154 
RODWAY’S PATENT HORSE-SHOE, 
undergo under the sledge-hammer. Mr. Rod way proposes to 
chemically harden his shoes by the sprinkling of them, while 
hot, with prussiate of potash and common salt, and afterwards 
immersing them in cold water : but such are processes which 
one can hardly depend upon the smith for duly performing, and, 
after all, it is but the superficial case of metal that is hardened, 
and that soon chips off’ or wears away. We must, therefore, 
still continue to be of opinion, that want of durability constitutes 
one of the objections to Mr. Rod way’s shoe. 
Another evil naturally attendant on light horseshoes presents 
itself to us in the fact, that reduction of weight and substance 
is followed by reduction of strength, or force of resistance. 
The light horseshoe, unable to sustain great pressure, will bend 
and “ get down” upon the sole of the foot, or, incapable of re- 
sisting the expansive action of the crust, will “ spread” upon 
the foot, and get out of its place, or even become loose. This 
is precisely what has happened in some cases with Mr. Rodway’s 
shoes : they have, under the pressure of horses of great weight 
or high battering action, occasionally bent and got down upon 
the soles, but oftener have “ spread,” and got displaced, and 
even loose, and, in two instances out of twelve, have broken. 
Supposing it to be practicable and safe to abstract any of the 
substance of iron from the ordinary horseshoe, the question 
arises from what part of the shoe such subtraction had best be 
made. If from the part through which the holes are punched, 
as in the case of Mr. Rodway’s shoe, reducing the middle of 
the web to a comparatively thin plate of iron, the consequence 
is, from want of substance and support, bilging of the nail- 
holes, loss of the fast hold of the nails, and mobility to a greater 
or less extent of the shoe upon the foot. Although the heads of 
the nails are much protected by the groove in Rodway’s shoe, 
still it is impossible to prevent their occasionally receiving blows 
from the ground, the effects of which are, further driving of the 
heads of the nails into the holes — incapable, from the thinness 
of substance of their borders, of resisting, and therefore bilging — 
starting of the clinches, and, every now and then, loosening and 
loss of the nails themselves. Fresh clinching up has been found 
to be frequently required, the supply of nails for loose or lost 
ones occasionally, in the use of the patent shoes. And, though 
these evils will be diminished by care and attention in the choice 
of small-headed nails, and in driving them home into the holes, 
yet will they not, nor can they, on account of the want of sub- 
stance in the nail-plate, be entirely got rid of; and, conse- 
quently, they demand our insertion in the catalogue of objec- 
tions to Mr, Rodway’s shoe. 
