IMPROVEMENTS IN CARRIAGES FOR CHILDREN, COMMONLY CALLED PERAMBULATORS, AND APPLICABLE TO CARRIAGES POR INVALIDS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Forster Meakin, of 84, Baker Street, Portman
Square, London, Upholsterer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
CARRIAGES FOR CHILDREN, COMMONLY CALLED PERAMBULATORS, AND APPLICABLE
TO CARRIAGES POR INVALIDS."
Scaled the 22nd December 1857, and dated the 29th Juno 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by tho said John Forster Meakin at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho
29th Juno 1857.
I, JOHN FORSTER MEAKIN, of 84, Baker Street, Portman Square, London,
Upholsterer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE
MENTS IN CARRIAGES FOR CHILDREN, COMMONLY CALLED PERAMBULATORS, AND
APPLICABLE TO CARRIAGES FOR INVALIDS," to be as follows:-
Many thousands of children are now daily sent to take the air in those
little vehicles called perambulators, under the charge of servants commonly
young and careless, and these carriages are so constructed that if the hand of
the servant be removed but for an instant from the handle the vehicle may
run beyond the reach of the attendant and be overturned in a canal or under
the wheels of a waggon. Casualties of this kind, in several instances, have
been attended with fatal results.
If the band of the person pushing the ordinary perambulator be disengaged
for a second while the vehicle is in motion there are no self-acting micans of

page_text: checking or of stopping it, and it must be pursued and caught if that be
practicable. Now, my Invention consists of so applying a skid or friction
brake to the fore or front wheel of a perambulator so that it shall be self-
acting, that is to say, it shall come into operation when the hand is removed
from the handle of the carriage, and when otherwise the carriage would run
away. The effect of the application of this skid or or brake is to check and in
a few seconds to stop motion without any abrupt or forcible action likely to
do injury to the vehicle. I am aware that some perambulators are constructed
with an arrangement of mechanism applied to the hind wheel, a notched disc
being attached to the wheels into which a bar is caused to fall; but this
arrangement cannot well be applied to any perambulator already built, as
mine can be. The handle must be tubular, and a considerable amount
of expenditure incurred in springs, chains, bars, &c. Moveover, the person
pushing the perambulator must retain hold of two handles at once to keep
the wheels free, this gives a great strain to the band and may lead the
servant to tie them together, when the mechanical movement would not
operate. In my arrangement, between the tire of the front wheel and the
under side of the footboard, I hinge a stout skid or brake of hard wood or
other material, shaped in its inner diameter to the exact section of the tire of
the front wheel, such brake being in length about one-fourth or one-fifth of
the circumference of the wheel, and so hinged as to perfectly clip the same,
and to be kept in such position by a strong spring or springs fixed at tho
sides or back thereof. At or near the bottom of such brake is fixed a hook
or eye, and attached to this is a small but strong line of either chain, wire, rope,
catgut, or other strong pliant material, which works thro' a pulley fixed at the
bottom of the perambulator and continued up to the bandle. The handle,
which in ordinary cases is fixed between the irons, is in this plan made loose,
and a second handle is attached to the first one by 2 pillars of about 2 or 3
inches in length. A slot is cut in the under side of each iron, in which the
handlo revolves about an inch long and a wide, the handle is now placed
between the irons, and while held at such an angle that the centre of the top
one slightly overhangs the other a stout screw is inserted. At this position
the chain, wire, rope, or catgut attached to the brake is pulled moderately
taut, carried over the first handle, and secured to the second, when the handlo
is touched or pressed on for the purpose of propulsion the length of the slot
only allows the handle to fall into a horizontal position, but in doing so it
takes up so much of the line as to release the brake from the wheel, and tho
carriage is then free to move, but when the hand is removed the power of the
spring or springs brings the brake into play.

page_text: Another advantage of a brake of this description being applied to the front
wheel is, that while it is quite sufficient to stop the carriage within a few
inches when the hand is inadvertently removed; should any force be im-
properly or accidently applied the wheel will slightly yield to such force and
not offer a dead stop, by which the occupant might be either injured or thrown
out by the concussion. The same kind of brake may be applied to invalids'
carriages which are propelled from behind, with some few modifications of the
requisite means of actuating it.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Forster Meakin in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 24th December 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
FORSTER MEAKIN, of 84, Baker Street, Portman Square, London, Upholsterer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Forster Meakin, Her special licence that I, the said John Forster
Meakin, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said John Forster Meakin, 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,
usc, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN CARRIAGES FOR CHILDREN, COMMONLY CALLED PERAMBULATORS, AND.
APPLICABLE TO INVALID AND OTHER CARRIAGES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Forster Meakin, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, 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 John Forster Meakin, do hereby declare.
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following

