A portable bath, chiefly applicable for medical purposes / [Josiah Webber].

  • Webber, Josiah.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A portable bath, chiefly applicable for medical purposes / [Josiah Webber]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    t N° 2868 Date of Application, 18th Feb., 1889 Complete Specification Left, 18th Nov., 1889—Accepted, 18th Feb., 1890 PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION. A Portable Bath, Chiefly Applicable for Medical Purposes. I Josiah Webber Architect Trafalgar Lodge George Place Hyde Vale Greenwich, S.E. do hereby declare the nature of this invention to he as follows :— A portable Bath by means of which hot and cold air, hot and cold water, electricity, oxygen, ozone, medicated vapour, &c., may be administered under entirely new con- 5 ditions, including special arrangements for medical supervision and control. it consists of a chamber composed of wood, metal, or other suitable material, con¬ structed with double walls for the passage of the heated air. There is a cistern in the canopy by means of which hot or cold water mav be applied while the bather is surrounded by the heated air. 10 There is an arrangement for the application of heat and cold to the spinal centres, with a special apparatus for local treatment to the eye, throat, or ear. The lower part of the bath consists of two chambers, one for airing linen, anti the other for the treatment of infected clothing. The furnace is heated by gas, oil, or spirit. 15 The way in which the various agents named in the opening sentence are applied is as follows :—For the hot-air supply I construct at one end of the Bath a furnace, or heating chamber, so arranged that the fresh air—after being purified by passing it through perforated zinc trays filled, one with wool, and the other with charcoal—shall be heated to an unusally high temperature, and then projected in continuous waves *20 over the body of the bather. After the air has done its work, and has become loaded with the exhalations from the skin, it is drawn off through the spaces between the hollow walls of the bath casing, and carried to the furnace direct, where it mingles with the products of combustion, and is discharged by the same flue. Attached to the heating are appliances for the reception of chemicals for the 25 generation of medicated vapours, of oxygen, or of any other of the various gases which the medical attendant may consider the most suitable to the case, and so arranged that, while the body is enveloped in a medicated atmosphere for external treatment, a differently charged atmosphere for internal treatment, may, at the same time, be administered through the organs of respiration. 30 Cold air is applied by means of pipes running through an ice-chamber, and con¬ nected with a fan or bellows for projecting the air upon any part of the patient requiring treatment, and by an apparatus fitted at the back of the bath any ot the nervous centres in the cerebro-spinal axis may be operated upon in such a manner as to overcome the difficulty hitherto experienced by the medical profession in localizing 35 the application of heat and cold to the spinal centres. Electricity is applied in the usual way, but under more favourable conditions. The wires are fixed in the bath, and connected with binding screws at the outside, and when wanted the operator has but to attach the wires of the battery to the binding screws, and the whole is ready for action. By means of the spinal apparatus above 40 mentioned the electrodes can be accurately fixed at any part of the spine, or, by means of copper plates attached to the foot-rest the charge can be taken from the spine to the feet if desired. Dated this 18th day of February 1889. JOSIAH WEBBER. [Price is. ltf.J