AN IMPROVED HORSE SHOE
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
HARRIS, of Shiffnal, in the County of Salop, Veterinary Surgeon, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eleventh day of January, in the fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Harris, Her especial licence that I, the said Thomas Harris,
my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Harris, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and' vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "AN IMPROVED HORSE SHOE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso, obliging me, the said Thomas Harris, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
my, said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and
to cause, the same to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance, with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Harris, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist

page_text: be
in a jointed horse shoe, made in five pieces, so arranged that expansion may
allowed in the heels without throwing all the motion to the toe, where in
nature there is no action at all, and as is the case in the ordinary jointed shoe
made of three pieces. My said five pieces consist of a toe piece, one off-side
piece, one near-side piece, and two rivets. And in further compliance with the
said proviso, I, the said Thomas Harris, do hereby describe the manner in
which my said Invention is to be performed, by the following statement
thereof, reference being had to the Drawing annexed, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon, similar letters being used to denote similar parts in all
the Figures, (that is to say):
=
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 represents the under side of a horse shoe, or side next the foot of
the horse. A is the toe piece; B, the near-side piece; and C, the off-side
piece; and D, D, are two conical rivets. The play intended to be given to
the heels is shewn by red lines in this Figure. The colored plan, Figure 1,
represents the shoe at its greatest point of extension, and here, it will be
necessary particularly to observe, the angle at which the halvings into the toe
and side pieces are cut, with reference to their motion round the rivets. In
this Figure they are so cut, that the side pieces being at their greatest point of
expansion at the heels, the halvings of the side pieces impinge upon the
shoulders of the toe piece at e, e, and r,r; while, in Figure 2, which represents
a plan of the other side of the shoe, the halvings of the toe piece impinge
upon the shoulders of the side pieces at a, s, and t, t, because in this Figure the
shoe is represented as at its greatest point of contraction, and ought in this
state to fit the foot when the foot is taken off the ground. The form of these
halvings and shoulders must be particularly attended to, as they limit the
expansion and contraction of the shoe, and are an essential part of the
Invention.
Figure 8 is a longitudinal section of the shoe, shewing, how the toe
piece and side pieces are halved into each other, and shewing also the
conical form of the rivets, which is important, that the pieces may hold
together to the last as the shoe wears away. Now, whereas jointed iron
shoes have long been known in the vetrinary art, but the joint has heretofore
been placed at the centre of the toe, where in the natural hoof there is in fact
no motion at all for the outside crust or horn. of the horse's foot, is an elastic
bow, and acts as such, being thicker in the middle than at the sides, and its
elasticity encreasing proportionably towards the heels, or thinner extremities of
the bow, which natural elastic action is entirely prevented by nailing on the

page_text: shoe jointed at the toe, while my shoe, which is jointed at the quarters, and
limited in its action, as before described, by the halvings, shoulders, and rivets,
gives the necessary expansion to heels without distressing the toe. And
whereas I claim as my Invention the improved horse shoe herein-before
described, and such my Invention being to the best of my knowledge and
belief entirely new, and never before used in that part of Her said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion
of Wales, nor Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be
my Specification of my said Invention, and that I do verily believe this my
Specification doth comply in all respects fully and without reserve or disguise
with the proviso in the said in part récited Letters Patent contained, whereof
I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said
Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Harris, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of June, One thousand eight hundred