IMPROVEMENTS IN HURDLES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Gilbert, of Kensington, in the County of
Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN HURDLES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Gilbert at the
Office of the Commissioners of. Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th
March 1855.
I, HENRY GILBERT, of Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HURDLES " to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in hurdles, to facilitate their
transport and better fixing to the land. For these purposes, one of the
uprights of each hurdle is made with a fork, and each limb of the fork is
recessed or forked so as to receive the axis of a wheel made with a fixed axle ;
or, in place of attaching the wheel to a fork, a projecting axle may be formed
on the upright, and a wheel placed and retained thereon. By these means
the wheel may be separate, and may be applied to and removed from a hurdle
quickly; and in order that hurdles may be retained in an upright position when
in use, each hurdle is made with supporting diagonal bars, hinged or pin-
jointed to the uprights, and also to horizontal bars, in each of which is made
an eye, through which the upright of the hurdle passes. By these means,
when a hurdle is placed in position the diagonals will retain the hurdles
upright, and each hurdle, in addition to the uprights entering the land (to some
extent), will have extensive horizontal bearing on the land.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Gilbert in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 8th
September 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
GILBERT, of Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Henry Gilbert, Ier special licence that I, the said Henry Gilbert,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Gilbert, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
HURDLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Gilbert,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Henry Gilbert, 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
thereof (that is to say) :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in hurdles, to facilitate their
transport and better fixing to the land. For these purposes, one of the uprights
of each hurdle is made with a fork, and each limb of the fork is recessed or
forked, so as to receive the axis of a wheel made with a fixed axle; or, in place
of attaching the wheel to a fork, a projecting axle may be formed on the
upright, and a wheel placed and retained thereon. By these means the
wheel will be separate, and may be applied to and removed from a hurdle
quickly; and in order that hurdles may be retained in an upright position
when in use, each hurdle is made with supporting diagonal bars, hinged or
pin-jointed to the uprights, and also to horizontal bars, in each of which is
made an eye, through which the upright of the hurdle passes. By these
means, when a hurdle is placed in position the diagonals will retain the

page_text: hurdles upright, and each hurdle, in addition to the uprights entering the land
(to some extent), will have extensive horizontal bearing on the land.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to
describe more fully the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shows an upright of a hurdle made with a fork suitable for
receiving a wheel; Figure 2 is a vertical section of Figure 1; the object of
this part of my Invention being to employ a wheel separate from the upright
of a hurdle, and yet applicable readily thereto when the hurdle requires to bo
moved. Figure 3 shows a hurdle mounted on a wheel, according to my
Invention, to facilitate its being moved from place to place; Figure 4 shows a
hurdle fixed by diagonal bars hinged or pin-jointed to the uprights. a is the
upright, which is made with a fork to receive the axle of a wheel, as shewn; or
there may be a fixed axle on one of the uprights of a hurdle to receive the
wheel in place of the fork. b is a hook; c, a sliding socket on the uprights, to
receive the upper end of the moveable upright a. The hook c receives the
lower part, as shewn. By this arrangement the moveable upright carrying
the wheel may be readily attached to or detached from the hurdle, or the
wheel only may be detachable on a fixed axis or a moveable axis. These
diagonal bars have horizontal bars with eyes through them for the passage of
the ends of the uprights; the ends of the diagonals enter the land, and the
horizontal bars rest on the land. When packed for carriage the diagonal bars
fold against the hurdle.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Gilbert, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
H. GILBERT. (L.S.)