Improvements in or relating to Apparatus for Inhaling Air Saturated with Moisture or any suitable Medicine.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 5th Aug., 1892-Accepted, 15th Oct., 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Apparatus for Inhaling Air
Saturated with Moisture or any suitable Medicine.
We, Dr. ADOLF GORHAN, Chief Physician, EUGEN KLEINER, Manufacturer,
and WALTER BOKMAYER, Manufacturer, all of Mödling, near Vienna, in the
Empire of Austro-Hungary 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 :-
This invention relates to certain improvements in the methods of inhaling air
saturated with moisture or any pharmaceutical or medicinal agent in proportions
attaining say 100% in a closed chamber or apartment in which the invalids may
for any desirable space of time and in any posture inhale the surrounding air
properly impregnated and thoroughly freed from any germs of disease without
being obliged to handle any special inhaling apparatus or to put their breathing
organs to any strain or fatigue. The invention further relates to means whereby
the air in the inhaling chamber, before it enters the humidifying apparatus is
impregnated with an oil of the nature of ether fit to be inhaled.
The improvements in the inhaling process consist in causing the air charged
with the exhalations of the invalid who has been using the inhaling chamber to be
drawn out of the chamber by a fan or other ventilating arrangement before another
inhaling stage is commenced. The ventilator is then closed and fresh air from
outside, after being heated to the desired temperature (if the season or weather
require it) by any suitable means is admitted into the inhaling room. After being
heated to the desired degree the air can if desired be impregnated with vapors of
a volatile oil, and then caused by a sucking action to pass through a vaporizer in
which it is washed or purified, i.e. freed from pernicious germs; whereupon it may
be simply humidified or impregnated with the desired inhaling medium in pro-
portions not exceeding 100% and then in a finely divided condition introduced
into the inhaling chamber.
It will thus be seen that the present invention mainly consists in the combination
of a process by which the liquid employed is thoroughly vaporized or reduced to a
state of impalpable dust whereby the air is humidified without any drops or spray
being produced in the inhaling chamber, with a ventilating process applied to the
inhaling chamber for the purpose of removing any germs of disease that may be
contained in the air; while at the same time the direct admission of the external
air into the inhaling apparatus is avoided.
The invention will be best understood by reference to the accompanying drawings
in which
Fig. 1 is an inhaling chamber constructed in accordance with the present
invention provided with the required apparatus and accessories in sectional
elevation; and
Fig. 2 is a plan of an inhaling establishment or house such as may be erected
in connection with hospitals and the like for carrying on the treatment on a
larger scale.
The inhaling chamber is a room or apartment of suitable size, the walls and
ceiling of which should preferably be insulated by means of a lining of hard cork,
while the floor may be covered with oil-paint so as to prevent from absorbing
damp air.
For the purpose of removing the air charged with germs of disease from the
inhaling chamber we arrange a ventilator or fan V on a suitable level in the wall
of the chamber, having found by experience that such deleterious germs always

page_text: float in the upper portion of the room. The ventilator may be of any suitable
construction and driven either by water power or by any other suitable means.
From the ceiling of the inhaling chamber is suspended an apparatus A adapted
to suck in, wash, and humidify the air contained in the chamber and to impregnate
it with finely vaporized water or any other suitable inhaling medium. It consists
of a spherical case B provided with a tube C on one side and with a cup-shaped
extension D on the top in which is fitted the charging cone with its apex directed
downwards. In the tubular piece C is arranged a nozzle E for drawing in by
suction the air either pure or mixed with the inhaling medium from the vessel F.
Under the action of this nozzle a cone of liquid is formed which sucks in the air
contained in the chamber and forces it through a kind of conical veil formed by
the liquid,, whereby the liquid is thoroughly vaporized, while the air is purified,
freed from germs of disease and impregnated with the liquid, charged or not with
medicine as the case may be. The mixture of air and liquid thus produced enters
through the apparatus A in the direction of the arrows a into the inhaling
chamber. The liquid which is not absorbed by the air flows back through the
pipe N into the reservoir.
