IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR ROUGHING HORSES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Bigg, Smith and Farrier, of Roydon, Essex, near Ware,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR
ROUGHING HORSES."
Sealed the 28th January 1879, and dated the 30th July 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Bigg at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th July 1878.
JOHN BIGG, Smith and Farrier, of Roydon, Essex, near Ware.
IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR ROUGHING HORSES."
"IMPROVEMENTS
My apparatus or means essentially consists of two parts. Both parts are made
with clips on both sides, so as to clip the upper and under parts of the shoe.
Wedge or other convenient shaped pieces are forged or made on each part, so that
when the animal is travelling over a slippery surface they catch or dig into such
surface, and so prevent the horse or other animal from slipping.
A screwed bolt is forged or otherwise made to the centre of the front piece, and
there is a hole in the rear or heel piece, through which the screwed bolt passes.
One or more nuts are used to screw the picces into position when the apparatus is
attached to the animal's shoe, so that the whole can be made firm and rigid.
Under my Invention there will be no occasion to remove the shoe, as the appa-
ratus can be attached at any time, and it is so simple that any person can attach it
in a few minutes. There can also be no injury to the shoe or the animal's
hoof.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Bigg in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 30th January
1879.
JOHN BIGG, of Roydon, Essex, near Ware.
OR APPARATUS FOR ROUGHING HORSES."
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS
My Invention relates to shoes for horses or other animals, and has for its objects
improved methods of roughing such shoes, or giving them better hold and rendering
them less liable to slip upon ice or other slippery surfaces.
Methods have sometimes heretofore been used for this purpose, but the apparatus
used has been liable to become detached from the shoe when in use, and has con-
sisted of too many parts, and has not been sufficiently simple and cheap.
By my present Invention I take for each such shoe an apparatus or device con-
sisting essentially of two parts only, each of which is provided with clips having
grooves or notches fitting against the side of the shoe, and embracing both its upper
and lower edges.
Upon one of these parts I make or attach a screwed bolt, which passes through a
corresponding hole in the other such part, and is provided with one or more screwed
nuts, so that when the two parts are adjusted in their proper position upon the
shoe they can be forced apart against the inner edge of the latter by tightening the
nuts upon the screw, the adjustment and fixing being effected by one screw or bolt
only.
Upon the lower side of each of the two separate parts of which the apparatus iš
essentially composed as described, I make one or more picces projecting downward,
and having their lower edges wedge shaped or chisel shaped, or provided with
points, studs, or other projections sufficiently sharp or rough to catch or dig into ice
or other slippery surfaces, and prevent the horse or other animal using the shoes so
fitted from slipping.
In some cases the part nearest the toe of the shoe may be used without any piece
projecting below.
The accompanying Drawing is in illustration of my Invention.
Figure 1 is a plan from below; Figure 2, a side view; Figure 3, an end view
from behind; and Figure 4, a transverse section of one method of arrangement
which I use in carrying out my Invention.
a is the shoe of the usual kind; b is one part of the apparatus, having a groove c
(as shown in Figure 5) which fits the inner edge of the toe of the shoe, embracing
both its upper and lower sides, and is provided upon its lower side with the pro-
jecting sharp edge or rough d.
The other part e is fitted transversely across the back part of the shoe, and has
nt each end a groove f, f¹, fitting the inner edge of the shoe above and below, as
shewn; g is a screwed bolt formed upon b, and passing through a hole in e; i is
a nut upon the bolt g, by turning which the two parts of the apparatus b and c are
forced apart, and are fixed firmly into the shoe a; and is a lock nut by which the
nuti is prevented from becoming loose.
The lower sides of the ends of the piece e are provided with projecting sharp
edges or roughs 1, l'.
Figure 6 shows-a plan from below, and Figure 7 a side view of a somewhat
different arrangement of the apparatus, in which the front part of the apparatus b
is provided with two projecting sharp edges or roughs d, (shewn serrated), and
the transverse back piece c has the screwed bolt g upon it passing through the
hole h in b.
Figure 8 shows a plan from below and Figure 9 a side view of another arrange-
ment, in which the two parts b and c are fitted against the two sides respectively of
the shoe t, each part being provided with two sharp edges or roughs d, d', and 1, l.
The bolt is shewn separate from the two parts, one end of it being fitted into a
I

page_text: square hole in the part e, and the other end passing through a hole in the part 0,
and being provided with nuts i and k for the purpose already described.
Figure 11 shews another arrangement for tightening the two parts b and e by the
bolt g.
Figure 10 shews upon a smaller scale the two parts b and c, embracing the outer
instead of the inner edge of the shoe, and tightened by drawing them together
instead of forcing them apart.
The several parts of the apparatus may be made of iron or other suitable
material, but I prefer to make them of steel.
It will be seen that the two separate parts of the apparatus are adjusted and
fixed in the shoe by one screw or bolt only, which may be made separate, and may
be made to screw through a hole in one of such parts, its point, pressing against
the other such part, and in this way the two parts are forced apart.
Instead of projecting sharp edges or roughs as shewn, the moveable picces b and c
in the several Figures. may have recesses or holes, into which can be fitted pro-
jecting pieces of india-rubber or other soft material, by which the tendency to slip
upon asphalte or other smooth surfaces may be lessened, or the lower sides of the
parts b and e may be extended in the shape of thin flat plates, covering together
the whole or nearly the whole of the shoe a, and the lower sides of such plates may
be roughened with grooves, notches, or projections, or may be left smooth.
Instead of a bolt and nuts for the purpose of forcing the separate parts of the
apparatus apart against the inner edge of the shoe, as described and shewn, levers
or wedges may be used for the same purpose (as indicated in dotted lines in
Figure 1), proper devices being provided for the purpose of preventing such levers
or wedges from becoming loose.
By my improved apparatus, roughs constructed and arranged as described, so as to
embrace the edge of the shoes both above and below, can be applied to or removed
from the shoes of horses or other animals as desired with little trouble and in a
very short time, only one adjusting screw being required, whilst the apparatus
cannot fall off, and there is no necessity for removing the shoe from the animal's
hoof, and neither the shoe nor the hoof is injured.
Having now described my Invention and the manner in which it is to be per-
formed, I do not claim the preciso form and arrangements of the several parts of the
apparatus described and shewn, but I claim the method of attaching roughs to
horse-shoes by forming them of two separate parts, which parts embrace the edges
of the shoes both above and below, and are adjusted and forced against or round
them by means of a screw, levers, or wedges, substantially as described and shewn
in the Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bigg, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twenty-ninth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.