Middlesex, Carriage Builders
and Harness Makers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LANDAUS
AND OPEN-HEADED CARRIAGES."
Sealed the 20th December 1872, and dated the 2nd October 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Shanks and
Robert Shanks at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 2nd October 1872.
We, FREDERICK SHANKS and ROBERT SHANKS, both of Great Queen
Street, in the County of Middlesex, Carriage Builders and Harness
Makers, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for "Im.
PROVEMENTS IN Landaus and OpEN-HEADED CARRIAGES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a simple and effective arrangement for facili-
tating the raising' and lowering the heads of landaus and open-headéd
carriages, and consists in the application and use of a barrel spring and
lever arm placed at the backs of the pillars of laudaus and behind the
sides of the front "hoop sticks" of open-headed carriages. The spring.

page_text: may be provided with a ratchet wheel and detent for the purpose of
regulating the force of the same, and the free end of the lever is fitted
with an antifriction roller which runs along a plate let into the pillar or
hoop stick. A leathered covered metal guide through which the spring
lever works serves to keep the said lever in its place.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick Shanks and Robert Shanks in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 2nd April 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, FREDERICK
SHANKS and ROBERT SHANKS, both of Great Queen Street, in the County 1
of Middlesex, Carriage Builders and Harness Makers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the 36th
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Frederick Shanks and Robert Shanks, Her
special license that we, the said Frederick Shanks and Robert Shanks,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Frederick Shanks and Robert Shanks, our executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for 'IMPROVEMENTS IN LANDAUS AND OPEN-HEADED CARRIAGES,”
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Frederick
Shanks and Robert Shanks, our executors or administrators, by an in-
strument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and scal
of one of us, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
16

page_text: what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had
to the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, that is to say :—
Our said Invention relates to a simple and effective arrangement for
facilitating the raising the heads of landaus and open-headed carriages,
and consists in the application and use of a barrel spring and lever arm
placed at the backs of the pillars of landaus and behind the sides of the
front "hoop sticks" of open-headed carriages. The spring may be
provided with a ratchet wheel and detent for the purpose of regulating
the force of the same, and the free end of the lever is fitted with an
antifriction roller which run along a plate let into the pillar or hoop
stick. A metal guide covered with leather, through which the spring
lever arm works, serves to keep the end of the said lever in its place
against the pillar or "hoop stick."
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood we shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose
shall refer to the accompanying Drawing, which represents an elevation,
partly in section, of a landau, showing our peculiar arrangement or combi-
nation of barrel spring and lever arm for assisting in raising the head,
a duplicate arrangement being applied to the opposite side of the
carriage.
A is the carriage framing; B, B, are the pillars; C is a spring box
containing a barrel spring, the said box being firmly secured between
metal lugs to the carriage frame in the angle between each pillar and
the said frame and as close to the pillar as is practicable. To each barrel
or spring box there is secured firmly the lower end of a lever arm D,
which carries at its upper end an antifriction roller a running along a
metal plate let into each pillar. The lever D passes through a leather
covered metal guide 6 secured to each pillar in order to keep the lever in
its proper position as regards its pillar. One end of the spring is secured
to the spindle c and the other end to the box or barrel, and a ratchet
wheel d is fixed on the said spindle, into which a spring detent e engages
to prevent the spring, when wound up to the requisite degree, from
running down again. By turning the spindle more or less by means of
a key or wrench any degree of force may be imparted to the spring or
its
power restored in case of its becoming weakened by use. When the
head of the carriage is thrown back, as shown in the right hand half of

page_text: the Drawing, the lever arm D is forced down into a horizontal or nearly
horizontal position by the pillar or "hoop stick" (as the case may be),
thereby coiling more or less the barrel spring b. When the head is to
be raised the pressure exerted by the end of the lever against the pillar
or hoop will materially assist the operation.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our
said Invention and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, we would observe in conclusion that we are aware it
has been proposed to employ spring power for assisting in raising the
heads of open-headed carriages, and therefore we lay no claim to the
application of springs for that purpose, but what we consider to be novel
and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to us by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the combination of a
barrel spring, lever arm, and guide, when arranged and made to operate
upon the heads of open-headed carriages substantially in the manner
and for the purpose herein-before described and illustrated by our
Luree.
FREDERICK SHANKS. (L.S.)
ROBERT SITANKS.
(L.S.)