IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DETACHING HORSES FROM CARRIAGES IN CASES OF ACCIDENTS, OR OF RESTIVE OR RUNAWAY HORSES
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Walker, of Saltburn-by-the-Sea, in the County
'
of York, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DETACHING
HORSES FROM CARRIAGES IN CASES OF ACCIDENTS, OR OF RESTIVE OR
RUNAWAY HORSES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Walker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th August 1881.
WILLIAM WALKER, of Saltburn by the Sea, in the County of York. " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DETACHING HORSES FROM CARRIAGES IN CASES OF
ACCIDENTS, OR OF RESTIVE OR RUNAWAY HORSES."
•
According to my present Invention I provide means for easily and rapidly
releasing the shafts and traces of horses from a carriage in cases of accidents or
runaway horses as follows:—
For a single horse carriage I connect the shafts to jaws on the swivelling. frame
by a pin or bolt that projects beyond the shaft on the inner side, and serves as
attachment for the traces. These bolts are fitted into vertical slots opening
upwards in the said jaws, so that on raising the bolts out of the said slots the
shafts and traces are simultaneously detached from the carriage. For effecting the
raising of the bolts, a pair of levers are provided that embraces the jaws with a
fork, each limb of the fork having a horizontal open slot with which they embrace
the ends of the beforementioned bolt that holds the shafts and traces. The forks
of the levers have projections that enter into and close the upper ends of the
vertical slots of the jaws. The levers are pivotted at an intermediate point of
their length to the carriage frame, and their rear ends being cranked so as to
approach each other are both pivotted to a screw nut on a screw spindle; forming
the continuation of a rod passing through the linch pin on which the frame swivels.
This rod is so held by a collar that it is free to rotate but not to move longitudinally,
and its upper end passing through the foot board of the driver's seat is provided
with a crank handle by which it can be rotated.

page_text: From the above arrangement it will be seen that. the bolts carrying the shafts
and traces are held in the vertical slots of the framing jaws by the forks of the
levers, these being held securely in that position by means of a screw nut on the
screw spindle. When it is desired to release these shafts and traces, the screw
spindle is turned so as to move downwards the rear ends of the levers, thereby
raising the front ends and causing them to lift the bolts together with the shafts
and traces out of the slots of the frame jaws. As soon as the bolts are raised quite
out of the said slots, they are also free to be drawn out of the horizontal slots of
the levers, and the horse is thus released from the carriage.
In applying this arrangement to carriages provided both with shafts for a single
horse, and with a splinter bar for double harness, the before mentioned frame jaws
are connected to short pieces, to which are fixed the splinter bar with the loop for
the pole and the trace pins for double harness, and to which the shafts for single
harness can be attached and detached by linch pins. The said short pieces are
connected to the frame jaws and to the levers by bolts in a similar manner to that
above described for the single harness, so that on releasing the short pieces from
the jaws, the splinter bar with the braces and pole (if double harness is being
used), or the splinter bar with the shafts and traces (if single harness is being used)
are detached from the carriage. In this arrangement instead of forming the
vertical slots in the jaws and the horizontal slots in the levers the arrangement is
reversed, the horizontal slots being made in the jaws and the vertical ones in the
forks of the levers, so that on lowering the latter the bolts are free to be drawn
out horizontally from the slots of the jaws. In order to strengthen the ends of
the forks against the pull put upon them by the bolts, their ends fit against under-
cut lugs on the ends of the jaws when in the closed position.
In either of the above arrangements instead of moving the levers by means of
a screw nut and spindle, as described, they may be actuated by any convenient
arrangement of levers or rods worked by hand or foot.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said William Walker in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 7th February 1882.
WILLIAM WALKER, of Saltburn by the Sea, in the County of York. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DETACHING HORSES FROM CARRIAGES IN CASES OF
ACCIDENTS OR OF RESTIVE OR RUNAWAY HORSES."
My Invention has for its object the application to carriages of simple
and inexpensive means whereby horses may be rapidly detached from carriages
in cases of accidents or when the horses run away or become restive.
The construction of my improved apparatus will be readily understood on
reference to the accompanying Drawings, in which Fig. 1 shews a plan of part of a
carriage with my apparatus attached thereto; Fig. 2 shews a part side view of
the same with the shafts and traces locked in position by the detaching levers;
Fig. 3 shews the same parts with the shafts in the act of being released by the
levers; Figs. 4 and 5 shew respectively a plan and side view of one of the
releasing levers detached; and Figs. 6 and 7 shew two sectional views at right
angles to each other of the central bolt of the swivelling frame, with the screw
gear for actuating the levers.
