A NEW OR IMPROVED LANDAU CARRIAGE
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Arnaud Norbert Dubosq at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th August 1872.
I, ARNAUD NORBERT DUBOSQ, of Bordeaux, Department of. Gironde,
in the Republic of France, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED LANDAU CARRIAGE," to be
as follows:
My improved carriage may be drawn by one or two horses, as may be
desired; closed it is a landau with seven windows, that is to say quite
open to the light, and will carry six persons including the two on the
box seat.
Thrown open it is still a landau to carry six. By removing the
driver's or box seat to the back (this seat being so constructed as to fold
up into a box for this purpose) I obtain a vis-à-vis to seat four, with box
behind.
This carriage will serve as a Victoria by lowering the front and fitting

page_text: placed behind.
Explanation of the means used to obtain the transformations above
set forth of the vehicle which I term a vis-à-vis landau :—
Figure 1 (Sheet I.) of the Drawing represents an ordinary landau, the
construction of which I will proceed to describe :—
The suspension is that generally used and consequently common ;
at the back and front is a plate like a footboard, intended to receive the
coachman's seat and the splash board, whether transformed or not into a
box; this part of the vehicle will be herein-after more fully described.
The windows are seven in number, one being in front and three on
each side; the window glasses are fixed by means of notches or recesses
in their frames and may be removed by hand at pleasure. A box placed
beneath the back cushions will receive these window glasses, and opens
from behind by means of the strap which holds the cushion.
At the four angles of the carriage are fixed jointed rods rising
vertically, and the shape of which is shown, Figures 5 and 11 (Sheet I.).
These rods permit a lowering of the covering of the landau, while
bringing back on each of the sides the wooden parts assisting in the
formation of the window frames situated in the middle of the sides. The
part which lowers at the back is composed of two wooden pieces hinged,
as shown Fig. 5 (Sheet I.). A slide bolt A serves to hold or to separate
at pleasure the parts above mentioned.
The coachman's seat and the splash board are composed, as shown
Fig. 6 (Sheet I.) of a body or box,at the lower part of which is hinged
the board a; to this latter is joined in the same manner the splash board b,
kept vertical by a cramp c, set on the board a, and further by an iron
rod on each side. As the upper part of the box is to be surmounted by
the seat it receives two wooden uprights d, which may be lowered
horizontally; the coachman's seat is fixed on these two uprights by
means of two screws and nuts, and slides in the seat which even dispense
with the unscrewing of the nuts.
To transform the entire apparatus above described into a box the
seat is first removed, the two uprights d are lowered, and the splash
board is folded on to the board a, to be both laid against the body; this
done there remains but to lay the seat reversed on the upper part, and to

page_text: fix it by two screws. Fig. 9 (Sheet II.) shows the coachman's seat
transformed into a box.
Victoria. To change the covered landau into a Victoria I separate by
the aid of the bolt A placed at the top of the carriage the two wooden ⚫
parts above mentioned, to let the part fall on the front of the carriage;
an apron lodged under the cushion is then put in place as well as the
rein bearer fixed in front, as shown Fig. 2 (Sheet II.) The coachman's
seat still transformed into a box is placed on the back plate.
Open Landau. The open landau, Fig. 3, (Sheet I.) is obtained by
leaving the coachman's seat in the front of the carriage, and separating
the two parts of the carriage united by the bolt A. The window glasses
having been previously placed in the box prepared to receive them.
Vis-à-Vis. Having already obtained the open landau all that is
required to obtain the vis-à-vis, is to shift the box to the back and to fix
the rein bearer; it will be no hindrance to any of the transformations if
the coachman's seat be left in front as a box.
General Observations.-The-window blinds are two in number, one on
each side of the carriage, in order not to hinder its various transforma-
tions into open landau, vis-à-vis, &c. The blinds rolled on their rods are
placed vertically along the columns or jointed rods where they are held
by a strap; Fig. 11 (Sheet I.) shows the arrangement used to fix the
said blinds which may be removed at pleasure and by hand from one
window frame to the other. This carriage, which I term the vis-à-vis-
landau, may be opened or closed without the assistance of the coachman
without stopping the horse, nor appearing outside the vehicle; it is only
necessary to stop the horse to change the front seat into a box behind,
but I repeat that it may be left in front turned into a box.