NEW INVENTED CARRIAGE, SO CONSTRUCTED AS TO SAVE IN THE LABOR OF HORSES, TO BE LESS DESTRUCTIVE TO ROADS, AND BETTER CALCULATED FOR THE CON- VEYANCE OF MERCHANDIZE AND THE ACCOMMODATION OF PASSENGERS, THAN ANY NOW IN USE
Year: 1790

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BESANT, of Milbank Row, Westminster, Coachmaker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George tho Third,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of July, in the thirtieth year of
His reign, did givo and grant unto me, the said John Besant, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole priviledge
and authority, that I, the said John Besant, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, by myself and themselves, or by my or their deputy or deputies,
servants or agents, or such others as I, the said John Besant, my executors,.
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend
my "NEW INVENTED CARRIAGE, SO CONSTRUCTED AS TO SAVE IN THE LABOR OF
HORSES, TO BE LESS DESTRUCTIVE TO ROADS, AND BETTER CALCULATED FOR THE CON-
VEYANCE OF MERCHANDIZE AND THE ACCOMMODATION OF PASSENGERS, THAN ANY NOW
IN USE," within that part of His said Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain
called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
in such manner as to me, the said John Besant, my executors, administrators
and assigns, or any of us, should in our discretions seem meet; in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that if I, the said John Besant, should
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and scal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately
after the date of tho said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly
cease, determine, and become void, anything therein before contained to the
contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding, as in and by the said Letters
Patent, relation being thereunto hnd, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Besant, in pursuance of and
in compliance with the said proviso, do heroby describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and declare that the same is to be performed in
manner following (that is to say):-
-
Fig. 1 represents a carriage with six wheels and three sets of springs,
which has a slider or moveablo centre at A, to admit of the shortening and
lengthening of the under carriages, when any of the wheels drop into a hole,
or have to raise over an obstruction.
Fig. 2, a carriage, with eight wheels and three sets of springs, and has a
slider at B.
Fig. 3, a carriage with ten wheels, which has two fore and aft sliders at
C and D.
Fig. 4, a carriage with twelve wheels, which has three fore and aft sliders
at E, F, and G, which body may have a chimney in front, and be divided into
two or three apartments, so that a family of fifteen or twenty, by sleeping by
turns, máy travel for months or years without leaving the carriage; and six
horses in hand, three before thrce, will be equal to the travelling five or six
miles an hour on any turnpike road in England.
Fig. 5, the horizontal plan of the carriage, the timbers of which are suffi-
ciently shewn in the foregoing Figures, except the rods or poles h, h, h, h, h,
h, h, h, which cause the carriages to lock or turn, and the stays or
braces F, F, F, F, cach carriage having a perch bolt or centre pin, except the
hindmost (if there be six wheels or twenty-four), and by which the carriage
will turn as short and as easily as if it had but four wheels, with the hind
ones the same distance from the fore ones. The number or form of springs
may be proportioned to the length of the carriage and the business 'tis
intended to do. As this Invention is not confined to a carriage for the purpose
of carrying passengers, families, or luggage, but applies equally to all the
common purposes of conveying loads, particularly road waggons, cars, &c.,
the beds of which may rest on the side of the carriage to which the
spring beds are fixed in the foregoing Drawings, or may hang on chains or

page_text: braces fixed to stiff wood or iron standards, by which all kinds of merchan-
dize may be conveyed with safety.
Fig. 6, the end view of Fig. 4.
Fig. 7, the end view of a square-bottomed room, which would be remarkably
easy, so that a person may sleep on the floor. The body of such a carriage
as Fig. 7 may be extended to seven or eight feet wide, and will go into a
common gateway; but where gateways are not to be considered, a pleasure
house, suttling booth, or dining room, as large as twelve feet by twenty or
thirty, or larger, with every necessary accommodation, may easily be drawn
on twelve or fourteen or more wheels, with six horses.
Fig. 8, an end view, wherein the same principle is applied to a double
carriage, which may have from eight to forty-eight wheels in length and
breadth, so that if it and its load weighed twenty tons, a strong gale of wind
would blow it along, if properly rigged, and it would sail like a ship, and with-
out making any lee way; and one pair of horses, with such a carriage, and a
gentle breeze, may travel at a very satisfactory rate with fifteen or twenty tons;
and if, instead of expending such immense sums in navigable rivers, a few
pounds were applied to widen turnpike roads, carriages to sail and be drawn
by horses may be built to carry any weight, from one ton to one hundred
tons, and a less number of horses would draw it than draws a barge against
the stream, and on this principle of the increased number of wheels the steam
engine goes which will work the carriage and an immenso load without any
horses. Post chaises, coaches, and all four-wheel carriages may with great
ease, and at a very little expence, have the additional advantage of two, four,
or more wheels, as shewn in Fig. 2.
The foregoing is sufficient to shew that all sorts of bodies may be hung on
the improved principle of increasing the number of points of bearing, and
practice will point out the propriety of doing it; and frames may be fixed or
hung on such carriages, after the manner of seats or galleries in theatres, to
carry three, four, or more in width, and seven, eight, or more in depth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Besant, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fiftli day of August,
in tho thirtieth year of the reign of His Majesty King George tho Third,
the said John Besant came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in forin above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the several Statutes made in
the sixth year of the reign of the late King and Queen William and Mary of
England, and so forth, and in the seventeenth and twenty-third years of the
reign of His present Majesty King Georgo the Third.
Inrolled the said Twenty-fifth day of August, in the year above written.