CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON DRAGS TO BE USED FOR CARRIAGES
Year: 1823

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPHI
JOHNSON, of Waterloo Bridge Wharf, in the County of Middlesex, 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 Sixteenth day of April, 1823, in the fourth year of
His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Johnson, my exors,
adiňors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Joseph Johnson, my exors, admors, and assigns,
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
úse, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON DRAGS TO BE USED FOR
CARRIAGES;"" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if
I, the said Joseph Johnson, 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, and cause the
same 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 samo, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE; that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Joseph
Johnson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the

page_text: manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):-
My said improvements on drag or drags to be used for carriages, consist in
my method or methods of letting fall a staff or staves, when suspended by the
upper end to the axletree, near the back part of the nave or stock, (it may also
be applied to any part of the axletree, perch, or body, to the spring or springs,
shaft or shafts, or to any part of carriages of every description), the other end
having a joint or joints by which it is united to a shoe made of iron or steel, or
any other metal or metals, or any other metal or metals, or wood soled with
iron, steel, or any other metal or metals, which is made to take the ground by
certain methods applied to different parts of the carriage by means of rollers
with a leather strap, line, cord, or chain, or leather straps, lines, cords, or
chains, other suitable material, which is or are attached to a pulley or pulleys,
or without a pulley or pulleys, with or without cog wheels, having a handle to
be used at the pleasure by the proprietor. The said staff, when, liberated by
the aforesaid means, can at the pleasure of the coachman, guard, or any
person appointed, be let fall, which, when it takes the ground within the wheel;
will lift a part of the carriage off the ground independent of the wheel, taking
the weight of the said carriage on that side only where it is applied, and will
thus constitute the drag. And I further declare that by certain methods, to
be hereafter described, I use a cross bar or bars, or stay or stays, connected
with the upright staff or staves to keep the said staff or staves in its or their
upright position when in use; and this bar, or these bars, stay or stays, I liberate
at pleasure, and thereby admit of the staff or staves sliding under the carriage,
so that the wheel may retake the ground, and the drag can then be wound up
to its place ready to resume its action, thereby the drag can be applied and
used to carriages without the person having the place where the pulley or rack
is fixed. And I further declare that in the Drawings hereunto 'annexed, and
severally distinguished by the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, and the
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,16, 17, 18, 19, 20, applies
to each to denote things or parts of a similar nature or kind. The staff I make
either solid, or in parts of wood or metal, or both.
The Figure No. 1 in [the Drawings represont the staff in parts, having a
shoe with a joint or knuckle No. 5; the upper part is a ring, with side pieces,
flaps, or ears to receive the upper end of a wood staff. No. 2 is another way
of effecting the same object as-No. 1, to screw or fasten in for the convenience
of taking out. No. 8 is an eye to receive No. 1 or 2, and is applied and
fastened to the axletree, perch, body, spring or springs, shaft or shafts, or to

page_text: any other part of the carriage, or any other common method may be used to.
fasten the staff to the carriage. No. 4 is an hollow iron to receive the lower.
end of the wood staff with a joint No. 5, and having a slanting long hole.
or mortice A. for the cross bar to slide in. B shews the side view next the
wheel; A, the front view, which slants in the same direction as the form
of the cross bar; this is full double the breadth of the cross bar, to admit the
knotch C, Fig. 12, to work through. No. 5 is the joint, which admits of the
staff finding its perpendicular (by being pliable to any form of road) when
the staff is falling or when at work. G6, H7, 18, are other methods of
effecting the joints to answer as common knuckle joints; G 6 is a hollow left
in the shoe to receive the joint of the staff G 7, which is fastened down by the
clipp G 10 passing over each end of the joint, and screwed or otherwise
fastened to the shoe; EI 6 is also a hollow left in the shoe to receive the joint.
of the staff H 7, which is fastened down by the clip II 10 passing through the
middle of the staff; I8 is the end of the staff, screwed into a ball or ball of
any metal, with a round nutt, which is made fast by a cross pin working in
recess No. 6, formed to the shape of the ball, and having a clipp marked I 10,
which is screwed to the shoe. The staff, including the shoe and sole, must be
of sufficient length when in use to raise the wheel to. which it is applied.
an inch and half or two inches from the ground. No. 11 is an iron or steel
sole, differing in width and length in proportion to the weight it has to carry;
a stage coach will admit of one twelve inches by two inches and half. No. 12
is the cross bar, the eye coller K to receive a wood or iron staff; the end K.
to be fastened to any convenient part of the carriage in same manner
as has been described for the, staff, the other end must be curved to pass
through A, No. 4, the upper edge made round and smooth;. the notch C holds
the staff upright when at work; the notch D determines the distance the
staff may pass when it is liberated; E receives a bolt; F is a clipp bolted
on the end E, and has the end of a leather line, cord, or chain fastened to it...
No. 13 represents the staff and cross bar when down at work. No. 14 and
15 are steel springs, cither of which are fastened to the shaft, and pressing on
the cross bar prevents it on account of notch C from 'sliding through the hole.
or mortice A, No. 4. No. 14 may be used either outside or conceiled within
the star. No. 15 is for, the outside, as represented in No. 13. The hole.
No. 4, A, must be so formed by side cheeks of iron as not to admit the cross
bar to twist in it; when it is required to release the drag, the strap or line
fastened to F must be drawn up to lift the cross bar, so as to allow the notch
C to pass through the hole A, No. 4. The cross bar being thus drawn up
the staff will not remain long upright, but the wheel by.the motion of the

