AN IMPROVED SAFETY ATTACHMENT TO CARRIAGES
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED SAFETY ATTACHMENT TO
CARRIAGES." A communication from abroad by Claude Ducrux, of the
City and State of New York, United States of America.
Sealed the 7th June 1867, and dated the 29th December 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
: at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
129th December 1866.
**I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED SAFETY ATTACHMENT TO'
CARRIAGES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a new device whereby a 'waggon can be instan-
taneously stopped and the horse detached therefrom in case the latter should
try to run away.
⚫ The Invention consists in combining with the detaching apparatus a brake,'
which is applied at the same time that the horse is detached. The detaching
apparatus consists of an oscillating cross bar, which is arranged directly over
the common cross bar, which is operated from the driver's seat by a vertical
lever or handle. The tracers or tugs of the harness are secured to pins which
are attached to the oscillating cross bar, and the saddle and hold back straps

page_text: in a one-horse waggon are held by horizontal sliding bars between uprights
which are attached to the shafts. By pulling the aforesaid lever back the
pins which hold the traces are raised out of their sockets in the stationary cross
bar, and the traces are released while the horizontal sliding bars are also pulled
back by the same movement, thus releasing the hold back and saddle straps,
and thereby completely detaching the horse from the waggon. A downward
extension of the vertical lever is connected with a brake that operates upon
the hubs of the hind wheels; this extension is also operated by the same
movement of the lever which disengages the horse. In two-horse waggons
the whippletrees are disengaged from the pins on the oscillating cross bar
instead of the traces or tugs in one-borse waggons. The pole straps in two-
horse waggons are secured to and released by a similar horizontal sliding.rod,
as the saddle and hold back straps on one-horse waggons. All other parts
are the same in two-horse as they are in one-horse waggons.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 29th June 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succèssors, give and grant
unto me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special licence that I, the
said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 SAFETY ATTACHMENT TO CARRIAGES," being a com-
munication to me from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors or adminstrators, 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
2

page_text: 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention 'relates to a new device whereby a waggon can be instan-
taneously stopped and the horse detached therefrom in case the latter should
try to run away..
The Invention consists in combining with the detaching apparatus a brake,
which is applied at the same time that the horse is detached. The detaching
apparatus consists of an oscillating cross bar, which is arranged directly over
the common cross bar, and which is operated from the driver's seat by a
vertical lever or handle; the traces or tugs of the harness are secured to
pins, which are attached to the oscillating cross bar, and the saddle and
hold back straps in a one-horse' waggon are held by horizontal sliding bars
between uprights which are attached to the shafts or thills; by pulling the
aforesaid lever back the pins which hold the traces are raised out of their
sockets in the stationary: cross: bar, and, the traces are released, while, the
horizontal sliding bars are 'also pulled back by the same movement, thus
releasing the hold back and saddle straps, and thereby completely detaching
the horse from the waggon... A downward extension of the vertical lever is
connected with a break that operates upon the hubs of the hind, wheels, and
it is operated by the same.movement of the lever, which disengages the horse.
In two-horse' waggons the whippletrees are disengaged from the pins on the
oscillating cross bar instead of the traces or tugs in one-horse waggons. The
pole straps in two-borse waggons are secured to and released by a similar
horizontal sliding rod, as the saddle and-hold back straps on one-Horse waggons.
All other parts are the same in two-horse as they are in one-horse waggons.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 shews in plan or top view a one-
horse waggon provided with the improved detaching, apparatus and brake;
Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section of the same, taken on the line a, a,
Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a portion. of a side view of the disengaging apparatus;
Fig. 4 shews.one of the pins by which the traces or whippletrees are held to
the waggon; Fig. 5 is a plan or top view of the forward.end of a pole of a
two-horse waggon, and Fig.. 6 is a side view of the same. Similar letters of
reference indicate like parts.

page_text: The thills or shafts A are secured to the front axle B of the waggon in the
usual manner; they are also connected by a cross bar Cas usual; to the centre
of this cross bar is pivotted by a pin a the arm b which is attached to another
cross bar D; the latter is arranged exactly on top of the lower cross bar C.
To the cross bar D are secured pins c, which are held by catch plates & fitting
each into a groove around the upper portion of the pin, as seen in Figures 1,
3 and 4, and are intended to hold fast the traces or tugs of the harness; the
plates d are pivotted to the bar D, as seen in Fig. 1, so that they can be
thrown out of the grooves around the pins, whereby the latter are released,
and may be removed; these pins c when in place and when the cross bar D is
down fit into corresponding sockets in the lower cross bar C; the bar D is also
connected to the horizontal sliding bars E, which are arranged on the top of
the thills or shafts A. A slotted upright arm e, which is secured to the rear
end of each sliding bar E, is connected to either end of the cross bar D by a
pin f, as seen in Fig. 3; the bars E are guided by pins 9 attached to the
thills, and projecting through slots in the bars E, as seen in Fig. 1; the bars E
are each connected with two horizontal bars F and G, which pass through
holes in the uprights h, h, and h*, h*, respectively, and the uprights are firmly
secured to the thills. A lever H is secured to the cross bar D, and extends
up so as to be in convenient reach of the driver. The upper end or handle h¹
of this lever is pivotted to the lower part, as seen, and extends down below the
pivotting point; a spring i presses against this lower end, as seen in Fig. 2,
and thereby locks the lever H and cross bar D. By pulling the lever in the
direction of the arrow shewn in Fig. 2 the lower end of the handle h¹ will be
disengaged from the spring i, and the cross bar D will be swung back on the
pivot a; thereby the pins c will be released from the sockets, and will let go
the ends of the harness straps which they had held, while the bars F and G
will be pulled back far enough to clear the space between the uprights h, h,
and h*, *, respectively, thereby releasing the saddle and hold back straps
which were attached to them. In two-horse waggons the whippletrees instead
of the braces are held by and disengaged from the pins c, while the bars E, F,
and G on the thills fall away altogether. In their place a single sliding
bar I, Figures 5 and 6, which is operated in manner similar to the bars E,
and which is guided within staples K on the upper or lower side of the pole,
engages the pole straps between arms 1, 1, which are secured to the pole S;
there may be two sets of these arms 1, 1, as shewn in Fig. 5; in that case the
front end of the bar I is bifurcated, as seen, passing through cach pair of the
orms 1, 7, so as to hold each pole strap separately. If both pole straps are to
be held between one single pair of arms 1, 2, the bar I passes through them, as

page_text: shown in Fig. 6. A'cranked arm m, which is secured to and extends below
the cross bar D is connected by means of:a chain'n and bar o to 'two armis k,
which are pivotted to the. 'rear axle L, as shewn by dotted lines in Fig. 1;
these arms k are each secured to a slotted bar p, each of which is attached to
one end of the said axle L. The brakes M-which consist of hollow blocks
sliding on the axle L, and fitting over the conical hub g of the rear wheels N
are respectively secured to the bars p, as seen in Fig. 1. A spiral spring r
which is held between a staple S on the front axle B and a shoulder on the
bar o, as seen in Fig. 2, has the tendency to press the bar o back, thereby
releasing the brakes M from the hubs q. As the lever H is pulled back the
baro is drawn forward, and this bar being jointed to the arms K will
expand them, and cause them to apply the brakes to the conical hubs of the
hind wheels. It will thus be seen that by simply pulling the lever II back
the horse or horses will be instantaneously disengaged from the waggon, while
at the same time the progress of the carriage will be arrested by the action of
the brakes.
Fig. 7 is a side view, partly in section, and Fig. 8 is an inverted plan view
of a modified form of the above described apparatus for operating the brake
and the detaching apparatus, or the brake alone when that is desired. The
top of the lever H is connected by a chain to a crank or pin r, which
projects from a rock shaft O mounted in bearings under the waggon box P,
and extending across the same from side to side; a levers attached to
one end of the rock shaft O serves to operate the latter; by pulling it
in the direction of the arrow (Fig. 7) the lever H will be pulled back and
the team disengaged, the brake being operated by a pint extending from
the shaft O, and passing through a slot in one of the front arms w of the
brake rod o, which rod is divided into two arms u and v, as shewn. If it
should be desired to operate only the brake and not the disengaging apparatus
it is only necessary to move the lever s forward in the opposite direction from
that indicated by the arrow in Fig. 7. The pin r which passes through a
slot in the arm of the brake rod will then operate the brake, while the chain
which connects the lever H with the pin r will be slackened by the movement,
and the disengaging apparatus will not be operated. It will be seen that the
rod o does not extend to the front axle, and that the cranked arm m can be
dispensed with by this modification. It may be remarked that for double teams
disengaging apparatus may be applied to each horse so that any one horse
can be disengaged at will, or both at once.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "An Improved Safety
Attachment to Carriages," as communicated to me from abroad, and explained

page_text: the means of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that
under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim, the combination of a
detaching apparatus with the brakes of a carriage, constructed and operating
substantially as herein shewn and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto!
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-ninth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT, -
66; Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)