Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Feb., 1886.
Complete Left, 25th Nov., 1886.
Complete Accepted, 14th Jan., 1887.
I, ARTHUR HERVEY BYNG of Rugby House Southsea in the County of Hants,
Esquire Retired Naval Officer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My invention relates to means of applying electricity for therapeutic purposes and
consists in fitting or providing a room, chamber or apartment with electrical
contrivances whereby it can at the will of the occupier be brought into an electrical
state.
With this object I provide the room, chamber or apartment with a floor conductor
and with a ceiling conductor. The floor conductor may consist of sheet metal laid
upon the ordinary flooring, an insulating substance such for example as sheet india
rubber being interposed. The ceiling conductor may consist of insulated wire carried
any suitable number of times along and across the room at the upper part thereof. A
convenient way of supporting the ceiling conductor is by a wooden frame suspended
from the ceiling by insulating holders such as silk cords or gutta percha rods and the
wooden frame may be made collapsible so as to facilitate its removal and replacement
as required. The insulated conductor has connected to it at suitable points or intervals
non-insulated pins or pieces of wire about say an inch long which project downwards.
In connection with the floor conductor and ceiling conductor is a battery and coil
placed in any suitable position preferably outside the room, one pole being connected
with the floor conductor and the other pole with the ceiling conductor. Any suitable
form of battery may be employed, such for example, as one composed of two or more
bichromate batteries coupled up in series.
From the arrangement of conductors as above described it will be seen that when
the battery is in action the room will become electric or charged with electricity and
that any person upon the floor conductor will continuously receive a current of
electricity into his body without shock or inconvenience, no change in his dress being
required.
In combination with floor and ceiling conductors, as above described, earth plates
may be employed from which an insulated wire is led to an insulated handle whereby
a person on the floor conductor can whenever desired by application to any part of his
body discharge the electricity to earth.

page_text: Sometimes in combination with the floor and ceiling conductors, I employ means of
supplying the upper portion of the room with steam or vapor so as to increase the
conductivity between the ceiling conductor and the person on the floor conductor.
This can be conveniently effected by means of hot water circulating pipes having
vertical branch pipes connected thereto at intervals so as to allow of the escape of
steam.
Although I have described my invention as applied to a room, chamber or apart-
ment it can be otherwise applied; for example to a bed in which case a conductor on
the bedstead in the form say of a woven wire mattress (properly insulated) would act
as the lower or
< floor conductor while the upper or ceiling conductor might be
attached to the canopy of the bedstead or to the ceiling.
"

page_text: Novel Means of Applying Electricity for Therapeutic Purposes.
I ARTHUR HERVEY BYNG, of Rugby House, Southsea, in the County of Hants,
Esquire, Retired Naval Officer do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to means of applying electricity for therapeutic purposes and
consists in fitting or providing a room, chamber or apartment with electrical
contrivances whereby it can at the will of the occupier be brought into an electrical
state.
With this object I provide the room, chamber or apartment with a floor conductor
and with a ceiling conductor. The floor conductor may consist of sheet metal laid
upon the ordinary flooring, an insulating substance such for example as sheet india
rubber being interposed. The ceiling conductor may consist of insulated wire carried
any suitable number of times along and across the room at the upper part thereof. A
convenient way of supporting the ceiling conductor is by a wooden frame suspended
from the ceiling by insulating holders such as silk cords or gutta percha rods and the
wooden frame may be made collapsible so as to facilitate its removal and replacement
as required. The insulated conductor has connected to it at suitable points or intervals
non-insulated pins or pieces of wire about, say an inch long which project downwards.
In connection with the floor conductor and ceiling conductor is a battery and coil
placed in any suitable position preferably outside the room, one pole being connected
with the floor conductor and the other pole with the ceiling conductor. Any suitable
form of battery may be employed such, for example, as one composed of two or more
bichromate batteries coupled up in series.
From the arrangement of conductors as above described it will be seen that when
the battery is in action the room will become electric or charged with electricity and
that any person upon the floor conductor will continuously receive a current of
electricity into his body without shock or inconvenience, no change in his dress being
required.
In combination with floor and ceiling conductors as above described earth plates may
be employed from which an insulated wire is led to an insulated handle whereby a
person on the floor conductor can whenever desired by application to any part of his
body discharge the electricity to earth.
Sometimes in combination with the floor and ceiling conductors I employ means of
supplying the upper portion of the room with steam or vapor so as to increase the
conductivity between the ceiling conductor and the person on the floor conductor.
This can be conveniently effected by means of hot water circulating pipes having
vertical branch pipes connected thereto at intervals so as to allow of the escape of
steam.
In the annexed drawings Figure 1 is an elevation partly sectional and Figure 2 a
plan representing a room or chamber provided with my arrangement for making it
electric or charging it with electricity. a is the ordinary wooden or other floor of the
room. b is an india rubber carpet or other insulating material laid thereon. c is the

page_text: sheet metal floor or floor conductor. d, d, d is the ceiling conductor consisting of
insulated wire carried any suitable number of times along and across the room at the
upper part thereof. The ceiling conductor can be supported in any convenient way;
as shown in the drawings it is supported by insulating holders e, e made of silk cords or
gutta percha depending from the ceiling. f,f,fare non-insulated pins or pieces of
wire, say about an inch long more or less, connected to the ceiling conductor and
projecting downwards therefrom. 9 is a battery and h an induction coil shown as
placed outside the room but their position is not important. One pole is connected to
the floor conductor e by an insulated conductor i and the other pole to the ceiling
conductor by an insulated conductor k. It will readily be understood that when the
battery is in action the room will become electric or charged with electricity and that
any person upon the floor conductor will continuously receive a current of electricity
into his body without shock or inconvenience.
I represents a gas heating apparatus with hot water coil from which circulating
pipes m, m are carried around the electric room. From the pipes m at intervals
vertical branch pipes n, n fitted with cocks are carried up; these pipes are open at top
and allow of the escape of steam into the room and thereby increase the conductivity
between the ceiling conductor and the person on the floor conductor.
In a modification of my invention I form the floor conductor of a number of plates
or sections laid on an india rubber carpet or other insulating material and I put the
one end thereof in connection with the one pole of the battery and the other end in
connection with the other pole so that a wave of electricity is obtained throughout.
Although I have described my invention as applied to a room, chamber or apartment
it can be otherwise applied; for example to a bed in which case a conductor on the
bedstead in the form, say, of a woven wire mattress (properly insulated) would act
as the lower or floor" conductor while the upper or ceiling conductor might be
attached to the canopy of the bedstead or to the ceiling.
"
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The means hereinbefore described of applying electricity for therapeutic purposes.
2. An electric room or chamber arranged substantially as and for the purposes
herein before described.
J. C. MEWBURN,
169 Fleet Street, London,
Agent.