A NEW METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING TRAVELLING CARRIAGES, WHICH ARE MORE SAFE AND IN MANY RESPECTS MORE ELIGIBLE THAN THOSE WHICH ARE NOW IN COMMON USE
Year: 1800

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ISAAC
HADLEY REDDELL, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of August last past, and in the fortieth
year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, Isaac Hadley Reddell,
iny executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and
themselves, or by my and their deputies and deputy, servants or agents,
or such others as I, the said Isaac Hadley Reddell, my executors, adminis-
trators, or assigns, should agree with, and no other, from time to time and
at all times hereafter during the term of fourteen years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might might make, use, and vend, within that part
of His Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF
CONSTRUCTING TRAVELLING CARRIAGES, WHICH ARE MORE SAFE AND IN MANY
RESPECTS MORE ELIGIBLE THAN THOSE WHICH ARE NOW IN COMMON USE," in such

page_text: manner as to me, the said Isaac Hadley Reddell, my executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, or any of them, should in their discretions seem meet; and
that I, the said Isaac Haddley Reddell, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit,
commodity, and advantage from time to time coming, growing, and arising by
reason of the said Invention, during the term of years therein mentioned,
to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers, priviledges, and
advantages therein-before granted or mentioned to be granted unto me, the
said Isaac Hadley Reddell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, for
and during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from the date
of the said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be
compleat and ended, according to the Statute in such case made and
provided; in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said Isaac Hadley Reddell, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Isaac Hadley Reddell, do declare that my Method of Constructing Travelling
Carriages, which are more Safe and in many Respects more Eligible than
those which are now in. common Use, and which of course may be used either
as stage coaches, or as carriages for private purposes for the conveyance
of persons and property from place to place, is particularly described in the
following manner :-
First, either at one or both of the outside ends of the bodies of such of the
carriages as are designed to carry outside passengers, I affix commodious seats
at a suitable distance from the top, or, in other words, in as low a situation as
they can properly be placed, which seats may be calculated to hold two or three
persons each, as circumstances may require; and for the further accommoda-
tion of the outside passengers, I generally place a light covering of wood,
leather, oil case, or some other suitable material, over the seats, in order to
defend them from, the effects of the weather, and likewise a proper covering
for their legs and feet, which may be used or not as occasion may require.
Secondly, for the convenience of the inside passengers, I usually leave a
sufficient space between the bottom and the top of the carriage to admit of
their standing upright whenever they may think proper.

page_text: Thirdly, for the further accomodation of the inside passengers, I sometimes
hang the seats either on hinges, joints, swivels, chains, braces, or by some other
suitable mode, so as the seats may be leaned back or raised up at pleasure,
and the forin of the bodies of the carriages that have moveable seats I make
suitable for such purposes.
Fourthly, it is found by experience that the confined air in the close
carriages heretofore and now generally in use soon becomes unfit for respira-
tion, and consequently unwholesome, in proportion to the number of persons
conveyed in such carriages, and that when the windows are put down the
passengers are exposed to the disagreeable effects of a current of cold air. To
remedy such inconveniences, independant of making the body of the carriage
larger, and in more convenient form, as afore mentioned, I have invented a
method of applying and working a small ventulator by the notion of one of
the wheels of the carriage, and by means of which the foul air may be
expelled, and fresh air introduced, just in such proportionate quantities as
would be most agreeable to the passengers; and in hot dusty weather I some-
times cause the air that is introduced into the body of the carriage to pass
through a small vessel of cold water, in order to free it from the dust and
render it still more cool and pleasant, and in some cases it only passes through
a piece or pieces of cloth or any other material that has a tendency to render
it more fit for respiration.
Fifthly, one of the carriage wheels likewise gives motion (when the coach
is going forwards) to a finger which is attached to an index on the principle
of a pedrometer, and thereby shews pretty correctly what distance or space
of ground the coach runs over.
Sixthly, in cold weather I affix or suspend to some part of the body of the
carriage a fire to warm the inside passengers, which fire is either after the
nature of a lamp, or promoted by means of any matter or substance that will
burn in a proper manner; a small opening, or a pipe or tube, serves to convey
fresh air to the lamp or fire, and another opening, pipe, or tube serves to carry
off the smoke and smell to the outside of the carriage.
Seventhly, by means of a spring, catch, sliding bolt, stay or stays, or
something to answer a similar purpose, I would in some cases make the
carriages so that the horses may be let loose from them in an instant, in case
of accident or necessity; and if it should be suddenly overturned before there
could be time to let the horses loose from it, the turning of the carriage out of
its right position would turn the catches, sliding bolt, stay or stays, which are
calculated to hold the pole so far out of their place, that being no longer in

page_text: Eighthly, I intend in most cases to suspend the bodies of the stage coaches or
travelling carriages, which may be made after my method, without having any
perch, pole, or framework of any kind whatever underneath the body of the
carriage (that is to say;) I propose to mount them on springs affixed near to
the ends of the lower part of the body of the carriage, which springs should pro-
ject therefrom to suitable places underneath the axletrees; to the middle of, and
parallel with, or underneath the hindmost axis or axletree, a spring or springs
may be affixed, which should terminate at suitable distances from the wheels,
and to which the ends of those springs, which should project nearly in an
horizontal direction from the body of the carriage, may be connected either by
means of straps or links, or they may be connected to the axis or axletree
without any additional spring or springs underneath or parallel therewith.
The fore part of the body of the carriage in such case should be suspended in
a manner somewhat similar to the hind part, only the springs which project
from the body of the carriage should be attached to a cross piece that should
be made to hang underneath the axis or axletree which connects the two
fore wheels, by means of a pin or swivel in the centre, which cross piece may
be constructed with a spring or springs, or in any other eligible manner, with
a broad or flattened part or bearing round the pin or swivel in the centre,
which broad or flattened part or bearing should correspond to another of a
similar form on the axis or axletree, in order that the carriage may turn
about in an easy and pleasant manner in either direction. I do not say that
each and every one of the matters before enumerated are entirely new in their
principle, but undoubtedly most if not all of them are new either in their
principle or in their method of application; or, in other words, either the
principle or method of constructing them, or, at least, the method of applying
them one with another as constituent parts of a travelling carriage, is un-
doubtedly new; therefore I claim an exclusive right to such parts only of this
method of constructing travelling carriages as are absolutely new either in
their principle or mode of application.
In witness whereof, I, the said Isaac Hadley Reddell, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Eleventh day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand and eight hundred.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Eleventh day of Sep-
tember, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Isaac Hadley Reddell
came before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of September, in the year above written.