In 1836, hackney-coaches, “outrigger” cabriolets, and back-door cabs were still plying for hire, but the immediate and continued success of Chapman’s cab prompted the proprietors of those decaying vehicles to start similar conveyances. Cabs painted and lettered in close imitation of the new patented vehicle were soon as plentiful as the real ones. Some proprietors, who prided themselves on being very smart, always had the word “not” painted in very small letters before the inscription, “Hansom’s Patent Safety,” believing that this would save them from being prosecuted. They were mistaken, for the company made a determined effort to protect its rights, and commenced legal proceedings against the infringers of its patent. In every case the company was successful, and heavy damages were awarded it, but the victories were barren ones, for on almost every occasion the infringer of the patent turned out to be a man of straw. So when the Company had spent £2000 in lawsuits, and had succeeded only in obtaining payment of one fine of £500, it came to the conclusion that the wisest thing it could do would be to refrain in future from litigation. That was a splendid thing for the “pirate” cabs, who now dispensed with the word “not,” and appeared similar in every respect to the real “Hansoms,” as the Chapmans were called. When the company took over Chapman’s cabs it had painted on them “Hansom’s Patent Safety,” so that the public might know that the conveyances belonged to the same firm as the cab which Hansom invented. And the result of this absurd action on the part of the company is that Hansom enjoys the fame which belongs by right to Chapman. Although few people could distinguish a real hansom from its many imitators, the Company’s drivers knew the difference, and treated “pirate” cabs with the utmost contempt. They called them “shofuls,” and many ingenious explanations of the origin of that word have been published during the last fifty years. Some people declared that a hansom closely resembled a shovel, while others explained that two persons in a cab made it a “show full.” As a matter of fact, “shoful” was a slang word for “counterfeit” among the lower class Jews, and was conferred by the many Jewish employés of the Company upon those vehicles which infringed Hansom’s or Chapman’s patent. In course of time it became the slang term for all hansoms, but the word is now very rarely heard.