Specification of Charles Whitlaw : administering medicine by the agency of steam or vapour.

  • Whitlaw, Charles.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Charles Whitlaw : administering medicine by the agency of steam or vapour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Whitlaws Tmpts. in Administering Medicine by the Agency of Steam or Vapour. the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear. NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Charles Whitlaw, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly 5 described and ascertained in and by the following Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following description thereof (that is to say) :— The medicines which I administer consist of vegetables collected in their native places of growth, and carefully prepared by drying and packing, so as to retain their properties in the greatest state of perfection. The plants being 10 gathered at those periods when their principles have attained their proper degree of elaboration or growth, are to be carefully dried in such a manner as that, whilst their aqueous parts are evaporated, their volatile and oleaginous ones may be retained as much as may be. I prefer to spread them thinly over the floors of airy chambers, and to cover them with linen or cotton cloths 15 to prevent the light from acting upon them whilst drying. When sufficiently dried, I subject them to the action of screw of other presses, in order to compress and form them into compact masses suitable for packing with the least loss of space. I find the shape shewn in Figs. 1 and 2 of the Drawing to be a very convenient one, and I give the vegetables that form by putting 20 them into wooden frames strongly united at their corners by dovetailing them, such as is shewn in section at Fig. 3, and in plan at Fig. 4. These frames have loose bottoms fitted to them, and various wooden blocks are provided, in order that when placed in a proper press more or fewer of them may be put into the frames to fill them up, and thus convey the power of the press to the 25 masses of dried vegetables placed beneath them. When sufficiently com¬ pressed, which in the case of oleaginous plants will be known by the partial appearance of oil upon the surfaces of the masses, the frames must be removed from the presses, and the loose bottoms with the compressed masses of vegetables lying upon them be pushed out of the frames, thus leaving the 30 vegetables in a state ready to be closely packed in proper boxes, and which operation should be effected as quickly as may be, each separate mass being previously wrapped up in paper to guard it from contact with the external air. In Fig. 5 I have given a representation of a press with a single screw and 35 lever, calculated to hold one frame only; and in Fig. 6 I have shewn a double screw press with several frames underneath its moveable beam; the sides of some of the frames being removed to shew the masses of vegetables, the loose bottoms, and the wooden blocks within them. I can also occasionally employ