A FOUR-WHEEL'D CARRIAGE UPON A NEW CONSTRUCTION, WHICH WAS MORE COMMODIOUS, EASY, AND SAFE THAN ANY HITHERTO KNOWN OR MADE USE OP,
Year: 1784

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANCIS
MOORE, of Cheapside, London, Linen Draper, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of January, in the twenty-fourth
year of His reign, reciting that I, the said Francis Moore, had, by my Petition,
humbly represented unto His said Majesty, after much study and considerable
expence, invented and brought to perfection "A FOUR-WHEEL'D CARRIAGE UPON
A NEW CONSTRUCTION, WHICH WAS MORE COMMODIOUS, EASY, AND SAFE THAN ANY
HITHERTO KNOWN OR MADE USE OP," and that I was the first and true Inventor
thereof, and that the same was not known or practised by any other person
or persons, to the best of my knowledge and belief, and praying Letters Patent
for the sole making and vending my said Invention; His said Majesty did, by
His said Letters Patent, give and grant unto me, the said Francis Moore,
my exors, admiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I should and night use, exercise, and vend my said Inven-
tion within England, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed, for and during the
term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent; in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said Francis
Moore, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be enrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four kalendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said

page_text: Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the said Letters
Patent, relation being thereunto bad, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Francis Moore, in compliance with
the said proviso, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by the Plan or
Particular and description thereof, as follows:-
The body at each
Before and behind
No. 1, Figure 1, represents a travelling or stage coach.
end is of the octagon form as represented in the Drawing.
are seats for three or more outside passengers. A man at each end is repre-
sented as sitting in the middle seat. Thus six persons at least may ride safer
than on the top of a coach, where the danger of being overturned is greater.
The seats of this coach are also in the octagon form, parallel to the outside or
body, which gives more room for three persons at each end, because the
middle person sets further back than those on the right and left, consequently
their shoulders and hips miss each other, which is not the case when three sit
in a strait line as usual. The seats upon which the outside passengers ride
before and behind open with flaps to put goods into the recesses or boots,
which may communicate with the space under the seats in the inside of the
coach. By this contrivance goods may be conveyed safer from being damaged
than usual. The seat of the coachman to be supported with irons projecting
forward as in the Drawing; or it may be omitted, and he may ride on the
front of the coach with the passengers. In the door of the coach are blinds
or sashes, which open outwards like a casement upon hinges, to prevent the
air from coming in too violently when the carriage is in motion against the
wind. This is represented where A is the frame of the blind or sash, with a
recess or rabbit B (as seen through the glass) for the sash to shut into. The
window then may be lowered down by the outer frame b, b, into the door of
the coach, as in common carriages. C, C, are the hinges. D, the cross bar,
with holes in it to admit E, the stay, by which means these blinds or sashes
may be set out to any angle at pleasure. Underneath the carriage, on cach side,
behind or aback of the steps, I fix a stay G, with rack teeth, which are seen
in this Drawing on the off side where the step is down, but hid on the near
side by being drawn up by the step; for the stays rises and falls with the
steps, as one end of the strap or chain H is fastened to the cross bar Z
(Figure 4) in the stay, and passes over the roller a fixed to the bottom of the
coach, and under the roller I, nearer the side, and then through a slit in the
frame of the coach to the foot step, where it is made fast. Cranks may be
made to answer the same purpose as rollers, for in either case the stays will

page_text: be lowered in proportion to the cranks of the hinges of the foot steps. These
stays when let down catch and abut against the iron K on the perch, which
prevents the body of the carriage from sinking when persons get in or out.
I also fix a spring or springs L, L, to the body of the carriage underneath,
in the middle or centre between the two sides standing across, with shackles
at the end of each spring, to which the collar braces are fastned. As this
spring is bolted to the bottom or floor of the coach in the middle, each end
will play freely, whereby the sudden jolts and checks of the carriage will be less
felt than when the collar braces are fastned to the sides of the coach as usual.
I likewise divide my perch as represented in the Drawing, forming like a
double crane neck, but is much stronger. By this means the wheels will lock
with more advantage than can be done with a straight perch.
Figure 2 represents a plan of the body and seats of the coach in the octagon
form before and behind. The sides of the body may be straight, as in the
plan, or may be made widest in the middle, as exprest by the dotted lines, and
the ends of the coach may be in the oval form if required. All chariots,
chaises, and other carriages with front seats only, to be octagon formed behind
in like manner as this coach and agreeable to this plan.
Figure 3 represents a front view of an octagon pleasure coach, with the
windows or sashes A, A, in the sides, the middle being a blank. Conse-
quently the coachman, the box boot and horses are not seen as usual by the
people in the inside, but they are accomodated with a view out of these side
front windows.
Figure 4 represents the step stay, where H is the strap; Z, the cross bar;
a, the inner roller; y, the bolt passing through the eyes of staples which are
screwed to the bottom of the coach, being the centre on which this stop
stay turns.
Figure 5. A, represents the cross spring. C, C, the holes in the middle,
through which and the bottom of the coach the bolts go, and are made fast
within upon the floor of the coach. B, B, are the shackles at each end, to
which the collar braces are fastened.
No. 2, Figure 1, represents a phaeton hung upon my new principle, so
that the body of any four-wheel'd carriage thus hung shall not overturn with
the wheels and perch, but be lowered or set down upon the ground horizon-
tally upon the bottom. The back part of the body to be in the oval or
octagon form as described in No. 1, the shackles or loops at the outer corners
projecting wider than the body, and then being bent in so as to correspond
with the angle made by the braces leading to the shackle A, which hooks into
the eye of the bolt or pin B, passing through the frame C, and made fast at

