IMPROVEMENTS IN FAN PUNKAHS, AND IN APPARATUS IN CONNECTION THEREWITH
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Lestock Francis Boileau at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 19th November 1870.
I, LESTOCK FRANCIS BOILEAU, of 16, Clarinda Park East, Kingstown,
in the County of Dublin, Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FAN
PUNKAHS, AND IN APPARATUS IN CONNECTION THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
In warm climates in certain portions of the year great inconvenience
and annoyance is felt from the innumerable quantities of flies, mosquitos,
and other insects which not only create a buzzing noise, but often settle
upon and sting the natives and also strangers to that degree that they
become unbearable, and in order to obviate these annoyances various
devices and apparatus have been invented for keeping up a continual
fanning operation by which these insects are driven off and are prevented
becoming a nuisance, but these apparatus have invariably been of a
heavy character and self-acting, or a person has been employed for
fanning the flies away by means of a hand fan or punkah.
Now according to my Invention I construct an apparatus of a portable
nature which can be fitted up in any position and made to work by

page_text: simple mechanism for directing a current of air in any direction, which
serves not only for the purposes before referred to but also to cool or
reduce the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere, thereby rendering
the room, bed, or other article in or on which the occupant or occupants
may be sitting or reclining free from the annoyances before spoken of.
I take, say, three lengths of tubes or rods which can be arranged to take
to pieces, two of these tubes or rods meet at their upper parts and are
connected by a transverse piece which may be telescopic or in separate
parts to enable it to be lengthened or shortened to suit the width or
length of the article it is intended to cover. This transverse or cross-
piece carries a spindle or rod with pullies or pinions for communicating
rotary motion to a horizontal fan or set of blades, all of which are
adjustable to suit the area it is intended to operate upon. The opposite
side or end of the cross piece is connected to the other leg, and this leg
is furnished with a socket for the end of a second spindle to work in, so
that a band wheel on it may give motion to the first-named spindle, the
second spindle being worked by a crank handle or treadle as found
most convenient. I prefer that the cross piece should have sockets or
loops for supporting horizontal bars forming a frame upon or to which
curtains or light screens can be attached, so that a person can be enclosed
within them; these curtains or screens being of such a size that they
would cover and enclose the article, say, a bed or a chair, by which
means the flies and other insects would be excluded without interfering
with the light or the ventilation of the same.
An apparatus such as I have described could be so made that when
taken to pieces it could be packed into a small compass and be of such
a weight that it could be moved from place to place with facility. The
blades of the fan can be made of light stiff material, and may be capable
of being folded up on each other to economise space.