IMPROVEMENTS IN BREEDING OR CULTIVATING OYSTERS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edouard de Lagillardaic, of Lorient (France),
Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BREEDING OR
CULTIVATING OYSTERS."
Sealed the 9th December 1875, and dated the 9th October 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edouard de Lagillardaie
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 9th October 1875.
I, EDOUARD DE LAGILLARDAIE, of Lorient (France), Merchant, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BREEDING OR CULTIVATING OYSTERS," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the breeding and cultivation of oysters, and
consists principally in securing each oyster by a wire and suspending
it in the water under conditions suitable for its growth and development,
and in a manner that renders it easily accessible for inspection or
removal. For this purpose I fix a wire to each young oyster, either by
cementing it to the shell, or preferably by passing it through a hole.

page_text: drilled or bored through the shell at the joint, taking advantage of the
irregularities of the shell so as to bore it without piercing the animal
within. I find, however, that even when the hole pierces the animal, the
wire passed through it becomes shortly encased in shelly matter and
does not injure the oyster. I suspend the oysters thus wired to trellises,
or cages which I immerse in the water, and for so suspending them I
find it convenient to string a number on each length of wire, making
loops on the wire or introducing short pieces of tube or pieces of bent
wire between each oyster and the next one to it, so as to provide space
between them for their full development.
The trellis to which the oysters are suspended may consist of wood or
other framing with hooks or nails for the suspending wires, or may be
made like wire fencing with posts at intervals, the oysters being strung
on the horizontal wires extending from post to post.
When it is desired that the oysters should be not in a fixed position, 1
but removeable, I suspend them in cages each consisting of a framing
with a number of hooks or wires for the suspension of the oysters, and I
make these cages either sufficiently buoyant to float, in which case
I moor them to a submerged chain, or sufficiently heavy to sink, in
which case I moor them to floats or buoys or to chains supported 2
thereon; otherwise when the cages are heavy they may be suspended
from a float by a chain passing over a pulley and counterweighted so
that the cage shall rise and sink with the tide.
The cages may from time to time be raised to the surface for
inspection or for removing the full grown oysters and replacing them by 2
voune ovsters
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edouard de Lagillardaie in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 21st December 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDOUARD 30
DE LAGILLARDAIE, of Loirent (France), Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of October, in the year

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Edouard de Lagillardaie, Her
special license that I, the said Edouard de Lagillardaie, my executors,
3 administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edouard de
Lagillardaie, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BREEDING OR CULTIVATING OYSTERS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Edouard de Lagillardaie, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edouard de Lagillardaie, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say:-
My Invention relates to the breeding and cultivation of oysters, and
consists principally in securing each oyster by a wire and suspending it
in the water under conditions suitable for its growth and development,
and in a manner that renders it easily accessible for inspection or
removal. For this purpose I fix a wire to each young oyster, either by
cementing it to the shell or preferably by passing it through a hole
drilled or bored through the shell at the joint, taking advantage of the
irregularities of the shell so as to bore it without piercing the animal
within. I find, however, that even when the hole pierces the animal, the
wire passed through it becomes shortly encased in shelly matter and does
not injure the oyster. I suspend the oysters thus wired to trellises or
cages which I immerse in the water, and for so suspending them I find

page_text: it convenient to string a number on each length of wire, making loops
on the wire or introducing short pieces of tube or pieces of bent wire
between each oyster and the next one to it, so as to provide space
between them for their full development.
The trellises to which the oysters are suspended may consist of wood i
or other framing with hooks or nails for the suspending wires, or may be
made like wire fencing with posts at intervals, the oysters being strung
on the horizontal wires extending from post to post.
When it is desired that the oysters should be not in a fixed position,
but removeable, I suspend them in cages each consisting of a framing ]
with a number of hooks or wires for the suspension of the oysters, and
I make these cages either sufficiently buoyant to float, in which case I
moor them to a submerged chain, or sufficiently heavy to sink, in which
case I moor them to floats or buoys or to chains supported thereon;
otherwise when the cages are heavy they may be suspended from a float 1
by a chain passing over a pulley and counterweighted so that the cage
shall rise and sink with the tide.

page_text: In order to keep the oysters sufficiently far apart for their due growth
and development, they may be separated by short lengths of metal,
wood, or other tube, or by bent strips of metal strung on the wire
between them, or loops may be formed on the suspending wire, as shewn
in Fig. 4, and the wires may be arranged vertically as indicated in the
same Figure.
Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a cage consisting of a number of wire
frames arranged together, each wire having its row of oysters suspended
from it, and the whole being either loaded to sink or rendered buoyant to
float as may be most convenient.
Fig. 6 represents a number of heavy cages, such as are shewn in
Fig. 5, suspended in the water from chains supported by float vessels.
In cases where the bottom is of a suitable kind, the cages may be
allowed to rest on it, their places being marked by buoys attached to
them by chains or ropes, as shewn in Fig. 7, so that the cages can be
hauled up when required.
Fig. 8 shews a method of connecting the timber cage to a float by
means of a chain passing over a pulley and attached to a counterweight,
so that whether the tide rises or falls the cage remains stationary at the
bottom.
Buoyant cages may be moored to a chain at the bottom, as shewn in
Fig. 9, and generally the cages may be protected by enclosing them
within gratings or metal network.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I claim,―
First. The method, substantially as herein described, of facilitating the
breeding and cultivation of oysters by attaching them separately by
wires to suitable trellises or cages, whereby they can be fixed in
situations suited to their growth and development.
Second. The method, substantially as herein described with reference
to Figs. 3 and 4 of the accompanying Drawings, of stringing oysters on
wires and keeping them apart for the purposes herein set forth.
Third. The use for the cultivation of oysters of wire cages in which
they are separately attached, such cages being suspended or moored

page_text: under water, substantially as herein described with reference to Figs. 6,
7, 8, and 9, of the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edouard de Lagillardaie, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.
EDOUARD DE LAGILLARDAIE. (L.s.)
Witness,
CH. ARMENGAUD,
Civil Engineer,
Boulevard de Strasbourg, 23,
à Paris.