CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WHEELED CARRIAGES
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
MAUGHAN, of Connaught Terrace, Edgeware Road, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of September, in the fourth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said John Maughan, Her especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said John Maughan, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, and such others as I, the said John Maughan,
my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WHEELED CARRIAGES;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said John
Maughan, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly
to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled
in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters

page_text: Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Maughan, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thercon (that is to say):-
66
This Invention consists in the improved construction and mode of applying
two pairs of shafts to that description of carriage generally denominated
'curricle," which are to be employed as a substitution for the pole and cross
bar commonly applied to a carriage of that description, by which improved
mode of attaching two horses to a curricle much lighter construction of the
vehicle is practicable, elegance of appearance increased, more freedom of
action allowed the horses in their draught, and greater safety insured. The
lightness is owing to the removal of all the heavy carriage framework
necessary in the old construction; the shafts (which are high) connecting
immediately by scroll irons to the foot board of the vehicle. Greater elegance
of appearance is consequent upon the absence of the aforesaid cumbersome
framework, and the usual pendant wooden support horse. More freedom for
the action of the horses results from getting rid of the friction of the iron bar
across their backs by a transfer of its agency to a balance cross spring under
the body of the vehicle, attached to the shaft tails, which admits of the balance
action of each pair of shafts at their resting points in the hook tugs of each
horse's harness, or, in other words, admits of their alternating to the relative
heights of the animals, whatever may be their inequality from size or position,
whilst the horizontal action of each pair permits the animals to separate and
approach each other freely, unrestrained by pole pieces, as in the old way, but
kept at their due distance from one another by the coupling reins alone,
though a strong strap depends from collar to collar, as a precaution in case the
coupling reins should prove from any accident insufficient to restrain too wide
a separation. Greater safety arises from the carriage baving wide support in
front instead of the single centre bearing afforded by the pole of the old
curricle, which wider supports renders a vehicle of any construction less liable
to upset. The equal division of the support of the front weight between
four shafts offers moreover less risk of accident from breakage than when the
weight is upon one pole only, and the danger from overbalancing backwards
in ascending hills, or from other circumstances, is also effectually obviated.
The several Figures in the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed represent

page_text: various views of my improvements, and by which it will be seen that the two.
pairs of shafts are connected to the carriage in a manner which renders them
totally independent of each other. Similar letters of references are marked on
corresponding parts on all the Figures.
Fig. 1 is a horizontal view of two pairs of shafts in the situation they
would occupy when attached to the carriage, but in the present Figure they
are represented as detached therefrom. Fig. 2 is a side view or elevation of
one of the shafts shewn in Fig. 1. Fig. 8 is also a side view of a similar
construction of shaft, but of a different shape or bend to that shewn at Fig. 2.
Fig. 4 is a side elevation of a carriage with my improvements attached thereto,
and Fig. 5 is an elevation of the back of the carriage. That particular
form of shafts represented in Figures 1 and 2 is attached to the carriage in
Figures 4 and 5, each pair of shafts being connected together and kept firm by
an horizontal bar a, a. The middle part of this bar is held by clips b, in
which the bar turns as an axle, and the clips are connected to the body of the
carriage by an upright pin c extending therefrom, and passed through a socket
in the scroll or bracket iron d, as represented at Fig. 6. The bar a is shewn
detached upon an enlarged scale in a vertical position at Fig. 7, with the
swing tree mounted on the pin c by means of an iron socket e, attached to the
centre of the said swing tree. The shafts f, f, are constructed of ash and ironed
in the usual way throughout.. The bars a, a, are attached to the shafts f,f, by
clips 9, 9, at their extremities, as shewn, and the back parts of the shafts are
bent inward or "compassed," and terminate in sockets h, having a bolt eye i at
their united extremity, as shewn at Fig. 1. Under the seat of the body of
the vehicle a horizontal balance spring k is placed transversely, mounted upon
a strong stud or short axle affixed to the framing of the body, the outer end
of which axle is supported by a pendant bolt ; a loop or bored coupling m
connects the spring k to the stud or axle, and allows it to vibrate and advance
and recede thereon. From the ends of this spring k two rods n, n, are pendant,
as shewn at Fig. 8, for the purpose of connecting the spring to the ends of
the shafts at i, i. Both ends of these rods n, n, have shackle joints, as shewn
in the Drawings. The effect of this mode of adapting shafts to a curricle [
will now explain. Let it be supposed that two horses are attached to the
carriage, the belly bands of the harness being passed round the shafts at the
tugs and the ends of the traces hooked on to the extremities of the swing trees in
the ordinary way. It will be seen from the manner in which both the pairs of
sbafts are connected to the balance spring k, and the peculiar method of
attaching the shafts to the carriage by the joints formed by the clipps g, g, and
upright pin c, that the action of one horse, however different from that of the

