US829885A - Holdback for harness. - Google Patents

Description

N0. 829,885. PATENTED AUG. 2,8, 1906.

H. R. MODONALD. HOLDBACK POR HARNESS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 16. 1905.

74 E Si 73 SHOM/m1,!

-rns NoRRIs PETERS cm. WASHINGTON. D. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEOE.

HOLDBACK FOR HARNESS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 28, 1906.

Application filed November 16, 1905. Serial No. 287.688.

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that l, HALLOCK ROBERT Mo- DONALD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lisbon, in the county of Columbiana and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Holdback for Harness, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to improvements in holdbacks for harness.

The object of the present invention is to improve the construction of holdbacks for harness and to provide a simple, inexpensive, and eflicient holdback adapted to enable a horse to be hitched and unhitched more rapidly than heretofore and at the same time afford an animal greater control of a buggy or other vehicle.

A further object of the invention is to provide a holdback extending from the breeching to the point or outer end of the shaft and detachably engaging the latter, whereby after the holdback has been placed on the outer end of the shaft it is only necessary to fasten the traces and belly-band to complete the hitching operation.

Another obj ect of the invention is to provide a .socket or thimble adapted to be quickly applied to and removed from the end of a shaft and having means for positively engaging the latter to prevent it from turning on the same.

With these and other objects in view the invention consists in the construction and novel combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, `and pointed out in the claims hereto appended, it being understood that various changes in the form, proportion, size, and minor details of construction within the scope of the claims may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view lof a harness provided with a holdback constructed in accordance with this invention. Fig. 2 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the socket or thimble, showing the same applied to a shaft. Fig. 3 is a detail perspective view of the socket or thimble. Fig. 4 is a detail sectional view of a portion of the socket or thimble, illustrating the construction of the spring for engaging the shaft.

Like numerals of reference designate corre- 'sponding parts in all the figures of the drawm s.

g1 designates a holdback-strap secured at its rear end to the breeching-ring 2 and extending forward therefrom to the front end of the shaft 3 and provided thereat with means for enabling it to be adjustably secured to a ring 4 of a socket or thimble 5, which is detachably fitted on the front end or point of the shaft 3. Both ends of the holdback-strap are preferably provided with buckles for enabling the strap to be lengthened or shortened but the adjusting means may be applied to only one end of the holdback-strap, if desired. The ring is .attached to the socket or thimble by means ofa short strap or piece 6, which is doubled to provide a loop for the ring and which is stitched or otherwise secured to the socket or thimble.

The socket or thimble, which is tapering to fit the front end of the shaft, may be constructed of any suitable material and is composedof a body portion 7 of stout leather stiffened at its front portion by a core or piece 9 of Wood or other suitable material and secured to the same by tacks 10 or other suitable fastening devices. The front ends of the socket or thimble and the core, which projects slightly beyond the tapering body portion, are arranged within a metallic tip, which is secured to the core by one or more screws 12 or other suitable fastening devices. The screw 12 pierces the tip and the body portion of the socket or thimble and is embedded in the core, as clearly shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings. The tip provides an ornamental finish for the front end of the socket or thimble.

In order to prevent theA socket or thimble from rotating on the front end or point of the shaft, a yieldable shaft-engaging device, preferably in the form of a spring 8, is employed. The spring 8, which is located within the socket or thimble, extends longitudinally of the same and is secured at its outer end to one of the side Walls thereof by a rivet 13 or other suitable fastening device. The spring is bowed between its ends, and its inner or front end 14 is free to enable the bowed portion of the spring to be compressed when the socket or thimble is placed on the shaft.

It will be seen that the device is in the form of an attachment and may be applied to any ordinary harness having a collar or breast-strap 15, a back-strap 16, a girth or belly-band 17, a breeching 18, andtraces 19;

that the holdback-strap consists of a single continuous strap arranged independently of the traces and extending directly om the front ends of the shafts to the breeching, and that the connection of the rear end of the holdbacl-strap to the breeching-ring forms the sole connection between the attachment and the harness.

In hitching a horse to a buggy or other vehicle it is only necessary to fit the detachable sockets or thimbles of the holdback on the front ends of the shafts and then fasten the belly-band and traces, and the horse is ready to start. In unhitching the socket or thimble of the holdback will readily slip off the shaft when the traces and belly-band are unfastened. The improved holdback enables a horse to be hitched to and unhitched from a vehicle with greater rapidity than heretofore, and it also affords an animal greater control of the vehicle.

