NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR HOOKING OR SECURING AND FOR UNHOOKING OR FKING OR UNLOUBING HORSES FROM TRAMWAY OK OTHER CARS UK CARRIAGES WHILE THE SAME ARE IN MOTION."
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Austin Joseph Maher, Engineer, of the City and
County of Dublin, Ireland, for the Invention of "NEW OR IMPROVED
APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR HOOKING OR SECURING AND FOR UNHOOKING OR
F
LETTERS PATENT to Austin Joseph Maher, Engineer, of the City and
County of Dublin, Ireland, for the Invention of "NEW OR IMPROVED
APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR HOOKING OR SECURING AND FOR UNHOOKING OR
UNLOUBING HORSES FROM TRAMWAY OK OTHER CARS UK CARRIAGES WHILE THE
SAME ARE IN MOTION."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Austin Joseph Maher
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 3rd April 1873.
I, AUSTIN JOSEPH MAHER, Engineer, of the City and County of
Dublin, Ireland, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR HOOKING OR SECURING, AND
FOR UNHOOKING OR UNLOOSING HORSES FROM TRAMWAY OR OTHER CARS OR
CARRIAGES WHILE THE SAME ARE IN MOTION," to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to afford means for connecting and
disconnecting trace horses of tram cars or other vehicles while in rapid

page_text: motion, thereby saving a considerable loss of time in stopping, and any
unnecessary wear to the rolling stock and horses.
I construct my apparatus in the following manner :-I place a pair
of traces on the horse which are only flexible in certain points herein-after
described. I connect the two traces behind the horse by a V shaped
bar, the angle or extreme point nearly of the V being the point of
hooking to the vehicle to be drawn.
I place over the horse's haunches a strap which I use as a means of
supporting the traces, the traces forming a lever, the fulcrum of such
lever being the strap already mentioned at or near the end of the lever,
which is a certain point in the trace. In or about under the rider's feet
there is a point; by this means I obtain a point capable of being moved
up and down, and at the same time being attached to the collar of the
horse. Now it is obvious when the rider acts on this point he imme-
diately acts on the other end of the traces, which is the angle or centre of
the V or other shaped bar, which is the point of attachment to the vehicle,
and by this means he can hook and unhook at pleasure; or the traces
may be all in one piece, resembling a pair of ordinary shafts suspended
by a spring of any suitable description thrown across the horse's back.
When the mounted attendant wants to hook on, he brings the point of
attachment immediately over its place on the car, presses on the two
traces or shafts with his feet, if convenient, thereby causing the shaft or
inflexible traces or shafts to keep their place while the horse is attached
to the car.
Or another modification of the same can be used by the employment
of an elastic band acting on the shafts by means of a cord or cords,
which are under the control of the rider, or the ordinary driver can act
on a hook by means of a cord, which hook is placed on the required
point for drawing the vehicle along the road or rails, but the essential
feature in the Invention is the employment of traces as hercin-before
described, which are inflexible in all but the required points, in other
words, the construction and employment of a bar or point of attachment
standing out the required distance from the horse's hind legs and
capable of being attached and detached without the attendants leaving
their respective places.
The operation of unloosing and of attaching may if desired be effected
by bringing the point of attachment of the horse as low down as the
ordinary height of pole, thus by the driver of the shaft horses checking
32

