Improvements in or Additions to the Seats of Cycle and other Saddles.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Sept., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 28th Apr., 1894-Accepted, 23rd June, 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or Additions to the Seats of Cycle and other
Saddles.
I ADOLPHUS ISIDOR RATH of New Street in the City of Birmingham
Manufacturer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention pertains to improvements in cycle and other riding saddles, and
has for its object, an elastic or rebounding seat, or a seat having the property of
being easily compressed, or readily yielding to force, and also of recovering its
normal figure or volume, on such force or pressure being relieved.
The said improvements consists primarily in making up the said seat of two layers
of leather, (or other like or suitable material) separated from each other by a space
having within it, or being filled with a cellular structure or organism, consisting of
an intermediate, or an intervening layer or bed of sponge, or cellular rubber, a
substance in constitution or organism alike unto the protozoa.
This said sponge-rubber which is a known article in commerce, is a body or
substance honey-combed in the character of its constitution & in physical character
it is bighly elastic, soft, light, porous, easily compressed, and capable of readily
returning to its normal figure or volume, when pressure is relieved from off the
same.
Thus, the said seat is made up of an outer casing or covering with an interposed
cellular body, bed or layer of material, which is soft, light, porous & easily
compressible.
The softness & elasticity of the seats surface is evenly distributed throughout the
whole of it, and without any one part being less resilient than that of any other
part, while the feel & said softness surpasses that of the pneumatic, and also any of
the seats now in use.
I may make the outer covering, bag-shape, or the same may be made bellows
like, or top & bottom layers may have gusseted sides or edges.
The sponge or cellular rubber may be located & disposed only at intermediate
points or parts of the seats interior, leaving intervening spaces between those occupied
by the cellular & internal supporting medium or suffing of an elastic constitution.
Or the whole of the internal space comprehended by the outer walls of the
seating may be suffed with the said cellular or sponge-rubber. Or instead of
employing sponge rubber I may employ like cellular materials, not of rubber.
The top or outer walls of the casing of the seat may be of leather, canvas,
leather-cloth or the like, while the under layer may be of metal or a frame
constructed to properly support the seat.
Or the seat may be supported hammock-wise, or the same may be supported by
rod underframings with springs resting, or being supported by underframings.
In cycle saddles the seats are made of the usual forms & with ventilating holes
or piercings through their middles.
Dated this 2nd day of September 1893.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or Additions to the Seats of Cycle and other
Saddles.
I, ADOLPHUS ISIDOR RATH, of New Street, in the City of Birmingham,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:—
My invention pertains to improvements in the seats of cycle and other saddles,
and has for its object, primarily, a soft and elastic seat having the property of
readily yielding to pressure and of instantly dilating itself on pressure being
relieved.
One of my said improvements consist in employing, as the bed or body of the
seat, an interlocated and elastic cellepore supporting medium, preferably attachedly
connected to the top and bottom surface coverings or casings.
Thus, the top and bottom surface coverings or casings, which are preferably of
leather, although they may be of canvas or other suitable material, have inter-
located, or interposed between them, and preferably attached to their inside surfaces,
a thick elastic cellepore layer, stratum or pad, made of that kind of material known
in commerce as sponge rubber, a substance in structure or constitution alike unto
the protozoa or the bryozoa, other than that the surrounding walls of the cells in my
cellepore medium are elastic or resilient and thereby acquire a delicate softuess with
the property of instantaneous dilation.
Besides the cellepore material being soft, pliant and resilient, it is light in weight
and the softness and elasticity in a seat surface formed thereby is evenly distributed,
without any one part of it being less elastic and soft than another.
The outer covering of my cellepore stratum, body, bed or the like may be bag-
shaped, or the edges may be made bellows-like or gussetted, or the cellepore inter-
located support may be disposed only at intermediate points or parts of the seats
interior, thus leaving intervening air spaces.