page_text: other, will not incommode its companion or communicate any unpleasant
motion to the carriage. As the bars a, a, of the shafts turn vertically in the
clips g, g, and the upright pin c of the said clips turns horizontally in the
socket of the scroll iron, a sort of shackle joint is thereby produced, which
admits of the desired balance and horizontal action of the shafts provided for
In Fig. 3 I have repre-
by the balance spring and connecting rods n, n.
sented a shaft differently curved in its vertical direction to those above
described. Under some circumstances this form may be advantageously
employed, and when that is done I use a curved bar, shewn in clevation at
Fig. 9, in place of the straight bar a, Fig. 7, the other parts of the apparatus
being exactly the same in form and position as described above.
Figure 13 represents sections of the two inside shafts at the tugs, with a
side view of the shields and cross plate, which I apply to the sides of the
For the purpose of preventing
shafts, as shewn also at u and y, in Fig. 1.
one shaft from catching under the other when the horses are in motion and
approach each other, gig harness having iron hook tugs is to be used with the
balance shafts, and the inside shaft of each pair must be padded out laterally
on wooden chocks, leaving a niche for the hook tug, as shewn at Figures 1
and 13. This padding is intended to support the covered. and stuffed iron
shields. The shield at u, Fig. 1, is furnished in its concave centre with an
iron loop or staple similar to that on the point of the hook tug. The continu-
ation of the back band passes through this staple first, and then through the
loop of the hook tug. The back band thus attaches the shield to the book tug
as an appendage, and when the horse is "put to" it holds the shield firmly in
its place on the padding by being passed round the shaft in the usual way.
The shield, as above described, is all that is requisite for the one shaft u; but
the shield for the other shaft at y, Fig. 1, may be shorter, and must have an
iron convex compassed plate, covered and stuffed, attached by a loose rivet
across its centre. Figure 14 is a front view of this latter shield, with the
covered compassed plate, which is furnished with holes at both ends for small
straps to confine it above to the back band and below to the belly band. The
convex face of the said upright compassed plate, it will be seen by Fig. 13,
takes at right angles with and on the convexity of the horizontal shield on the
opposite shaft when the horses approach each other, thus preventing the shafts
from obstructing each other's actions, and at the same time protecting the
harness from getting chafed. This shorter shield and cross plate has its loop
or staple similar to the loop of the longer shield, and is attached to the hook
tug precisely in the same manner as the said longer shield of the opposite
shaft, and is held firmly in its place on the padding just in the same way.

page_text: The manner in which the horses are to be "put to," that is, introduced
between the shafts of the carriage, allows of an unquiet animal being harnessed.
in without the danger usually attending that operation when the curricle has a
pole and cross bar. A vehicle of the old construction depends for support
upon the usual pendant prop or wooden horse until the bar is placed across
the back of both animals, and the slightest restiveness of either horse whilst
being attached may cause the prop to be broken or displaced, to the almost.
certain injury if not destruction of the carriage and perhaps horses likewise;
whereas, by my improved construction of curricle, this danger is obviated in the
following manner:-A simple iron instrument, hereafter described, is to be
slipped on one extremity of the balance spring before commencing to "put to"
the horses. This will have the effect of causing both pairs of shafts to rise
from the ground together, and preserve their coincident level on lifting one of
the pairs; one of the horses is then to be introduced between the lifted pair
and harnessed thereto precisely as in a common gig. The animal will thus at
once and alone duly support the carriage, and, if restive and uneasy, be free to
move without the risk of doing injury either to the vehicle or itself. The
second pair of shafts can now be raised from the level of the first pair at which
they rested while the first horse was "putting to," and the second animal
brought into its place with perfect safety, the shafts dropped into the iron hook
tugs of the harness, and the "putting to" completed, when the loose iron
being slipped off the balance spring the balance and horizontal action of the
shafts will be restored. The simple iron instrument above referred to, of the
form shewn in Figure 10, may be carried in the seat of the vehicle or stowed
away in any other convenient place. It is applied by its fork z to one end of
the balance spring, as shewn at Figures 11 and 12. The upper end of this
instrument, by abutting against the framework of the seat, has the effect of
preventing that end of the balance spring to which it is applied from rising,
but leaves the other end free to do so, by which it will be seen that the lifted
pairs of shafts must bring up off the ground the sustained pair at a coincident
level, and that the sustained pair are free to be raised from the coincident level
to admit of the second horse being brought into its place. The lower end of
this instrument, Figure 10, has a fork formed in it at æ, which form, by
embracing the lower end of the pendant rod u, prevents any horizontal action.
of the pair of shafts connected thereto.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Maughan, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
JNO (L.S.) MAUGHAN.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of January, in the
fourth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said John
Maughan came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-
fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the third.
Inrolled the Twentieth day of March, One thousand eight hundred
and forty-one.