D-ring Harness Origins

[Carl Russell]

OMG, you have to follow this link to the US Patents. It shows a set up whereby two long straps depend from the saddle creating a triangle, one set reaching all the way to the neck yoke, the other set all the way to the heel chains… From Georgia 1908 The inventor talks specifically about the need to alleviate collar weight…..

http://patimg1.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=00886504&SectionNum=2&IDKey=A1E382B455DE&HomeUrl=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2%2526p=3%2526u=%25252Fnetahtml%25252Fsearch-bool.html%2526r=135%2526f=G%2526l=50%2526d=pall%2526s1=54%25252F1.CCLS.%2526OS=CCL/54/1%2526RS=

Carl

[Andy Carson]

Ha! That patent is very interesting… It seems people are dancing all around the d-ring development, but have not quiet connected the dots to the patent office yet. It is possible that there were other harnessing arrangements that accomplished the same task unintentionally, and this inventer was unaware, but the patent office is supposed to check for similar inventions… Of couse this is from georgia, and they may have not known what those whily mainers were up to. 🙂

[mitchmaine]

hey carl, couldn’t open your link but can understand your descirption. maybe its like the hundredth monkey, and independantly all over, harness makers were trying to solve the same problem with different ideas.

i Just got off the phone with a delightful fellow named Charlie Putnam from mapleton, just south of new Sweden, and he” drove big hosses” since the fifties, never knew of anyone to use the d-ring, and he saw a set of d-ring harness in a mans garage and wouldn’t take them. So Aroostook county may not be the place to look for d-ring harness. i can see that mine is not an indepth study but My next stop is further south at the patten logging museum in patten, me. Down by Houlton. Charlie seemed to think they used it a lot down by bangor, but its still along way from patten south to bangor. d-ring was THE harness in central maine but probably because of the prison influence. can’t see where this is going, More later.

[Livewater Farm]

Mitch to mix it up a little more I have a book The Harness Makers Illistrated Manual by Willam Fitz-Gerald dated 1839 printed in1875 and reprint 1977 on page140 shows labled Heavy Draft Harness

the drawing shows a round d-ring harness with side straps wide back saddle . trace chains and pole hung but with pole chains attached at a point in front of both short tug [off and near side ]of each horse not hung off collar
Bill

[Livewater Farm]

correction It is a round ring in the drawing not the d-ring as we know it I would post the picture but I am technilogically challenged
Bill
Bill

[mitchmaine]

hey bill, sure would like to see that drawing. do you think it is original in the 1839 book? or maybe an update in the later printings? i only just figyred out the posting picture thing so its like the blind old guy leading the blind old guy, but….i think… if you scan the page on your printer it puts it into your documents all by itself so its in the computer, then you click the image button on the reply page, and hit uploader and then browse, then find it in your documents and upload it and ta-da, just like magic, it does it. don’t ask me how, it just does.
the ring as opposed to the square d is the secret, i’m thinking. all of a sudden possabilities occured leading to our harness. there may be other secrets hidden in there we don’t even know about that the inventor took with him and his identity to the grave.
this search has linked me up with some serious oldtimers. i sure wish we all had had a conference call the other night. what a hoot. hope you are well, mitch

[mitchmaine]

found it, bill. 1875 on the printed one i found out of the library of congress. the ring is there for sure, and even tho the yoke is held to the breast straps, the text says the breeching straps extend to become pole straps, sounds like it may be our guy. sounds like custom, and expensive harness, but again no history. thanks………..great reading

[Carl Russell]

@Livewater Farm 31901 wrote:

Mitch to mix it up a little more I have a book The Harness Makers Illistrated Manual by Willam Fitz-Gerald dated 1839 printed in1875 and reprint 1977 on page140 shows labled Heavy Draft Harness

the drawing shows a round d-ring harness with side straps wide back saddle . trace chains and pole hung but with pole chains attached at a point in front of both short tug [off and near side ]of each horse not hung off collar
Bill

Thanks Bill, that is a great booklet. I viewed it on-line from the Library of Congress. I saw several renditions of traces like this in the Patent records. Having a ring or such thing that breaks the trace was common. I read his description in the pamphlet of that Heavy Draft Harness, and he, like several others, and what seems to be the custom of the times, says that the wheel team harness does not have back pads, but do have side straps that extend from breeching rings up to yoke. He points out that the lead team harness does have back pads, but no side straps.

It just kills me how so many people used horses, and came up with so many designs that seem to either address braking and backing, OR pole weight, but as of yet I have not found evidence of that person who put them all together.

I think it is clear that there are old threads that lead back to many of the innovations that were combined to create the New England D-ring harness. As Andy has said it would be narrow minded to attribute all of these concepts to one individual, and therefore it is difficult to decide exactly when the concept that led to the development of the D-ring first hit the scene.

