IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS OR APPARATUS FOR GIVING MEDICINES AND DRINKS TO HORSES AND OTHER CATTLE
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Thomas Edmonds at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th February 1869.
I, JOHN THOMAS EDMONDS, of the City Road, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS OR APPARATUS FOR GIVING MEDICINES AND
DRINKS TO HORSES AND OTHER CATTLE," to be as follows:-
It has hitherto been found a very difficult matter to give drinks of any
kind, whether medicine or not, to horses and other cattle; the giving of
solid doses or balls to cattle has also been attended with some danger.
Now according to my Invention these inconveniences are avoided, and
at the same time no portion of the drink need be wasted or lost when
apparatus or instruments constructed according to my Invention are
employed, but which is almost invariably the case when the ordinary
drinking horn is used.
The first part of my Invention consists of an instrument or apparatus
constructed as hereafter described for administering drinks to horses or
other cattle. It is composed of a tube, by preference made of metal,
having at its lower end a piece of flexible tubing, but not necessarily as

page_text: the whole tube may be made of metal. This tube is intended to contain
the drink it may be desired to give an animal, and its size is regulated
according to the amount it is to contain, a half pint or pint for example.
In this cylinder or tube I place a piston or plug connected to a long rod
passing through a stuffing box at the other end and surrounded by a
second tube outside, and beyond the first and larger tube a spring is
placed in the smaller tube and round the piston or plug rod, which
always gives the rod a tendency to escape from the tube. There is a
stop catch in the smaller tube for holding the piston rod when it is
pressed in, and which at the same time forces the plug at the end of the
rod against the end of the larger tube or cylinder and closes the end
thereof, the end being provided with a sort of seat for the plug to fit into.
A small air tube leads from the interior of the large tube to the outside
and which is placed, by preference, near the stop catch on the smaller
tube for convenience of operation. Now the piston and rod being
loose the drink is poured through the end of the larger cylinder, the
piston rod and cylinder are then pushed forwards and the aperture is
thus closed, the piston rod being secured in this position by the spring
The end is
catch; the instrument is thus charged and ready for use.
placed in the mouth of the animal and thrust down below the tongue or
resting on it, the air hole being closed by a finger of the hand to deliver
the dose, the stop catch is released, the air valve is opened, the spring
expands, forces back the piston rod; the aperture in the tube is thereby
opened, and the dose flies down the throat of the animal. Sometimes
instead of making the tube straight I give it a slight curve, and in some
cases I attach a handle. When a handle is employed a spring lever
may be used in combination with it to operate the piston and plug.
The second part of my Invention relates to instruments or apparatus
for giving solid doses to animals, such as "balls." For this purpose I
employ a tube open at one end with a piston inside and a rod attached;
the rod being pulled back is retained by a spring, the ball is placed in
the tube on the piston, and on releasing the catch holding the piston rod
back the piston drives the ball down the tube, the latter being previously
placed in the animal's mouth, and down its throat.