IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EXERCISING THE HUMAN BODY
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Harry Rée, of the Free City of Hamburg, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EXERCISING THE HUMAN
BODY."
Sealed the 21st April 1863, and dated the '23rd October 1862..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Harry Rée at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd October
1862.
I, HARRY RÉE, of the Free City of Hamburg, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EXERCISING.
THE HUMAN BODY," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of an apparatus which enables a person to exercise.
the body in a manner analogous to that afforded by the trotting of a horse..
A two-armed lever is to be supported by a stand; a saddle is fastened to a
wooden frame, supported by the short end of the lever, and by a combination-
of levers the saddle remains always in a horizontal position when the two-armed.
lever is moved up and down. On the longer end of the lever a moveable ball
is fixed, by which the weight of the rider may be exactly balanced. The
movement of the lever is caused by a crank and fly wheel. The apparatus is
formed more or less in the form of a horse, but a saddle, bridle, and stirrups:
are indispensable. On the shaft of the fly wheel two other cranks are to be
fastened, and two shafts go from the bridle to the fly-wheel shaft, and by

page_text: drawing the bridle, the apparatus is caused to move. Under the saddle there
are powerful springs, and these springs are kept vibrating by the machinery,
and the rider derives the benefit of exercise similar to riding on horseback.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said Harry Rée in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd April 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HARRY
RÉE, of the Free City of Hamburgh, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant, unto me,
the said Harry Rée, Her special licence that I, the said Harry Rée,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Harry
Rée, my executors, administrators, and 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR EXERCISING THE HUMAN BODY," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Harry Rée, my executors or administrators, by an in-
strument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
'
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Harry Rée, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
"
This Invention consists of an apparatus which enables a person to exercise
the body in a manner analogous to that afforded by the trotting of a horse.
In order that my Invention may be completely understood I now proceed
to describe the best means I am acquainted with for carrying the same into
practical effect, reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings,
in which Fig. 1 represents a longitudinal vertical section, Fig. 2 a transverse

page_text: vertical section, similar letters of reference denoting corresponding parts in
each of the Figures respectively.
The machine is constructed as follows:-In order to be capable of sustaining
the weight of a full grown person, a standard or pillar B is screwed or bolted
to a foundation plate A, both being of cast iron, and on the standard a lever C,
with arms of unequal length, is suspended in bearings as a balance beam. The
weight of the rider being uncertain, a ball weight is placed on the longer arm
of the lever; the ball is perforated in order to allow it to be moved along the
arm, and it may be fixed in any desired position by means of a screw. By these
means the ball may be moved nearer or farther off the point of support of the
balance beam lever, so that the weight of the rider and the saddle, which
latter is fastened on the shorter arm of the lever, can be easily balanced.
This two-armed lever, which operates as a balance beam, moves on an obtuse.
edge D, in bearings, which are formed in such way that the lever cannot slide
to and fro, nor spring upwards, but, nevertheless move with very little friction.
The end of the shorter arm of the lever forms a square E, and there are four
pins fastened to it, two on each side of the square a, b, a, b, of which two a, a,
are two inches from the point of support (the above-mentioned obtuse edge,
and b, b, eight inches. A pair of levers c, c, are connected at their extremities
with the pins on the square b, b, by the two leading pieces d, d. These levers'
are forty inches long; their other ends are supported on a second pillar F by
pins on both sides. Outside the levers c, c, there are another' pair of levers
G, G, thirty inches long, which are supported on the one 'end 'by pins fastened
on the levers c, c, ten inches from the pins of the pillar F, and on the other
side two leading pieces f, f, connect them with the square E. On the
levers G, G, a wooden plate h is screwed, and "on this plate two strong
springs H, H, formed as waggon springs, are fastened, which support a.wooden'
piece L, formed like the back of a horse, on which the leather saddle is laid!!
It will be easily understood that the levers operate in such a way that by
moving the two-armed lever the saddle in moving up and down too,' is kept'
always in a horizontal potition. To make these different levers' operate, a
small shaft is placed in bearings at the back of the pillar B, and forms a
crank K. On the longer arm of the two-armed lever 'an elevation is fixed,
ending in a piece, on which a conductor g moves, ending in a sort of mortise h,
wherein the crank turns round. On one end of "the small shaft å fly wheel i
is fastened. When the fly wheel shaft with the crank is turned,' it performs'
the movement of the two-armed lever, and consequently of the saddle. To
turn the fly wheel shaft with the crank, two other cranks 1, l, are fastened on
both ends of the small shaft. A crooked rod'm goes from the mouth-piece

