ELECTRICITY APPLIED TO HORSE-SHOEING.


"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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE HORSE RECEIVING THE CURRENT.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE HORSE CONQUERED.]

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