CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON WHEELED CARRIAGES
Year: 1822

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
BURGESS, of Miles Lane, Cannon Street, in the City of London, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom, bearing
date at Westminster, the Third day of September, One thousand eight hundred
and twenty-two, in the third year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said Henry Burgess, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Henry Burgess, my exors,
adiñors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON WHEELED
CARRIAGES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that
if I, the said Henry Burgess, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same (relation
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
Henry Burgess, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):-
My Invention applies to the construction of carriage bodies, and is applicable
either to private carriages or to stage and mail coaches. In applying it to the
improvement of mail or stage coaches, it is designed to obviate some of the
inconveniences which passengers endure by night in these coaches, such as
the cramped position of the legs, the annoyance of sitting near to and directly
opposite persons of different and disgusting habits, or the offensive familiarity
which some persons exercise in a closely-packed stage coach, &c. It will also
give increased safety to the passengers, by keeping the weight lower and
nearer to the centre of gravity, and greater security to parcels, by rendering
the principal part of these inaccessible both to passengers and coachmen or
guard without their joint and mutual privity and consent. Stage coaches may
be constructed to attain these objects, so as to hold commodiously five, six,
seven, or eight inside passengers.
The one which I have built according to the subjoined representation, and
which I think the best for attaining all the objects of safety, lightness,
economy; and profit to the coach proprietors, as well as comfort to the pas-
sengers, is made to hold six persons. This coach contains three seats in the
inside; each seat is made for two persons. On the seat nearest to the horses
the passengers sit with their backs to the horses; on both the other seats
they sit with their faces to the horses. The hind part of the body of the
coach, in which the four passengers sit, whose faces are towards the. horses,
is made deeper by twelve or more inches than the fore part, which is occupied
by the two passengers whose backs are towards the horses. The roof of this
part of the coach is higher than the fore part, and the body is so made entire
before any part of the interior of the coach body is fitted up. This is for the
purpose of admitting a platform being fixed in that part of the inside of the
coach occupied by the four hindermost passengers. The part taken up by this
platform and the space for parcels underneath it is marked by dotted lines on
the subjoined Figure, see letters d, d, E, E. This platform is made of wood,
strong enough to bear the passengers to step or stand on; it is placed twelve
or more inches above the bottom of the coach. The space between it and the
bottom of the coach is for the more valuable parcels or luggage, and the
enterance into this space is by means of a lid in theinside of the coach, which
shuts down under the legs of those passengers who occupy the middle scat,

page_text: and is made secure by means of an iron bar, which passes from the lid through
the bottom of the coach, and is locked by the coach proprietor or the guard
on the outside underneath the coach. As the passengers who occupy the seat
above this lid could not be disturbed for the purpose of putting in or taking
out parcels, this compartment is intended only for such parcels as are sent to
the place where the coach finally stops, or to the more important towns at a
distance from London. Upon this platform the seats of the four hindermost
passengers are placed; the middle seat does not occupy the whole breadth of
the coach, a few inches space at each end of it being left to allow a free
passage for the two hindermost passengers to their seats, and the two ends
of the middle seat turn upon a joint, to give additional room for such passage.
The back and sides for the two persons to rest against who occupy the middle
seat are framed with the seat itself from the top and the bottom of the coach,
and have no communication with the sides of the coach above the platform.
A small door is made in the shutter or panel at the back of the two passengers
on the middle seat, to admit of conversation or communication with the
hindermost passengers, and which must be opened or closed at the pleasure of
the middle seat passengers. A small part of the platform, large enough to
admit of the middle seat passengers stretching out their feet, is made to extend
in the centre of the carriage, over the feet of the two passengers who sit
nearest the horses, which is carried out to a point near their seat, and covered
in, so that they cannot be in the least annoyed by it. The legs and feet.of the
two passengers on the hindermost seat are allowed the space under the middle
seat, one great object of this Invention being to give ample room for the legs
of persons who have to travel to a great distance in night coaches. The two
passengers on the seat nearest to the horses must descend to their seats by a
step from the platform, and ample room is left for their legs between their
seat and the platform. If it be preferred to have a coach constructed to carry
five inside passengers inside of six, one passenger must be placed in the
middle seat and two on each of the other seats. If a coach to contain seven
or eight inside passengers be desired, one or two passengers must be placed on
the middle seat, on two or three on each of the other seats, always bearing in
mind, that if three passengers be required to sit on one seat the seat must be
divided in compartments, so that each passenger may have an equal accommo-
dation for the resting of his head and body.
My plan of thus affording additional comfort and convenience to travellers
is applicable to carriages which are framed and pannelled according to the
usual mode of building coaches; but the plan which combines lightness and
strength and durability most effectually, and which I have introduced for the

page_text: purpose, is to make the body of three transverse layers of thin planking or
veneers of ash or other wood, about one-tenth of an inch thick, glued together,
and fastened with copper nails driven through and clenched, with a layer of
thin canvas glued between the second layer and the third or outer one, without
any framework whatever when finished. This method of building carriages
is simply to frame a set of moulds made of inch deal, and placed about five or
six inches apart, fastened strongly together to prevent them getting out. of
place, and arranged and shaped in setting up with mathematical precision, so
that the outer surface of these moulds will exactly correspond with the inside
surface of the carriage body when finished. The first layer is put on the
moulds longitudinally, and fastened with brads' temporarily to the moulds;
when that is completed, the second layer is placed on the first tranversely,
and is put on with glue, and fastened to the first layers with small copper
nails clinched in the inside; upon this second layer is glued a layer of thin
canvas, and upon this the third layer of veneer is fixed transversely with the
second, and fastened with glue and copper nails, in the same manner as the
second. Particular care must be taken that the veneers be made from well-
seasoned wood of the most suitable quality, and that each layer be put on
with extreme exactness, otherwise they will start, and exhibit ridges through
the leather and paint. After the carriage is finished, when the last layer :is
completed the moulds must be taken out and the iron brads drawn out with
them, or if any remain they must be pulled out with pincers; the whole body
is then finished by clinching the copper nails and filing the surface. In order
to keep the body in its proper form, two or three pieces of ash about or an
inch thick are introduced and screwed to the body in the inside; these must
be properly bent upon moulds to the exact form required. I have constructed
a cabriolet or one-horse chaise body upon this principle. The moulds, as in
the other, were first made and set up to the exact form of the body and
the head and dashing-board too, so that the cabriolet body with head and
dashing-board were all formed at the same time, and of the same materials,
viz, ash veneers, glue, canvas, and copper nails. This mode of building.
carriages is infinately more expensive than that in common use, but the great
advantages gained, in strength and lightness and durability, will amply com-
pensate for the encreased expence.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Burgess, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-three.
HENRY (L.s.) BURGESS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of March, in the
year of our Lord 1823, the aforesaid Henry Burgess came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Third day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and twenty-three.