IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DISCONNECTING CONVEYANCES FROM ANIMALS DRAWING THE SAME
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Ellis at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th October 1867.
I, ROBERT ELLIS, of Kingstown, in the County of Dublin, Clerk in Holy
Orders, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR DISCONNECTING CONVEYANCES FROM ANIMALS DRAWING THE SAME,"
to be as follows:-..
The Invention has reference to a mode or modes of and apparatus for
connecting the traces to carriages or conveyances drawn by animals, and of
and for connecting the poles, shafts, and breeching and the front under
carriage of four-wheeled vehicles, which. shall enable the driver or other
person in or upon the carriage or conveyance (in the event of the animal or
animals or some of them running away) to disconnect the carriage or con-
veyance, and so liberate the animal or animals. It is contemplated that the
animals may carry off the traces or the breeching and back band, or the
breeching, back band, and shafts. The improvements embrace the connecting
the ends of the traces to the splinter bar of the front under carriage by means
of pins, bolts, studs, springs, or apparatus to be acted on, withdrawn, or
liberated by the driver for instantaneously liberating the animals. I propose
that the pins or parts refered to may fit into sockets or places prepared for
them, or be constructed to disengage readily when acted on by cords or chains
or rods or levers, or any equivalent means of communication. The improve-
ments also embrace the so constructing the shafts, breeching, and back bards
that the animal or animals when the traces are released, as above, may by

page_text: their onward motion pull the breeching and also the back band away from the
shafts, also the so connecting the ends of the shafts to the splinter bar, and
the ends of the traces to the shafts that the shafts themselves may be carried
away by the animal when liberated instead of the traces only as before men-
tioned. In the case of carriages or conveyances with a pole or poles when
two or more animals are used, I propose to connect the traces to the fore bed
bar or elsewhere, and connect the pole chain to the pole by means of prongs
or apparatus open or made to open in front, so that when the traces are
released the animals shall by their onward motion liberate the pole chains
from the carriage or conveyance and pole and thus become disengaged; the
prongs or apparatus refered to may consist of forked or hooked fittings with
the free end of the fork or hook presented forwards, or of fittings which shall
yeild to a forward impulse or strain, or the two chains and pole head may be
made so as to be carried off from the end of the pole if necessary. The
improvement also embraces the constructing the front under carriage of
vehicles or conveyances having transit or locking plates, so that they may not
be easily upset on the sudden liberation of the animal. The locking or transit
plates may be locked or fastened by the driver or other person in or upon the
conveyance or carriage so as to prevent turning and thereby upsetting the
carriage or conveyance, by reason of the shafts or pole no longer keeping the
fore and bind axles parallel, and this may be accomplished by a clamping or
gripping apparatus, or by a pin, stud, or bolt acting on or upon or through
the locking plates or fore bed, though I propose to use any other suitable
means for securing together the locking or fore bed plates. The several
improvements are intended to be used in combination or separately, as may
be desired or as convenient in any special case.