AN ELASTIC SELF-ADAPTING SADDLE
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
THATCHER, of the Parish of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Saddler,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Seventh day of September, in the first year of His
reign, did, for Hiniself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Thatcher, His especial licence that I, the said Thomas Thatcher,
my cxors, adiiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Thatcher
my exors, añors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN ELASTIC
SELF-ADAPTING SADDLE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said Thomas Thatcher, by an instrument in writing, under
my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to case
the same to be enrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, referenco being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance-with-the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Thatcher, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention
consists in an improved mode of constructing the saddletree with clastic ends
or points,, which enables the saddle to give way to pressure, and to adapt itself
to the backs of different sized horses: And in further compliance with the
said proviso, I, the said Thomas Thatcher, do hereby describe the manner in
which my said Invention is to bo performed, by the following description
thereof, reference being had to the Drawing annexed, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon (that is to say):-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a front view of the head of the saddletree detached from the
leather covering and padding; Figure 2 is a top view, and Figure 3 a sido
view of the same. a is the head of the saddletree bound with a strap of iron
both on the upper and under sides as usual; b, b, are the bearings of the
saddletree, to which the clastic stell ends or points c, c, are fastened by rivet
screws or any other suitable means. The general construction of the saddle-
tree is in no respect different from those of the ordinary kind except in the
adaptation of the elastic ends or points, which I propose to make of steel or
whalebone or some other, elastic material; instead of the fixed non-elastic
wooden ends or points extending from the front sides of the saddletree on
the old construction. Figure 4 is a front view of the saddle complete, and
Figure 5 is a side view of the same, the flaps of the saddle being in this
Figure removed in order to expose the parts that would otherwise be hidden,
and which therefore shows the mode of inserting the elastic ends-or-points c,
each into a pocket d, one being, formed on each side of the pannel, and also
showing the strap e, that holds, the pannel to the saddletrue, the pannel g, g,
being fixed to the saddletree at the hinder part in the usual way, but detatched
at the head or front part, and only connected to the saddletree by the straps c,
there being one on each side; the pannel is stuffed or padded at the part over
the withers as well as at the sides, for the purpose of forming a soft pad
between the head of the saddle and the horse's withers; by this means and also
by the situation of the point pockets, the head of the saddletree and pannel
are: prevented from quite meeting, so that the saddletree can never gall the
withers of the horse, the ends or points c being inserted into the pocket d;
the straps e, affixed to the front-part of the pannel, are passed through small
loops f, on the underside of the saddletree, as shown by dotted lines, and are
thence carried to the back part of the pannel, and secured by buckles at h,
which keeps the saddle and pannel together.

page_text: Now whereas I claim as my Invention the elastic ends c of the saddletree
points, and the separation of the head of the saddle from the pannel by the
position of the pockets and the aid of the strap e, whereby the said elastic
ends are better enabled to adapt themselves to the shape of the horse, and
such my Invention being to the best of my knowledge and belief entirely new,
and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, called England, His said Dominion of Wales, or
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification
of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Specification doth comply
in all respects fully and without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the
said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore I
hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilego to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Thatcher, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one