AN IMPROVEMENT IN CARRIAGES TO FACILITATE THE UNLOADING OF HEAVY GOODS, COALS, AND OTHER THINGS
Year: 1810

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JonN
BOSWORTH, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Coal Dealer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Ninth day of May,
in the fiftieth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said John
Bosworth, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Ilis especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said John Bosworth, my exors, admors, and
assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein mentioned,
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN CARRIAGES TO
FACILITATE THE UNLOADING OF HEAVY GOODS, COALS, AND OTHER THINGS;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
John Bosworth, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to 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 His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within two calendar months after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had,
may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Bosworth, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described and
ascertained as follows, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in the construction of a carriage for a more con-
venient and expeditious method of unloading heavy goods, particularly the

page_text: articles of coal, lime, sand, bricks, manure, stone, or any other substance or
substances capable of being discharged or unloaded by the following method:-
The principle of which is, I build my carriage with two or more wheels, but I
prefer using four, which I think better calculated for the ease and safety of
the horses, and more convenient to my purpose in forming and fixing the
frame or bottom of such carriage, as in that the principal merit of my im-
provement or Invention consists. The foremost wheels may be made so small
as to admit of their running under the body of the carriage in instances of
short turning (which plan or method I think best for large towns), but they
may be made of any dimension that may be most convenient for the weight
they are intended to carry and the road they are to travel on. The hinder-
most wheels must be sufficiently high so as to make or leave space enough to
contain the load after it is let or dropt down between the wheels. The bottom
of the body of the carriage, cart, or waggon is formed of two or more parts,
which may be called doors or drops, fastened to the sides of the body by hooks,
hinges, or any other convenient fastening, and supported by levers or bars,
which may be fixed or fastened to either of the doors, or drops near or at the
centre of the levers, or bars, which with pleasure may be thrown into books,
catches, &c., fastened to the sides of the body of the carriage for that purpose.
To unload the carriage, cart, or waggon, &c., I remove the levers or bars which
keep the bottom 'firm in its proper situation from their fastenings to the sides,
and 'then let down the load by either levers, pullies, screws, rollers, or tooth
and pinion wheels with rollers, the latter mode I prefer, and which is done in
the following manner, (viz.): At the front and hindermost part, or any other
convenient part of the carriage, is a roller or rollers, made of wood or iron, or
-any-other-proper metal or material, but I prefer two iron rollers, one placed
before and the other behind the body of the carriage, which rollers communi-
cate rope, chain, or tumbling shaft, and also to the ends of the doors or
drops by ropes or chains, which wind round the rollers when turned, to one or
both of which rollers are fixed tooth and pinion wheels, which are worked by
a windlass, by turning which (the levers or bars being removed) I let down
the load gradually with pleasure. (By letting go the windlass it will unload
itself suddenly; -but the former mode I prefer): When the load is thus let or
dropt down, the two or more doors or drops will be found, the pressure of
the goods, near the wheels- of the carriage, which will then form a sort of box
or space which will contain the loading, and which box or space should be ás
largo or larger than the dimension of the body of the carriage which previously
contained it. I then draw the carriage on until clear of the load let or
dropt down, then I turn 'the windlass the contrary way to that of letting or

page_text: dropping down the load, and the doors or drops are raised and replaced in
their former situation; then I pull the levers or bars at the bottom of the
carriage into their fastenings, and the whole is compleated. A break, such as
is used in windmills, or in many other works, may be used to advantage in very
heavy loading to prevent its going down too rapidly.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bosworth, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and ten.