A NEW METHOD OF BUILDING WHEEL'D CARRIAGES
Year: 1801

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
THEODORE KOSTER, late of Lisbon, but now residing in Saint Andrew's Court,
Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Merchant, 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 August, in the forty-first year of His reign, reciting that
I, the said John Theodore Koster, had, by my petition, humbly represented
unto His said Majesty, that I had, by great study, invented "A NEW METHOD
OF BUILDING WHEEL'D CARRIAGES," which would be of public utility and
advantage, and praying His Majesty to grant to me, my exors, adññors, and
assigns, His Letters Patent for the sole exercise of my Invention within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of
fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent, was graciously
pleased to condescend to my request; in which said Letters Patent is con-
tained a proviso that if I, the said John Theodore Koster, 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, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately after the

page_text: date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all
liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease,
letermine, and become void, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation
being thereunto had, may and will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Theodore Koster, in compliance
with the said proviso, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my
Invention to be, as herein-before set forth, a new method of building wheeled
carriages that run upon more than two wheels; and I further declare the
principle to be as follows (that is to say):-
That my said Invention doth consist principally in making use of shafts
connected together by transoms or cross pieces, so as to form a frame or frames,
in place of a perch or a crane neck, proportionate in size, strength, and exact
form to the body it is intended to carry, and that the wheels run within the
said frames, which will rest upon supporters of wood or metal, one on the out
and one on the inside of each wheel, and these upon axis of the wheels. The
hind springs may be placed either upon the shafts on the outside of the wheels,
directly over the wheels, or upon the cross pieces within side the wheels, as may
be found, on experience, most convenient, and the fore springs on the fore part
of the carriage, nearly in the usual place. It is intended that the wheels shall
run upon spindles or gudgeons that turn with the wheel in holes or grooves
at the bottom of the supporters; but they may run two and two upon the same
axle-tree, or each upon a separate axle-tree, and the supporters fixed thereto,
or the hind wheels may run upon spindles, and the fore wheels upon an axle-
tree, if found more convenient. It is proposed to fix the fore transom to the
fore axle-tree, on the point answering thereto, by a ball and socket, to turn
within or round each other, the socket to be fixed either on the axle tree
or the transom, as by experience may be found most convenient; but the
carriage may be built without this contrivance, or the ball and socket may
be adapted to any four-wheeled carriage of the usual construction. It is
also intended that the wheels should be greased by a small vessel filled with
oil placed against or within the supporters, and dropping upon the ends of
the spindles. By making the supporters of a greater thickness, two friction
wheels may be introducod, on the circumference of which the ends of the
spindles may turn.. The construction of a waggon, wain, or other carriage
burthen must be nearly the same; the body must be built upon its shafts
and transoms, and an opening or hollow left for the upper part of the hind.
wheels.
The better to elucidate the understanding of the aforesaid Specification,

page_text: he following Sketches are subjoined, made on a scale of half an inch to a
oot, and consist of,-
1st, a plan of a frame 11 feet by 5, out and out.
2d, the fore frame, if the fore wheels are on gudgeons.
3d, a side geometrical view of the carriage.
4th, the front of the carriage, if on gudgeons, with a ball and socket.
5th, one of the supporters, with friction wheels, on a large scale.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and scal, this Twenty-
first day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and one.