IMPROVEMENTS IN SHOES FOR HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS, AND IN THE METHOD OF SECURING THE SAME TO THE Hoor
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHOES FOR HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS, AND IN THE
METHOD OF SECURING THE SAME TO THE Hoor."-A communication from
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 2nd July 1868.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHOES FOR HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS, AND
IN THE METHOD OF SECURING THE SAME TO THE HOOF," a communication to me
from abroad by François Lebacq, of Paris, in the Empire of France, to
be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the more effectually securing the
shoes of horses and other animals to the foot, whereby the nails
ordinarily employed for that purpose are dispensed with, and the shoe is
better enabled to resist any shock or strain to which it may be subjected,
and consists in interposing between the hoof of the animal and the shoe

page_text: an adhesive substance, the base of which is either caoutchouc or gutta
percha, which firmly unites the shoe to the foot. In order to increase
the adhesion the shoe is provided with a projecting rim on its circum-
ference, which surrounds the the hoof, and it has also a dovetailed or
other shaped groove or recess formed therein, into which the adhesive
substance flows. Notches or indentations are also made in the hoof,
which the adhesive substance entering firmly secures the shoe to the foot.
In some cases the internal groove may be dispensed with, and notches
or serrations substituted therefor, and disposed in juxtaposition to the
notches or indentations formed in the hoof.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 2nd January 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47; Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Henry Johnson, Her special license
that I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors,
administrators, or 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, excrcise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SHOES FOR HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS, AND IN THE METHOD OF SECURING THE
SAME TO THE HOOr," a communication from abroad by François Lebacq, of
Paris, in the Empire of France, upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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

page_text: 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 John Henry Johnson, 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, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to
say:-
The said Invention has for its object the more effectually securing
the shoes of horses and other animals to the foot, whereby the nails
ordinarily employed for that purpose are dispensed with, and the shoe is
better enabled to resist any shock or strain to which it may be subjected,
and consists in interposing between the hoof of the animal and the shoe
an adhesive substance, the base of which is either caoutchouc or gutta
percha, which firmly unites the shoe to the foot. In order to increase
the adhesion the shoe is provided with a projecting rim on its circum-
ference, which surrounds the hoof, and it has also a dovetailed or other
shaped groove or recess formed therein, into which the adhesive
substance flows. Notches or indentations are also made in the hoof,
which the adhesive substance entering firmly secures the shoe to the
foot.
In some cases the internal groove may be dispensed with, and notches
or serrations substituted therefor, and disposed in juxtaposition to the
notches or indentations formed in the hoof. This system is applicable to
any pattern of shoe hitherto employed, and may also be advantageously
adapted to the special description of shoe known as a pathological shoe.
The shoes made on this system may also be used as frost shoes by the
addition of a certain number of calkins fixed in the interior of the metal
without penetrating into the rind of the hoof.
The annexed Sheet of Drawings illustrates the various forms of horse-
shoes which may be employed in carrying out this Invention, the same
letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the Figures.
The horse-shoe shewn detached in Figures 4 and 6, and applied to a
hoof in Figures 1, 2, and 3, is provided at its interior with a dovetailed
groove, into which the adhesive substance is introduced, which also
enters notches made in the rind of the hoof. This dovetailed form of
groove may however be modified without inconvenience, and the groove
be made either square, round, flat, or of other suitable form, or if

page_text: required notches of the form of saw teeth may be substituted therefor,
and disposed in juxtaposition to the notches on the hoof. Figure 5 is a
view of the bottom of the horse's foot as prepared to receive this
description of shoe; the notches made thereon may be of any suitable
form.
One means of strengthening the connection between the shoe and
the hoof consists in providing on the upper edge of the circular
rim a certain number of projections or dog teeth bent round so as to
enter the hoof of the horse, as shewn in Figures 9, 10, and 11. There
may also be adapted to the shoe a calkin, as shewn in Figures 7 and 8,
the curved head of which penetrates into the rind of the hoof, whilst its
right-hand extremity is maintained between the shoe and a corresponding
part of the circular rim beat down for this purpose. The advantage of
this arrangement is, that the shoe presents in this place a plain surface.
on which the hoof may take a firm seating; the back part of the head
of the calkin is slightly chamfered, so that it is sufficient, after it has
been put in its place, to beat down slightly the corresponding lateral
parts of the shoe in order to completely secure it in the place it is
intended to occupy and prevent the possibility of its coming out.
Another method of obtaining the same result consists in introducing
a tack or point at each side of the circular rim, as shewn in red lines in
Figures 10 and 11. This tack or point at the moment when the rim is
beaten down penetrates into the rind of the hoof and fixes the shoe
finally in the place it is intended to occupy as securely as it could
possibly be effected with the nails ordinarily employed for that purpose.
The methods of securing the shoes by means of dog teeth, points, or.
calkins, herein-before described, admits of the use of ordinary shoes
without internal grooves and without the interposition of an adhesive
substance.
Another essential point of this Invention consists in the straightening
of the semi-annular web which forms the dovetailed groove in order
to retain the adhesive substance, and which thus straightened enters
itself into the rind of the hoof, which it maintains continually in its
normal state; it may even in some cases remedy previous accidents. The
extremities of the circular rim terminate in a curved form, as shewn in
Figures 17 and 18; this part of the rim by entering the hoof also adds
to the stability of the shoc. The system of vertical web illustrated in
Figure 14 admits of the circular rim being wholly or partially dispensed

page_text: with in the case of certain diseases of the horse's foot. In order to
produce economically the horse-shoes herein-before described bars are
rolled to the requisite form, as shewn in Figure 13, and cut in lengths
and bent in a heated state according to the dimensions of the foot; the
circular rim is then removed from the back part of the shoe in order to
admit of the requisite elasticity of the hoof in this part.
Another essential point of this Invention consists in the arrangement
of frost shoc, shewn in Figures 17 and 18, in which nails and screws
are entirely dispensed with. In this system the shoe is first disposed
so as to receive a greater or less number of steel buttons or points, shewn
in Figure 15; it is therefore provided, in addition to its circular rim
and web, with a series of bulges or projections on its under side, recessed
at the centre for the purpose of receiving the steel points, such bulges
or projections serving to increase the thickness of the metal at the parts
where the steel points are to be applied. The shoe is also perforated at
these parts to facilitate the expulsion of the calkins after they have been
worn out. The body of the steel points or buttons is made of the form
of two truncated pyramids placed opposite to each other end to end,
and so disposed that the projecting angles of the one correspond to the
flat faces of the other. This arrangement causes the metal of the shoe
to expand into the interior of the hole which has received the steel
point, which is thus naturally secured in its place. A modification of
this arrangement, shewn in red lines in Figures 17 and 18, consists in
forming in the shoe a lateral mortise of a dovetailed form to receive the
steel button, which is securely rivetted to it.
Another modification is represented in Figure 12, in which the steel
calkin is held in its place by means of a key passing through holes made
in the circular rim and in the bottom of the shoe and a recess in the
steel calkin. Any other suitable means may be employed, provided
that the calkins of the frost shoe have not to enter the hoof of the
horse. The method of making these shoes is shewn in Figure 16, and
it is carried out in the manner herein-before described.
Whatever description of shoe is employed, whether ordinary, patho-
logical, or frost shoes, one, two, three, or four nails may be added if
required to increase the adhesion of the shoe to the foot.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I

page_text: consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
peculiar forms and constructions of shoes for horses and other animals,
and the methods of securing the same to the hoofs without the necessity
for nails, substantially as herein-before described and illustrated by the
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to this
my Specification set my hand and seal, the First day of January
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (L.S.)