At some point we will find a name of a harness factory where these things were first cranked out…… or at least I hope so.

It probably doesn’t really matter, as it is clear we can acknowledge the vast and varied creative innovations that have gotten us to where we are today.

All of this research has been great for me. It has really brought home the profound reality of how important horses were, and for how long, and the depth and breadth of the perspectives that were brought to bear on the effort to maximize the utility of live power. If I had been alive then, it probably would have been somewhat lost on me, as these things are when one is brought up among cultural habits. Having this modern-day perspective looking back from a place where so many people just buy shit that looks and operate just like all the other shit that other people buy, and never give a care beyond whether or not it looks good, I appreciate the creativity, and anti-homogeneity that existed in those times. It would make life so interesting if every time you turned around there came another example of something similar to what you were using, made by someone else from another region………

Carl

[Andy Carson]

Carl, I have learned alot too, and had fun investigating even the failed (or are they?) theories. With the number of times that people seemed to have gotten close to the d-ring design without exactly getting the current itteration, it made me curious if there was some sort of limitation (other than mental) at play. So, I did a little mathematical modeling to try to figure out if the origion or the d-ring might have been as simple as adding a strap between a square d-ring (or similar) and a jockey yoke. Here’s what I learned…

If one has a fairly heavy tongue (or implement) that exerts a downward force of 200 lbs and the horses were in d-rings, that would distribute 100 lbs to the saddle of each horse. Now, lets say the harness was adjusted so that there was 9 inches of deflection from the horizonal with this load (which seems like a decent estimate from photos). Because the load (100 lbs for each horse) is pulling laterally on a “line” running from the jockey yoke to the single tree the tension on the lines exceeds 100 lbs by quite a bit. This makes intuitive sense, think of how easy it is to push or pull a chain or cable under tension side to side by hand, even if the tension can be far more than what a human could ever exert. Now, at the angles described, if the weight on the saddle is 100 lbs, the tension on the front side straps would be 203 lbs for both, or 102 lbs for each. The tension on the rear tug (before moving) would be 193 lbs for both, or 96 lbs each. Once the horse moves forward to propel the vehichle there would be an additional force of maybe 200 lbs on average for both front and rear tugs together (or 100 lbs each). These are only average loads, though, and the horse might pull much more than this for a short time. Similarly, during braking there would be force exerted by the britchen that would add to the force on the front side straps. All together, the D-ring itself has to resist many forces trying to pull it apart in several directions. In my example, for each D-ring, there is a force of 50 lbs (200 / 2 horses / 2 rings) at 12:00 (saddle), an intermitant force of 100+ lbs with a capacity for shock loads at 2:30 (britchen), a constant force of 96 lbs plus an average load of 100+ lbs with very large capacity for high shock loads at 3:30 (rear tugs), a low irregular force at 6:00 (belly band), a constant force of 102 lbs plus an intermitant force of 100 lbs plus capacity for shock loads at 8:00 (side straps), and an average load of 100 + lbs with capacity for shock at 10:00 (front tugs). Yeah, they are all kinda small forces by post industrial standards, but they add up fast, are in all directions, and many have to be engineered to experience shock loads. I have to emphasize that during normal usage, the majority of these forces are balanced by opposite forces exerted by the harnessing arangement, so they are not forces the horse “feels”. The harness and rings experience these forces, though, and they would put substantial wear on the harness if not designed with these forces in mind.

I bet these considerations are imporant to the development of the d-ring as we know it. This can be seen in the modern d-ring harness, too. The front side straps on a d-ring are pretty beefy (esp compared to many of the straps we see historically), and the D-ring itself is a substantial piece of metal (compare to the square d). It might be that the modern d-ring arrangement wouldn’t be durable without beefing these pieces of hardware. If this is true, I think we do have to be looking for a piece of metal, not a simple ring in a trace. A square ring in a trace (as in the Betsy Ross photo) would experience less than half the total force as a d-ring attached to the same piece of equipment in the modern orientation, a substantially lower number of shock loads (no shock loads for braking or with pole movement) and all the forces would be applied in one direction. Unless that ring was really overbuilt for it’s “normal” application, it would likely fail it hooked up as a d-ring, esp is the peice of equipment had a heavy tongue. Now if the pole was light, this might not be a limitation and the square D might hold, but if the pole was light one of the major advantages of the d-ring is gone. So, I come back to the imporance of the d-ring, and by this I mean the piece of metal itself. I think that it is likely that this peice is critical for the harness to reach it’s full potential and be applied in the modern orientation. Because of this, I am starting to think that any harness that doesn’t have a d-ring (or at least some other very “beefed up” central piece of metal) shouldn’t really “count”.

[Carl Russell]

@Countymouse 31930 wrote:

…. So, I come back to the imporance of the d-ring, and by this I mean the piece of metal itself. I think that it is likely that this peice is critical for the harness to reach it’s full potential and be applied in the modern orientation. Because of this, I am starting to think that any harness that doesn’t have a d-ring (or at least some other very “beefed up” central piece of metal) shouldn’t really “count”.

