science · 30 March 1899 · 125 years ago
In 1899, black American inventor James Ricks was issued a patent for a patent for “Improvements in the Rough-Shoeing of Horses,” which was an overshoe or sleet shoe clamped with a wire band over the ordinary shoe (No.338,781). A V-shaped iron or steel plate was designed with sharpened downward points at the heel and toe ends for traction. At each heel end, projections lapped over the common horseshoe underneath. A screwdriver was used to tighten the screw-threaded bolt and nut on the integral metal band clamp that passed around the heel and a toe loop. Later, he held a patent for a rubber “Overshoe for Horses” (6 Jun 1899, U.S. No. 626,245).
OnThisDay.net