1878
A late issue of the San Francisco Chronicle has the following: Professor R. H. Tapp sought yesterday to tame the singular horse Cognac, known as the "man eater," with the newly invented electric bit.
The bit is designed to subdue fiery steeds, and particularly to arrest a runaway horse by suddenly intensifying his excitement with a sharp shock of electricity. The battery is carried in the coat pocket and the current transmitted by means of brass buttons on the driver's gloves, to a wire in the reins, and in that manner to the animal's mouth.
There was a fair attendance of persons anxious to see how the carnivorous Cognac would act under the new influence. While the bit was being arranged in the brute's mouth he evinced a fierce desire to masticate the adventurous Professor by snapping at him viciously.
When the arrangements had been perfected the Professor completed the circuit by touching the brass button to the rein and the horse reared up convulsively, as if startled suddenly by a pistol shot. The movement was instantaneous and the horse resumed his normal position with a bewildered look.
The second shock propelled him still higher and excited the equine ire. He seized the rein in his mouth and darted at the electrician, who skipped out of the way, however, and the horse's assault was checked by a rope passed around the centre pole. He was then treated to a succession of shocks, which turned his rage to frenzy. He foamed and snorted in his mad endeavors to trample the Professor under foot until his hide was in a lather.
After a few moments the battery was withdrawn and the animal became quiet as a lamb, probably from exhaustion. The electricity appeared to have made him wilder while it was being applied, and its utility as an adjunct to a pleasure buggy is, to say the least, questionable. The Professor claimed to have quieted the horse in some degree, although some doubting ones in the assemblage wanted him to insert his head in the animal's mouth as a satisfactory test.
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