422 Report on the Exhihition and Trial of Implements 



common for manufacturers to exhibit, with satisfaction, the ease 

 and quickness of accomplishing this ; but the greatest trouble 

 and longest delay commonly take place, not at the front of the 

 cart, but at the back, in releasing and casting off the tailboard, 

 owing to the pressure of the load against its inner side, so 

 . tightening it against every description of bolt or staple placed 

 usually at one side^ that after several trials by tlie hand, a rather 

 smart blow of the spade is usually required to stir it, and then the 

 sudden noisy fall of the tailboard either frightens the horse or 

 makes it move on prematurely as if the load had already been 

 tipped. The best contrivance I have ever seen for preventing 

 this inconvenience has not yet found its way to the exhibitions 

 of the Society, It may not be in vain to endeavour to describe 

 it. A perpendicular iron bar or pin runs up the right side of 

 the back of the cart, between the top-rail and the bed-rail, so as 

 to receive, above and below, the two clutches of a forked lever 

 whose long thin arm, acting as a spring, reaches to the centre of 

 the tailboard, where, with a slight pressure, it is dropped into a 

 latch fixed there to receive it; the tailboard is then firmly 

 secured in its place. When the load is to be tipped a mere 

 touch in pressing the spring of the lever lifts it out of the latch, 



]A 



releasing at the same moment the two clutches from their hold 

 upon the pin, and the tailboard comes entirely away in the 

 workman's hand, which holds it by the lever as a handle. The 

 release is instantaneous, the pressure of the load being only 

 against the short ends A and B of a long lever, and is not even 

 felt in pressing its long arm at the point C The rough sketch 

 given above will perhaps convey the idea of it better than 

 verbal description can do. The hinges (and fulcrum) are on the 

 tailboard, at the points D E. The wear and«tear of ordinary use, 

 so fatal generally to contrivances that appear the most ingenious, 

 when all is fresh and new, and oiled and painted, have no im- 

 pairing effect whatever upon the quick release and handiness of 

 this fastcnins:. 



