AN IMPROVED METHOD OF SHOEING HORSES AND OTHER BEASTS OF BURDEN
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Adrien Marie Dufilhol at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 18th February 1868.
I, ADRIEN MARIE DUFILHOL, of No. 15, Passage des Petites Ecuries,
Paris, in the Empire of France, Captain and Adjutant-Major in the 5th
Regiment of Dragoons of the French Army, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF SHOEING
HORSES AND OTHER BEASTS OF BURDEN," to be as follows:-
The object of this new process of shoeing is to substitute in lieu of
the actual method of fixing the shoe with nails an intermediate body
or cement, at the same time very adhesive and very elastic, thereby per-
mitting the foot to retain all its elasticity. This method of fastening
applies to every kind of horse-shoc, which however must undergo some
modifications of its parts to permit the application of the plastic body.
In general it is useful that the top edge of the inner rim should be
rounded. There are various ways of preparing the shoe, all of which
cannot be here recited, but the most practicable and advantageous are
the following:-

page_text: 1. Provide the shoe according to its dimensions with from 5 to 7
conical rivets, one at the top of the toc, one at the end of cach heel,
and one or two between the toe and each heel. Between the head of
these rivets and the upper face of the shoe there should be a space of
about of an inch.
2. Pierce each branch of the shoe with two or three openings of a
truncated pyramidical form, the broad base being in contact with the
ground.
3. Open in the branches of the shoc 4 or 5 cavities of about 1 of an
inch in depth of the shape of a reversed and truncated .V, the point
upward.
4. Forge the shoe with oblique rims, the lower face three times
broader than the upper, along the two edges of which runs a gutter or
small slope forming a hook from the bottom upward. The foot also
requires preparation in order that the cement may completely solder
itself to it.
Amongst a great number of methods I give only the most practical
and the surest. Cut the periphery of the hoof, slightly beveling to form
at the foot of the outer wall four or five notches or grooves of a truncated
V shape, the point directed towards the ground. The bottom of this.
notch, that is to say, the partition which bounds it on the side of the
flesh of the foot should be nearly vertical, so as to have its greatest
depth towards the ground to finish at about an inch from the lower
edge, and to have nowhere a greater depth than of an inch. This
work may be done with a butteris and still better by the aid of a very
sharp chisel. The shoe and the hoof being thus prepared a piece of
cement composed as herein-after described and about the bulk of
the shoe is placed on the face or faces of the shoe which are to come.
in contact with the foot. This cement must be slightly reheated, and
by means of a soldering iron it is made to penetrate between the rivets
(which are completely sunk in it) or in the various recesses formed in
the body of the shoe. The shoe furnished with cement is then applied
to the foot and a slight hand pressure is given all around, then by means
of the soldering iron the notches or grooves of the hoof are filled with
the cement which the pressure has forced outside the shoe, and the
surplus is spread all around the hoof so as to unite all. the parts together
without solution of continuity. The inside of the foot undergoes the
same treatment (although there are no notches) by the aid of a soldering

page_text: iron bent to a hook shape. For more rapid cooling as soon as the
operation is completed the horse's foot should be placed in water, the
shoe then adheres more firmly than a nailed shoe.
However, should it be desired not to give up the use of nails, nothing
is easier than having made the six notches in the hoof to fill them with
cement, and thus restore to the foot the integrity of its shape, forming in
addition under the sole a sort of shoe of cement of about of an inch
thick. The cement being nearly cold an ordinary shoe is placed on
the foot, this shoe having six holes corresponding with the notches in
the hoof, and the nails are (without encountering the hoof) driven up
through these notches in the cement on which they are then clenched.
The composition of the cement which I use is as follows:-Gutta
percha 75 per cent., india-rubber 10%, and gum lac 15%, the whole
intimately mixed.