CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CARRIAGES, AND IN THE MEANS OF PREVENTING THE OVERTURNING OF THE SAME WHEN HORSES TAKE FRIGHT
Year: 1853

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Mark Newton at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
May 1853. A communication.
I, MARK NEWTON, of Tottenham, in the County of Middlesex,
Builder, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CARRIAGES, AND IN THE MEANS OF
PREVENTING THE OVERTURNING OF THE SAME WHEN HORSES TAKE FRIGHT,"
to be as follows:-
These improvements consist in suspending the boxes of all kinds of
vehicles having two, three, four, or any number of wheels, by means of
springs of peculiar configuration; also in the construction of the wheels
of such vehicles; and relating also to the prevention of accidents result-
ing from horses taking fright, &c., by apparatus hereafter described. For
suspending the boxes of two-wheeled vehicles I propose to fix two
straight springs crossed on the surface of the axle tree near the wheels
by cach of their strongest extremities, so that the box may rest on the
most flexible ends of the springs; and in order to support the box in
front and behind I fasten a curved spring to the centre of the axle tree

page_text: and perpendicularly to it, the foremost extremity of which spring is
fastened under the front of the box, and the other end is fastened under
the servants seat behind. The means of putting the horses to the
carriage may be in the usual manner; or, instead of the ordinary shafts,
may be used the shafts, cross tree, &c., formed whole of prepared iron
connected to the axle tree, and perpendicularly fixed to the centre of it,
and also two ends of shafts fastened by bolts into forks placed on each
side of the carriage. In this case the steps are fixed to the box itself.
Another method of suspending the box of a two wheeled vehicle is
to fix a long curved rod of prepared iron to the centre of the body of
the axle; this rod will follow behind the outside of the box, and will end
at its upper extremity by a spring about 18 inches long fastened to the
extremity of the rod by bolts and a collar. To the flexible end of this
spring will be fastened, at the middle, by suitable means, a cross spring
to the centre of the top of the box by means of two iron beams con-
cealed by the trimming, and running from the shafts of the box; these
latter will be fastened by means of bolts uniting the upper ends of each
beam to cach of the ends of the cross spring. As regards gigs and
other carriages, where the boxes are very short the process of fastening
the back part of the curved spring to the middle of the axle tree may
be dispensed with; in such a case the front part of the spring is fastened
to the body of the axle tree in the same manner as above described.
In these methods I regulate the oscillating motion of the box by means
of a flexible sheet of steel so as not to prevent the springing motion of
the box in any way. The centre of the said sheet of steel is fixed under
and in the centre of the bottom of the box, and each of its ends fixed
by suitable means to the shafts in front, and behind to the long rod in
the first instance, and to a cross rod in the second.
With reference to four wheel carriages, the adaptation of these
springs and their arrangement is similar to those in two wheel carriages;
and as regards three wheeled carriages it is necessary to state that a
semi-circular seat placed in the bottom of the carriage, and capable of
accommodating three persons, is arranged so that the weight of such
persons simply bears on the back axle, and establishes a kind of equi-
librium with all objects placed in front of this axle; thus the weight of
a fourth person equally seated in the inside of the carriage on a front

page_text: seat, and that of the coachman also seated in front and on the outside,
are nearly neutralized. I now adapt a third wheel in front and in the
middle of the width of the box, this wheel being nearly of the same
size as the ordinary ones. By such arrangement I cause the weight to
be more equally distributed over the body of the vehicle, and diminish
the amount of friction usnal in such carriages to (at least) on half; thus
the keeping of such a vehicle is far less expensive, and the labour of the
horses considerably reduced. I propose also to mount the vehicles called
omnibuses in a similar manner upon three wheels. The hind wheels
may be fastened by their axle to two nipping springs, or in the usual
manner by springs fastened by the middle into the body of the axle.
As regards that part of the improvements which relates to the
wheels of such carriages and vehicles, I propose to put in the place of
the common spokes around the nave in the centre of the wheel 3, 4, or
a large number of small circles of tempered steel, each of which is to
be fastened to the nave at one end, and to the felloe at the other, the
latter being (in order to strengthen the wheel) compressed between two
large iron circles of the diameter of the wheel. The details of their
construction will be given more fully in my Complete Specification.
That part of these improvements in carriages which relates to the
pre-
vention of accidents is as follows:-To the extremity of the two short
chains by means of which the horses maintain the carriage, or may, by
falling back, cause it to run backwards, I fasten a piece of iron, neatly
got up (plated, if required,) of about from 6 to 7 inches long, in the shape
of a mutilated pyramid. To the top of the main shaft I adapt a tube of
the same shape as the aforesaid piece of iron, capable of containing it
without pressure. This tube follows the direction of the main shaft, and
thus has its widest mouth at the top of the same, so that the piece of
iron introduced may freely come out at the very moment it might be
drawn in front of the main shaft; but to keep the piece in its place
until it be drawn forward I make use of a very weak strap connected.
with the shaft, so that the smallest effort or jerk in the direction already
described tears away the weak strap, and thus causes the separation.
The trace bar made to receive the ends of the four traces by means of
which the carriage is drawn by the horses is covered by two extremely
flexible springs, both situated behind either horse. The springs, which

page_text: are alike, possess a length equal to the spreading of the traces near the
spring tree bar. The ends of each spring are provided with a peg of
about 2 inches long fastened to the springs, and capable of going in
and out of a hole vertically bored in the trace bar. When the springs
are pressed upon in their full length on the upper surface of this bar
the four pegs cross the trace-bar in its full breadth; on the contrary,
when the four heads of the springs are lifted, the four pegs come out of
the hole in full length. I then bore four large, flat, and oval holes in the
front surface of the trace bar and opposite each vertical hole, so that by
introducing into each of these four holes iron eyes fastened to the end
of all the traces (the four pegs being taken out) the vertical pegs fall
back into each hole, and thus retain the eyes until the heads of the
springs are lifted up to allow them to come out. A thin bar of wood
covers the trace bar, the springs, and the vertical pegs; but each peg
crosses the bar from its upper end over the springs, and a head is
screwed above the bar on to the ends of each peg to prevent them from
getting out of the bar, in which they may freely slide up and down I
fasten in the middle of the bar and above a small iron lathe vertically
placed under that part of the seat on which the coachman rests his feet,
at the upper end of this lathe is an eye, to which is fastened a string,
which passes by a hole through the floor of the coachman's seat. If
the horses happen to take fright, and the coachman is aware of the
impossibility of appeasing them, he lifts up with the slightest effort the
string placed between his feet, that is the bar placed above the trace
bar; and the horses, once free from the leashes which kept them back to
the carriage, move on forwards, and cause the piece of iron introduced
into the top of the main shaft to come out. In this manner the horses
are instantly and throughly separated from the vehicle.
By another method the horses may be separated from the carriage
even from the inside, the details of which which will be given by me
in my Complete Specification; also an additional method by which the
carriage stops of itself the very moment the horses are separated from it.