GB1391454A - Humane cattle killers and to associated apparatus for operating such appliances - Google Patents

Abstract

1391454 Humane killers ACCLES & SHELVOKE LTD 20 June 1972 [26 June 1971] 30056/71 Heading AIM [Also in Division B8] In a humane killer the cartridges are fed, fired, and then ejected by means of compressed gas. The device comprises a pistol (figures 1, 2) and a cartridge feed unit (Fig 8a). The pistol has a breech block 12 manually rotatable with the barrel 9 to move a cartridge chamber 19 radially disposed therein between loading, firing, and ejecting positions. Cartridges reach the pistol through a tube 45 supplied with compressed gas, and reach the cartridge chamber through tube 47. They are fired by a pin 21 extending into the top of a chamber 23 which can be supplied with gas via a poppet valve 27 operated, against pressure suplied from the tube 47 by tube 51, by a trigger 43, a Bowden cable 42 and a sliding rod 33. The chamber 23 may contain a steel ball 25 normally held by a magnet 28, which moves to strike the pin 21. Ejection is achieved by a rod 53 which slides in a stepped bore in the breech block 12 being activated partly by contact between its protruding rounded end 56 and cam-faces 15, 16 on the pistol and partly by gas-pressure supplied through a radial capillary bore 57 when this is in register with the feed tube 47. In the cartridge feed unit cartridges fall from a hopper 61 via tube 65 to a transverse bore 75 in a plunger 73 which is reciprocable by means of a double-acting pneumatic ram 74 to discharge a cartridge at 76 to a channel 79, 80 having inclined rails 77 which catch the rim of the cartridge. On the reverse stroke of the plunger 73 a depending finger 3 moves the cartridge to an outlet 81; if the cartridge is upright it is first tipped by fingers 1, 2; thus all cartridges are supplied to outlet 81 nose downwards. A reciprocable plunger 83, controlled by a ram 84, and acting in synchronism with the plunger 73, transfers the oriented cartridges to the tube 45 and the pistol. The gas supply for tube 45 is via tube 87 and circumferential channel 86. A ram 70 operates a sliding sleeve 67 around tube 65 to prevent cartridges jamming at the base of the hopper 61. The pneumatic circuit of the device includes a four-way valve, which senses the pressure drop in the tube 45 consequent upon opening of the valve 27 by the trigger 43 and immediately activates the rams 70, 74, and 84 of the cartridge feed unit In a modfiication the trigger 43 is omitted, and the rod 33 connected to a pressure pad which triggers the pistol when it is forced against the animal's head. The cartridges may alternatively be fed by hand, or from a magazine.