"There is nothing new but what has been forgotten," said Marie Antoinette to her milliner, Mdlle. Bertin, and what is true of fashion is also somewhat so of science. Shoeing restive horses by the aid of electricity is not new, experiments thereon having been performed as long ago as 1879 by Mr. Defoy, who operated with a small magneto machine.
But the two photographs reproduced in Figs. 1 and 2 have appeared to us curious enough to be submitted to our readers, as illustrating Mr. Defoy's method of operating with an unruly animal.
The battery used was a small Grenet bichromate of potash pile, which was easy to graduate on account of the depth to which the zinc could be immersed. This pile was connected with the inductor of a small Ruhmkorff coil, whose armature was connected with a snaffle-bit placed in the horse's mouth.
This bit was arranged as follows (Fig. 3): The two conductors, which were uncovered for a length of about three centimeters at their extremity, were placed opposite each other on the two joints of the snaffle, and about five or six centimeters apart. The mouth-pieces of the bit had previously been inclosed in a piece of rubber tubing, in order to insulate the extremities of the conductors and permit the recomposition of the current to take place through the animal's tongue or palate.
Each of the bare ends of the conductors was provided, under a circular brass ligature, with a small damp sponge, which, surrounding the mouth-piece, secured a perfect contact of each end of the circuit with the horse's mouth.
Fig. 3.—ARRANGEMENT OF THE BIT
The horse having been led in, defended himself vigorously as long as an endeavor was made to remove his shoes by the ordinary method, but the current had acted scarcely fifteen seconds when it became possible to lift his feet and strike his shoes with the hammer.