IM- PROVEMENTS IN COMBING, BRUSHING, AND CLEANING HORSES OR OTHER ANIMALS, AND IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR."
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Francis Marley at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 4th April 1877.
FRANCIS MARLEY, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain. "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN COMBING, BRUSHING, AND CLEANING HORSES OR OTHER ANIMALS,
AND IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR."
This Invention has reference to improvements on the Invention for which
Royal Letters Patent were granted to James Henry Small, of Buffalo, New York,
United States of America, entitled "An Improved Hair Brushing, and Combing, and
Clipping Machine, chiefly Designed for Cleaning Horses and other Animals, Parts
of which Invention are Applicable to other Machinery," dated 3rd December, 1874,
and numbered 4158.
And the nature and novelty of the Invention consist in fitting within the
revolving brushing head or stock of the instrument two or more currying comb
blades or strips of steel, with the currying teeth on their outer edge, and moved
out and in in longitudinal slits in the wood stock between the rows of bristles of
the brush, so as to curry the horse at the same time as brushing it, by bringing out
the teeth of these new combs at any time desired to near the working surface of the
brush, which would always protect the combs from cutting or injuring the skin of
the horse. The comb blades are mounted to move out and in parallelly in their slots
as guides, preferably on opposite sides in pairs, mounted, according to one arrange-
ment, by slots on pins in the extreme ends of two bars swivelling on central studs
near the ends of the blades, the pins being connected by parallel acting bars so as
to press the blade combs out and in parallelly when one of the swivelling arms is
turned, which is done by a reciprocating bar, connected to it direct or by teeth on
its one side, as a rack working into a tooth segment on one of the arms. The end
of this reciprocating bar, which projects out beyond the slot in the revolving head,
has a kneed end, which projects laterally into an annular groove in the near end
of a hand-shifting and holding sleeve on the non-revolving carrying case of the
revolving spindle of the brush, which with its driving gear being all the same as
described in the former Patent, herein-before referred to, need not be here further
particularly described.
The end of the shifting rod revolves in the groove of the shifting sleeve, so that
it can set and fix the combs out or in in any desired position, while revolving and

page_text: brushing, by the longitudinal motion of the sleeve with one of the hands carrying
and guiding the instrument, a fixed pin in the handle or frame working in a slot in
the sleeve takes into one of a set of holding, side fixing, or locking notches, so as to
hold the sleeve and combs where set.
In this new or improved instrument the driving spindle does not, as in others
heretofore, pass up through the centre of the headstock of the brush and comb, but
is keyed or otherwise securely attached to its extreme upper end by a boss or eye
with deep outer socket or ferrule, into which the lower or inner end of the stock is
tightly inserted, and fixed by screws, or otherwise, from the outside of the socket.
Other equivalent means of expanding and drawing in the comb blades may be
employed besides that described, as by duplex, inclined, or conically shaped vanes,
with slots, at the ends of a shifting central bar or spindle, which when shifted by
the sleeve outside would by the pins in the comb working into the inclined slots
actuate them as described; or otherwise, the central shifting bar might actuate
toggle links attached to the inner edges and ends of the comb blades as an
equivalent mechanical action.