ENGINE AND APPARATUS WHEREBY PERSONS RIDING IN CARRIAGES MAY, ON OCCASIONS AND IN CIRCUMSTANCES OF IMMINENT DANGER, LIBERATE THEMSELVES, AND ESCAPE IMPENDING MISCHIEP, BY FREEING THE HORSE OR HORSES INSTANTLY FROM THE CARRIAGE, AND IN CASE OF Two-WHEEL CARRIAGES, BY CING THEM TO IN THE S H AS THE WERE BEFORE THE SE OR SES WERE FREED FROM THEM BY THE CARRIAGES STOPPING IN THE SPACE OF A FEW YARDS WITHOUT ANY VIOLENT CONCESSION, OR DANGER OF OVERTURNING THE PERSON IN THE CARRIAGE SIT THE WHOLE TIME WITH PERFECT EASE AND SAFETY
Year: 1802

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
POTTINGER, of the Parish of Ealing, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdon of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of
February, in the forty-second year of His reign, give and grant unto me,
the said Richard Pottinger, His especial licence, that I, the said Richard
Pottinger, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention, "ENGINE AND APPARATUS WHEREBY
PERSONS RIDING IN CARRIAGES MAY, ON OCCASIONS AND IN CIRCUMSTANCES OF
IMMINENT DANGER, LIBERATE THEMSELVES, AND ESCAPE IMPENDING MISCHIEP, BY
FREEING THE HORSE OR HORSES INSTANTLY FROM THE CARRIAGE, AND IN CASE OF
Two-WHEEL CARRIAGES, BY CAUSING THEM TO STAND IN THE SAME HORIZONTAL
POSITION AS THEY WERE BEFORE THE HORSE OR HORSES WERE FREED FROM THEM
BY THE CARRIAGES STOPPING IN THE SPACE OF A FEW YARDS WITHOUT ANY VIOLENT
CONCESSION, OR DANGER OF OVERTURNING THE PERSON IN THE CARRIAGE SIT THE
WHOLE TIME WITH PERFECT EASE AND SAFETY;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Richard Pottinger, to cause
a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing, under my hand and

page_text: seal, 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 appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Pottinger, do hereby declare
that my said Invention is described in manner following, that is to say :-
For a curricle, the splinter bar to be made of the best seasoned ash, with an
hollow sunk in the back of it to receive an iron shaft or spindle, of about half
an inch diameter, in two lengths, to which must be fixed four iron hooks, one
at the end of each shaft, to move in a circular position; also an iron leaver
with two flanges, one of which is fixed to each shaft by nuts and screws. That
part of the engine which falls to the ground in order to assist in supporting
and stopping the carriage, may appropriately be called the anchor, which may
be part wood and part iron, or wholly, of iron, and is fixed to the axeltree by
two couplings screwed to it at about eighteen inches asunder, or nine inches
from the center of the axeltree, projecting about one inch from the axeltree,
with a small hole in it sufficient to admit an iron pin of about half an inche
diameter, which pin passing through the two iron flanges attached to the
anchor, as well as through the couplings, the anchor by that means moves
from the centre of the small iron pin at the axeltree, the leaver resting on the
anchor, as it may either be inclosed in a grove made to receive it on the upper
side; the said anchor or the leaver may be so constructed as to lay on each side
of the anchor, and be supported by small bolts or rollers to rest on it; in either
case when the engine is raised up to as great a height as the carriage will
admit of, it is fixed that position by a spring bolt, from which there must be a
small leather strap conveyed into the carriage; by a slight pull of the said strap
on the approach of danger the anchor falls, and together with the leaver stop
and support the carriage; this movement of the leaver turns the hooks which
are annexed to the iron shaft in the splinter bar, and frees them from the
shackles or rollers to which the traces are joined. The anchor may be pro-
vided with a roller, or two rollers, one of cach side of it, in the front end, that it
falls to the ground, it will not stop the carriage too suddenly; or otherwise, if
no roler is introduced, the front-of-the-anchor_which falls to the ground must
be so formed as to prevent it stopping the carriage too suddenly. The horses
being thus capable of being free from the carriage, excepting as to the con-
nection with the pole, it becomes necessary that in the same instant they shall
be free from the pole, also for which end there must be provided a leather or
iron socket, to receive the end. of the pole, called the pole piece, to which the
straps must be fixed; and likewise a thin iron plate to go from the said socket
on the under side of the pole, to which the bar is fixed by other leather work>

page_text: for supporting the carriage; at that end of the plate must be a mortice to admit
the trigger, which trigger is acted upon by means of a small iron rod passing
from it in a grove on the under side of the pole and connected with the leaver,
the movement of which either fixes the horses to the pole or occasions their
being liberated at the moment the traces are freed from the splinter bar. The
whole of the iron work to the pole must be inclosed by leather work, neatly
executed, and in such a manner as not to obstruct the movements of any part
of the same.
For a one-horse chaise or gigs, the principle and apparatus will be the same
as the curricle with the exception of the iron shaft, which may work in boxes
in front of the bar or at the back of it, as described to the curricle.
For four-wheel carriages, the apparatus must be the same as the curricle
except the fixing of the anchor, which, in order for preventing in cases of
danger, and when the horses are freed from the carriage, must be fixed to the
hind axeltree or perch, by which means the moment it falls to the ground
steddys the carriage, and prevents its turning out of the road; it likewise, by
means of the two iron flukes attached to the anchor, will insure the carriage
to stop in a few yards; the stem of the anchor, or sundry apparatus's apper-
taining thereto, must be of sufficient length when fixed up so as to reach the
end of the leaver, that the same motion, as before described, to the curricle
shall liberate the whole at the same moment. The small iron rod as described
to lay in a grove on the under side of the pole of a curricle, must, for a four-
wheel carriage, be continued of sufficient length for the trigger to work and fix
marting in the nola niece