When it is desired to incorporate a liquid inhaling medium into the air, such
medium may simultaneously with the purifying liquid usually water be caused to
pass through the nozzle E; or the air in the chamber may be first washed with
water and not impregnated till it passes for the second time through the apparatus
together with the solution of the desired inhaling medium diluted' in a' predetermined
quantity of water. To incorporate the vapors of a volatile oil into the 'air before
it passes through the' apparatus A there may be provided on the outside of the
tube C a removable glass vessel F containing the volatile oil in question. Within
the tubular extension C' there is provided a channel G supported by the lateral
arms H.
In the central part of this channel or groove G is placed a wick J of
cotton or similar material, the lower edge of which is immersed in the oil contained
in the channel G. From the lower part of the vessel F extends a thin curved
pipe L reaching into the groove G. From the upper end of the vessel F a flexible
(india rubber) tube extends downwards and terminates in a flexible ball P.
When this ball is compressed a certain quantity of the volatile oil will pass from
the vessel F into the groove G, where it will be sucked up by the wick J by
capillary attraction and caused speedily to evaporate. In this manner a'means is
provided for impregnating the air drawn in by the nozzle E through the tube C
with the vapors of volatile oil without permitting the oil itself to mix directly with
the humidifying or impregnating liquid.
By this method of alternate admission of air the important advantage is obtained
that the air inhaled is heated to the desired temperature before it is impregnated
with the inhaling medium and is thoroughly freed from impurities and germs; and
further that during the operation of the humidifying and vaporizing no condensation
of the liquid contained in the chamber can take place, while such condensation
infallibly occurs whenever atmospheric air is directly introduced in the vaporizer
through a tube extending outwardly.
For large establishments such as hospitals 'etc.;' where persons suffering" from
different disorders have to inhale differently prepared air (as for example,
pneumonia has to be treated differently from whooping-cough), it has been found
necessary to place a number of similarly arranged inhaling chambers side by side,
to separate from "each other the various classes of patients' and' thus avoid possible
contagion. For this purpose the arrangement represented in Fig. 2'will be found
suitable in which three different compartments are arranged for three classes of
disease being preceded by a waiting-room. This arrangement" also enables,
however the same medicine to be constantly employed in the same inhaling
chamber and thus the waste resulting from replacing one inhaling agent by another
in each case is avoided.
The apparatus above described permits of impregnating the 'air' m'an apartment
with as much as 100% of moisture' or inhaling material. Its relative humidity

page_text: may be determined by means of a capillary hygrometer which directly indicates
the moisture contained in the air, or by means of a psychrometer the operation of
which is based upon the measurement of the cooling effect of evaporation. From
the readings t t (of a dry and wet thermometer respectively), or in other words
from the difference between these readings, the humidity contained in the ambient
air may be determined with the assistance of a psychrometer according to the
temperature existing at the time.
The inhaling process is carried out as follows;
The ventilator V is first set in operation so as to remove the corrupted air
charged with germs of disease. The ventilator is then stopped and if the air in
the chamber has not to be previously heated, water is at once forced by means of
a pump or otherwise through the pipe M into the apparatus A and into the
nozzle E by the action of which the fresh air contained in the chamber is sucked
into the said apparatus and as it passes is impregnated with the vapors of a volatile
oil or any other suitable volatile substance, while at the same time it is freed from
dust and any injurious germs it may carry. Being thus finely divided and
impregnated with as much as 100% of the inhaling medium it passes in the state
of mist as it were into the inhaling chamber ready for use.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. The process whereby the air contained in the inhaling chamber is made
suitable for inhaling by having previously drawn out of the said chamber the
vitiated air by means of a ventilator which is then stopped whereupon the fresh air
admitted may if desired be heated to a certain temperature; the water being forced
through a pipe into the suction nozzle whereby a liquid cone is formed through
which the air is drawn into the vaporizing apparatus so that it is humidified
washed and purified freed from germs and impregnated with the vapors of a volatile
inhaling medium of the nature of ether it then passes into contact with the inhaling
medium itself forced in through the pipe M for the purpose of being saturated with
it in the proportion of 100% when it lastly enters the closed inhaling chamber in
the condition of mist.
2. In apparatus such as described the combination with a chamber such as F for
containing the volatile fluid and means for expelling the fluid therefrom of a wick
such as J for bringing the fluid and air into contact substantially as described.
3. The combination with an inhaling chamber such as K provided with a
ventilator V of a humidifying and vaporizing apparatus A and an evaporating
device F G arranged and constructed substantially as described and illustrated in
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 5th day of August 1892.
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicants.