IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HOLDING AND CLEANING BITS AND STIRRUPS
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Elliott, of Newbury, in the County of Berks,
Builder, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HOLDING
AND CLEANING BITS AND STIRRUPS."
Sealed the 16th January 1880, and dated the 18th July 1879.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Elliott at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th July 1879.
SAMUEL ELLIOTT, of Newbury, in the County of Berks, Builder.
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HOLDING AND CLEANING BITS AND STIRRUPS."
"IMPROVE-
This Invention has for its object the construction of apparatus for the holding of
all kinds of bits and stirrups while in process of cleaning, and can be fixed on a
board, wall, post, or stand." It consists of two iron forks cranked to stand out
about three inches from the fixing surface. The top of fork is divided through its
thickness into two parts fang like, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, to
hold securely the bit or stirrup; the back part of fork has a wide rebated base to
insure steadiness of action, and also to insure its being readily moved or readily
fixed to its position. The rebated base of fork slides between two iron plates.
The back plate is is close to the fixing surface and runs behind the front plate. The
front plate is cranked at each end sufficiently wide to hold the base of fork which
slides backwards and forwards behind it. It is securely fixed over the front of
back plate by screws or bolts, and so covers the ends that the back plate cannot
move. Above this back plate and running parallel with it there is another iron
plate with two long tapering hooks, both of equal length and equal size, which may
either both point to the left hand or both point to the right band; these hooks are
round and made solid with the plate, and taper gradually to receive every size of
rings or ends of bits; and these hooks are a sufficient distance from the plate on
which they are fixed to ensure a ready attachment of bits or stirrups to be cleaned.
Thus the forks below and the hooks above act in unison when moved for the ready
fixing of the articles to be cleaned.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Samuel Elliott in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 17th
January 1880.
"IMPROVE
SAMUEL ELLIOTT, of Newbury, in the County of Berkshire, Builder.
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HOLDING AND CLEANING BITS AND STIRRUPS."
This Invention consists of two iron sliding forks of the size and shape shown
upon the accompanying Drawings, which run between two plates of the same
[Price 4d.]

page_text: metal, the bottom one of which lies flat and is about a quarter of an inch in
thickness, and one inch and a half-in breadth, and fifteen inches-and-three-quarters.
in length. Along the face of this plate at its bottom edge and commencing at a
distance of two inches and a quarter from each end are a series of notches, each
notch being one eighth of an inch wide and one eighth of an inch from the next
notch following, three eighths of an inch long, and one sixteenth of an inch deep at
-the-extreme edge of the plate, but cut sloping or as an inclined plane until it dies
into the face or surface of the plate at the before mentioned distance of three
eighths of an inch from its external edge. These notches are for the purpose of
catching a small tooth which projects from the bottom and extreme end of the
flange of each sliding fork, and so renders it capable, when pressed at the end from
which the aforesaid tooth projects, of fixing itself so that the sliding forks may be
readily fixed at any convenient distance apart. The other plate, which is three
eighths of an inch in thickness and three quarters of an inch in breadth, rises over
the centre of the one first described, leaving a space of half an inch between its
underside and the face of the plate below. In this space between the two plates
the above mentioned forks slide. This plate has a flange at each end through
which two screws pass into a tablet of wood (or wall of stable) in such a nanner
as to clamp the bottom plate (whose ends pass a little way under the flanges of the
upper plate), and so render the two perfectly secure and as one piece. On the
same plane as the first plate, at a distance of about five eighths of an inch from
the top edge of it, is fixed another plate of iron of the same thickness as
the first plate, and one inch and 7th wide, and which, like the first plate,
also lies flat on the tablet of wood (or wall of stable), being fastened thereto
by screws passing through flanges at each end, and also through the middle of
the plate. The length of this plate is thirteen inches and a half, and is fixed
centrally over the bottom one. From the plate last described and forming part of
it project two hooks, which, after springing from the plate (the one at a distance
of, one inch from the extreme end and right hand side, and the other at a distance
of seven inches and five eighths from the same point), take a direction parallel to
that of the plate from which they spring. These two hooks are circular in section,
the diameter of each at the point where they bend round into the plate is three
quarters of an inch, and they taper off to a point, the diameter of which is
three sixteenths of an inch. Each hook is five inches and five eighths in length,
and the point of the one is one inch and one eighth from the base or springing of
the other. Both hooks rise to the height of seven eighths of an inch from the
underside of their points to the surface or face of the plate from which they spring.
Between the two plates which lie flat on the tablet of wood (or wall of stable) is a
groove sunk to the depth of seven eighths of an inch to allow of stirrups, bits, and
buckles, &c., being passed along with greater facility while in the process of being
cleaned. The whole of the apparatus above described may, as before mentioned, be
fixed to a tablet of wood or the wall of a stable or other wall, and is then ready
for immediate use.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Elliott, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand
SAM ELLIOTT. (L.S.)