AN IMPROVED MILITARY TENT
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexis Godillot, of Paris, Rue Rochechouard,.
No. 54, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MILITARY
TENT." A communication from Ferdinand Waldejo, residing at.
Gray, town in France.
Sealed the 19th April 1870, and dated the 26th February 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION. left by the said Alexis Godillot at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 26th February 1870.
I, ALEXIS GODILLOT, of Paris, Rue Rochechouard; No. 54,. Manu-
facturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED MILITARY TENT," to be as follows:-
This tent, which is intended to accomodate two persons, presents
when erected the form of a quadrangular pyramid, the sides of which
are equilateral triangles, and the base consequently square. A prop or
rod made in two or more pieces connected together by collars or other-
wise forms the central support of the tent. Convenient dimensions,
taking into consideration the weight which a man can carry on his
knapsack without fatigue, are about 6 feet for each side of the

page_text: equilateral triangles, and about 4 feet, or a little more, for the height
of the pyramid, that is to say, for the length of the central prop or
support.
The tent is composed of two lozenge or diamond-shaped pieces of
canvas or other suitable material, each equal to the sum of two of the
equilateral triangles. They are provided with buttons, button holes,
loops, cords, and other necessary attachments at suitable places in order
that they may be connected together and erected into a tent. They
may be opened out, folded, and fastened in various ways according to
requirement, that is to say, to-make-a-close-tent-or-a-tent-partly-open-
or open at two sides; or two pairs of the pieces of canvas may be
fastened together to make a larger tent, the form of which would be a
truncated triangular prism, and which would be of sufficient size for
four men. The pieces of canvas may also be each folded when required
into a bag, which may be filled with leaves or hay to make a cushion;
and when the soldiers are on the march the pieces are folded and rolled
into a small compass, and strapped to the ordinary knapsacks,
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alexis Godillot in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 5th May 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXIS
GODILLOT, of Paris, Rue Rouchechouard, No. 54, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year. of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Alexis Godillot, Her special licence that I,
the said Alexis Godillot, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Alexis Godillot, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein cx-
pressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,

page_text: and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED MILITARY TENT," (a
communication from Ferdinand Waldejo, a person resident at Gray,
town in France,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Alexis, Godillot, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, 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 I, the said Alexis Godillot, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say :-
This tent which is intended to accommodate two persons presents when
erected the form of a quadrangular pyramid, the sides of which are equi-
lateral triangles, and the base consequently square. A prop or pole made
in two or more pieces connected together by collars or otherwise, forms
the central support of the tent. Convenient dimensions, taking into
consideration the weight which a man can carry on his knapsack witliout
fatigue, are about 6 feet for each side of the equilateral triangles, and
about 4 feet or a little more for the height of the pyramid, that is to
say, for the length of the central prop or support.
The tent is composed of two lozenge or diamond shaped pieces of
canvas or other suitable material, each equal to the sum of two of the
equilateral triangles. They are provided with buttons, button holes,
loops, cords, and other necessary attachments at suitable places in order
that they may be connected together and erected into a tent. They
may be opened out, folded, and fastened in various ways according to
requirement, as will be fully understood on referring to the annexed
Drawings.
Figure 1 represents in plan one of the two lozenge shaped pieces which
when combined form a tent. This piece is composed of two equilateral
triangles of strong canvas a, b, c; a, b, d, having a common side a, b.
The lines x, x, y, y, represent secondary, seams. The buttons and
button holes g, which are of suitable number serve to connect the two
lozenge shaped pieces in order to form, the tent which is represented in

page_text: elevation in Figure 2 and in plan in Figure 3. The loops or attachments
h, h, are attached to pegs i; Figures 2 and 3, driven into the ground;
one of these pegs is shown separately on a larger scale in Figure 4.
The eye or aperture j. fits on the end of the central prop or pole
shown separately in Figure 5 with its joint or splice in a metallic sleeve
or collar m. This tent erected as seen in Figures 2 and 3 will shelter
two men, it is shown in perspective view in Figure 6 with one of its
triangular sides open, any one of the four sides may be opened as desired
according to the direction of the sun or wind. The tent having been
-erected-as-explained-one-of-the-lozenge-shaped-pieces-may-be-entirely
removed, and if a rope or cord as at n, Figure 7, be substituted for it an
open tent is produced as seen in this Figure; the cord end maintains the
firmness of the tent. If two tents be erected one against the other by
making two sides coincide at the base as indicated by dots in Figure S,
if the face o, p, q, be raised by bringing the point o to the summit ”,
and if the face o, p, 2, be raised by bringing the point p to the summit q,
a tent is obtained having the form of a triangular truncated prism and
of a capacity two and a half times that of the quadrangular tent made
from two pieces of canvas. This larger tent will accommodate four men,
in this case the tent is further secured by two cords 8, s¹, hooked to pegs
t, t, and to the summits and g.
I have indicated in plan in Figure 9 a mode of folding each lozenge
shaped piece which allows each man to make a cushion or a rectangular
bag. This mode of folding consists in bringing the point C to the
point D so as to form the fold B, v, and the point A to the point B
so as to form the fold w, D. The two sides D, v, and B, w, are buttoned
and the bag is complete, by filling it with leaves or hay it forms a
cushion.
In Figure 10 I have shown the manner of finally folding the
lozenge shaped piece in order that it may be placed upon a soldier's
back round the knapsack X, Figure 11. The piece is first folded into two
superposed equilateral triangles, that is to say, by bringing the points A
and C together, the point A is then brought to the middle A' of the
side B, D, and finally the points D and B are brought to the point A'
and the whole is rolled up into the formn Z, as seen in Figure 11 it being
strapped to the knapsack X. The lozenge shaped pieces may be com-
bined in other ways than those herein-before described which practice
and circumstances may determine.

page_text: And having now described the nature of the said Invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,
the improved military tent herein-before described composed of two
lozenge shaped pieces of canvas or other suitable material which form
when erected on a central pole or prop a tent of the shape shown in
Figures 1 and 2, and which are capable of being folded, and of being
combined with other like pieces in various ways, substantially as herein-
before described with reference to the annexed Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexis Godillot, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of March One thousand
eight hundred and seventy.
ALEXIS GODILLOT. (L.S.)