CERTAIN IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HARNESS, WHICH I CONCEIVE WILL AFFORD GREAT RELIEF TO HORSES IN DRAWING CARRIAGES OF VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS, AND BE OF PUBLIC UTILITY
Year: 1821

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HENRY HIGMAN, of the City of Bath, in the County of Somerset, Sadler and
Coach Harness Maker; send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King. George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourteenth day of
August, in the second year of His reign; give and grant unto me, the said
William Henry Higman, my exors, admors, and assigns, His special licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William Henry
Higman, my exors, adñors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the
term of years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed; my Invention of "CERTAIN IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HARNESS, WHICH I CONCEIVE WILL AFFORD GREAT
RELIEF TO HORSES IN DRAWING CARRIAGES OF VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS, AND BE OF
PUBLIC UTILITY;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that
if I, the said William Henry Higman, shall not particularly describe and
ascertain 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 seal, and cause
the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's Iligh Court of Chancery within two
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent,
that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Henry Higman, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the
following description thereof:-
My improvements in the construction of harness consist of a new mode of
fastening the tugs or traces to the hames of the collar, which I effect by means
of a button attached to the hames, and a staple or loop plate attached to the
traces or tugs.
Fig. 1 represents a hame of the usual form, with the improved button or
fastening attached thereto. a may be called the butt or solid part of the
button welded to the solid part of the hame; b may be called the neck of
the button, upon which the staple or loop plate is to work, and of such length
as the thickness of the loop plate and leather shall require; c may be called
the head of the button, for the purpose of preventing the loop plate from
coming off; Fig. 2 represents the outer side of the staple or loop plate; and
Fig. 3, the inner side of the same, the slit or oval hole being for the purpose
of admitting the oval head of the button, which when passed through, is
prevented from slipping out again by turning the loop plate, round so as to bring
the length of the oval head across the narrow-part of the loop plate. As
however it is necessary to confine the action of the button in the loop plate, I
introduce the key piece, Fig. 4, which being slidden into the hole of the loop
plate Fig. 3, fills up the slit, excepting a round space intended for the action
of the neck of the button b, Fig. 1, this key being intended to be fastened to
the staple or loop plate by a screw or rivet. Fig. 5 represents a thin plate
of metal to be placed upon the neck of the button as a washer, and is made
to fit the shoulder seen at b, Fig. 1.
It is to be observed that the button should stand forward obliquely upon the
hame, that is, forming an angle of about twenty or twenty-five degrees from
the back or flat surface, as shewn by the section of the hame, Fig. 6, with the
-button attached. The substance or strength of the button and of the loop
plate must depend upon the particular description of harness to which it is
intended to be applied. After the staple plate is rivetted or otherwise attached
to the tug or trace, a piece of steel or whalebone of about five or six inches
long is to be placed between the plate and outer leather of the tug or trace for
the purpose of giving it elasticity.
Though I have described this my improved fastening as applied to the
hames of a horse's collar, yet I do not mean to confine its application to that

page_text: situation alone, but intend to use it as a fastening in such other parts of the
harness as may be found desirable.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Henry Higman, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-one.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixth day of October, in the
year of our Lord 1821, the aforesaid William Henry Higman 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.