Catgut

Catgut is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fibre found in the walls of animal intestines. Catgut makers usually use sheep or goat intestines, but occasionally use the intestines of cattle,hogs, horses, mules, or donkeys. Despite the name, catgut manufacturers do not use cat intestines.

Etymology

The word catgut may have been an abbreviation of the word "cattlegut". Alternatively, it may derive by folk etymology from kitgut or kitstring—the word kit, meaning fiddle, having at some point been confused with the word kit for a young cat.

Production

To prepare catgut, workers clean the small intestines, free them from fat, and steep them in water. Then they scrape off the external membrane with a blunt knife, and steep the intestines again for some time in potassium hydroxide. Then they smooth and equalize the intestines by drawing them out. Lean animals yield the toughest gut. Next, they twist the prepared gut strands together to make string. String diameter is determined by the thickness of the individual guts, and by the number used. A thin string, such as a violin E, uses only three or four guts, whereas a double bass string may use twenty or more. After twisting and drying, workers polish the strings to the required diameter.

Action Masters

Action Masters are a sub-line of the Transformers toy franchise, first released in 1990, with a wave of new releases released in Europe in 1991. It featured Transformers action figures who were unable to transform, but came with transforming partners, weapons or exo-suits. Some of the larger sets came with transforming vehicles or bases. This was the last sub-line release as part of the original Transformers toyline before the launch of Generation 2.

Toy design

Action Masters were non-transformable 3³⁄₄ inch action figures designed to represent classic and new Transformers characters. Those based on existing characters, were designed to best match their appearance in the popular cartoon series, with the newer characters following the same basis design. Despite the lack of an ability to transform, they had more articulation than many of the Transformers toylines that preceded it, with moveable heads, arms, knees and legs. To complement the figures, each came with a transformable weapon, or in the case of the larger sets, a transformable vehicle.

Catgut (horse)

Catgut (foaled 1816) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare who won the classic 1000 Guineas at Newmarket in 1819. The Guineas was the filly's only competitive win in six races, her other victory coming when she was allowed to walk over on her racecourse debut.

Background

Catgut was a brown mare bred by her owner George FitzRoy, 4th Duke of Grafton at his stud at Euston Hall in Suffolk. Her dam, Vanity, was bred by the 4th Duke's father Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton and won twelve races before being retired to stud. In 1815 the mare was covered by two stallions, Comus and the less well-known Juniper. Comus finished third in the Derby and sired many good horses including the classic winners Grey Momus and Reveller. Juniper was a "useful" stallion, best known as the sire of Camarine and the damsire of Velocipede. Grafton sent the filly to be trained at Newmarket by Robert Robson, the so-called "Emperor of Trainers".

Racing career

1819: three-year-old season

Before the 1819 season began, Catgut had acquired a reputation as a potentially high-class performer, featuring prominently in the ante-post betting lists for the Oaks Stakes.