GOLDnNCIl'S JOINTED SHOE. 183 



• In orJer to admit of expansion aiul relaxation of the hoof by a joint, it, \v..ult] 

 l>e necessary to make the nail holes wide enough to allow suthrient play be- 

 tween the shoe and the nails [!], thus producing an effect similar to the end 

 play of carriage springs. But even supposing (says he) this provision were 

 made, the shoe would soon tear out the nails." 



The jointed shoe. — A form of shoe was propounded for cutting the shoe 

 into three or more several parts ; then lining the foot surface with leather, and 

 fastening on the shoe in the usual manner, witU nails that were inserted into 

 each part. But this contrivance though plausible, did not answer, inasiruch 

 as the leather had not sufficient strength to stand the wear and tear. 



Mr, Bracy Clark may have been the real inventor of the jointed shoe that 

 bears his name, for aught 1 know, but he labours under the disadvantage of 

 being preceded by about a century, by a French author; so that his battered 

 saying that his great discovery ! forms "a basis for the repose of the profes- 

 sion," however elegant in expression, becomes nonsense to our ears, who con- 

 cede nothing to simple gentility, and less than that to self-complacent egotism. 

 "Clark's shoe," in its various modifications, differs nothing from the generali- 

 ty of shoes, except in being divided at the toe, and fastened again by means 

 of a pin, screw, or rivet. The toe would require to be made thicker than 

 usual, let me suggest, to prevent the rivet's parting, and to secure each head 

 of it in a counter sink; one half the thickness of the toe is to be cut away on 

 one side at the ground surfece, and from the foot surface of the other half, re- 

 sembling what is termed in carpentry, a mitre; and these being l>rought close 

 together, a hole should be drilled or pnncheil through both, and let the rivet 

 employed be the size of the hole. Whatever degree of rigidity the workman 

 mightrestore to the entire shoe, it is ])lain that the great weight of the horse 

 would very soon strain the rivet, so as to cause it to relax therefrom, and al- 

 low the heels to expand by so much. That this -f^'^- 3. 

 might extend over a larger jiart of the front of the 

 hoof, Mr. Clark preferred nailiiit^ the shoe pretty far 

 back towards the quarters, which I reckon among 

 the mistaken notions of the whole class of improvers. 

 But, mark the dissonance of our teachers! the next 

 inventor or improver ran into the other extreme, er- 

 roneously punching and nailing up intolerably near 

 to his rivtes or pins, for he has two of them, as per 

 marginal cut. 



This representation of the shoe invented by Lieutenant Colonel Goldfinch 

 exhibits a modification of " Clark's patent." Like it, the necessity of making 

 the shoe thicker at the toe than usual with the ordinary shoes is evident. The 

 patent was enrolled in October 1821, granting to Lieutenant Colonel Henry 

 Goldfinch, of Hythe in Kent, an exclusive right for fourteen years; and his 

 s[)ccification of its advantages and novelty, and the manner of making it, ap- 

 pears to be as follows : " The separation is to be made in any indented form, 

 and the two parts fastened together with pins. It is further proposed to at- 

 tach the shoe to the horse's hoof by driving the nails obliquely, as in the French 

 manner of shoeing. With this view, the nail-holes are to be punched about 

 one-thir<l to half the width of the shoe distant from the outer edge, and tend- 

 ing in a slanting direction outwards." In this latter recommendation I cor- 

 dially join the colonel : he was the first writer who noticed it, and is the mode 

 of punching and nailing before alluded to, and hereafter described as the only 

 wise course. Since 1821 it was adopted by the more intelligent smiths of the 

 metropolis, and is hereafter minutely described. One main blunder whicn 

 the colonel commits is evidently intended to correct the visible insecurity oi tu# 



