POR A TWO- WHEELED VEHICLE, COMMONLY CALLED A HANSOM SAFETY CAB
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Featherstone Ockerby at the Office.
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th October
1866.
I, FEATHERSTONE OCKERBY, of Batley, in the County of York, do hereby
declaro the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS POR A TWO-
WHEELED VEHICLE, COMMONLY CALLED A HANSOM SAFETY CAB," to be as follows:-
1st, instead of making the body with a driver's seat fixed on a footboard
and boot, which footboard and boot is framed and bolted into the back of the
body, I make a plain body without footboard or boot just as the bind part of
an ordinary Brougham is made; then I make two pump handles of iron well
canted in with 2 lugs on each; I connect these pump handles by welding a
cross stay to each of them; I fix these pump handles as in an ordinary
Brougham, and to the stay that connects them I fix my cross spring as in an
ordinary Hansom safety cab; I then make my driver's seat, and footboard
and toeboard all plated and screwed together, making as it were a kind of
rumble; this driver's seat or rumble 1 fix upon the pump handles by means
of two iron stays that are bolted on the bottom of each side of the footboard,
and the four legs or feet of which are then bolted to the lugs on the pump
handles.
2nd, instead of fixing the shafts to the footboard and bottom sides by
means of iron plates and stays I fix them to two elastic rails made of lance-
wood; round this rail on each side near the junction of the shafts I fix the
swivel of a jack made of iron; near the other extremity of each of these
elastic rails 1 fasten an iron hoop, and bore a hole through the side of the
hoop and rail; then I fix to the bottom side rail on each side of the cab body

page_text: beneath the footboard the shackles of a jack, and fasten it to the swivels on
the elastic rails with a bolt on each side; this fastens or attaches the shafts and
elastic rails to the front end of the cab; then I make two pendant scroll irons
having two arms each; I attach with screws one of these arms to the seat rail
on each side, and the other arm I attach to the pump handle and cross stay
on each side with small clips; then I connect the hind part of the cab by means
of these pendant scroll irons to the holes in each side near the end of the
elastic rails with four bolts and shackles, so that the elastic rails can work,
and that fastens this improved body to this improved under carriage. On this
principle I make the naturally strongest parts of the body, viz., the elbows
and corner pillars rest upon the springs, whereas on the old principle the
strain is made upon the naturally weakest place, viz., the back rail; then, again,
by disconnecting the driver's seat and footboard from the body proper the
continual jar of running is not expended into the back of the carriage, as it is
on the old plan, causing the patchworky back panels of the old principle to
spring and give way, making them soon a prey to rain and rottenness. In
the next place the elastic rails will prevent what frequently occurs in hilly
countries, namely, breaking in two at the footboard and shafts through the
weight being thrown upon the horse's back, and the violent shaking motion
consequent thereon.
Thus I claim that my Invention by making and banging a. Hansom cab on
truer principles will wear longer and ride easier than on the old plan, and
because they will do these I argue also that they can be made lighter in
weight and neater in design.
And I do hereby declare that it is my Invention, having never seen these
principles carried out in a Hansom cab by anybody else previously.