IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GYMNASTIC PURPOSES
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Washington Bacon at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 8th January 1868.
I, GEORGE WASHINGTON BACON, of 337, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Publisher, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GYMNASTIC PURPOSES," to be as
follows:--
My Invention consists of several improvements in the details of
gymnastic apparatus.
First. I pass the screw hooks which enter a joist or beam in the
ceiling of the room through disks or roses of india-rubber, which are
held in their places by their elasticity.
Second. I make the links passing over these hooks of a metalio
rod bent into a triangle, the ends meeting in the centre of the base
which is fastened into the strap.
Third. I use metalic armlets nearly oval in form with a cross bar
and wooden roller or handle below the centre, the lower part of the
oval is made to turn on the cross bar. I also use armlets made of
ropes passed through tubes of the proper shape and also armlets made
of tubular webbing containing pieces of wood to keep them in proper
form.

page_text: Fourth. I use an india-rubber strap looped at each end and held
on rollers by these elastic loops, so as to cross from one armlet to the
other to decrease the strain of certain exercises. I also use this elastic
strap separately by means of handles turned small near one end for
the loops.
Fifth. I raise and lower the parts of the apparatus by slide fastenings.
For these I use narrow pieces of metal bent so as nearly to clasp about
three thicknesses of the strap, on the end of which is fastened a
doubled flat piece of metal bent nearly at right angles. When the
first piece of metal or slide is slipped on the strap, and a loop is made
by putting the strap near the end also through this slide, that loop
is firmly secured from slipping by drawing it so that the bent metal
tip enters the slide; I also make the sliding part of the fastening like
a flat rectangular buckle without a tongue, but having one or more
internal cross bars between which the strap is passed. The end of
the strap is tipped with metal as before except that the tip is very
much bent and forms a hook which hooks into one of the bars of the
slide and loops up the strap at any desired elevation so that it will
not slip. The hook may also be made of a metal rod bent so as to
resemble the hooks used for fastening ladies' dresses, the base of this
hook being modified to a convenient form for fastening to the strap.
Sixth. In the ends of the trapeze bar I use rectangular iron links,
each of which is formed of an iron rod bent so that the ends of the
rod meet in the centre of that side of the link which is fastened into
the trapeze bar.
Seventh. I provide for suspending the apparatus by means of a side
frame which is attached to a window or door frame or a perpendicular
wall by suitable fastenings at each side of the frame. This side frame
having two converging tie rods to increase its strength projects into
the place where the apparatus is to be suspended so far and at such
an angle that the extremity of the frame will be at the proper distance
and elevation for the suspension of the gymnastic apparatus and the
performance of the various exercises.