IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MAKING OF STEPS FOR COACHES, CHAISES, CHARIOTS, LANDAUS, LANDALETE, GIGS, CURRICLES, AND ALL KINDS OF CARRIAGES TO WHICH STEPS ARE USED
Year: 1798

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
THOMASON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Button Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, on or about the Twenty-second day of Decem-
ber, in the thirty-ninth years of His Majesty's reign, (after reciting therein
that I, the said Edward Thomason, had, by my petition, humbly represented
unto His Majesty that I had found out and discovered, and was possessed of a
new Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MAKING OF STEPS FOR COACHES,
CHAISES, CHARIOTS, LANDAUS, LANDALETE, GIGS, CURRICLES, AND ALL KINDS OF
CARRIAGES TO WHICH STEPS ARE USED," which would be of great public utility,
and not publickly known to or used by any person or persons in this Kingdom,
and therefore prayed His Majesty to grant to me His Royal Letters Patent
for the sole use and benefit of the said Invention and discovery, in manner
therein mentioned,) His said Majesty did give and grant unto me, the said
Edward Thomason, my exors, admors, and assigns, His special licence, full
power; sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Edward Thomason, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and themselves, or
by my or their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I,
the said Edward Thomason, my exors, admiors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully inight make,

page_text: use, exercise, and vend my said Invention within that part of His Majesty's
Kingdom of Great Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said Edward Thomason,
my exors, admors, or assigns, or any of them, should in my or their discretion
seem meet; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, whereby it was
and is declared that if I, the said Edward Thomason; should not particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same was 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 one calendar month next and immediately after the date of
the said recited Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent should be
void, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may
more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Thomason, do hereby declare that the following is a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and of the manner in which
the same is to be performed (that is to say):-
First, instead of raising the step or steps by the means described in the
Specification of my said former Patent, according to the Drawings therein
particularly referred to, I raise them according to my new improvement as
follows (that is to say): :-
In the Drawing No. 3, contained in the margin of these Presents, A represents
a piece of iron or other metal, or sufficiently solid substance, which is screwed
near the bottom of the carriage door, holding a roller wheel B. C is a bended
lever made of hardened steel, or any such hard substance, and which bended
lever C is screwed or rivetted firm on the shaft or arm E that passes through the
hinge of the step, and by the pressure of the said roller B on the bended lever C,
while the door of the carriage is shutting, gives action to the said roller
wheel B and bended lever C, and thereby forces the said step or steps to their
proper and convenient place in the carriage.
'
Secondly, in the Specification of my said former Patent I did not describe
any way whereof the said step or steps might be let down by the mere opening
of the carriage door, the means of doing which I have since invented, and
which improvement I now shew in the Drawing contained in the margin of
these Presents, marked also Section No. 3 (that is to say):-
D represents a chain fastened to the bended lever C, and hooked into a loop
screwed into the door of the carriage, which chain is made of a proper length,
and consequently pulls down the step or steps by opening wide enough the
carriage door.

page_text: Thirdly, in the Specification of my said former Patent I described in the
Drawing marked No. 1, referred to therein, that the lower step was connected
to the upper step by a chain, but I now point out my new method of connecting.
the two steps together to be as follows, that is to say :-
J, J, in the Drawing marked No. 1 in the margin of these Presents repre-.
sents two jointed legs. Each of the said jointed legs move on a pivot near the
middle, and also on a pivot at each end.
Fourthly, in the Specification of my said former Patent I did not describe
any method of bolting the two straps together after they were folded up in the
inside of the carriage, to prevent the said steps from making any rattling noise
while the carriage is moving. My new Invention to answer this purpose I
declare to be as follows (that is to say):-
In the Drawings No. 1 and No. 2 in the margin of these Presents, X repre-
sents a hook fastened to the inside part of the lower step, and turning upon a
pivot, so that when the said steps are completely folded together, the said hook
X falls over the bar of the first step and keeps it tight in its place.
Fifthly and lastly, in the Specification of my said former Patent I did not
describe any method of fixing the step or steps to gigs, curricles, landaus, and
two-wheel pleasurable carriages, being open or not, having a door or doors;
and therefore I, the said Edward Thomason, do further declare that I now
take up and let down the said step or steps of such last-mentioned carriages
by my new improvement in the following manner :-
In Section No. 7 in the margin of these Presents, A represents a bar of iron
or any other metal, fastened to the hinge of the aforesaid step or steps; B is a
socket covering part of the said bar A, and screwed upon the shaft or any con-
venient part of the carriage; C is another bar, made of iron or any other suf-
ficiently hard substance, which bar or lever C is fastened at the end of the said
bar A by a nut or screw, at the end of which lever C there is a handle to
raise the said steps up or let them down when wanted.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Thomason, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine.
EDWARD (L.S.) THOMASON.
Sealed and delivered, being first duly
stamped, in the presence of
JA. WESTON.
JA BOGUE Clk to Messrs Weston

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of. January,
in the year of our Lord 1799; the aforesaid Edward Thomason 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 stampt according
to the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose..
Inrolled the Nineteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine.