IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WHIPPLE TREES FOR VEHICLES OF ALL KINDS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.left by Edwin Ambrose Brydges at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th February 1880. A communication
by Jacob Guenther, of Alversdorf, in the Empire of Germany.
EDWIN AMBROSE BRYDGES, of the Firm of Brydges & Co., Engineers and
Patent Agents, 32, Belle Alliance Strasse, Berlin, in the German Empire.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WHIPPLE TREES FOR VEHICLES OF ALL
KINDS." [A communication by Jacob Guenther, of Alversdorf, in the Empire of
Germany.]
This Invention relates to improvements in the construction of whipple-trees or
spring tree bars to be attached to the vehicle, the object of these improvements
being to provide for readily detaching the draught animal from the vehicle in case
of accident, whether occasioned by the animal running away or falling, or from any
other cause.
It is well known that runaway horses when unharnessed will avoid all obstacles
in their way, but when attached to a vehicle they will rush blindly forward
regardless of opposing obstacles.
It has also been proved by numerous trials that if the horses in a pair-borso
carriage bolt or run away, and the driver is enabled to free the traces, the horses
remaining attached only to the pole of the carriage, they will place themselves at
an angle to the pole, so that they are unable to draw the carriage along, and they
can then be easily quieted or stopped.
The whipple tree is provided at its centre part with a socket for the bolt, whereby
the whipple-tree is attached to the carriage frame.
The ends of the whipple-tree are formed with forks, and in the centre of the
front side of the whipple tree is a similar fork, all of which serve as bearings for a
rocking bar of a length equal to the whole width of the whippletree. These forks
serve also to receive an arrangement of holding and freeing mechanisin for tho
traces.
In the centre of the rocking bar and in the central fork is keyed a lever, to
which is attached a chain. This chain, by which the bar is rocked, usually hangs
loose, and it is led up to the driver's seat in any convenient manner, so as to be in
casy reach of the coachman in case of danger.
At each end of the rocking bar and in the end fork is keyed a rocking arm,
which is provided with a catch. or tooth, which takes into a corresponding notch

page_text: or catch on a segment piece mounted in the fork. Each segment piece is provided
with a horn to receive and hold the traces.
So long as the teeth on the rocking arms remain in the notches of the segment
pieces the traces are firmly held, but if in case of danger the coachman draws the
central lever upwards by means of the chain and thus rocks the bar, the catches
or teeth on the rocking arms will be drawn out of gear with the notch on the
segment pieces, and these latter will be pulled forward and the traces will be
released from the horns, and thus free the animal from the carriage. The traces
are provided with loops, which pass over the horns.
The rocking arms are provided with pins set at right angles thereto, so that
should the catches become disengaged by a kick from the horse or by the restiveness
of the same, and the consequent jerking motion on the traces, the horns on the
segment pieces will strike against the pins, and thus retain the traces in the proper
position.
In adapting the Invention to pair-horse carriages the actuating lever instead of
being central is placed at the inner end of the rocking bar of each whipple-trec,
for which purpose the bars are prolonged towards the pole or inwards.
The two levers are thus near each other, and are connected by means of small
chains to the chain leading to the driver's seat.
The collar straps are attached to the pole in the usual manner.