US507792A

US507792A - Chicken-beheader

Info

Publication number: US507792A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1893-10-31
Anticipated expiration: 1910-10-31

Description

(No Model.)

J. G. DENHAM. CHICKEN BEHEADER.

No; 507,792. Patented Oct. 31,1893.

W/TNESSES.

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nvvnvron I QM Y. BY J //@M6 A TTORNEYS.

- NITED STATES PATENT OFFIC JOSEPHUS o. DEN'HAM, on s'r. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

CHICKEN-BEHEADER.

srncrmon'rron forming part of Letters Patent No. 507,792, dated October 31,1893.

Application filed June 30, 1893.

T0 aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J OSEPHUS O. DENHAM,

of St. Louis, Missouri, have invented a new and Improved Ohicken-Beheader, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

A great many people find it necessary to kill poultry occasionally and in a small way, and among such people it is the practice to either wring the neck of the chicken or other fowl to be killed, or to chop off its head with an axe or hatchet. Bot-h operations are trying to the nerves'of sensitive people, entail torture on the creature killed, and are very likely to cause the spattering of blood upon the clothing of the butcher.

The object of my invention is to produce a very cheap and simple device which may be quickly and neatly applied to the neck of a, chicken, or similar creature, which may be operated by the simple pulling of a trigger, and which, when operated,severs the head of the chicken with certainty, neatness and dispatch without in any way torturing the chicken, shocking the nerves of the operator, or injuring the clothing of the latter.

To these ends my invention consists of certain features of construction and combinations of parts, as will be hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification,; in which similar figures of reference indicate corresponding parts'in all the views.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the implement embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the device. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section of the device, and Fig. 4: is a cross section on the line 4-4 in Fig. 3.

The beheader is provided with a barrel 10, in which the main spring of the implement is incased, and the barrel terminates at its front end in a depending hook or flange 11 which may be hooked upon some object so as to steady the implement when it is used, but which is especially used for setting the instrument by hooking it upon some object which enables the plunger to be pulled against the tension of its spring, ashereinafter described. At its rear end the barrel enters the breech block or clamp 12, which is in two parts shaped to fit snugly upon the barrel and hav- Serial No- 479,272. (No model.)

ing flanges 13 at the bottom, which are bolted together, and flanges 14 at the top which project upward sufficiently high to form guides for the knife and a support for the neck of a chicken or other fowl, as described presently. The flanges 14 are separated at their ends by ribs 15 which hold them the necessary distance apart to provide for the sliding of the beheading knife. The flanges 1 1 are recessed in the center, as shown at 16, which recess is large enough to permit the easy insertion of the neck of the chicken or other fowl in it; and the beheading knife 17 slides across this recess and between the flanges, so that when thrown forward, as hereinafter described, it severs the neck which may be in the recess. This knife is preferably arranged at an incline to. enable it to have a shearing out so as to more easily sever the neck of a fowl; and it slides in a slot l7 in the top of the barrel, being secured at its inner end to a sliding plunger 18 which moves longitudinally in the barrel and which has an elongated shank 19, preferably in the shape of a cross when viewed in cross section, although this is not necessary, and the plunger and its shank are normally thrown forward by a spring 20 which is coiled around the shank and which is secured at one end to the shank and at the other to the barrel 10. In the front end of. the barrel is acushion 21 against which the shank 19 strikes when propelled forward, and this cushion absorbs the shock occasioned by the sudden stopping of the plunger and it also limits the forward movement of the plunger and knife and prevents the edge of the latter from being dulled on the ribs 15. The plunger 18 and knife 17 are pulled back against the tension of the spring 20 by means of the handles 22, the shanks 23 of which project through the slide in slots 24 extending longitudinally through the sides of the breech block and barrel, as shown clearly in Figs. 1 and 4:.

In the plunger 18, near its forward end, is a notch 25 which receives a pawl 26 0n the front end of a curved trigger 27, this being pivoted at its elbow, as shown at 28, and arranged to swing behind a trigger guard'29 and in front of a handle 30, which is substantiallylike the handle of 'a pistol, and within the handle is a spring 31 which presses against the lower end of the trigger and therefore presses the pawl 26 into engagement with the notch 25 in the plunger.

When the device is to be used, the operator places the hook over some convenient support and pulls back on the handles 22 until the catch or pawl 26 engages the notch 25 in the plunger 18, and this holds the knife back between the rear ends of the flanges 14 and the spring 20 in an extended position. The operator then grabs, with one hand, the legs of the chicken to be beheaded, while he holds the beheading tool in the other hand, and he next places the neck of the chicken in the recess 16 of the flanges 14- and pulls thetrigger 27. The instant the trigger is pulled, the pawl 26 is withdrawn from the notch 25 and the spring 20 throws the plunger 18 and knife 17 violently forward and the knife, as it passes through the recess 16, cuts off the neck of the chicken.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. Atoolfor beheading poultry, which comprises a barrel having a lateral projection, 14, a spring and sliding plunger within said barrel, a knife attached to the plunger and projecting laterally into the position to adapt it for coacting with said flange, and a device for locking and releasing the plunger and knife, as shown and described.

2. A beheading tool,comprising a barrel, flanges projecting laterally from therear end of the barrel and provided with a recess to receive the neck of achicken, a spring-pressed plunger mounted in the barrel, a knife carried by the plunger and held to slide between the flanges and across the recess, a locking device to hold the plunger and knife at the rear end of the barrel, and a trigger mechanism for releasing the plunger and knife, substantially as described.

3., A beheading tool, comprising a barrel having a hook or flange at one end anda handle atthe other, a spring-pressed plunger held to slide in the barrel, upwardly projecting recessed flanges at the rear end of the barrel, a knife carried by the plunger and extending outward between the recessed flanges, handles secured to the plunger and projecting outward through slots in the barrel, a springpressed trigger pivoted in the handle, and a pawl carried by the triggerand adapted to engage-a notch in the handle, substantially as described.

4:. A beheading tool, comprising an elongated barrel having a hook or flange at one end and a handleat the other,a breech block for the barrel, having upwardly projecting parallel'flanges with a recess therein to receive the neck of a fowl, a spring-pressed plunger in the barrel, a knife carried by the plunger and projecting between the flanges of the breech block, a spring-pressed trigger pivoted in the handle of the barrel, and a pawl carried by the trigger andadapted to engage a notch in the plunger, substantially as described.

J OSEPHUS O. DENI-IAM.

Witnesses:

CHAS. STRASSBURGER, J AMES A. BELL.