CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WHEEL CARRIAGES
Year: 1817

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
WYKE, of Bath, in the County of Somerset, and EDWARD SHORTER, of Union
Street, Borough, in the County of Surry, Mechanic, 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 Nineteenth day of
July, in the fifty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto us, the
said George Wyke and Edward Shorter, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, His
special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said
George Wyke and Edward Shorter, our exors, adññiors, and assigns, should
and lawfully might, during the term of years therein mentioned, make, usa,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
WHEEL CARRIAGES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
that if we, the said George Wyke and Edward Shorter, or one of us, shall not
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, and cause the
same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages

page_text: whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void,
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, we, the said
George Wyke and Edward Shorter, do hereby declare that the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
particularly described and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto
annexed, and the following description thereof (that is to say) :-
No. 1, a coach or chariot body, built with straight timber, or any other
form, with crooked or straight timber.
No. 2, an open carr, to hold or carry the outside passengers, with a
standing top or canopy, with curtains or with rods fixed at top and sides for
drawing or covering at pleasure for sheltering the passengers from the weather,
or may be made without a top or canopy. This car is united to the body 1,
(which may either be in front or behind), by a perch 8, which, as this Drawing
shews, has a bolt or pin 4 under the body passing through the sweep of the
carriage; and this bolt or perch pin allows the carriage to turn round and lock
the fore wheels, passing between the two bodies till checked by a stop 5, to
prevent the fore wheel striking the perch in locking or turning. The body
1 and car 2 may be of any size, and may be attached to each other, in which
case the fore wheels are to be fixed in every respect as coaches or four-wheeled
carriages are commonly built.
No. 6 shews the springs of the carriage, which are of one plate of steel,
mado of this or any other form, and may be fixed in the manner here shewn,
or in any other to either body; but the springs being made of a single plate
of steel, the Patentees claim a right, &c. of originalty for use in all description
of carriages, &c., &c, springs of the form No. 1, or any other form con-
sisting of one single plate of steel, or the barrel spring No. 2, for gigs or
curricles, or any other carriages of two wheels. No. 2 is the barrel or clock
spring, to be fixed as under. No. 8, a lever to be fixed from the bearing of
the gig or curricle (over the axletree) to the barrel spring by a leather or
other strap going round the barrel, &c. The gig or curricle to be of any
shape or make.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Shorter, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and nightoon
EDWD (L.s.) SHORTER.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of January, in
the year of our Lord 1818, the aforesaid Edward Shorter came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighteen.