Specification of Edward William Augustus Bartlett : electric socks.

  • Bartlett, Edward William Augustus.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Edward William Augustus Bartlett : electric socks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Bartlett's Improvements in Electric Socks. Invention, and in wliat manner the same was to he performed, and cause the same to he filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent. 5 NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward William Augustus Bartlett, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked 10 thereon (that is to say):— This Invention relates to an electric “ sock 5 5 or inner sole to be placed in the boot or shoe, or to be worn inside the stocking for the relief or cure of all diseases of the feet by the application of an electric current thereto. 15 The sock has the usual soft woollen lining in which are embedded at intervals pairs of zinc and copper discs or plates disposed concentrically, the one which is annular encircling the other. The centres are preferably stelliform and the encircling plates are similarly pointed on the inside as the attractive and impellent forces of 20 the electric currents act more continuously from the points than if the plates were made of circular or other form. The centres are alternately of zinc and copper, as also the encircling plates, and the several pairs of plates are coupled by fine brass wires or brass tissue enclosed in the thickness of the sock so as to form a voltaic 25 series or battery, the current being continuous and working from toe to heel and from heel to toe. The moisture of the feet is generally sufficient to excite the plates but should the feet be dry, the cloth beneath the discs may be damped with a weak solution of salt or vinegar in water. 30 The annexed Drawing shows the electric sock which consists of one or more thicknesses of woollen cloth a cut to the proper shape and pasted together, in the top surface of which are placed discs z% c} z, of zinc and copper (embedded therein to avoid galling or hurting the feet) encircled by the annular discs of copper and zinc c3 z, c} both of 35 the form shown.