US243243A - William h - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

W. H. GLOBE. Lines for Driving Horses.

Patented June 21,1881,

I12 velz or.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM H. swim, or GOVINGTON, KENTUCKY, ASSIGNOR or ONE-HALE TO HARLAN P. WH TAKER, on sAME PLAoE.

LINES FOR DRIVING HORSES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 243,243, datedJune 21, 1881. Application filed April 11, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that 1, WILLIAM H. GLOBE, of Covin gton, Kenton county, Kentucky, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Lines for Driving Horses, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates particularly to lines for driving double teams; and its purpose is to provide a more efficient means for control- IO ling horses than now exists.

My invention is applicable to harness for all and any double teams, but is especially applicableto harness for fire-engine horses, as it is often very necessary to drive these horses at a high rate of speed, and to turn corners without slacking this speed, and where lines as now constructed are employed the horses are apt to crowd each other, and thus become to a greater or less degree unmanageable. My invention obviates this difficulty and places the horses entirely under the control of the driver, and enables him to turn corners without slacking the speed of the horses, and yet prevents the tendency of thehorses to crowd each other.

The drawing forming part of this specification is a plan view, representing the construction and arrangement of the lines according to my invention.

A and B are the two lines which the driver 0 holds, and which each divide, near their forward extremities, into two, the lineA into the lines a a and the line B into the lines b b. The inner, a b, are made slightly longer than the outer lines, a b, so that the horses will be 5 continually kept separated.

A B are the bits, which are placed in the mouths of the horses. The lines a a are attached to the bit A, one of said lines being attached to either end of the bit, and the lines I) 0 b are attached one to either end of the bit B.

A connecting strap or rod, 0, is attached at each end to the bits A B, the attachment being made by an appropriate snap or buckle. This connecting-strap may be made of a single piece or composed of two pieces, as shown, the pieces being connected at the center by a snap and ring. This latter construction is preferable for use on fire-engine horses, where speed in hitching up is very essential. When this strap consists of two pieces one piece can be left on the bit of each horse when the horses are unhitched, and when the horses are to be hitched up the snap on the end of one piece is snapped into the ring on the end of the other piece, which is the only thing required to complete the connection of the lines, and can bevery quickly done.

1n ordinary harness one of the branches of the lines A and B passes to the bit of the 0pposite horse, the line a passing to the bit B and the line I) passing to the bit A. The objection to this latter construction and arrangement is that the horses, when driven by such lines, are liable to crowd each other, which is especially the case when acorner is to be turned, for the reason that when the driver-wishes to turn the team in either direction he pulls on the line next to that sidefor instance, the line B on the right sideand this line, comm unicating with both horses, turns them suddenly to the right, and the horse on the left is pulled over against the horse on the right side. For this reason the driver is compelled to slacken the speed of the horses before turning a corner.

The above objection does not arise from the use of my invention, as when the driver wishes to turnfor instance, to the right-he pulls on the line B, and this turns the horse on the right side to the right, and this horse, through the medium of the connecting strap or rod O,pulls the other horse to the right; but the line a prevents the horse on the left from crowding over against the horse on the right, and the horses can be driven at full speed around a corner without danger of crowding. So, also, I am enabled to check or stop the horses much more perfectly and readily by the use of my invention than by the use of lines as now constructed, as, where the latter lines are. employed, when the driver attempts to stop the team the tendency is for the horses to come together, whereas my invention keeps them constantly apart, and thus the objects for which my invention is designed are accomplished.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and of my invention, and de- 2. The combination of the line A, divided sire to secure by Letters Patent, isinto the lines a a and attached to the bit A,

1. An improved driving-gear for double harthe line B, divided into the lines D b and atness, oonsistin g of a pair of bits connected by tached to the bit B, and the connecting strap 5 a connecting strap or bar, substantially as or rod 0, substantially as and for the purposes I5 shown, each bit being provided with a sepaspecified.

rate branching driving-line, having opera- WILLIAM H. GLOBE. tive connection with each other only through Attest: the connecting strap or bar, substantially as B. H. TIBBS,

[0 described. E. R. HILL.

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