page_text: his horses the pole has a tendency to rise given to it sufficiently high to
drop on to the hook or to lift off.
I do not confine myself to use any particular material in the construction
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said Austin
Joseph Maher in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th October
1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I AUSTIN
JOSEPH MAHER, Engineer, of the City and County of Dublin, Ireland,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-sixth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Austin Joseph Maher, Her special licence, that I,
the said Austin Joseph Maher, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Austin Joseph Maher, 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 "NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS
OR APPLIANCES FOR HOOKING OR SECURING AND FOR UNHOOKING OR UNLOOSING
HORSES FROM TRAMWAY OR OTHER CARS OK CARRIAGES WHILE THE SAME ARE IN
MOTION," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Austin
Joseph Maher, my executors or administrators, by an instrument 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 on or before the Fourteenth
day of October, One thousand. eight hundred and seventy-three.
NOW KNOW-YE, that I, the said Austin Joseph Maher, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, that is to
say:
The object of my Invention is to afford means for connecting and
disconnecting trace horses of tram cars or other vehicles while in rapid
motion, thereby saving a considerable loss of time in stopping, and any
unnecessary wear to the rolling stock and horses.
I construct my apparatus in the following manner:-I place a pair of
traces on the horse, which are only flexible in certain points herein-
after described. I connect the two traces behind the horse by av shaped
bar, the angle or extreme point nearly of the being the point of
hooking to the vehicle to be drawn.
I place over the horse's haunches a strap, which I use as a means of
supporting the traces, the traces forming a lever, the fulcrum of such
lever being the strap already mentioned at or near the end of the lever
which is a certain point in the trace. In or about under the rider's feet
there is a joint, by this means I obtain a point capable of being moved
up and down, and at the same time being attached to the collar of the
horse.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a side elevation, and
Figure 2 is a plan of an apparatus of this description, constructed
according to my Invention.
a, a, are the traces; 6 being the shaped drawing bar forming a
continuation of and part of the traces; c is the strap for supporting the
traces at the point d; e is the point at which the traces a, a, are hinged
or jointed, and f¹ are the ends of traces attached to the draught or
collar. The rider on horse by pressing at the point e raises the opposite
end 6 of the traces, as shewn in dotted lines, and by removing the
pressure the traces are brought to their normal straight position, thus,.
when the mounted attendant wants to hook on he brings the point of
attachment 6 immediately over its place on the car, having first de-.
pressed with his feet the point e, thereby raising the v piece 6 of the
traces which then keep their place while the horse is being attached to
the car, and until the attendant takes his feet off the point e or the
pressure therefrom when the v-shaped piece immediately falls, and it is
attached to the drawing hook. To release it again press on the point e,

page_text: when the piece is raised from the hook and the horse is free to be
driven away immediately.
Figure 3 is a side elevation, and Figure 4 is a plan of another arrange-
ment also according to my Invention, somewhat modified to that just
described. Here the shaped piece is depressed instead of being raised;
for this purpose the piece b is jointed at e. f is a bell-crank lever or
arm united to the piece 6 of the trace, one arm of which lever carries a
pulley; there is a cord g attached to the shaft which is passed round the
pulley, and led up to the attendant on the horse and under his control.
There is another arm h on the opposite side of the piece b to the
arm f, and there is an elastic strap or spring connecting this arm h
to the traces, so that the spring always has a tendency to keep the
v piece 6 in a line with the traces, or nearly so. Now to hook on, the
attendant on the horse pulls the cord g, thereby depressing the piece b,
as shewn in dotted lines; which is then brought under the hook, on
releasing the cord the spring raises the o piece b, and the attachment
is made. To unhook, the attendant again pulls the cord, the piece b
droops, and the horse is free.
Figure 4 shews yet another arrangement, where the piece b is raised
instead of being lowered to make the connection; for this purpose
similar parts to those just described are employed, but the arm fis above
instead of below the piece b. It will be seen that by pulling the cord
this armfis raised and with it the piece b, the weight of the v piece b
in this case bringing both back, as in the arrangement previously
described with reference to Figures 1 and 2, whereby I am able to
dispense with the use of a spring at all, although a spring may of
course be used if desired.
By leading the cord g from the detaching apparatus suitably modified
to the.driver's box of the carriage, or to some other convenient part
thereof, the operation of detaching may be performed from the carriage
itself, if desired, thus rendering the Invention applicable for detaching
in case, for example, of runaway horses.
The operation of hooking on and of unhooking might, if desired, be
effected by bringing the point of attachment of the horse as low down
as the ordinary height of pole, thus, by the driver of the shaft horse
checking his horse the pole has a tendency to rise given to it sufficiently
high to drop on to the hook or to lift off.

page_text: Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not confine
myself to the use of any particular material in the construction of appa-
ratus constructed according to my Invention, neither do I limit myself
to the precise arrangement of the parts described provided the essential
features of my Invention are retained, but I claim, the construction and
employment of apparatus or appliances for hooking on or for detaching
horses from tram cars, omnibuses, or other carriages, while the same.
are or are not in motion, in and by the employment of traces standing
out the required distance from the hind quarters of the horse and capable
of being raised or lowered so as to attach and detach without the
attendants leaving their respective positions, all substantially in the
manner described and illustrated with reference, to the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Austin Joseph Maher, have 1
hereunto set my hand and seal, this First day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.
AUSTIN J. MAHER. (L.S.)
Engineer,
Dublin.