page_text: statement, referenco being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to
the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
Between the tire of the front wheel and the under side of the footboard I
hinge a stout skid or brake of hard wood or other material, shaped in its
inner diameter to suit the tire of the said wheel, such brake being in length
about one-fourth or one-fifth of the circumference of the wheel, and so hinged
as to perfectly clip the same, and to be kept in such position by a strong
spring or springs fixed at the sides or back thereof. At or near the bottom of
such brake is fixed a hook or eye, and attached to this is a small but strong
line of either chain, wire, rope, catgut, or other pliant material, which works
through a pulley fixed at the bottom of the carriage and is continued up to the
handle. The handle, which in ordinary cases is fixed between the irons, is in
this plan made to revolve, and a second handle is secured to the first one by two
pillars of about two or three inches in length. A slot is cut in the under side
of each iron handle, in which the first handle revolves, about of an inch long
and of an inch wide. The handle is now placed between the irons, and whilo
held at such an angle that the centre of the top handle slightly overhangs the
other a stout screw is inserted in the slot, at this position the chain, wire,
rope, or catgut attached to the brake is pulled moderately taut, carried over
the first handle, and secured to the second. When the handle is touched or
pressed on for the purpose of propulsion, the length of the slot only allows the
handle to fall into a horizontal position, but in doing so it takes up so much
of the line as to release the brake from the wheel, and the carriage is then
free for motion, but when the hand is removed the power of the spring or
springs brings the brake into play and the carriage is stopped. Another
advantage of a brake of this description being applied to the front wheel is,
that while it is quite sufficient to stop the carriage within a few inches when
the hand is inadvertently removed, should any force be improperly or
accidentally applied the wheel will slightly yield to such force and not offer a
dead stop, by which the child might be either injured or thrown out by the
concussion. The same kind of brake may be applied to invalid and other
carriages, with some few modifications of the requisite means of actuating it.
Connected with the preceding, I prepare the sides of the carriage so much
deeper from back to front than hitherto as to form a division or box of about
2 inches in width between the outer and inner backs, in which I place a hood
made of light iron work, the same shape as the body of the carriage, and
covered with leather or other material, running on small guiding rods and
concealed by a lid. When required for use the hood can be drawn upwards,
and being provided with folding cheeks which are prepared for buttoning,

page_text: they are secured to the arms of the carriage, and thus a complete hood is
quickly formed. In order to guard against the objectionable position which
children's heads assume when asleep in such carriages, the back is stuffed
with cheeks so hinged as to be readily folded outwards and form a rest for
the head.
For a more detailed description of the preceding, and in order that my said
Invention may be fully understood, I will proceed to describe the Drawings
hereunto annexod.
Fig. 1 shows the perambulator with the brake on the wheel. A is tho
brake, kept in such position by the spring B; C is a hook, to which the line of
wire, rope, or chain D is attached; it is then passed through a pulley E, and
carried up over the handlo at F, and secured through the top handle G by a
plug, wedge, or knot, as shewn at P in Fig. 5 (full size); H is the box or
case, from which the hood I is brought out by simply lifting up the lid J, and
the wings K being then unfolded they are buttoned, as shewn at L; M is a
projecting piece strutted out by a small hook at each side, and N is a front
view of the same.
Fig. 2 shows a section of the brake and hinge as working on the wheel.
Fig. 3 represents the carriage free for motion; in this case the hand is
supposed to be on the handle A, but cannot go beyond a horizontal line, being
kept at such position, as shewn at B in Fig. 5; the effect of this pressure on
the handle draws the line over the handle G2, Fig. 5, and thereby draws away
the brake D in Fig. 3 from the front wheel. The hood, as shewn in Fig. 1,
is here all enclosed in the box or case E.
Fig. 4 shews the inside of a carriage, the back of which is so stuffed that
A, A, are hinged to the back, as shewn in side view at B.
Fig. 5 represents, first, B, a section (full size) of the iron handle, with its
screw at one end of the slot, and D, with the screw at the other end of the
slot. E is an under view of the handle; f, f, sections of oval iron; G¹, G²,
represent one half (full size) of a pair of handles, and partly in section; His
the top of the iron handle, in which the wood one G³ revolves, kept in its place
by the screw I in the slot J; a hole through the handle G2 admits a stout
screw K, which is secured to the upper handle G' at L; the two handles are
kept apart by an ornamental piece of brass tubing M; the lower handle G² is
provided with a brass band N, to receive the wear of the line O, which is
secured to the upper handle G', a hole through which is so bored that the

page_text: upper part is large enough to receive a knot, wedge, or other means of fixing
it, and a wood plug P conceals the same.
I do not claim anything beyond the lever handle, acting as it does on
the brake, but I believe the action of the hood and the folding cheeks are
also new.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Forster Meakin, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
THO' G. SMITH,
25, Edwards Street,
Portman Square.
JOHN FORSTER MEAKIN. (L.S.)