Yes I agree, especially since we can see so many harness set-ups that already have the basic components, but lack the more common rendition of the D-ring, ie. as seen in the Bellows Falls VT picture.

Carl

[jac]

Ok thats the harness covered pretty well guys … what about those peaked collars though ???.. were those common workaday collars or was this foto mabey of some big event and these were more showy than normal.. Scotland had these types and were often used every day… John

[Carl Russell]

@jac 31934 wrote:

Ok thats the harness covered pretty well guys … what about those peaked collars though ???.. were those common workaday collars or was this foto mabey of some big event and these were more showy than normal.. Scotland had these types and were often used every day… John

Sorry John, I forgot to answer your question about the collars. Actually I don’t have a very good perspective to see exactly what those collars look like, but as you can see from so many pictures we have posted, there were about as many collar/hames styles as there were teamsters.

From the looks of the attitude on this teamster, the condition of the horses, the adjustment of the harness, and the kind of work that he was apparently expecting from his horse, I would guess he liked having a little bit more show in his kit. It appears to me that he was the kind who would take his truck into the garage every night and power-wash it for tomorrow if he were working in today’s world.

Other than that your guess is as good as mine.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

So I got driven in today by some rain so I surfed that Vermont Historical Photo site……..because I just haven’t found enough answers to satisfy myself.

What I found is that the D-ring in the modern form was probably quite common as early as 1890, and certainly by 1900, throughout Vermont. It is entirely likely that the harness in Mitch’s photo is actually a round D. I also found that the square D’s were nearly as common….. These appraisals are entirely anecdotal from flipping through pics.

It is kind of interesting to note that the square D’s seem to be commonly used in quarries, like the pics from Concord, NH, I found several examples from Barre, VT.

This first pic states that it is from a Brickyard in Woodstock, VT circa 1880. This date I think is based on the fact that the yard operated between 1870 and 1890. It certainly appears to be fairly rustic….. vertical board roof. I used the zoom on the site to make sure that these are in fact round (apparently forged) D-rings.

This next picture actually states the exact date, 1-08-1907, in West Failee, VT, Fraves Hodges with the Standard Oil Co. delivery sled. This is by far the best example of fitted D-ring harnesses that I have come across from that time period.

I just had to post this pic of these brothers with some good loads of logs. Joe & Fred Winslow Berlin, VT circa 1909. Combination D-ring/Side-backer with no back pads. Change is hard….. seems like possibly the traces with D’s in them were more favorable, as if they bought them because they had no other choice, but still didn’t put them to their fullest use……

Again with the back pads on the lead team, and not on the wheelers????? This is from Barnet, VT circa 1880.

So I guess I may not have looked far enough into the earlier dates at the patent office.

Carl

[mitchmaine]

hey carl, we’ve seen a lot of nphotos of wheel teams without saddles. to many to be an exception. there must have been an idea there. perhaps the leaders took a strain and held the pole up for the wheelers, eliminating the need, and the wheelers had the breeching to hold the load, where the leaders had no yoke and didn’t need the breeching, but did need the jack saddle to keep all in place? then when a thoughtful teamster with just a pair of horses, combined all the parts to make one.

i have been looking at so much harness, i have been neglecting the teamsters. started looking at their faces today, and realized i was seeing a man who was in the middle of his 16 hour day, who got up behind in his work and will go to bed probably just as far behind. and may not care what style of harness he was using as much as the condition of the harness, and might get around to that broken strap when he could. i ran a timberjack, with a leaking steering cylinder and a leaking rear main seal. and running out the main cable was like grabbing ahold of a porcupine, i was always gonna get to those projects as soon as i had a moment. so i’m really starting to look at their faces now a little different. heading for the state prison to see what they got. good hunting, mitch

[Andy Carson]

The photos are very interesting. From the force analysis I did earlier, I think that a d-ring in the modern arrangement (as in the west failee photo) would experience more than twice the stress of a ring that is arranged like the square d. Supporting the pole with straps from the jockey yoke to the collar cuts the stress in half, and you certainly see alot of this (as in woodstock, Berlin, and Barnet photos). The other modification that eliminates the extra stress would be to eliminate the saddle, which is also seen in all these photos but the west failee photo.

Take a look at the photo of your (Carl’s) horses in link below. You can tell that it is critical that the rear tugs and the britchen attachment have to lay one on top of the other when attached to the “d”. As the two straps are arranged on on top of the other, I think this requires a more complex shape than a simple d. Perhaps a simple d would be sufficient for a wagon, as in the Woodstock photo, but if the horses really had to exert (like with the Berlin photo) i think it would not be a workable arrangement.

http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?3905-D-Ring-Harness-Parts

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