IMPROVEMENTS IN SKATES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Banks Hilliard and John Watson, both
of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SKATES."
Scaled the 26th October 1875, and dated the 28th April 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Banks Hilliard
and John Watson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 28th April 1875.
WC, JOSEPH BANKS HILLIARD and JOHN WATSON, both of Glasgow,
in the County of Lanark, North Britain, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SKATES," to be as follows,
that is to say:-
This Invention relates to improvements in skates of what is known
as the acme type, the said improvements rendering the skates much
superior in many ways to such skates as hitherto made.
In a skate made with the improvements the fixed toe plate or seat
for the forward part of the foot is formed with a shallow broad groove

page_text: on its upper side to receive the bodies of two side clips, which bodies are
formed with oblique slots. Pins projecting down from a movable top
plate pass through the obliquo slots, and also through longitudinal guide
slots in the seat. The top plate is formed with a longitudinal slot, and
is held down by a pin or button passing through the slot and fixed below.
The top plate is jointed to a spring lever link, the back end of which is
bent down so that clips on the end of it catch on the upper edge of the
runner or blade. The heel scat is formed with a longitudinal slot to
receive the pin of an adjustable heel gripper which catches against the
front of the boot or shoe heel, and which is formed with a picco
projecting forwards and at its front end jointed to the spring lever
link.
The joint last roferred to is made with a pin which, withoutrequiring
any separate tool, can be changed with the greatest ease from one to
another of a series of holes provided to admit of adjustment for different
sizes of foot.
When about to put on the skate the spring lever link being freed
from the runner the front top plate is moved back, and the forward side
clips thereby moved outwards whilst the heel gripper is moved forwards;
the skate is then put on the boot or shoc, and the lever link is turned
in again and caught on the runner. In turning in the lever link in this
way it produces equal closing strains on the heel gripper and on the
forward clips, the former acting as the fulcrum for the latter, or vice
versa.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Banks Hilliard and John Watson in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th October 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOSEPH
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Banks Hilliard and John Watson in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th October 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOSEPH
BANKS HILLIARD and JOHN WATSON, both of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Joseph Banks Hilliard and
John Watson, Her special licence that we, the said Joseph Banks
Hilliard and John Watson, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Joseph Banks Hilliard and John Watson,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
“IMPROVEMENTS IN SKATES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we,
the said Joseph Banks Hilliard and John Watson, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was
to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Joseph Banks Hilliard and
John Watson, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement in writing,
reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
Our said Invention relates to improvements in skates of what is
known as the acme type, our said improvements rendering the skates
much superior in many ways to such skates as hitherto made.
Our Invention comprises modifications in the constructive details and
in the manner of combining the parts, rendering it entirely unnecesary
to provide any separate instrument, either for fixing the skate on or
removing it from a boot or shoe of a size for which it is already adjusted,
or for adjusting it to suit a different size.
And in order that our said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, we hercunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing a

page_text: skate as made with our improvements. In these Drawings the same
reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts wherever
they are repeated.
Figure 1 is a side elevation; Figure 2 is a transverse vertical section,
as at the lines 5-6, in Figures 1 and 3, and Figures 3 and 4 are plans, the
gripping parts being shown closed in Figure, 3 and open in Figure 4.
In this our improved skate the fixed scat 7 at the forward part of the
skate is formed with a shallow broad groove on its upper side to receive
the bodies or horizontal parts 8 of two side clips 9, which clip bodies 8
are formed with oblique slots indicated by dotted lines in Figures 3
and 4. Over the clip bodies 8 there is placed a movable top plate 10,
having fixed in it pins 11 which project down through the oblique slots
of the clip bodies 8, and also through longitudinal guide slots in the fixed
scat. 7. The top plate 10 is formed with a central longitudinal slot
having bevilled side edges, and is held down by a headed pin or button 12
passing down through the slot; this button being itself held in a socket
formed for it in an upward extension 13 of the runner 14. Tho
button 12 is shaped so as after being entered down into its place to bo
fixed by being turned a quarter round. The top plate 10 is movable
longitudinally, being guided by the button 12 and by its front end,
which is bent down into a longitudinal groove in the toe plate 15, which
is an extension of and of tho samo piece as the fixed seat 7. The top
plato 10 is connected by a joint 16 to a spring lever link 17, the after
part of which is bent down, so that clips 18 on its sides at its back end
may catch on the upper edge of the runner 14. The heol seat 19 which
is fixed by a button 20 (like the one 12) to an upward extension 21 of
the runner, is formed with a longitudinal slot 22 to receive the pin 23
of a movable hocl grippor 24, which catches against the front of the boot
or shoe heel, and which is formed with a pieco 25 extending forwards
and jointed at its front end to the spring lover link 17.
The joint last referred to is made with a pin or button 26, which
without requiring any separate instrument or tool can be changed with
the greatest ease from one to another of a series of holes 27 in the spring
lever link 17, these holes 27 being provided to admit of adjustment of
the parts for different sizes of foot. The pin 26 has a cross pin fixed on
it which is at right angles to the centre line of the piece 25, and which

page_text: prevents the pin from getting out of any of the holes 27, except when
the piece 25 and the spring lever link 17 are set at right angles to cach
other, but when they are in that position notches or slots in or between
the holes 27 allow the pin to be shifted.
When about to put on the skate the spring lever link 17 boing freod
from the runner 14 is turned outwards to either side, into or towards
the position in which it is shown in Figure 4. This movement of tho
spring lever link 17 moves forward the heel gripper, and moves back-
ward the top plate 10, which last by its pins 11 acting on the obliquo
slots shifts outwards the sido clips 8, 9. The skato is then put on the
boot or shoo, and the spring lever link 17 is turned in again to the
central longitudinal position and its back end is caught upon tho
runner 14. In turning in the spring lever link 17 in this way it produces
equal closing strains on the heel gripper 24 and on the forward sido
clips 8, 9, the former acting as the fulcrum for the latter, and vice
versu.

page_text: the forward part of the foot are made equal or dependent on each other,
as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Banks Hilliard, on behalf
of myself and the said John Watson, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JOSEPH B. HILLIARD. (L.S.)