It will be noted that the traces extend directly from the breast member to the whifiietree without any other connection to the vehicle or harness and that the breast member l5 is not connected to the vehicle or thills except through the medium of the traces extending back in the usual manner. It will be noted, further, that the back-strap or saddle and the girth 17 have no connection whatever with the thills except by means of the pendent tug-straps. Attention is further directed to the fact that the holdback attachments, including the holdbacl-straps l and their attaching thimbles, serve as a connection between the front ends of the thills and 'the breeching of the harness and have no other connection with either the harness or the vehicle. By reason of this relation of the various elements the horse when holding the vehicle back controls the vehicle from the outer ends of the thills, while the extreme flexibility of the connection between the horse and the vehicle, which is ordinarily considered essential, is retained. In other words, the holdback-straps and thimbles are entirely separate from and independent of the harness, except for the connection between the rear ends of the holdback-straps and the breeching. Similarly, the harness proper is entirely independent of the vehicle, except for its connection therewith, through the medium of the traces, tugs, and holdbackstraps, and as these several members are flexible the horse has great freedom of movement either forward or back or sidewise between the thills. The described arrangement is therefore clearly distinguishable from that type of harness which involves the idea of providing short thills with thimbles to which the saddle, girth, holdback-straps, and breast member are connected. With this latter arrangement the horse is attached to the thills in a manner to facilitate his quick release in ease of a runaway; but the connectien is such that the horse is deprived of all freedom of movement, because the various elements of the harness are directly connected to an element rigid with the thills. It is therefore to be understood that the phrase the connection of the holdback-straps to the breeching forming the sole connection between the attachment and the harness is intended to mean that the holdback-straps and thimbles are entirely separate from and independent of thesharness proper, except at the points where the holdback-straps are attached to the breeching. It is by reason of this complete separation of the holdback attachments from all parts of the harness, except the breeching, that the great flexibility of the connection between the horse and vehicle is possible. It should also be understood that the term breast member employed in the claims is intended to be of sufficient breadth to comprehend the breaststrap shown in the drawings or any equivalent form of breast member as, for instance, the collar and hames ordinarily substituted for the breast-strap for heavier work.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The combination with an ordinary harness including a breeching, traces, back-strap, girth and breast-strap or collar, of an attachment therefor comprising sockets or thimbles iitted on the front ends of the shafts, and holdbaclr-straps, independent of the traces, connected at their rear ends to the breeching and at their front ends to the sockets or thimbles, the connection of the holdbacli-straps to the breeching forming the sole connection bctween the attachment and the harness.

2. A harness including a girth, breast member, and breeching, in combination with traces extending directly from the breast member, and holdback-straps extended directly from the breeching and having terminal means of attachment to the front ends of the thills, said traces and holdbackestraps being otherwise disconnected from and independent of each other and of thc harness.

3. A harness including a breast member, girth, and. breeching, in combination with traces extended directly from the breast mem? ber, and holdback attachments each including a holdback-strap and an attachingthim ble, each of said attachments being terminally secured to the breeching and otherwise disconnected from the harness.

il. A harness including a breast member, girth, and breeching, in combination with thills and a whiifletree, traces extending directly between the breast member and whiffl'etree and otherwise disconnected from the harness, and holdback attachments each secured at its opposite ends to the breeching and to the front end of a thill respectively, and otherwise disconnected from the harness IOO IIO

or vehicle, each of said attachments including a holdback-strap and an attaching-thimble.

5. A holdback for harness, comprising a holdback-strap, and a socket or thimble provided on its interior with a compressible shaftengaginff device arranged to l'rictionally engage a shaft to prevent the socket or thirnble from rotating on the same.

6. A holdback for harness, comprising a holdback-strap, and a socket or thimble adapted to iit on the front end of the shaft and provided with an interiorly-arranged.

spring secured at one end to the socket or thimble and having its other end free, said spring being bowed between its ends and arranged to be compressed when the socket or thimble is placed on a shaft.

7. A holdback for harness, comprising a holdback-strap, and a socket or thimble consisting of a tapering leather body portion, a core tapered throughout its entire length and fitted within the smaller end of the body portion, a tapered metal tip fitted on the core and receiving and engaging the adjacent end of the leather body portion and clamping the same on the core, and fastening devices piercing the tip and the leather body portion and securing the same to the core.

8. A holdback for harness comprising a holdback-strap, and a socket provided with interiorly-arranged yieldable means adapted to conform to shafts of different sizes, and arranged to frictionally engage the same to prevent the socket or thirnble rotating thereon.

9. In a device of the class described7 a thimble or socket provided with an interiorly-arranged spring for frictionally engaging a shaft to prevent the socket from rotating on the front end of the same, said spring being yieldable to fit shafts of different sizes.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto aflixed Iny signature in the presence of two witnesses.

HALLOCK ROBERT MCDONALD.

Witnesses:

C. B. KENTY, NETTIE CHANDLER.

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