Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1899-08-04
HORSE CLIPPING.
Done Nowadays In Far Quicker Time
Than Formerly and at Much
Less Cost.

In the old days, with comb and shears,
It took man eight hours to clip a siorse,
and he had to be au expert to do IL in
that time With the introduction of
the hand clipper. such as is used for
clipping mems hair, into this use, the
time required for clipping horse was
reduced to half day. Later these clip
pers came to be operated with hand
power, by use of a crank, and then the
time required for clipping horse was
still further reduced.
In one of these hand-power clippers
the clipper is attached to the end of
flexible shaft, which is made up of short
lengths of steel wire linked together
like a chain. To keep this flexible shaft
from linking and twisting when it is
turned it is incased and carried in n
flexible tubing. The shaft is made to
turn by attaching one end of it TO the
axle of a wheel which is turned by
means of Il belt from it to another
wheel, which is turned by a crank.
These wheels are supported, the larger
one, to which the crank is attached, on
a standard resting on the floor; the
smaller one, to which tie flexible SHAFT
is attached, at the END OF an arm sup
ported by. the standard. Turning the
wheel turns the flexible shaft within
its flexible tubing. The SHAFT is aC-
tached to the clipper with an eccentric
When the shaft turns the eccentric
works the clipper just Is an ordinary
clipper with handles would be worked
by hand, only many times faster. The
operator simply holds the clipper ana
guides it over the surface TO be clipped
ated also by machine power, a, gas enc
CINE being used for this purpose, and
with power clippers horses are clipped
in less time still.
In a housekeeping establishment
where machine power is used the gas
engine is belted TO q shafting made fast
to the ceiling from which the power is
transmitted by belts to two pulleys, one
on either side of the room, attached to
the ceiling by hangers in the usual man
ner. Hanging from each of thess pull
legs is long, flexible shaft within its
flexible casing, with clipper at the
end. These flexible shafts, the tubes
that inclose them being an inch or Two
in diameter, and about as flexible as
rope or hose of like size would be, are
each perhaps eight to Ten fee or more
in length; long enough to enable the
operator to go all over one side of the
horse with the clipper hanging on that
side without shifting the animals po-
sition. The operator throws the clip
per, on whichever side he starts. into.
gear at its pulley and begins work with
it, When he has finished one side of a
horse he shuts off the power from the
clipper used on that side and goes
around on the other side, throws that
clipper into gear, and with that clipper
begins on that side of the horse.
How long it takes to clip horse now
depends very much on the horse. The
ma jority of horses take kindly to clip
ping. bvt some do not If a horse
doesn't like 10 be clipped it may take
hours 20 clip him, but ordinarily in
these dcTs, with power clippers and the
horse willing, the clipping is done in 20
minutes to an hour. A horse has been
clipped in "a minutes, but probably
about an hour would be the time usual
y required. In the old days it cost 500
10 $50 to get horse clipped; IL is done
nowadays for two dollars and fifty
cents to three dolfars.-N. Y. Sun.