AN IMPROVEMENT AND ADDITION TO THE STIRRUPS THEN IN USE, WHICH WAS TO BE FIXED THERETO, AND BY MEANS OF WHICH, WHENEVER THE STIRRUP HAPPENED TO BE IN A REVERSED DIRECTION BY A HORSEMAN FALLING FROM HIS HORSE, THE STIRRUP WOULD IMMEDIATELY FALL FROM THE LEATHER BY WHICH THE SAME WAS SUSPENDED
Year: 1805

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J, JOHN
BLUNT, of the Borough of Warwick, in the County of Warwick, Surgeon,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by Letters Patent
under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the
Twenty-seventh day of May now last past, after reciting that I, the said
John Blunt, had by my petition humbly represented that I, after much labour,
study and expence, had found out and invented "AN IMPROVEMENT AND ADDITION
TO THE STIRRUPS THEN IN USE, WHICH WAS TO BE FIXED THERETO, AND BY MEANS
OF WHICH, WHENEVER THE STIRRUP HAPPENED TO BE IN A REVERSED DIRECTION
BY A HORSEMAN FALLING FROM HIS HORSE, THE STIRRUP WOULD IMMEDIATELY FALL
FROM THE LEATHER BY WHICH THE SAME WAS SUSPENDED;" that I was the first and
true Inventor thereof; that the same was entirely new, and had not been used
by any other person to the best of my knowledge, of His especial grace, certain
knowledge, and mere motion, at my request, did give and grant unto me, the
said John Blunt, my exors, adñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, my exors, admors, and assigns, and every
of them, by myself and themselves, or by my and their agents or deputies and
servants, as I, the said John Blunt, my exors, admors, or assigns should agree
with, and no others, from time to time and all times thereafter during the term

page_text: of years therein expressed, should lawfully make, use, exercise, and vend, the
said Invention within that part of the United Kingdom called England, the
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to
ine, the said John Blunt, my exors, admors, or assigns, should in my or their
discretions seem meet, and that I, the said John Blunt, my exors, admors,
and assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the full benefit, and the
sole use and exercise of the said Invention for and during the term of years
therein mentioned; to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers,
privileges, and advantages therein-before granted or mentioned to be granted
unto me, the said John Blunt, my exors, admors, and assigns, for and during
the term of fourteen years from the date thereof, fully to be complete and
ended; and it was by the said Letters Patent, among other things, provided
that if I, the said John Blunt, should not, within the space of one calendar month
afer the date of the said Letters Patent, particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
forined, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the
same to be inrolled in the High Court of Chancery, that then the said Letters
Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should
utterly cease, determine, and become void.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Blunt, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in the
annexed Drawings and the following description thereof (that is to say):
Figure A represents part of an old common stirrup; B, the same part of
an old common stirrup with my new Invention added thereto; C, D, repre-
sent the ends of a locker or box, through each of which there must be a
hole near the bottom to receive the screw axle. These ends I make near
a quarter of an inch thick, but the top part of the end marked C, I make
full a quarter of an inch thick that a hole may be made through the same
I make a groove in
from E to F, to receive the pin or screw marked N.
each end as described in Figures C, D. G represents a thin plate of iron
which I braze, rivet, or otherwise fasten to each side of the ends C, D, by
which means I make the locker or box marked H; I make holes through the
plate to correspond with the hole in the end C, which is made from E to F.
His the locker or box, the inside of which must be wide enough to receive the
stirrup leather and the cross bar marked I with ease; I make a hole through
both sides of the locker to receive the screw or pin O across the locker. A
locker or box made on a similar plan may be cast of any hard metal. I repre-
sents a cross bar by which the stirrup is suspended from the leather, and which

page_text: is to work in the groove in C, and is fixed therein by a pin or screw marked N,
and falls into the groove in D; there must be a hole in the cross bar to receive
such pin or screw. I file or otherwise work the end marked D and the cross
bar in such a manner as to leave corresponding lips in the end D and the
cross bar I, which when the cross bar is down in the groove in D, is answerable
to, and will work together as one line in the segmental groove in the perpen-
dicular L that has such groove. K represents a small spring, which must be
turned down at one end to receive the screw axle, and up at the other end so
as to catch the bottom of the cross bar at that end of the locker marked C,
and must be fastened at the bottom of the locker by the screw axle marked M,
through a hole which I make at the shortest end of the spring. L, L represent
two perpendiculars arising out of or fixed to the side bars of a common stirrup,
and may be made therewith, or fixed thereto by being brazed or worked
together, or in any other manner that the metal of which stirrups are made is
now usually fastened together. These perpendiculars I make the same width as
the ends of the locker or box marked I, and I place them at a proper dis-
tance from each other to receive the locker marked H; at the top of one of
the perpendiculars is a segmental groove full a quarter of an inch deep in
its center; at the lower part of each perpendicular there must be a hole
to receive the screw axle marked M, and admit the tight or close movement
of the locker or box. M is a screw axle which must go through both the
perpendiculars, and also the locker and spring in the inside the locker,
and which supports the locker, fixes the spring, and admits the movement
between the two perpendiculars. N represents a pin or screw, which goes
through the locker at the sides and end C, and also through the hole in the
cross bar, upon which the cross bar is to work; and O represents another small
pin or screw, which goes through the sides of the locker and over the spring in
the locker at the end C. I make the top part of the common stirrup in a
circular form to keep the instep of the horseman from the locker. The seg-
mental groove in the perpendicular may be made the whole width of the
perpendicular, or a greater or less part of a circle, according to the choice of
the horseman; and in case the horseman is thrown from his horse, and the foot
becomes fixed in the stirrup, the locker immediately turns on its axle, whereby
the cross bar, by which the stirrup is suspended from the leather, is instantly
thrown out of its groove by the power of the spring under it, and of course sets
the stirrup totally free from the leather. The material of which my said
Invention is made is iron, and the same may be made of any other hard metal
as is usually used in making of stirrups. The several Figures represented in

page_text: the annexed Drawing are made of the same size as the originals, but they
may be made larger or smaller on the same plans.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Blunt, have hereunto set my hand
and scal, the Seventeenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and five.