page_text: carriage will come to the ground and force the staff between the notches C:
and D on the cross bar. The same strap, line, cord, or chain, or another.
fastened to the drag, being wound up by the pulley will draw the whole up off the
ground. I fix an iron or wooden guide L to any convenient part of the carriage,
in such manner to force the staff while winding up. from between the notches
C and D back to F, clipp behind the notch C, as in Figure 18; by the time it is
wound up it will resume its place ready for another fall; separate straps may
be used for lifting up the cross bar and winding up the staff, but one strap:
fastened to F will in some case answer both purposes. No. .16 shews a
coach with the drag down, a chain of any description sufficient in strength to
carry the work is fastened to the end of shoe No. 6, the other end either to
the centre of the fore bed or. the usual place of fastening; the lenght of such
to admit of the staff being a little out of the perpendicular, and backward.
No. 17 is a leather strap, line, cord, or chain, carried by means of common.
brass or other pulleys to any convenient part of the carriage, either inside,
front, top, or back part. No. 18 is a windlass, pulley, or rack, made in the
ordinary manner, either with or without cog wheels, with a rocket and fall for.
the purpose of winding up the drag. The end of such is sufficiently heavy to
Keep. the line which is wound round the centre tight and in its place. The.
person using the drag may release it by using both hands without a windlass ;.
a rack and wheel may be found convenient in some cases when it is required.
to use the drag; by lifting up the fall, the drag will run down, and by the:
motion of the coach forward, the staff No. 1 will be drawn perpendicular under.
the part to which it is applied, and in proportion to its length lift the carriage
on that side off the ground, as in No. 18. No. 19 represents the drag wound
up ready for action.. No. 20 represents a gig with another method of applying
the drag to two-wheeled carriages; a drag or drags being fixed to one or both
the shafts. The staff to be of sufficient height to keep the shafts in their
usual position; in this case the wheel or wheels may or may not be lifted off
the ground at the pleasure of the driver. In the staff or staves there is a
joint A, as circumstances may require; to shorten the staff for the convenience
of folding up, one end of the chain or other suitable material is fixed to the
tug hooks or other part of the shafts, and the other end to the front of the
shoc. The cross bar is applied in the same manner as to other carriages, and
by means of pulleys or cog wheels, or without pulleys or cog wheels, as before
described, the drag can be let fall or raised into its proper place; when in use
it takes the weight off the horses back, and in many cases may prevent the
horse from falling.
⚫ And
do further declare my Invention of certain improvements on drags to

page_text: be used for carriages, consists in letting fall a drag when the carriage is in
motion forward, the drag or drags immediately receives its bearing independent
of the wheel, and may be released at pleasure, as before described. The
principles of such I have fully described from No. 1 to 20 in the Drawings.
And lastly, I do declare that by virtue and in consequence of the arrange-
ments of the parts of the drag, it is rendered convenient for the immediate
purpose of use by persons driving, or to any other appointed for its use, thereby
affording a more perfect security to passengers in or on carriages, safety to
goods and cattle than has hitherto been done by any of the methods in use.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Johnson, have hereunto. set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-three. ·