NEW INVENTED AND IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING STEPS FOR COACHES, LANDAUS, CHARIOTS, GIGS, CURRICLES, CHAISES, AND ALL OTHER CARRIAGES TO WHICH STEPS ARE USED
Year: 1796

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 His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Thirty-first day of October last past, did give and grant unto me, the
said Edward Thomason, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His Royal
will and licence that I should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, during the term of years therein expressed, within that part of Great
Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my "NEW INVENTED AND IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING STEPS FOR COACHES,
LANDAUS, CHARIOTS, GIGS, CURRICLES, CHAISES, AND ALL OTHER CARRIAGES TO WHICH
STEPS ARE USED;" in which Letters Patent a proviso is contained, 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 is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month next after the date of the said Letters Patent, then such Letters Patent
should be void, as in and by the same (reference being had thereto) will
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Thomason, in compliance with
the aforesaid proviso, do hereby, in the first place, declare that my said Inven-
tion is an improved step, where only one step shall be used, and where moro

page_text: than one step shall be used, then improved steps for all kinds of carriages to
which a step or steps shall be used, and the peculiar advantage of which is,
case and facility in ascending to and descending from any carriago to which
the same shall be affixed, as a person seated in the carriage to which the said
steps shall be affixed, may take them up and put the same down again without
the assistance of any person whatever, whereby the great danger attending a
coachman or postillion leaving his horses or being thrown from his sent, or of
horses taking fright, is removed, and the said steps are so contrived that they
take no more room in a carriage, and are full as light as those made upon the
old or former principle, which Invention is described by the Drawings contained
in the margin of these Presents, and the description herein-after written and set
forth respecting the same, that is to say :-
I, the said Edward Thomason, do hereby also further declare that the
Drawing in the margin of these Presents, marked N° 1, represents a step of my
said Invention fixed to a carriage, and put down ready for any person to ascend
the same; the component parts of which are described in seven sections, also
set in the margin of these Presents, and marked respectively Nº 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
and 9, each of which sections corresponds with the part having the like
number or mark affixed to it in the said Drawing marked N° 1. The Drawing
in the margin of these Presents marked A represents a small stud or nose
screwed to the inside of the door of the carriage, to which the said steps are to
be used, which stud or nose nets against a similar stud or nose at the Drawing
in the said margin marked B, in section marked N° 3; and the said section
marked No 3 shews a lever fastened to the inside of the door case of the
'carriage by a screw or pin, drawn in the said margin and marked C, on which
it acts. The said stud or nose marked A, also by its pressure on the stud or
nose marked B, when the door is shutting, gives nction to the cogs represented
in the margin of these Presents by the Drawings marked respectively D and E,
and thereby forces the said steps to their proper and a convenient place in the
carriage. The Drawing in the said margin marked D represents teeth at the
bottom of the said lever in section marked N° 3, which are received into the
cog wheel at the Drawing in the said margin marked E in section No 4, and
are put into action by the taking up or putting down of the said steps. The
Drawing in the said margin marked F is an arm or shaft to the above-
mentioned cog wheel marked E, which is made square at G, as in the Drawing
thereof in the said margin, and is received into the hinge represented by the
Drawing in the said margin marked If, through which it passes, and is
'fastened by a screw or rivet. The Drawings in the said margin marked I, T,
represent the sides of the frame of the upper step, to which the hinges are

page_text: attached, as in section marked N° 6. The Drawings in the said margin
marked respectively K, K, are sockets at the bottom of the said frame marked
I, I, through which the sides of the second frame (represented in the margin
of these Presents by the Drawings marked O, O,) passes and works, in manner
herein-after described. The Drawing in the said 'margin marked L represents
a small bar screwed or rivetted through the sides marked I, I, to keep such
sides in place. The Drawing in the said margin marked M also represents a
bar screwed or fastened in like manner as the other bar above described, and
marked L, answering exactly the same purpose; and upon or to this last-
mentioned bar marked M the upper step is fixed and works. The Drawings
in the said margin imarked respectively N, N, are shoulders on which the
upper step before described falls, and which supports the said step when down.
The Drawings in the said margin marked respectively O, O, in section Nº 7,
are the sides of the second step, which pass through the above-mentioned
sockets marked K, K, in section N° 6, and after passing through the said
sockets, the bar represented in the margin of these Presents by the letter P is
affixed to the said sides marked O, O. The Drawing in the said margin
marked Q is a bar screwed or rivetted through the said sides marked O, O, on
which the second step is fixed and works, which step is supported when down
by the shoulders, represented in the Drawings in the said margin marked R, R.
The section marked N° 8 shews how the frame of the lower step marked O, O,
passes through the said sockets of the upper frame marked I, I, at the
letters K, K. Sections marked N° 5 are the screws made with shoulders, the
screw ends of which pass through the bottom part of the frame of the carriage,
and are screwed under by nut screws, whereby the step or steps is or are
firmly fixed to the carriage, and the other ends are received into the hinge
marked II, and form part thereof. Section marked N° 9 shews one side of the
frame marked I, I, with a double crank and spring. The Drawing in the
said margin marked S is the spring which is screwed at one end to the under
side of the hingo marked II; the other. end acts against the crank, represented
in the said margin by the Drawing marked T, and gives motion to the crank
at its respective axis, represented by the Drawings in the said margin marked
U, W, and X, at which last place it is connected to the back part of the upper
step by a loop, which is shewn in the said Drawing marked N° 1. When the
step or steps is or are down, the weight thereof prevents the spring acting,
except when the door of the carriage is shutting, at which time it is relieved
from such weight, and in its action draws up the first step, and as the first
step is united to the second step (in case of there being more than one) by the
chain represented in the said margin by the Drawing marked Y in Drawing

page_text: marked No 1 it raises such second step also, and the complete shutting of the
door of the carriage puts the whole into their proper and a convenient placo
by means of the action of the before-mentioned studs or noses, marked
respectively A and B.
And I, the said Edward Thomason, do hereby further declare that upon the E
same principle as the second step, above described, is added to the first step in
section marked N° 7, a third step, or any other number of steps may also be
added, and the said step or steps may be made of iron or steel, plain, plated,
tinned, or japanned, or of cast iron, or any other metal.
And, lastly, the Drawing in the said margin of these Presents marked N° 21
represents the aforesaid steps in their proper place within the carriage, to
which the same may be affixed.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-
eighth day of November, in the thirty-seventh year of the reign of our
Sovereign Lord King George the Third, by the grace of God, of Great 1
Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and so forthi,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-