IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND FITTING UP OF HARNESS FOR THE PREVENTION AND CURE OF GALLED SHOULDERS TO DRAFT HORSES
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, STEPHEN
BENCRAFT, of Barnstaple, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Third day of July, in the eighth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Stephen Bencraft, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Stephen Bencraft, my exors, adiñors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Stephen Bencraft, my exors, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
AND FITTING UP OF HARNESS FOR THE PREVENTION AND CURE OF GALLED
SHOULDERS TO DRAFT HORSES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said Stephen Bencraft, shall cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said

page_text: in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Stephen Bencraft, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon, that is to say:
My Invention has for its object the application of suitable straps cr
apparatus to the hames of collars for draft horses, that that prejudicial effect
(consequent on the draft heretofore being from one point only on each side of
a collar) may be prevented; and the improvements consist in causing the
draft to be brought much higher up than heretofore; and at the same time
applying means in connection with the traces for keeping the collar in its
place, and to case the horse in going down hill. And in order that the
Invention may be fully understood and readily carried into effect, I will
proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
draft horse, having
The Drawing shows one of the hames of a collar for
proper straps or apparatus applied thereto for connecting it to a trace in such
manner that the draft may be regulated, and the effect of galling heretofore
consequent on causing the draft to be taken from a point or points at a will be
prevented from taking place, and cured, if previously produced, by the use of a
collar not having hames and apparatus according to my Invention. bis a
strap through which the draft is principally taken to the collar from the trace
c, and d is a strap which keeps the collar in its place, and assists the horse in
descending a hill. The object of the Invention is so to arrange the apparatus
through which the draft is passed to the collar, that the pressure or point of
draft shall be brought to the front of the spine which forms the withers, thus
admitting of the free action of the fore legs and shoulders of the horse.
I would remark, that I have been informed that it was many years back
proposed to apply two, three, or more straps to each hame of a collar, which I
believed failed in consequence of their having been placed close together at
the same point of draft, at a, where the single trace is usually attached, by
which arrangement the point of draft cannot be brought sufficiently high
up as herein described.
Ilaving thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would wish it to be understood that

page_text: what I claim is the so applying straps or apparatus b and d to hames of horse-
collars that the point of draft may be from the withers, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Stephen Bencraft, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-ninth day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1844, the aforesaid Stephen Bencraft came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her 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.