Improvements in Carriage and other Seats.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Sept., 1887
Complete Left, 6th June, 1888
Complete Accepted, 6th July, 1888
Improvements in Carriage and other Seats.
We THOMAS MABBUTT Managing Director of the Abingdon Works Company
Limited of Bath Street Birmingham in the County of Warwick Manufacturers
and WALTER PHILLIPS Manager of the Rudge Company Limited of Coventry in the
County Warwick Velocipede Manufacturers do hereby declare the nature of this
Invention to be as follows:-
Our Invention has reference principally to the seats of carriages such for example
as the seats of gigs dogcarts wagonettes and other carriages but is also applicable to
seats for steam and other ships and vessels and to seats generally which have backs.
Our invention has for its object principally to destroy wholly or in great part the
vibratory or tremulous motion which in the seats of carriages or other seats in
motion is communicated to the back of the seat by irregularity in the motion of the
The
carriage consequent upon roughness of road or produced by any other cause.
said tremulous notion of the back of the seat is to some persons very distressing
and is sometimes in part and imperfectly remedied as in traps or dog carts by
replacing the ordinary fixed back by a stretched leather band.
We will describe our invention as applied to the seat of a dog cart.
Instead of rigidly connecting the back of the seat to the seat proper as usual we
connect the back to the seat by means of a spring or springs so that any vibratory
or tremulous motion of the seat is taken up or counteracted by the spring
connection and the tremulous motion of the seat is not communicated to the back.
We do not limit ourselves to the use of any particular kind of spring connection
between the seat and its back but in practice we have found the constructions or
arrangements of parts hereinafter described answer well.
According to one form of our invention we employ two springs each of the said
springs being made of a strong elastic wire preferably of hardened and tempered
steel bent and fashioned in the following manner. One end of the said wire is
flattened and near that end the wire is coiled into a helix preferably of about an inch
In diameter.

page_text: In practice we have found that a coil having four convolutions possesses the
requisite elasticity but the diameter of the helical coil and the number of its convo-
lutions may be varied. The remaining portion of the wire is straight and of a
length about equal to the height of the back of the seat. Two of these are fixed to
the seat near its ends by screws passed through the flattened ends of the said springs
and the upper ends of the straight portions of the springs which in their normal
position have the slight inclination usually given to the back of a seat are secured by
screwing or otherwise to the wood or other back of the seat. A rail or bar of wood
with a cushion or stuffing on its inner side or the side against which the back of the
But any
rider bears is a convenient kind of back to be used with our invention.
desired kind of back may be employed in place of the back we have described.
According to another form of our invention we employ a spring somewhat resembling
the mainspring of a gun lock that is a V shaped spring or for further simplicity we
employ a straight or nearly straight spring tapering from its base upwards. We
do not however limit ourselves to the use of any particular kind of spring or to the
use of any particular number of springs in connecting the back to the body of the
seat.
The application of our invention to seats other than the seats of carriages differs
in no essential respects from its application to the seats of a carriage as herein before
explained. The application of our invention to garden and other chairs and other
fixed seats results in an agreeable yielding of the back of the chair or seat to the
pressure of the back of the person sitting or reclining it.
Dated this Nineteenth day of Sentember 1887
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicants.

page_text: Improvements in Carriage and other Seats.
We THOMAS MABBUTT Managing Director of the Abingdon Works Company
Limited of Bath Street Birmingham in the County of Warwick Manufacturers and
WALTER PHILLIPS Manager of the Rudge Company Limited of Coventry in the
County of Warwick, Velocipede Manufacturers do hereby declare the nature of our
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Our invention has reference principally to the seats of carriages such for example
as the seats of gigs, dogcarts, wagonettes and other carriages but is also applicable
to seats for steam and other ships and vessels and to seats generally which have
backs.
Our invention has for its object principally to destroy wholly or in great part the
vibratory or tremulous notion which in the seats of carriages or other seats in
motion is communicated to the back of the seat by irregularity in the motion of the
The
carriage consequent upon roughness of road or produced by any other cause.
said tremulous motion of the back of the seat is to some persons vory distressing
and is sometimes in part and imperfectly remedied, as in traps or dog carts, by
replacing the ordinary fixed back by a stretched leather band.
We will describe our invention as applied to the seat of a dog cart.
Instead of rigidly connecting the back of the seat to the seat proper as usual we
connect the back to the seat by means of a spring or springs so that any vibratory
or tremulous motion of the seat is taken up or counteracted by the spring connection
and the tremulous motion of the seat is not communicated to the back.
We do not limit ourselves to the use of any particular kind of spring connection
between the seat and its back but in practice we have found the constructions or
arrangements of parts hereinafter described answer well.
According to one form of our invention we employ two springs each of the said
springs being made of a strong elastic wire or rod preferably of hardened and
tempered steel bent and fashioned in the following manner.
One end of the said wire
or rod is flattened and near that end the wire or rod is coiled into a helix preferably
of about an inch in diameter.
In practice we have found that a coil having three or four convolutions possesses
the requisite elasticity but the diameter of the helical coil and the number of its
convolutions may be varied. The remaining portion of the wire or rod is straight
and of a length about equal to the height of the back of the seat. Two of these are
fixed to the seat near its ends by screws passed through the flattened ends of the said
springs and the upper ends of the straight portions of the springs which in their
normal position have the slight inclination usually given to the back of a seat are
A rail or
secured by screwing or otherwise to the wood or other back of the seat.
bar of wood with a cushion or stuffing on its inner side or the side against which the

page_text: back of the rider bears is a convenient kind of back to be used with our invention.
But any desired kind of back may be employed in place of the back we have described.
According to another form of our invention we employ a spring somewhat
resembling the main spring of a gun lock, that is, a ▼ shaped spring or for further
simplicity we employ a straight or nearly straight spring tapering from its baso
upwards. We do not however limit ourselves to the use of any particular kind of
spring or to the use of any particular number of springs in connecting the back to
the body of the seat.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings represents in front elevation and
Figure 2 in side elevation, the seat of a gig or dog cart or other like carriage
constructed according to our invention; Figure 3 represents detached one of the
springs or spring arms or spring connections by which the back is connected to the
seat, drawn to a larger scale, and Figure 4 represents in plan and side clevation one
of the screw clips drawn to a large scale by which the bottoms of the springs or spring
arms are connected to the seat.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several Figures of the
drawings.
a, a are the springs or spring arms consisting of strong cylindrical wires or rods
having preferably near their bottom ends, coils or helices b, so as to give to the said
wires or rods the requisite elasticity. The coils or helices b, b may have three or
more convolutions. We do not limit ourselves to the shape, number or position of
the helices or coils b, made in the rods or wires as they may be varied without
departing from the nature of our invention. The upper straight ends of the springs
or spring arms a, a are flattened at and fixed to the stuffed or cushioned
back d of the seat by screws and the lower straight ends of the springs or spring
arms a, a are fixed to the seat e by the screw clips ff one of which is shown
separately in Figure 4. In fastening the springs or spring arms a, a to the seat e
the bottoms of the said springs or spring arms are passed through the eye ends of
the said clips, projecting at the back of the seat, and the screw clips are drawn
forward by means of the screw nuts g so as to cause the said eyes to grip the springs
or spring arms and press and bind them firmly against the back of the seat as
illustrated in Figure 2.
We do not however limit ourselves to this method of connecting the springs or
spring arms to the seat as various ways may be adopted; for example the bottom ends
of the springs or spring arms may be flattened and connected to the seat by screws.
Figure 5 represents in front elevation the seat of a dog cart, gig or other like
carriage in which seat nearly straight springs or spring arms h, h consisting of
hardened and tempered strips of steel tapering both in breadth and thickness from
their bases upwards, are employed to connect the back d to the body e of the seat in
place of strong wires or rods having coils or helices. One of the hardened and
tempered steel springs or spring arms is shown separately drawn to a larger scale
in Figure 6 Figure 7 represents an end clevation of a double seat provided with
tapering springs or spring arms according to our invention.
:
The thick ends of the springs or spring arms h, are bolted at i to the angle
pieces to which angle pieces the wooden seats e are screwed as represented in
Figure 7 and the narrow and thin ends of the springs or spring arms are screwed to
the backs d.
In a double seat a pair of springs or spring arms h, his employed near each end
of the seats and backs, the thick bases of the pair of springs being bolted together.
The double spring in this case somewhat resembles the main or V shaped spring of
a gun lock as represented in Figure 7.
By connecting the seat and back together in the manner described and illustrated
the vibratory or tremulous motion of the seat is taken up or counteracted by the
spring connections and the tremulous motion of the seat is not communicated to the
back the said back following the motion of the body of the rider. Hence the rider
not only experiences great comfort from the spring supported back but also receives
a continuous support from the said back.

page_text: The application of our invention to seats other than the seats of carriages differs in
no essential respect from its application to the seats of a carriage as herein before
explained and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
The application of our invention to garden and other chairs and other fixed seits
results in an agreeable yielding of the back of the chair or seat to the pressure of the
back of the person sitting or reclining on it.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our invention
and the manner in which the same is to be performed we declare that we claim as our
invention of Improvements in carriage and other seats provided with backs ;-
Connecting the back of the seat to the body of the seat by means of one or more
springs or spring arms or spring connections constructed and applied substantially as
and for the purposes herein before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings.