IMPROVEMENTS IN BITS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and
Forcign Patent Offices, 18, Rue de la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris,
France, and 6, Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent,
LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and
Forcign Patent Offices, 18, Rue de la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris,
France, and 6, Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BITS.” -A communication
from Jules Maurice Fabre, residing at Rue Monthyon, Paris, in
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 10th July 1872, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRI
ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 18, Rue
de la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, France, and 6, Piccadilly, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.

page_text: at Rue Monthyon, Paris, in France, and have petitioned Her Majesty
to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal
Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declaration that it
is a communication.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, do hereby 5
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the Invention and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, that is to say :—
The object of the Invention communicated to me is to alleviate or
suppress the acute and unbearable pain suffered by horses from the 1
action of the bits hitherto employed, and consists in making the mouth
piece or bit properly so called and the branches moveable, and in giving
a flattened form to the part of the said bit which presses on the bars
of the animal's mouth.
The different bits hitherto essayed or in actual use all present the 1
same defects, the mouth piece being in every case rigidly connected
with the branches, and consequently immoveable in the mouth, and
bearing by a single, and consequently sharp, point of its surface on
the bars. It is acknowleged by competent persons that in ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred in which horses run away the immediate cause 2
is the pain produced by the action of the bit.
The improvements contemplated by this Invention do away with this
pain. The mouth picce of the bit constructed on the improved system
is made flat, and its angles are carefully rounded off. Said mouth piece
is moveable in the mouth of the animal, its extremities being made to 2
pivot on the branches, which are also moveable, so that whatever
pressure may be produced by pulling the reins, or whatever movement
may be given thereto by the hand or by the animal's head, the flat part
only in consequence of the rotary movement of the mouth piece is
brought to bear on the bars, and offers a sufficient surface to press
thereon without injury.
The improvements may be applied to all kinds of bits, and may be
adapted to all suitable mechanical contrivances.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention communi-
cated to me, and without entering upon any detailed explanation of
its application, which may evidently be modified in many particulars
without departing from the principle upon which it is based, that is

page_text: to say, the use of a moveable bit with a moveable mouth piece of a
flattened and rounded form, substantially as above indicated, what I
claim and desire to secure by Royal Letters Patent is, the rotary move-
ment given to the bit and to the mouth piece of a flattened and rounded
form as applied to bits of any suitable construction or shape.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville have here-
unto set my hand and scal, this Ninth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.