A NEW MEDICO- CHIRURGICAL BLEEDING INSTRUMENT
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Stevens at the Office of
the Commissioners. of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th September
1860. A communication from abroad by Baudouin and Guérin de Tencin,
of Paris, in the Empire of France.
I, CHARLES STEVENS, Manager, of the British & Foreign Office for
Patents, 1B, Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW MEDICO-
CHIRURGICAL BLEEDING INSTRUMENT," (& that it has been communicated to me
from abroad by Baudouin & Guérin de Tencin, of Paris, in the Empire of
France,) to be as follows:-
The present Invention relates to a new surgical instrument constructed as
follows:-The exterior consists of a hollow cylindrical body of wood or metal
formed of two pieces, which are screwed together, one forming the upper &
the other the lower division. These two cylindrical pieces, besides having
cavities also cylindrical, are pierced at their respective tops with a round hole,
(lined, if thought proper, with copper,) which hole is of smaller diameter than
the cavity, and is placed in the axis of the latter. A moveable piston or rod
of iron, steel, or other metal (which may be magnetised if necessary), also of
cylindrical form, traverses longitudinally the whole of the upper part of the
double cylinder above described, rising above the top of the upper cylinder,
and entering the lower one by the holes already mentioned as being placed at
the top of each cylinder. This piston is furnished with a rundle fixed at about

page_text: two-thirds of its height, and also with a button of wood or other material,
which is attached by a screw to its upper extremity. A metallic disc made
(according to the purpose for which it is intended) of an alloy of lead and tin,
or of magnetised iron, either pure or mixed with other metals, terminates the
lower extremity of the moveable piston to which it is fixed by a screw. On
the outer surface of the disc thirty steel needles (more or less) are regularly
& circularly arranged, projecting to a length of about th of an inch. These
needles also may be magnetised, or they may be plated, gilded, or otherwise,
to prevent oxidation. At the spot where the upper part of the metallic piston
rises above the double cylindrical body a moveable metallic ring is placed, in
which the piston passes. This ring serves in case of need to check the
advance of the needles in the same manner that the screw of the wooden
button serves to increase it. In the interior of the cylindrical body or case,
and between the fixed rundle and the upper part of the lower cylinder a spiral
spring of metal is placed, and on pressing the button of the piston an alternate
movement of compression and extension takes place by aid of the fixed
rundle, causing the points of the needles to advance and draw back successively.
To obviate the inconvenience of rotations taking place in the action of the
piston & disk, the lower part of the rod of the piston is furnished with two or
three projecting mouldings, which fit in an equal number of grooves or notches
in the edge of the orifice at the top of the lower cylinder, where they can slide
regularly, and without deviating from the perpendicular movement, facilitating
also the screwing and unscrewing of the button at the top of the piston.