Improvements in connection with Horse Shoes.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Oct., 1898
Complete Specification Left, 30th Jan., 1899-Accepted, 4th Mar., 1899
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in connection with Horse Shoes.
I, HENRY WILLIAM HOOPER, of 50, Smith Street, Kings Road, Chelsea,
S.W., Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, London, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:
The shoe is attached to the horses foot by means of screws instead of nails, by
this means no clinching is necessary. The heads of the screws are counter sunk
into the shoe as far as possible to prevent their being worn away. The points of
the screws where they come out of the hoof are filed or pinched off. An awl or
fine gimlet is used to prepare a hole in the inorganic part of the hoof for the
Screws. The holes into which the heads of the screw sink may be utilized to hold
studs of non slipping material.
Dated this 1st day of October 1898.
HENRY WILLIAM HOOPER.
Improvements in connection with Horse Shoes.
I, HENRY WILLIAM HOOPER, of 50, Smith Street, Kings Road, Chelsea,
London, S.W., Veterinary Surgeon, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:—
The object of this invention is to provide an improved, practical and humane
means, for securely attaching shoes to the hoofs of horses and other animals and
also to incidentally provide a convenient means of non slipping or resilient studs
to such shoes.
In order that my invention may be readily understood I will describe same with
reference to the accompanying drawings, whereon Figure 1, shews an inverted
plan of a shoe constructed according to my invention. Figure 2 is a side elevation
of the same shoe, and Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken on the line X, Y, of Fig. 1,
in order to shew the fixing of the shoe to the hoof.
According to my invention I secure the shoe A to the animal's hoof B by means
of screws instead of nails now in common use. To this end I form a series of
holes such as C Fig. 1, at proper distances apart, extending entirely through the
material of which the shoe is composed. These holes C are contracted in diameter
at their emergence from the foot or upper surface of the shoe, and may be formed
in any convenient manner as by punching, drilling or the like.

page_text: The screws D are formed with conical, hemispherical or taper heads, and the
threaded spindles of the screws are caused to penetrate the horny wall of the hoof
while the heads enter the holes C to some distance above the lower surface of the
shoe and bear against the shoulder or countersink formed by the contraction of
the holes near the upper surface.
Each screw D in its passage is guided or directed by an awl or gimlet hole
which has been first made in the direction the screw is required to take.
It is commonly recognised by persons acquainted with the art, that the shoe
should be made for the foot, and not the foot for the shoe, and this invention
facilitates the practical accomplishment of this requirement in a marked degree.
In this mode of attachment the screws 1 pass through the insensible and elastic
structure of the hoof in a vertical direction and emerge through the external crust
of the wall as shown at Fig. 2 and this operation being effected without noise, is
imperceptible to the animal which will be readily recognised as advantageous.
The employment of screws as described present considerable advantages as com-
pared to nails, particularly in that the latter act after the fashion of a wedge,
divide or separate the substance of the hoof, and frequently cause disease from
this cause, nails are liable to become crooked or bent and by entering the sensitive
part of the foot cause injury, whereas the screws maintain their original form, and
required direction with great precision and uniformity and hold the shoe with a
more even pressure nor are the screws liable to break or cause a contraction of
the foot both of which faults are common to the employment of nails.
The open recesses in the material of the shoe as shown at E, F, Fig. 1, remaining
after the insertion of the screws, I utilise for containing some non slipping or
resilient material such as vulcanite, india rubber, cork or equivalent material, or
even pointed metal studs and as indicated at H Fig. 1 & 2 & 3. The insertion of
these studs prevents dirt filling up the slots of the screws, and the studs H are
casily removed when required.
Towards the heels A' of the shoe a circular or oblong recess is formed, not extend-
ing entirely through the material of which the shoe is made, and such recesses
form receptacles for additional non slipping studs or blocks J.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is-
1. In attaching shoes to the hoofs of horses and other animals.. The employment
of screws, the heads passing into countersunk holes in the material of which the
shoes are composed, while the threaded spindles of the said screws pass and hold
into the insensible substance of the hoof, substantially as and for the purposes
described and illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawings.
2. The improvements in the attachment of shoes to the hoofs of horses and other
animals, and the insertion into the apertures in the shoes remaining as the result
of such attachment, of non slipping or resilient material or studs all substantially
as and for the purposes described and illustrated with reference to the accom-
panying drawings.
Dated this 28th day of January 1899.