US8222A - Improvement in buggy-tops - Google Patents

Description

E. HIBBARD.

Carriage-Top. I

' Patented July 15, 1851.

UNITED STATES [PATENT EErcEQ H. HIBBARD, ASSIGNOR ro JARED A. HIBBARD, corn or HENRIETTA, new YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN BUGGY-TOPS,

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 5.

T0 (6 whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Harmon HIBBARD, of Henrietta, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Method of Applying, Shifting, and llfanagin g Tops on Buggies and other Vehicles; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

The nature of my invention consists in the portableness of and the facility. with which I apply, shift,:and manage a top on a seat or vehicle by using portable bearers for the support of the whole top and cover, a continuous brace for the raising and lowering of the top, and a clasp for the support and fastening of the cover at the bottom,which clasp serves also as a rest for the top when thrown back. The bearers are made, of iron or any other suitable metal, by forming it to a shape to apply to and fit the end of the seat on the inner side and on the bottom, as shown in the drawings, Figure 1, at D. To the center of each of these bearers is attached a short strip or center piece, of the same metal as the bearers, running horizontally on the bottom toward the center of the same, and is shown atA, 1. These center pieces are of sufficient length to admit a headed screw, (without interfering with the support of the seat,) which passes through the center of each, then through the bottom of the seat, and is there fastened by screwing on a nut under the seat. These screws form the only fastening of the bearers to the seat, and are of sufficient strength to hold the bearers firmly in their places. The hind ends of the bearers then extend up over the ends of the back of the seat, closein the corners, projecting horizontally a short distance beyond the line of the back at right angles with the'same, and terminating in. a small semicircle or holder, as shown at E, Fig. 2, and through which the clasp passes for its support and permanency on the back of the top. The front ends of the bearers, rising from the bottom of the seat, pass up over the front ends of the arms of the seat and project horizontally beyond them, at right angles with the arms, far enough to admit the ends of the bows and clasp (which are perforated) being slipped on over them without interfering with the arms of the seat.

The clasp F, Fig. 1, consists of a wire, which dated July 15, 1551.

passes across from the hind end of one bearer to the other through the above-named semicircles orholders on the extreme ends of the bearers, and projects far enough ina straight line to clear the lines of the arms of the seat, then turns and passes forward horizontally, nearly parallel with the arms, and is flattened at both ends and fixed onto the front ends of the bearers, over the bows, and there fastened by nuts screwed onto the ends of the bearers, and to this clasp the cover is fastened for its only support at the bottom.

The continuous brace G in the drawings Nos. 1 vand 2 consists of an iron rod or large wire extending across from the end of one bearer to the other, behind the seat, through the head of a screw which penetrates both of the bearers perpendicularly between the holders and the back of the seat, leaving space enough between these screws and the back of the seat to fasten them by turning a nut onto the lower end of each. The brace then turns forward, rising gradually on the inner side of the top, and forming a slight downward curve until it reaches about half across the end of the seat, where a joint is formed. It then extends on, still rising with a slight upward curve until it reaches the front bow of the top, where it is fastened by capped screws and nuts.

The chief object of the clasp and bearers in my invention, or the principal advantages to be gained by their application to carriage tops and seats over any other invention, consists in the convenience with which they may be applied and fastened to seat, and the facility with which they may be accommodated to the portableness of a top by enabling one with their use to shift a top from one seat to another, or to remove a top when not needed, and also the great advantage over the common method of attaching tops to seats in preventing much violent racking and straining on the arms and back of seats, which advantage is gained both by the .manner of'attaching the top to the seat and by placing the brace near the bottom of the top; and the advantages of the continuous brace over any other consist in its simultaneous motion in raising and lowering the top, enabling one to sit on either end of the seat and manage the top with ease, or, standing on the ground, to do the same with l i y; L I ll little inconvenience; also, the saving of one The mode of connecting carriage-tops with joint on each side and the advantage of the the seats by means of bearers D and clasp F,- low situation of the brace in the top to preso that theymaywith facility be removed from vent racking, as mentioned above. one carriage-body and applied to another, in The parts of the bearers not covered by the the manner substantially as described. cushions on the seat are intended to be trimmed I-IARMON HIBBARD. and also the lower parts of the brace. Witnesses:

\Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire JosEPH BROWN, to secure by Letters Patent, is NATHAN HACK.

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