IMPROVEMENTS IN CLIPS OR SHEARS FOR CLIPPING OR SHEAR- . ING HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS."
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Pierre Marcel Bétis, of the Firm Bétis, Espinasse,
et Cie., of Boulevard de Strasbourg, 28, at Paris, Merchants, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CLIPS OR SHEARS FOR CLIPPING OR SHEAR- .
ING HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Pierre Marcel Bétis
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 12th May 1873.
I, PIERRE MARCEL BÉTIS, of the Firm Bétis, Espinasse, et Cie., of
Boulevard de Strasbourg, 28, at Paris, Merchants, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CLIPS OR SHEARS FOR
CLIPPING OR SHEARING HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS," to be as follows :—
This relates to clips or shears for clipping or shearing horses and other
animals, and the Invention consists, first; in magnetizing the two combs
or cutters so as to augment their attraction and so facilitate the cutting
operation; secondly, in concentrating the regulation of the combs or
cutters at a single point; thirdly, in two different arrangements of

page_text: regulation, one by pressure and the other by traction; and fourthly, in a
generally simplified arrangement of the instrument.
I proceed to describe my improved instrument in the first place with
the regulation by pressure applied to it. The two arms of the instrument
are of iron or steel, and preferably of flat form. The fixed comb or 5
cutter is of magnetised steel, and is attached to the fixed arm by means
of two screws which permit it to be removed when desired to be
sharpened or reset. The comb or cutter has also at its top two screws
or bolts forming projections which engage into two corresponding slides
of the movable comb or cutter, also of magnetised steel. These bolts, 1
which do not pass through the comb, serve also as guides to obtain the
Or instead of
perfect rectilinear side movement of the movable comb.
two bolts at the sides of the comb one only at the centre can be used.
At the centre of the movable comb is a cavity to receive a button which
forms a projection under the flat pressure spring. This spring carries 1
two other projecting pins which engage into the slides of the movable
comb. The pressure spring is flat shaped with a turned over edge. A
slight indentation is made at its centre to receive the point of the pressure
screw.
Upon the fixed arm of the instrument is attached a screw bolt, serving 2
as the pivot for the movable arm which actuates the movable comb, a.
nut permits the play of the arms to be regulated. The movable arm is
prolonged by a smaller arm or lever, to the extremity of which the
pressure screw, which acts upon the flat spring, is attached.
I proceed now to describe the instrument with the regulation by
traction applied to it. The only modification necessary in the arrange-
ment already described consists in the method of regulation. For this
purpose the fixed comb has at its middle a groove serving as a dove-
tailed slide to a correspondingly shaped sliding block. This sliding
block, which penetrates into a similarly shaped guide in the movable a
comb, is surmounted by a threaded rod, the lower square shaped part of
which crosses the pressure spring which is slightly cambered in order to
receive the nut above; the pressure of this nut determines the regulation
of the two combs by traction.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Pierre Marcel Bétis in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 12th November 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PIERRE
MARCEL BÉTIS, of the Firm Bétis, Espinasse, et Cie., of Boulevard de
Strasbourg, 28, at Paris, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Pierre Marcel Bétis, Her special
licence that I, the said Pierre Marcel Bétis, my executors, admini-
strators and assigns, or such others as I, the said Pierre Marcel Bétis,
my executors, administrators, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN CLIPS OR SHEARS FOR CLIPPING OR SHEARING HORSES AND
OTHER ANIMALS," upon the condition (amongst others), that I, the said
Pierre Marcel Bétis, my executors, or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands 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 Pierre Marcel Betis, 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 :-
This relates to clips or shears for clipping or shearing horses and other
animals, and the Invention consists, first, in magnetizing the two combs
or cutters so as to augment their attraction and so facilitate the cutting
operation; secondly, in concentrating the regulation of the combs or
cutters at a single point; thirdly, in a curvilinear disposition of the

page_text: combs; fourthly, in a generally simplified arrangement of the instru-
ment, all of which will be understood by the following detailed
description :-
Figure 1 is a front and Figure 2 a side view of the instruments of
cutters with the two combs magnetized.
Figures 3 and 4 are respectively a front and a transverse sectional
view of the movable comb.
Figure 5 is a front view of an instrument with magnetized curvilinear
combs. The movable comb A. has a slotted opening a, and an eye b in
it, the latter to receive the screw pin or bolt c, which is made in a piece
with the pressure spring d. The opening a adjusts itself over the head
of the screw f, fixed in the stationary comb B, and constitutes thus an
invariable guide in concert with the lip or edge of the foot C, which is
fastened to the stationary comb to bind it to the supporting blade D of
one of the handles. The end of the movable arm F of the instrument
carries a pinching screw 9, which can be turned by the hand to give
more or less pressure upon the spring d, to regulate the frictional contact
of the two comb blades. The screw g is provided with a tightening nut
h, which may be turned by means of a prominent handle i, whose
function it is lock the screw 9 whenever the degree of pressure desired
is obtained. The arms or blades D and F of the instrument are pre-
ferably of iron or steel of flat form.
In order to satisfy all the requirements when used for shearing horses,
sheep, cattle, or domestic animals, the magnetized instrument is
arranged optionally with straight or upright combs, Figures 1 and 4, or
with curvilinear combs A, B, Figure 5. The arrangements shewn in
Figures 1 and 2 are equally applicable in Figure 5, where the same
letters represent the same parts as in the former Figures.
The construction of the instrument with one opening or slot and one
eye as a guide is the most simple method, but I do not limit myself
thereto, as the movable comb can have two eyes to slide over two bolts.
The same effect can be had to obtain the closing contact of the combs
by pressure or by traction; in this case the screw will be fixed, and the
screw nut will be movable.
The characteristic features of this Invention, and those to which I lay

page_text: First. The magnetizing of two combs or cutters to increase their
attraction in order to the better effect their cutting or severing operation
upon the hair or coats of animals as set forth.
Secondly. Concentrating and regulating the "sett" of the combs at
one point as described, whether the upper blade moves by traction or by
pressure.
Thirdly. The modified or curvilinear arrangement of the combs as in
Figure 5 of the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Pierre Marcel Betis, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of November, One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
5
PIERRE MAROEL BÉTIS. (L.S.)
Witnesss,
JULES ARMENGAUD,
Civil Engineer,
of 28, Boulevard de Strasbourg,
at Paris.