CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ART OF SADDLERY
Year: 1814

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, ROBERT
DICKINSON, of Great Queen Street, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date the Eighth day of November, in the fifty-
fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Robert Dickenson,
my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole priviledge
and authority, that I, the said Robert Dickinson, my exors, adñiors, and
assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein mentioned,
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Twced, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ART
OF SADDLERY;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that
if I, the said Robert Dickinson, shall not particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void,
as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Rubert Dickinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention,

page_text: and manner of performing the same, are particularly described and ascertained
as follows; that is to say :-
I do make a pannel or cloth of strong, fit, and suitable material, to bo placed
on the back of an horse or other animal intended to be saddled, and I do fasten
or fix a girth or girths thereunto, having the outer ends thereof provided with
buckles or other proper fastenings, to be attached or fixed to the saddlo when
in use. And, moreover, I do fasten, by sewing or otherwise, in or upon the
said pannel or cloth, one or more flat pieces of iron or other metal, proper for
the purpose herein-after indicated, having the lower face or faces thereof
intended to be applied nearest the animal, even, or of such figuro as may admit
of being so placed without annoying the animal, and having the outer or upper
faces thereof jagged, toothed,' or studded with points or prominencies, in such
manner as that the said jagged or toothed parts, or points, or prominencies,
may lean or be inclined towards the tail or hinder part of the horse or other
animal in an angle of about forty-five degrees, or more or less; and I do call
or denominate the said pieces porcupines or porcupine pieces; or otherwiso
I do fasten upon the said pannel or cloth one or more hooks, standing up and
having the concavity of each towards the tail or binder part of the horse or
other animal; and in saddling the same I do place the saddle upon the
porcupine pieces, or immediately behind the hook or hooks of the said pannel
or cloth, which is first to placed. upon the horse or other animal as aforesaid,
and I do girth the saddle firmly upon the same by means of the several parts
or portions of the girth, which may be passed on each side beneath the chest
of the horse or other animal from the said pannel or cloth to the opposite side
of the saddle, and there fastened by buckle or otherwise, as aforesaid; or
otherwise I do pass the said several portions or parts of the girth on each
side from the said pannel or cloth through a ring or loop only, or else through
rings or loops affixed to the ends of a middle strap, girth, or piece beneath
the chest of the horse or other animal, and do return each of the said
parts or portions back again, and do fasten the same to the saddle, as
aforesaid, on the same side, without passing the said several parts or portions
across beneath the chest of the said horse or other animal, as in the former
case first herein mentioned. And by my said improvements I do prevent
the saddle from slipping or working forwards upon the shoulders; and on
the case last herein described I do obtain a double purchase, and great
firmness and security in placing and retaining the saddle in its proper
situation. And, moreover, in such instances as those wherein the shape
of the horse or other animal may require or render the samo desirable, I do
make that part of my said pannel or cloth which is situated immediately before

page_text: the books or porcupine prominent, or to project forward so as to bear against
the blades, taking care to cover the said parts so as to prevent injury from
their hardiness.
And farther, I do, in other constructions and applications of my said im-
provements, form and make the saddle itself, having the hind part of the proper
pannel thereof (or thereunto as commonly fixed), and no fore part; and I
stuff the pannel or cloth herein first described so as completely to answer and
supply the effect of the fore part of the said proper pannel, which could or
might have been otherwise applied and make use of; or, in other constructions,
I do stuff the whole of a saddle pannel, and do apply and use the same instead
of my cloth before described and pointed out; and I do use the saddle without.
any pannel thereunto affixed as usual:.
And farther, as one of my said improvements, I do declare that I do uso
cork, reduced to a small fragments like coarse sawdust, by grinding or
otherwise, as an elastic stuffing, instead of wool, flock, hair, and the other
materials commonly used, because the said cork is not liable to become clogged
or impaired in its elasticity by wet. And, in order to dispose the said material
or ground cork in the most convenient manner, I do fill certain long bags or
flexible pipes therewith, and so choak or bind the same at intervals; and I do
form a plate or flat fabric thereof by joining the said long bags or flexible
pipes together, side by side, and quilting through the whole.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Dickinson, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Eighth day of May. in the year of our Lord One