Improvements in Shoes and Foot Coverings for Horses and other Animals.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Jan., 1888
Specification Accepted, 2nd Mar., 1888
Improvements in Shoes and Foot Coverings for Horses and other
Animals.
1 ANNIE MATILDA WOOD, of 13 Delahay Street Westminster in the County of
Middlesex Gentlewoman, do hereby declare the nature of my invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :—
My invention in the improvement of Horse Shoes and Horse Boots relates more
particularly to making the same of a tough elastic or pliable compound of, or con-
taining India Rubber, Gutta Percha or equivalent thereof and preferably such as set
forth in the specification of my application for Letters Patent numbered 967 and
dated January 21st 1888 and which I have termed "Woodite" or if containing
whalebone "Whalite."
By this means I obtain a shoe or boot which closely resembles the texture and
nature of the horse's hoof instead of a hard unyielding iron ring, and when constructed
according to my invention, the same can be made frictional, rough or elastic, so as to
answer the purpose of roughing and also to provide an elastic or yielding pad.
claim by this invention to produce a rational and natural horse shoe or boot.
[
In performing my invention I cast any form of Horse Shoe or boot in a hard but
slightly flexibleWoodite" Whalite" or compound of India Rubber, Gutta Percha,
or their equivalent, hardened according to the well known means adopted by Rubber
Manufacturers in the production of vulcanite, ebonite, etc., and sometimes in the toe
part and heels I insert when casting or moulding a thin strip of corrugated or
roughened iron or steel, or pegs, calks, or studs thereof, or sometimes I make the shoe
in two or more layers of different degrees of hardness or flexibility allowing the hard
part to be next to the hoof, and the softer or yielding part next to the ground, so as to
form a pad, or in some cases the position of the pad may be reversed.
It may also be altered by placing the softer part on the inner circumference of,
but incorporated with, the harder part, the latter being shaped as a horse shoe in
present use.
The under side of the shoe may likewise be serrated.
The shoe may be attached to the hoof by nails or by cement.

page_text: The nail holes in the first mentioned shoe may be cast in the shoe or afterwards
bored and the shoe nailed on in the ordinary way or screwed or pegged or otherwise
attached.
The shoe may also be formed with an up-standing rim adapted to pass over the edge
of the hoof and assist in holding the shoe in place.
In making what I call boots for horses, the same are made of Woodite, Whalite,
India Rubber, Gutta Percha or other equivalents and made easily attachable by means
of strap, band or other mechanical contrivances.
The idea being to make a boot that can be put on and fastened either over the
ordinary iron shoe or without one.
I make the sole of the boot of a rough or frictional Whalite, Woodite, India Rubber,
Gutta Percha or their equivalents either corrugated, barred, or serrated so as to present
a rough surface to prevent slipping.
This part of my invention is carried out as follows. I mould the intended sole
of the hoot and then cut out from sheets of the requisite thickness the upper of
the boot and attach thereto the fastenings intended to be used. I then attach
them by the ordinary means known to Rubber Manufacturers and then vulcanize
the same.
These boots when the expense is not of so much importance may be made entirely
in a mould, which will give a better finish to the article.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
1. The construction and making of Horse Shoes and Horse Boots of or from Woodite
Whalite or other similar compounds of India Rubber Gutta Percha or their equivalents
as set forth.
2. The combination therewith of iron or steel plates, calks, studs or the like in the
manner and for the purpose set forth.