By the cellepore material employed as the elastic internal support being
attachedly connected to the insides of the coverings the material, at the parts
lying within the field of pressure, and also those parts relieved of pressure, move
collaterally.
If necessary, the under covering or the part upon which the cellepore material
rests may be made of metal, and further, the said cellepore material may, if required,
be employed as a stuffing.
My invention is applicable to cycle saddles supported by metallic skeleton
framings or to cycle saddle seats supported or slung hammock-wise.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in longitudinal vertical section,
a cycle saddle, with the seat of the same made according to my invention.
Figure 2 represents a topside plan of the same, with the top covering partly
removed, in order to exhibit the cellepore interlocated and attached elastic
supporting medium.
Figure 3 represents a transverse section of the said saddle upon the dotted
lines A B Figure 1.
a is the saddle seating made up or composed of a thin top covering a', and a
thicker bottom or under covering a³, and between the said coverings a', a², is an
elastic cellepore bed, stratum, layer, pad or supporting medium b.
The covers at the cantle end of the saddle are preferably united together at c,
whilst the termination of the covers at the pummel end d, may be separated and
have the elastic cellepore material coming right up to the end, whereby the peak is
rendered soft and as pliable as any of the other parts, which is not attainable in
saddles now in use, even those of the pneumatic type.

page_text: Although I have described that the cellepore material comes up to the said
pummel end, the outer covers may be made to meet or come together at the said end.
The bottom or under covering a', may extend over the entire under surface of
the seat, or it may terminate at the junction of the flaps with the body part.
The seat is supported upon metallic framings e, either of the construction shown
or any other as may be desired.
The middle of the seat may have an ordinary ventilating piercing f, or the body
of the seat may be pierced at intermediate points.
Figure 4 represents in longitudinal vertical section, a still further form of my
invention.
The cellepore material, instead of being continuous throughout the whole
surface of the seating, is situated only around the border edges and at intermediate
points.
Figure 5 represents a topside plan of Figure 4, with the disposition of the
cellepore material shown in dotted lines.
In Figures 4 and 5, a is the saddle seat, made up of a top covering a¹, and an
under supporting covering a², and with the said coverings having interposed between
them at intermediate points or at parts, a border b, of an elastic cellepore material,
and intermediate pads or cushions, thus leaving between these pads 6', intervening
air-filled spaces h.
Instead of the elastic cellepore material following the boundary edges as in
Figures 4 and 5, the said edges or sides may be partly left open and the under
covers separated by yielding blocks or pads at intermediate points, thus leaving the
inside of the body of the saddle seat open or hollow at points.
It is understood that the cellepore material is attachedly connected to the inside
surfaces of the covers by rubber cement or solution.
My improvements are applicable to horse and other riding saddles. In such a
case no rigid metallic underframings are employed, other than the tree and other
parts employed in ordinary riding saddles.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
First. In the seats of cycle and other saddles, employing as the bed or body of
the seat, an interlocated and elastic cellepore supporting medium, thick stratum,
layer or pad, attachedly connected to, or lying loosely between, the inside surfaces
of the upper and under coverings, substantially as and for the purpose as described
and set forth.
Secondly. A saddle seat made up of an upper and an under covering, with elastic
cellepore material such as sponge-rubber, in the form of a bed, layer, lining or
stratum, coming between them, substantially as and for the purpose as described
and set forth.
Thirdly. A saddle seat made up of upper and under coverings separated from
each other by interposed cushioning blocks or pads of sponge india-rubber or elastic
cellepore material, (as referred to in the preceding claims) disposed at distances
apart, and having air spaces between them, or between parts of them, substantially
as and for the purpose as described and set forth.
Fourthly. The improvements in the seats of cycle saddles, substantially as and
for the purpose as described and set forth.
Dated this 26th day of April 1894
ADOLPHUS ISIDOR RATH,
By Henry Skerrett,
6, Livery Street, Birmingham, Agent for Applicant.