A NEW OR IMPROVED INSTRUMENT FOR PROTECTING GARDENS AND FIELDS FROM BIRDS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Christopher Thurgar, of the City of Norwich,
Manufacturer, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED INSTRUMENT FOR
PROTECTING GARDENS AND FIELDS FROM BIRDS."
Sealed the 10th January 1865, and dated the 14th July 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Christopher
Thurgar at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 14th July 1864.
I, WALTER CHRISTOPHER THURGAB, of the City of Norwich, Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED
INSTRUMENT FOR PROTECTING GARDENS AND FIELDS FROM BIRDS," to be as
follows:-
This instrument consists of a drum or barrel mounted upon a spindle, which
is made to revolve in suitable bearings. I make the drum or barrel of cast
iron or other metal, with one end open and the other closed or solid. The
interior of the drum or barrel I make bell-mouthed or conical, that is to say,
wider at its open end than at its closed end. Around the periphery of the
drum or barrel and near its closed or solid end I fix a series of percussion
nipples, with holes or perforations through their centres. I place percussion

page_text: caps on the nipples, and the caps revolving with the drum or barrel are dis-
charged by a hammer falling upon them at intervals. I effect the revolutions
of the drum or barrel and the raising of the percussion hammer by clockwork.
The instrument may be wound up once or twice a day, and may be made to
discharge a given number of caps every hour, and thus by repeated explosions
birds may be effectually frightened from the vicinity of the instrument.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Walter Christopher Thurgar in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 14th January 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WALTER
CHRISTOPHER THURGAR, of the City of Norwich, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Walter Christopher Thurgar, Her special licence that I, the said
Walter Christopher Thurgar, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Walter Christopher Thurgar, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time, and at all times thereafter 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 Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED INSTRUMENT FOR PROTECTING GARDENS
AND FIELDS FROM BIRDS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Walter Christopher Thurgar, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under ny, or their, or one of their bands 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 Walter Christopher Thurgar, do hereby
declare the nature of my 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 Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say:

page_text: This Invention consists of a drum or barrel mounted upon a spindle, which
is made to revolve in suitable bearings. I make the drum or barrel of iron
or other metal, with one end open and the other closed or solid. The interior
of the drum or barrel I make bell-mouthed or conical, that is to say, wider
at its open end than its closed end. Around the periphery of the drum or
barrel and near its closed or solid end I fix a series of percussion nipples
with holes or perforations through their centres. I place percussion caps on
the nipples, and the caps revolving with the drum or barrel are discharged
by a hammer falling upon them at intervals. I effect the revolution of the
drum or barrel, and the raising of the percussion hammer by clockwork con-
nected therewith. The instrument may be wound up once or twice a day,
and may be made to discharge a given number of caps every hour, and by
repeated explosions birds may be effectually frightened from the vicinity of
the instrument. The instrument is supported upon a stand.. A guard is
attached to the stand to prevent caps falling off.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is an end elevation; Figure 2, a
side elevation, and Figure 3, a plan of an instrument constructed according
to my Invention.
A is a drum or barrel of cast iron or other metal mounted loosely on a
spindle B; the drum A is closed at the end to the left of Figures 2 and 3,
and open at the other end. The interior is made bell-mouthed or conical, as
represented by the dotted lines; C, C, are nipples fixed round the periphery
of the drum A, near its closed end; D is a hammer, which is made to fall at
stated intervals, as hereafter described, to explode percussion caps placed on
the nipples C; E is a triple cam carried by the spindle B, and made to
revolve by clockwork at, say, the rate of one revolution per hour, each arm
of the cam E acts successively on an arm F attached to the hammer D, so as
to raise the hammer from the nipple on which a cap was last exploded, and
when the arm of the cam has passed the arm F of the hammer, the hammer
again falls, the force of its descent being augmented by a spring G. In the
meantime, while the hammer was being raised, a paul H carried by a back
extension of the hammer, has moved from one tooth to another of a ratchet I
on the drum, whereby the drum has been caused to advance the distance of
one tooth. The teeth correspond in number and position to the nipples on
the drum, and as the drum advances one tooth a fresh nipple with its cap
is presented to the hammer D. J is a guard to prevent exploded caps falling
off. This guard is not shown in Figures 2 and 3.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the instrument

page_text: for protecting gardents and fields from birds, arranged and acting substantially
as herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Christopher Thurgar, has here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of January, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-five.
W. C. THURGAR. (L.S.)