AN IMPROVED STIRRUP LATCH BAR
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Davis, of 33, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Saddler, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED STIRRUP LATCH
BAR."
Sealed the 6th March 1866, and dated the 11th September 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Davis at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th September 1865.
I, SAMUEL DAVIS, of 33, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Saddler, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED STIRRUP
LATCH BAR," to be as follows:-
The use of my improved stirrup latch bar is to release a rider who hap-
pening to have fallen with his foot fastened in the stirrup is being dragged
along the ground.
I work out my Invention in the following manner :-I procure a plate of
iron of suitable size, configuration, and substance, to serve as a support for
the stirrup holder of an ordinary riding saddle. To the head part of this
plate I rivit loosely one end of a bar or pin of steel or iron, in such a manner
that it shall hang vertically from the pin forming the rivit, and be free to

page_text: move thereon from the vertical position backwards from the plate till it
assumes the horizontal position. To the bottom part of the same plate I
rivit in the same manner a similar bar or pin, to hold under ordinary circum-
stances the horizontal position, but capable of swinging downwards when unsup-
ported in that position, to the vertical position. I form on the first-mentioned
pin or bar a hooked end turned inwards towards. the plate, and inclined
upwards so as to form an acute angle with the vertical part of the bar. The
lower horizontal bar has a notch or slot cut in the end thereof to a convenient
depth of its substance exactly corresponding in shape and size with the hooked
end of the vertical bar. When these two bars are moved upon their respec-
tive rivit pins till the one occupies the vertical and the other the horizontal
position, the two ends just described meet and lap into each other somewhat in
the manner of a mortice and tennon joint. The hooked part of the vertical
bar is made to pass underneath and into the slot of the horizontal bar, which
latter is thus supported in the horizontal position in such a manner that no
downward or vertical pressure can move or alter its position. As an additional
security against the possibility of any accidental drawing apart of these two
ènds, I attach a steel spring with a curved end upon it to the underneath part
of the horizontal bar. On the ends of the two bars being brought together into
their destined positions for use, this spring passes over a ridge formed under-
neath the hooked part of the vertical bar, and clips it, and so binds the two
ends in a sort of dovetailed union firmly together. If a stirrup strap be now
attached to and made to depend from the horizontal bar, supported and held
in position by the vertical bar and by the spring as described, it may be sub-
mitted to any amount of weight or jolting such as that occurring in riding,
without the possibility of releasing the stirrup strap; when, however, the pull
upon the stirrup strap is made obliquely backwards, as if from a fallen rider
being dragged along the ground with his foot fastened in the stirrup, the strain
is thrown on the vertical bar, which thereupon draws away from underneath
the horizontal bar, which consequently falls to the vertical position, releasing
the stirrup strap and with it the fallen rider.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent; bearing date the Eleventh day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her: heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said. Samuel Davis, Her, special licence that I, the said Samuel
Davis, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Samuel Davis, 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 "AN
IMPROVED STIRRUP LATCH BAB," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said :Samuel Davis, 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 within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said. Samuel Davis, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner, the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
:
The object of my improved stirrup latch bar is to release a rider who hap-.
pening to have fallen. from his horse is being dragged along the ground with
his foot fastened in the stirrup.
...
I work out my Invention in the following manner :-I procure a plate of
iron of suitable size, configuration, and substance to serve as a support for
the stirrup holder of an ordinary riding saddle.
.
This plate is shewn at A in all the accompanying Figures; B, B, B, being
the rivet or screw holes by which it is secured to the saddle tree. To the
uppermost part of this plate, as shewn, I rivet loosely one end of a bar or pin,
of steel or iron (létter C in all the Figures), in such a manner that it shall
be free.to turn upon the rivet as upon an axis, and move thereon upwards in
the direction of the back part of the saddle as it stands when attached to the
saddle tree, from a position nearly vertical to one nearly horizontal and vice
versa. The rivet of this pin is shewn at D in all the Figures.
To the other-end of the same plate I rivet,a similar bar or pin so that it
shall be free to turn in like manner downwards, and in the direction of the
front of the saddle, from a position nearly horizontal to one nearly vertical,

page_text: and vice versa. I shew this bar at E in all the Figures.. I form on the first-
mentioned pin or bar a hooked end (F in all the Figures), forming a right
angle with the vertical part thereof, and turned inwards towards the other bar.
On the end of the lower or horizontal bar I provide a notch or slot (G in
Figures 2 and 3,) cut in the end thereof to a convenient depth of its sub-
stance, and exactly corresponding in size and shape with the hook on the
end of the vertical bar. Thus the ends of these two bars are SO
formed as to lap into each other on being brought together somewhat in the
manner of a mortice and tennon joint, the hooked part of the vertical bar
passing into and underneath the slot of the horizontal bar, which latter is thus
supported and made to resist any downward pull. The stirrup strap is
attached to the apparatus by being inserted over the horizontal bar while the
ends of the bars are joined as described, and in order to bind those two bars.
still more securely together, so as to prevent the possibility of their coming
apart accidentally, in the ordinary operation of riding, the underneath part of
the hook of the vertical bar is fashioned in a curved line, as shewn at H, in
Figures 2 and 3, and a steel spring (letter I in all the Figures) corresponding
in shape is fastened underneath the horizontal bar, which spring clips the hook
as soon as it enters the slot prepared for it as described. Suspended thus from
the horizontal bar no force that a rider can exert in the ordinary manner of
riding can release the strap, but if the strap be pulled in the backward direction,
instead of downward, as it would be in the event of a person being dragged
along with his foot fastened in the stirrup, the force then is transferred
from the horizontal to the vertical bar, which thereby is forced away from
the horizontal bar, and an opening formed which releases the strap, and with
it the fallen rider.
A small plate of iron (letter J in all the Figures) rivetted across the angle
of the vertical bar serves as a guide for the strap in the operation, whereby
its bearing is shifted from one bar to the other, and also strengthens that part
of the apparatus on which much of the downward pressure in the ordinary act
of riding depends.
Figure No. 1 is a view of the apparatus with the ends of the two bars
joined and interlocked; Figure No. 2 is a view of the same, with both bars
standing apart in the positions they would assume after releasing the strap.
Figure 3 is a view of the same, with the vertical bar raised.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
First, the moveable action of the horizontal bar on which the stirrup leather
hance

page_text: Second, the upward action of the vertical bar from the vertical to the
horizontal position.
Third, the means as described by which the above actions are procured.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Davis, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
SAMUEL DAVIS. (L.S.)