IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HANSOM CABS
Year: 1885

page_text: I EDWARD ELLIS ALLEN of 111 Cheyne Walk Chelsea in the County of
Middlesex Engineer do hereby declare the nature of my invention for IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HANSOM CABS to be as follows:-
The object of my invention generally is the construction of Hansom Cabs so that
they may be used either as open or closed vehicles and when the latter to afford
greatly increased air space and comfort than are now obtainable To this end
I form hoods over the fore part of the said vehicles utilizing the foot boards the
construction of the hoods being varied to suit special cases.
I construct Hansom Cabs which I name "Saloon" Hansoms with doors at the
sides of the foot board enclosing the latter in the body of the vehicle the said doors
being hinged or made to slide and I roof over the space thus gained by a hood fixed
or movable either in the shape of a segment of a cylinder with ends centred at the
junction of the two radial edges of the said ends or in the shape of a rectangular
box which may be made to slide out and in as desired The sides and front of the
said hoods may be glazed and furnished with ventilators and spring blinds and may
be used partly or fully open When not in use the hoods are housed completely
under the roof of the cab For summer use the hoods may be made in frame
covered with leather silk or other suitable material In front facing the ordinary
seat a small seat may be fitted or parcel box Instead of the ordinary "boot knee
doors an apron of leather or other material may be used worked on spring roller
attached to front part of foot board I construct the drivers seat or "dickey" so
that it may be set nearer to or further from the body of the cab in order the more
perfectly to balance the same when closed This adjustment may be made
conveniantly by rack and pinion movement its position being retained by a notched
segment.
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Over the wheels of Hansom Cabs I fit splash boards either of leather wood or
sheet metal and construct a fixed or movable box below the breeching attached to
the shafts or otherwise for the purpose of catching the horse droppings this box
being fitted with balanced cover and with hinged bottom for emptying the front of
this box may constitute the "heel" plate.
I construct the pannelling seating flooring roofing and certain parts of the
framing or some of them of boards or quartering composed of layers of cork and
canvas securely attached together with a facing when required of vencer or papier
machè such material being from one-third to one-half only the weight of wood of
equal scantling.

page_text: I, EDWARD ELLIS ALLEN, of N° 111 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :—
My invention relates to the construction of Hansom Cabs in such a manner that
they can be used either as open or closed vehicles, and that, when they are closed,
they shall afford better accomodation with more space, air and comfort than can be
obtained in cabs of ordinary construction. For this purpose, I construct a Hansom
Cab as I will describe referring to the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 being a side
view and Fig. 2 a plan partly in section of a cab constructed according to my
invention. I make the heel plate which is interposed between the horse and the
passenger in three parts, a middle part J which is fixed and two parts E E' which are
hinged to J as doors so that they can be opened to an oblique position as indicated
by E or that they can close back to a position in line with J as indicated by E¹.
I prefer to provide each of those doors E and E¹ with a spring such as F F¹ which
tends to draw then back to the straight position of E. At the two sides of the
front part N of the cab, I provide other doors D and D¹ which can be opened out-
wards as shewn by D, or closed to the position D¹ meeting the doors E E¹, so as
with them and the fixed part J to enclose entirely the front space N. In order to
give convenience to passengers entering or leaving the cab, I prefer to connect the
pair of doors D and E and the other pair D' and E¹ by levers and links G G¹ or
other known sympathetic hinge arrangements so that the opening of either leaf of
the pair, as, for instance, D, shall cause simultaneous opening of the other leaf E.
The passenger thus finds great freedom for ingress or egress and is also shielded
from the wheel W. In some cases, I also hinge the doors D D¹ so that they can be
turned into the dotted position D2 D3 closing the lower part of the cab immediately
in front of the passenger's knees. When this arrangement is adopted, the links G G¹
are extended backwards and made with curved slots H H¹ to allow the inward
movement of the doors to the position D2 D3 without giving movement to the
door E E¹ beyond the position E. Within the head of the cab I fit a hood A like
a segment of a cylinder which is capable of turning on side pivots B, so that it can
be drawn up wholly within the head of the cab, or can be lowered down, as shewn
in Fig. 1, so as to rest on the closed doors D E D' E' and the front board J. In this
condition, the cab becomes a completely closed vehicle. The hood A may have
fitted within it a flap C hinged to the front edge of the hood. This flap may be
allowed to hang down vertically in front of the passenger when the hood A is
raised, or it may lie horizontally as indicated at C' when the hood A is lowered.
I am aware that it has been proposed to construct Hansom Cabs with hoods such
as A and also with side doors like D D opening inwards enclosing the front space
of the cab. Such a construction is described in Kirk's Specification N° 1117
of 1869, and the construction of bood is also described in Floyd's Specification
N° 5766 of 1883. I therefore make no general claim to the construction of a
Hansom cab with a pivotted hood or with side doors to its front space, but,

page_text: having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
In combination with the pivotted hood A and the side doors D D¹ opening
outwards, of a Hansom Cab, a front shield made in three parts, a middle fixed
part J and two hinged side parts E E', substantially as and for the purposes herein
set forth.