page_text: top with a nut and screw, as shewn in the Drawing. This bolt plays or turns
freely round in the frame; when the body is prevented from swinging by the
collar braces. The frame C at each end passes through the eyes of the
springs, consequently the body of a carriage thus hung (and not confined to
the perch), with the points of suspension above the centre of gravity, cannot be
overturn'd. To prevent the body from oscillating, I fasten the collar straps,
chains, or braces D, D, to the shackles B, B, of the spring A, Fig. 5, and at
the other end of each of these straps I fix on the flat bolt or pin E," as in
Fig. 6, which fits into the sockets F, F, in the roller G, Fig. 7. This roller
turns on its axis in the holes of two uprights H, H. These uprights go
through the perch and are made fast underneath by the nuts I, I. Therefore
when the flat bolts E, E, at the ends of the straps D, D, are pushed into
the sockets F, F, and kept there from flying out accidentally by the slender
springs K, K, which rest upon the tops of the flat bolts E, E, and the straps
are wound round the roller the reverse of each other, the phaeton, coach, or
other carriage, will be prevented from oscillating or swinging sideways by
the dittent or latch L, which rises into a notch in one of the rims of the roller
by the weight M at the other end. To discharge this roller, when the carriage
is in danger of oversetting, I hang upon an axis supported by two uprights
above the dittent the plumb weight N, which, with its arms 0, 0, surrounds
and hangs pendulous under the perch, and I fix a bar above and across the
perch to the armis 0, 0, which bar rests upon the dittent and presses it down
out of the notch as the carriage on either side rises to overset, because the
weight does not rise but keeps its perpendicular situation like a pendulum at
rest. By this contrivance the roller is set at liberty, and the body of the
carriage pulls it round, winding one strap on and the other off, till the latter
draws the staple out of the socket, the spring not having power to confine it
in, and then the motion of the roller is reserved, and the other staple
instantly comes out; therefore the body of the carriage will swing out and
come down to the ground flat upon its bottom. The plumb weight N will at
times vibrate by sudden jolts of the carriage, and thereby throw the dittent
out of the notch, which will also occasion the body to vibrate like a gate
which opens both ways, until the dittent in passing catches in the notch of
the roller, which turns with the motion of the body, because one strap is
wound on while the other is wound off. To retard or stop this motion the
sooner, I cut a wide notch in the other rim of the roller, into which I let tho
end of the spring P, Fig. 7, which is fixed to the perch, and which has a
bearing upon the rim of the roller all round, except where it is let in by tho
wide notch, and there it has no bearing; consequently it in nowise prevents

page_text: the weight N from pressing the dittent out of the notch, but at all other
times by friction it retards the roller, and of courso the motion of the carriage
body. Different methods may be adapted to discharge these straps from the
perch, but all must be done by a pendulous weight, which maintains its gravity
while the carriage and perch are overturning.
I do hereby declare that the travelling or stage coach, and all coaches,
chaise, phaetons, and other wheel carriages, in the octagon or oval form in
front or behind, the blinds or sashes which open outwards in coaches or other
carriage windows, the step stay under the bodies of carriages, the cross
spring fixed to the body and underneath carriages, the double crane neck or
oval-eyed perch, and the contrivances to prevent the bodies of carriages from
being overturned, are my new Inventions, the Drawings of which are annexed
and the descriptions are set forth as above.
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Moore, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of May, in the twenty-fourth
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the
grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender
of the Faith, &c., and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven
hundred and eighty-four.
Inrolled the Eighteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
seven hundred and cighty-four.