page_text: through the head of the horse down the whole neck; here it forms a fork,
whose two parts n, n, are connected with the two outside cranks 1, l. A small
horizontal shaft o in the mouth of the horse's head, on the place where the
mouth-piece of the bridle is situated, turns in two mortises p, p. In the
middle of the little shaft is fixed the piece q, three inches high, the end of
which is connected with the crooked rod m. On the ends of the little shaft o
are the bridle stangs r, r, six inches long. When the latter are drawn by the
rider by aid of the reins, the little shaft turns to and fro, by which the crooked
rod is moved backwards and forwards by the piece q. In this way the
cranks 1, 1, an inch and a half long, are turned, and with the fly wheel shaft
the inner crank moves the two-armed lever up and down, and the four other
levers are brought to play, and so the saddle moves regularly three-eighths of
an inch up and down. By a simple operation of the rider the saddle springs
are brought to vibrate, and are kept vibrating by the regular drawing of the
reins, which requires to be done two or three times per second. The leather
saddle requires to be fastened in such a way that the whole weight of the rider
is exactly on the highest point of the springs. The stirrups are fastened to
the wooden plate. To reduce the friction to a minimum, a system has been
maintained through the whole machine with a very few exceptions, to make
use not only of obtuse edges, or of parts very similar thereto, but also to
regulate the entire construction in such manner that any two parts which are
to move upon or in each other may be in contact on as small a point or space
as possible. For this reason, when there is a part which has to turn round
like a crank, the mortise will have in the middle an elevation of a form
somewhat between the head of a cone and of an obtuse angle or edge, in such
manner that the pivot is encircled by a fine ring. This can be so arranged
that only a fourth of the ring sits over the pivot, as a segment, and another
fourth part of the ring under the pivot, and the two other parts are quite open
and do not touch the pivot. The two segments are put in a square piece,
which acts as a mortise. This method with two segments, as described before,
can also be used every time that a part is constantly moved upwards and
downwards. If the parts only move backwards and forwards and work
specially as leading parts, their mortises consist only in segments, whereof the
inner part, which is to touch the pivot, has an elevation as aforesaid, but which
are only to of an inch on every side longer than the way the pivot turns
backward and forward. All the other part of the mortise is open. It will
be easily understood by the foregoing that those parts which work as leading
parts have their segments on the outside or two exterior ends of every part,
and the two corresponding two inner parts of the mortises are quite open.

page_text: Although throughout the whole machine the system of edgelike segments
instead of regular mortises has been maintained, exceptions must be made
with regard to the mortises of the small shaft in the mouth-piece of the horse,
and. the two outside cranks on the fly-wheel shaft, and partly with regard to
the bearings of the same shaft; all these should have the usual full mortises.
Instead of the foregoing obtuse edge-like segments, &c., operating as
mortises, regular edges and corresponding bearings, as used in a balance, may
be used, but I do not consider them very suitable. The machine may also be
worked with the following alterations:-The shorter arm of the two-armed
lever has only one pivot on every side, two inches of the point of support, and
the arm is formed as a fork. Two T-formed pieces are fastened with mortises
to the pivots. On these T-pieces the wooden plate with the springs is screwed
up. To keep these T-pieces always straight, and the wooden plate in a
horizontal position, the T-pieces have at their under part two pivots, and two
other pivots are also fixed to the pillar whereon the two-armed lever moves,
and two leading pieces connect the two and two pivots. In this way these
parts form outside a leading square on every side, by which the upper part of
the T-pieces in moving up and down, is always kept in a horizontal
position.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I would remark, in conclusion, that I
do not limit myself to the precise details and configuration of parts herein
expressed and shewn, as the same may obviously be varied or modified without
departing from the principles of the Invention; but what I claim and desire
to be secured to me by the herein in part recited Letters Patent, are the
general mechanical arrangements, substantially as specified, constituting the
Improvements in Apparatus for Exercising the Human Body."
In witness whereof, I, the said Harry Rée, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
Witness,
SIGMUND KAUFMAN,
69, Neuer Wall.
HARRY RÉE. (L.S.)