IMPROVEMENTS IN FOUR- WHEELED VEHICLES FOR COMMON. ROADS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Puckering, of Beverley, in the County of
York, Coach Builder, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FOUR-
WHEELED VEHICLES FOR COMMON. ROADS."
Sealed the 16th October 1866, and dated the 18th April 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Puckering at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th
April 1866.
I, ROBERT PUCKERING, of Beverley, in the County of York, Coach
Builder, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FOUR-WHEELED VEHICLES FOR COMMON ROADS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to what is known as the "forelock" in four-wheeled
vehicles for common roads, and has for its object the shortening of the
coupling of the front and hind wheels and the obtainment of a larger bearing
when turned in the lock.
In carrying out this Invention it is proposed to employ two iron transome
plates, one of which may be faced with hard wood on the rubbing surface to
prevent jarring and noise in running. The two front parts of the transome.
plates form the ordinary half circle, and the lower plate is provided or formed
with a longitudinal slotted bar, or long spindle, or solid bar extending from
the crown of the half circle to its centre. In this slot, or along this longitudinal
bar slides a bolt or eye attached to the upper transome plate. The back part.

page_text: of the lower transome plate, the form of which constitutes the essential feature of
this Invention, is shaped so as to form a double reverse curve, thus
and is either slotted so as to admit of a bolt or pin attached to the top
carriage part or upper plate sliding therein when locking, or it may be made
solid and have a raised lip or rib extending along the under surface of the bar
as far as the outer edge of the "futchels," and on each side or edge of this
plate or bar there is a bolt carried by the upper plate having a laterally
projecting lip which underlaps the curved bar of the lower transome plate,
the lips of the bolts bearing against opposite sides of the raised lip or rib on
the bar, and thus guide the lower transome plate when in the act of locking.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Puckering in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
18th October 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
PUCKERING, of Beverley, in the County of York, Coach Builder, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Robert Puckering, Her special license that I, the said Robert
Puckering, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as 1, the
said Robert Puckering, 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 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 FOUR-WHEELED VEHICLES FOR COMMON ROADS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Robert Puckering, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Robert Puckering, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-

page_text: formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to what is known as the "forelock" in four-
wheeled vehicles for common roads, and has for its object the shortening of
the coupling of the front and hind wheels, and the obtainment of a larger
bearing when turned in the lock.
In carrying out this Invention it is proposed to employ two iron transome
plates, one of which may be faced with hard wood on the rubbing surface to
prevent jarring and noise in running. The two front parts of the transome
plates form the ordinary half circle, and the lower plate is provided or formed
with a longitudinal slotted bar, or long spindle, or solid bar extending from
the crown of the half circle to its centre. In this slot or along this lon-
gitudinal bar slides a bolt or eye attached to the upper transome plate. The
back part of the lower transome plate, the form of which constitutes the
essential feature of my Invention, is shaped so as to form a double reverse curve,
thus
and is either slotted so as admit of a bolt or pin attached
to the top carriage part or upper plate sliding therein when locking, or it may
be made solid and have a raised lip or rib extending along the under surface
of the bar as far as the outer edge of the "futchels," and on each side or edge
of this plate or bar. there is a bolt carried by the upper plate having
laterally projecting lip which underlaps the curved bar of the lower transome
plate, the lips of the bolts bearing against opposite sides of the raised lip or
rib on the bar, and thus guide the lower transome plate when in the act of
locking.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose shall
refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheet of Drawings, the same
letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 of my Drawings represents a plan of my improved "forelock"
showing the carriage part out of the lock, and Figure 2 is a similar view
showing the same in the lock.
a, a¹, are the two iron transome plates, the front parts of which form the
ordinary half circle, and 6 is the longitudinal slotted or solid bar or spindle
extending from the crown of the lower half circle to its centre; c is the bolt
sliding in or along the
or eye attached to the upper transome plate a, and
slotted or solid bar or spindle 6 of the lower transome plate a'. The back
part d of the lower transome plate is of the form of a double reverse curve, as
shewn clearly in my Drawings, and is either slotted as shewn in Figures 1

page_text: and 2 so as to admit of the bolt or pine attached to the top carriage part
sliding therein when locking (see Figure 2), or it may be made solid, as shewn
in the detailed front elevation and transverse section at Figures 3 and 4; in
which latter case a guiding groove or lip f is formed on, the back edge of the
back part d of the lower transome plate to receive the guiding piece g secured
to the upper plate. I do not confine or restrict myself to this mode of guiding
the transome plates, as various other obvious arrangements may be employed
for that purpose.
said
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe in conclusion that what 1 consider to be novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First, the general construction and arrangement of the "forelock" in four-
wheeled vehicles intended for common roads, as herein-before described.
Second, the constructing the back part d of the lower transome plate of the
"forelock" of four-wheeled vehicles for common roads in the form of a double-
reverse curve, as and for the purpose herein-before described and illustrated
by Figures 1 and 2 of my Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Puckering, have to this my Speci-
fication hereunto set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of October,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
KUBERI PUCKERING.
(L.S.J