IMPROVED MEANS OF OR APPLIANCES FOR CONTROLLING OR CUBBING DRAUGHT HORSES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVED MEANS OF OR APPLIANCES FOR CONTROLLING OR CUBBING
DRAUGHT HORSES."-A communication from abroad by Bernard
Lamarque and Jean Auguste Bories, both of Paris, in the Republic
of France
one in the Kunnah Arm
Sealed the 19th March 1875, and dated the 31st December 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 31st December 1874.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS OF OR APPLIANCES FOR CONTROLLING OR
CURBING DRAUGHT HORSES," a communication to me from abroad by
Bernard Lamarque and Jean Auguste Bories, both of Paris, in the
Republic of France, Officers in the French Army, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to means or appliances to be employed in

page_text: connection with carriages or other vehicles, more particularly for the
purpose of stopping or curbing the horses drawing the same when they
run away or become unmanageable, but which may also be applied to
the checking of the motion of the animals when descending inclines or
otherwise, and it consists essentially in the employment of a cord or band u
attached at one end by suitable straps and connections to the harnoss
and the shafts of the vehicle, and at the opposite end to the barrel of a
windlass or similar apparatus situate within the vehicle, and by preferenco
under the driver's seat of the same, so that by the act of winding up or
shortening the cord or band the requisite restraint or curb will be placed 1
upon the animals drawing such vehicle.
In carrying. out this Invention, as applied to onc borso vehicles for
example, it is proposed to arrange the apparatus in the following
manner :—A strap passing over the back of the horse carries at each end
a ring or similar device having one or more pullies, which rings are 1
connected by means of other straps to the shafts of the vehicle. Around
the pulley or pullies of the rings there is passed a cord or strap (of any
suitable material), which extends around and bears against the hind part
of the horse and forms the breeching strap at that part, where it is
slightly padded and lined with leather, whilst the ends of such cord or
strap are attached centrally behind the horse by a hook and eye or
similar means to the cord or band herein-before referred to, which is
wound on to the barrel of the windlass. The hip strap, which is attached
to the shafts for preventing the animal from kicking, is completed by
means of rings placed above, or in licu thereof by straps forming rings:
for supporting at each side the cord or strap which is connected to tho
cord or band of the windlass, in which latter case they are fixed below
the hip strap by a buckle or similar means for uniting the two extremities
of the strap.
When two horses are yoked together in a vehicle a simple pulley 8
attached to cach trace is substituted for the ring and pullics, and the
straps for supporting the rings and connecting them to the shafts are in
that caso dispensed with. In this modification the hip strap is made of
a V shape, and buckled at its rear part behind the sacrum, and its lower
extremities are attached to buckles placed at the outer portions of the 3
fore carriage and in the contro or at the nole.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Scal Patent
Office on the 26th June 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-eighth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said John Henry Johnson, Her special license that I,
the said John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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 "IMPROVED MEANS OF OR
APPLIANCES FOR CONTROLLING OR CURBING DRAUGHT HORSES," a communication
to me from abroad by Bernard Lamarque and Jean Auguste Bories, both
of Paris, in the Republic of France, Officers in the French Army, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Henry Johnson,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my
land 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 Scal Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Johnson, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: is double; the portion intended to press the horse when operating is
slightly padded and covered with leather at d, and it passes through the
pulley 6 of the rings B; the other portion forms an eye F in the centre,
into which is hooked the cord or band G uniting the latter with the
windlass E placed upon the carriage. The hip strap H, which is attached
to the shafts a to prevent kicking, is completed by means of two rings c,
or in lieu 'thereof by two small straps forming rings or loops to support
the cord or band D on each side on a level with the stifle joint. In this
case they are attached below the hip strap by means of a buckle which
unites the two extremities of the strap. The doublo cord or band should
be adjusted as if it was simply intended to act as a breeching, all tho
properties of which it also possesses.
In the case of double sets of harness the system is simplified. The
pulley ring is replaced by a simple pulley fixed to each trace at about
the first posterior rib, and the straps for supporting the rings and con-
necting them to the shafts are consequently not required. The hip strap
is V shaped; it is buckled at its rear part behind the sacrum, and the
lower extremities are united to buckles placed for the purpose at the
outer parts of the fore carriage or at the pole. The hip strap in this
case is also completed by rings or by small straps forming rings or loops,
so as to support the safety cord or band. By actuating the windlass E
the cord or strap G connected with the cord or band D is wound up,
which latter cord or band in operating forms a species of lasso, and at
the same time paralizes the posterior parts.
In the case also of single harness the pullics may be attached to the
shafts, if desired, the supporting and connecting straps being dispensed
with; but as the action of the cord or band is direct from a fixed point
it would have an injurious tendency upon the horse, whereas the object
to be attained is to protect the horse as well as the persons using it.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of tho
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I 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, tho
application and use of a cord or band connected with the harness of a
horse or horses drawing a vehicle or with the shafts of such vehicle in

page_text: combination with a windlass, around the barrel of which the cord or
band is wound, the whole being arranged in such a manner that by the
act of operating the windlass a curb or restraint will be placed upon
the horse or horses drawing the vehicle, substantially as heroin-before
described and illustrated by the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to this
my Specification set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day
of Junc, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.