Our slaughter-house system : a plea for reform / [C. Cash].

  • Cash, C.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Our slaughter-house system : a plea for reform / [C. Cash]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    186/230 (page 170)
    stray bullets: in short, it obviates all the drawbacks attaching to the use of the bullet. These reasons alone constitute advantages on the part of the shooting-bolt apparatus which are not to be underrated. The fundamental idea of the apparatus is as follows: The holt which was originally driven into the brain of the animal by physical force, whose action cannot be depended upon, is now propelled by an abso- lutely reliable agent—gunpowder. By exploding a small cartridge with a mallet, the bolt is driven forward with the speed of lightning from its resting-place inside the apparatus, and penetrates into the animal’s brain. The principle on which the apparatus is constructed is as follows: A bolt, similar to those with which we are now familiar as used in the striking-bolt apparatus, is fitted in a strongly-made cylinder, with a bore of about 3 centimetres, closed at its lower end with a plate. This plate has an opening in the centre about 1 centi- metre wide. The head of the bolt is thicker than the rest, and works to and fro inside the cylinder. Behind the head of the bolt lies the cartridge-chamber. The cartridge is inserted with a slight pressure of the finger, and the breech is closed by turning the lever sideways. The apparatus is then ready to fire. The charge is exploded by a tap with the mallet, and the bolt driven like lightning into the brain. The management of the apparatus does not differ materially from that of the shooting apparatus except in this point, that in employing the latter the operator remains standing after the shot has been fired, whereas with this kind of shooting-bolt apparatus he must stoop down as the animal falls, since the bolt is firmly fixed in the skull, and can only be released by a vigorous- wrench. Quite recently a new apparatus has excited a good