IM- PROVEMENTS IN OMNIBUSES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Shillibeer, of No. 1, Commercial Place,
City Road, Funeral Carriage Proprietor and Coach Maker, and George.
Giles, of 10, Gray's Inn Square, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN OMNIBUSES."
Sealed the 23rd April 1858, and dated the 28th October 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Shillibeer and.
George Giles at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 28th October 1857.
We, GEORGE SHILLIBEER, of No. 1, Commercial Place, City Road, Funeral.
Carriage Proprietor and Coach Maker, and GEORGE GILES, of 10, Gray's Inn:
Square, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN OMNIBUSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of
omnibuses, and consists in so arranging them that the outside places or some
of them may be accessible from the interior of the vehicle. For this purpose
the body of the carriage is divided off by partitions into three separate com-
partments, of which the two end ones are arranged with seats for passengers,
the front compartment having side seats arranged in the usual way, and the
hinder compartment having four separate seats, one in each corner. A
longitudinal passage runs through all the compartments, and by it the seats
are entered, there being a step at the end of the omnibus as usual. The
centre compartment is not covered by the roof as the other compartments are,
and on the top of the vehicle and on each side of the opening through the
roof seats are placed,, having footboards raised up within the centre com-
partment on the two sides of the longitudinal passage, and the seats are
reached from this compartment by steps on the two sides, which are arranged

page_text: under the footboards so as not to project into the compartment. These
outside seats are capable of being covered over by a head in wet weather, and
the middle of the centre compartment between the outside seats has a cover
capable of being drawn over by the conductor, and which is also intended to
exclude the wet.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Shillibeer and George Giles in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 28th April 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE.
SHILLIBEER, of No. 1, Commercial Place, City Road, Funeral Carriage Pro-
prietor and Coachmaker, and GEORGE GILES, of 10, Gray's Inn Square,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said George Shillibeer and George Giles, Her special licence that we,
the said George Shillibeer and George Giles, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said George Shillibeer and George
Giles, our executors, administrators, and 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 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
OMNIBUSSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said George
Shillibeer and George Giles, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our, or one of our or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Giles, on behalf of myself and
the said George Shillibeer, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement and accompanying Drawings,
that is to say:-

page_text: This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of
omnibusses, and consists in so arranging them that the outside places or seats
or some of them may be accessible from the interior of the vehicle. For this
purpose the body of the carriage is divided off by partitions into three
separate compartments, of which the two end ones, colored respectively
yellow and red in the Plan No. 1 hereto annexed, are arranged with seats for
passengers in the following manner, namely, the front compartment, colored
yellow in the said Plan No. 1, as aforesaid, having side seats arranged in the
usual way, and the hinder compartment, colored red in the said Plan No. 1,
as aforesaid, having four separate seats, one in each corner, partitioned off from
the longitudinal passage, herein-after mentioned, as is shewn and described in
that part colored red of the said Plan No. 1. A longitudinal passage runs
through the middle of the said hinder compartment, colored red, as aforesaid,
and of the centre compartment, colored blue in the said Plan No. 1, from the
doorway or entrance of the body of the carriage to and as far as the doorway
or entrance of the said front compartment, colored yellow, as aforesaid. The
seats are entered by the said longitudinal passage, which is particularly shewn
and described in those parts colored red and blue respectively of the said Plan
No. 1. The entrance to the omnibus is by a step at the end in the usual
way. The centre compartment, colored blue in the said Plan No. 1, as afore-
said, is not covered by the roof as the other compartments are, but is left open
from side to side and across part of the said longitudinal passage to admit of
the passengers passing to and from some of the outside places or seats, which
are arranged for passengers in the following manner, namely, two seats are
placed on the roof of the said front compartment projecting over the sides of
the body of the carriage, and two other seats are placed on the roof of the
said hinder compartment immediately opposite the said last-mentioned seats,.
also projecting in like manner over the sides of the body of the carriage, as is.
more particularly shown and described in those parts colored blue of the
Plan No. 2 hereto annexed, and between the said two end compartments,
colored respectively yellow and red, as aforesaid, a space to receive the pas-
sengers' legs on either side of that part of the said longitudinal passage,
colored blue in the said Plan No. 1, as aforesaid, is left open (but enclosed
at both the outside ends, as shewn and described in those parts colored green
of the said Plan No. 2, and of the Drawings numbered respectively 3 and 4,
hereto annexed), extending from the level of the roofs of the said two end
compartments, colored yellow and red, as aforesaid, down to the footboards,
which are placed at a convenient distance below the said level of the said
roofs, as shewn and described in the Drawings numbered 3 and lettered A

page_text: respectively, hereto annexed. These outside places or seats are reached from
the said longitudinal passage by steps on the two sides thereof, which steps
are so arranged as to fill up or enclose the spaces between the said two end
compartments, colored yellow and red, as aforesaid, from the bottom or
flooring of the body of the carriage up to and as far as the footboards above
mentioned, but so as not to project into the said longitudinal passage, as is
more particularly shewn and described in that part colored blue of the said
Drawings numbered 3 and lettered 'A. The opening in the roof over the
said longitudinal passage has a moveable top or cover extending longitudinally
over part of the roof of the said hinder compartment, colored red, as aforesaid,
from the back thereof over the middle of the said centre compartment; colored
blue, as aforesaid, to and as far as the doorway of the said front compartment,
colored yellow, as aforesaid, with perpendicular side pieces attached to so.
much of the under part of the said moveable top or cover as will exclude
from view the said steps leading to the said outside seats, when the said
opening is closed up by the said moveable top or cover being shut, but with-
out in any way blocking up the said longitudinal passage or entrance to the
said front compartment, which said moveable top or cover is drawn back-
wards or pushed forward by the conductor to admit of the passengers passing
to and from the said outside places or seats, and also to exclude the wet, as
is more particularly shewn and described by that part colored lake of the
Drawing lettered B, and also by the Drawing lettered C, hereto annexed.
The said outside seats reached, as aforesaid, from the said longitudinal passage
are capable of being enclosed or covered over in wet weather by a head,
which is expanded and contracted right and left simultaneously by means of
expanding and contracting bars fixed to the ribs to which the outside covering
is attached, and which ribs work with wheels on a rod fixed to a board at the
back of the said outside seats, as is more particularly shewn and described by
the said Drawings numbered 3 and 4, and also by the said Drawing lettered
A, as aforesaid. The front outside seats are arranged and are accessible in
the usual way, as shewn in the said Plan No. 2.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Giles, on behalf of myself and
the said George Shillibeer, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-eight.
GEO. GILES. (L.S.)