A, A¹, are the parts of the ordinary swivelling frame of the carriage, of which
the parts A¹ are provided with jaws B, to which the shafts Care pivotted by
means of bolts D, the inner ends D₁ of these bolts serving for the attachment of
the traces. The holes in the jaws B through which the bolts D pass, are formed as
open slots, as shewn more clearly at Fig. 3, so that the bolts, together with the
shafts C and traces, can be readily removed from the jaws by lifting them out of
the slots. To the frame A¹ are pivotted at E¹ two levers E. The front ends of
these levers are forked in the manner shewn more clearly at Figs. 4 and 5, so as
to embrace the two sides of the jaws B, and at the ends they have open slots E³
through which the ends of the bolts D pass, so that when the levers are in the
position shown at Fig. 2 they lock the bolts and with them the shafts in the slots
of the jaws B, the tops of these slots being closed by small projections E³ on the
levers, fitting into them. The inner ends of the levers E have slotted holes
through which pass lateral pins F¹ on a screw nut F working on a screw spindle G
that passes through the hollow linch pin H of the carriage frame, and carries a
crank handle G¹ above the foot board, by means of which it can be rotated. The
spindle G is prevented from moving up or down by a collar thereon, held between
the linch pin H and its nut H', and the nut F is prevented from turning by its
pins F¹ being made to project into slots formed in a guide I fixed to the framing;
thus on rotating the spindle G, the nut F and with it the inner ends of the
levers E will be made to move down from the position shown in Fig. 2 into the
position shewn at Fig. 3, whereby the other ends of the levers E will be raised
into the position shewn in that Figure, lifting up the bolts D out of the slots of B.
In this position it will be seen that the bolts B together with the shafts and traces,
are perfectly free to be drawn out of the slots of Ĕ, so as to detach the horse from
the carriage. The shafts may be as readily fixed again by inserting the bolts D in
the slots of E, and then by turning the spindle G so as to lower the forks of the
levers, the bolts are brought into and securely locked in the jaws of B.
Figs. 8 to 16 shew my above described Invention as applied to a carriage
adapted for both single and double harness. The general arrangement and mode of
operating is precisely the same as that previously described, and the corresponding
parts are designated by the same letters of reference. In this arrangement, instead
of the shafts being pivoted directly to the jaws B of the framing A, they are
pivotted to short pieces K (shewn detached at Figs. 15 and 16), which in their turn
are pivotted to the jaws B, and on which is fixed the splinter bar L with the trace
pins and pole loop for the double harness, so that when the pieces K are released
from the jaws B, the shafts for single harness, if this is being used, are liberated,

page_text: as well as the splinter bar for the double harness, when this is being used. As the
splinter bar L prevents the upward motion of the levers E for the releasing action,
the arrangement of the slots and movements is the reverse of that previously
described, that is to say, the horizontal slots are formed in the jaws B (as shewn at
Figs. 11 and 12), while the vertical slots are formed in the forks of E (as shewn at
Figs. 13 and 14), so that for releasing the bolt. M the inner ends of the levers E
are raised by the screw spindle G, as shewn at Fig. 10, so as to lower their forked
end, thereby leaving the bolts together with the pieces K and the splinter bar L
free to be drawn out of the horizontal slots of B. In order to strengthen the ends
of the forks of E against the pull put upon them by the horses, the ends of the
jaws B are by preference formed with undercut projecting lugs B', against which
the ends of E abutt with corresponding bevilled edges when in the closed position,
as indicated at Figs. 8 and 9. The ends of the jaws B of the first described
arrangement might be strengthened in like manner by forming inwardly
projecting lugs on the ends of the forks of E, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 1.
It will be evident that the arrangement described with reference to Figs. 8 to 16,
might be employed without the provision of the jaws on the pieces K for the
single harness.
In both the above described arrangements it will be evident that the releasing
movement of the levers E might be effected by various other known mechanical
devices instead of the screw spindle and nut, and I therefore in no way limit
myself to this contrivance.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I claim,—
First. In apparatus for detaching horses from carriages the combination of two
forks or jaws, one of which has horizontal open slots, while the other has vertical
open slots within which two sets of slots is held a bolt connected to a shaft or
splinter bar, the one jaw or fork being capable of motion relatively to the other
so as to release the said bolt from the vertical slots, and thereby leave it free to be
drawn out of the horizontal slots, substantially as herein described.
Second. The construction of apparatus for detaching horses from carriages
wherein bolts, to which the shafts of the splinter bar or both are connected are
carried in slots formed in jaws on the carriage frame, and also in slots in moveable
levers pivotted to the carriage frame, the slots of the jaws and of the levers being
so arranged relatively to each other that in the one position of the levers the said
bolts are held securely in the slots, while when the levers are moved up or down
relatively to the slots, the said bolts are free to be drawn out of the one or the
other set of slots, substantially as herein described.
Third. In apparatus for detaching horses from carriages, the slotted jaws B
containing the bolts D of the shafts and operating in combination with the slotted
forks of the levers E and their raising and lowering gear, substantially as
described with reference to Figs. 1 to 7 of the Drawings.
Fourth. In apparatus for detaching horses from carriages the slotted jaws B
containing the bolts M of the pieces K, carrying the shafts and splinter bar, and
operating in combination with the slotted forks of the levers E and their raising
and lowering gear, substantially as herein described with reference to Figs. 8 to 16
of the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Walker, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Third day of February, in the year of our Lord One