US2154420A

US2154420A - Apparatus for plucking fowl

Info

Publication number: US2154420A
Application number: US83416A
Authority: US
Inventors: Oscar H Crapo
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1936-06-04
Filing date: 1936-06-04
Publication date: 1939-04-18
Anticipated expiration: 1956-04-18

Description

be of one-eighth horsepower or more and should rotate at a high speed, such as around 1500 R. P. M. The motor is provided with some sort of handle l8 by which the device may be manually propelled during the plucking.

In plucking mm in accordance with my invention, I .firstpreferably semiscald the fowl by immersion in hot water at a temperature of around 130, forthe purpose of loosening the feathers and raising them from the body of the bird. As I have found that moisture on the feathers assists in the operation of plucking the feathers with my device, I then immediately pluck. the feathers before they have had a chance to dry.

The manner of using my device is obvious from Fig. 1 of the drawing, and, as there indicated,

the fowl is laid on the'table and grasped in one hand while the plucking device traverses the body of thefowl close to the skin to remove the feathers as indicated. Whereas the device. is illustrated as being moved against the grainof the feathers, I have found that this is of no great consequence because aneifective plucking operation results from moving thedevice with the of the fowl in inaccessible areas such as under 'device should be held at a slight distance, say

one-quarter or one-eighth of an inch above the skin. If desired, I may provide a guard to assist in gauging this distance and the guard may well be in the form indicated in Fig. wherein I have shown a rod 50 secured at 5! to the housing of the motor 4 and reverse bent to provide a guide portion 52 extending closely adjacent the path'of movement of the strips. -The guide rod 52 is rested against the skin of the fowl and by rolling the device over on the rod 52 the desired clearance can easily be maintained. As the pressure against the rod 52 may cause the rod to engage the peripheries of the discs, I provide rollers 54 and 55 on the rod 52 to rotate with the discs.

While I have described the plucking strips 20, 2i and 22 as being secured in the peripheries of the discs I and 2, I do not mean to indicate therebythat the ends of the plucking strips are exactly flush with the bevelled edges of the discs. Thus as indicatedin Fig. 6, the peripheries of the discs may include a. band 30, of the width shown, or even a much greater width, forced over the ends of the strips and the edges of the discs after the strips have been inserted in the disc slots.

Obviously if desired my device may be provided with a suction hood for conducting away the feathers as they are plucked and instead of making it amanually operable and portable device it may, by obvious modification, be mounted on a bench and the fowl to be plucked moved across the device. Regardless of how the plucking strips are secured in the discs, I prefer to dispose them at a slight inclination to the axis of the device, as indicated, for I have found that the resultant oblique stroke against the feathers produces a somewhat gradual pull which draws the feathers more effectively than with the strips exactly parallel to the axis; My invention is not, however, to be limited to such details, except as indicated in the appended claims.

I claim: J

1. A device for plucking fowl comprising a rotatable frame having strip means secured to its periphery and adapted to strike, the feathers of the fowl with a rapid succession of percussions when the frame is rotated adjacent the skin of the fowl, the said strip means having non-cutting edges to pluck the feathers. from the skin without severing them said rotatable frame'being formed with side edges beveled to conform to the taper of a truncated conical outline and said strip means lying within the boundaries of said outline and obliquely positionedrelative to the axis of the frame, each strip means having one outer surface substantially in flush relation to the beveled edges.

2. A device for plucking fowl comprising a rotatable frame having stripmeans secured to its periphery and adapted to strike the feathers of the fowl with a rapid succession of percussions when the frame 'is rotated adjacent the skin of the fowl, the said strip means being spaced from the interior of the frame and obliquely disposed relative to the frame axis so that rotation of the frame directs the said strip means obliquely v against the feathers.

3. A device for plucking fowl comprising a rotatable frame having strip means secured to its periphery and adapted to strike the feathers of the fowl with a rapid succession of percussions when the frame is rotated adjacent the skin of the fowl, said rotatable frame being formed with tapered sides to conform to the taper of a truncated conical outline and said strip means being spaced fromv the interior of the frame so that the feathers can bend around the strip means when they are struck thereby and said strip means having non-cutting edges and being flexible to obviate bruising of the skin of the fowl.

OSCAR H. CRAPO.