Means for Strengthening Fingers.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 5th Feb., 1897-Accepted, 1st May, 1897
Means for Strengthening Fingers.
We, ADALBERT KUPFERSCHMID, Doctor Medicinæ of Gablonz in the Kingdom
of Bohemia in the Austrian and Hungarian Empire, and MAX RICHTER,
Proprietor of au Advertisement Office, Maybach-Ufer No. 4 in Berlin, Germany
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 :-
Our invention consists in an apparatus serving for the systematic training of the
muscular sense of fingers and hands and for the removal of all the affections that
result from disturbances in the sensations relative to the functions of the nerves in
that members, as, for instance, writer's cramp, nervous trembling, muscular atrophy
after fractures of bones or luxations, etc.
This apparatus, denominated "hand- and finger-strengthener" or "cheiropaed,"
principally consists of the following parts:
1. A finger-board with cavities arranged in rows intended for the insertion of
the tips of the fingers and for the facilitation of keeping some of the fingers at
rest in a certain position, while other fingers of the same hand execute gymnastic
movements either oscillatory or advancing (or receding or lateral ;-
II. An elastic resistance which is placed over the mentioned finger-board and
so chosen and successively replaced by another one belonging to a progressive
series to impose a greater and greater exertion of energy in a scale of digital and
manual gymnastics in the attempts of inserting the fingers into the cavities of the
board and to produce a progressive increase of the muscular sense;
III. A covering sheet which is spread over the said elastic resistance to keep
the latter in its place and which has holes above the cavities of the finger-board,
being openings through which the fingers are shoved so as necessarily to enter the
aforesaid cavities.
The accompanying drawing shows:
In Fig. 1, the finger-board in a perspective view, so as to give an idea of its
practical use;
In Fig. 2, a longitudinal section of the finger board with two cramps designed
to fix it to a table;
In Fig. 3, the view of the finger-board from above;
In Fig. 4, the longitudinal section of the perforated covering sheet mentioned
in III, and lastly,
In Fig. 5, the longitudinal section of a frame bearing and tightening an india
rubber sheet, g, spread over a plate, c, having stiffening bars, b.
According to the explanation given above first the frame (Fig. 5) bearing the
rubber sheet 9 is placed on the finger-board (see the Figures 1, 2 and 3), and the
perforated covering sheet, d, (Fig. 4) placed on all the parts just mentioned to
prevent any displacement of the rubber sheet and of the frame holding the latter
on the finger-board.
It is a matter of course that, after having placed the different elements of the
apparatus over one another in the manner described, the holes of the plate, c, of
the frame, Fig. 5, and those of the covering sheet, d, must lie exactly over and
above one another. From this it results that Fig. 1 may also be considered as a
perspective view of all the three mentioned parts (finger-board rubber sheet and
covering sheet) of the apparatus placed over one another.

page_text: The cavities of the finger-board and the holes corresponding to them of the
frame-plate, c, and the covering sheet, d, are arranged so as to form three parallel
lines.
In the case illustrated by the drawing the arrangement is such that, in the
row nearest the body of the person practicing the gymnastics here in question,
three cavities of the finger-board and the three corresponding holes of the two
upper parts near the ends of the row are wanting and the number of these cavities
and holes are found only in the row most distant from the body of the gymnast.
This distribution of cavities and holes, however is only made to give an easier
understanding of the way in which the apparatus is to be used, as all the three
rows and even more than three rows may have exactly the same number of cavities
or holes, and it may be supposed that in the practical execution this equality of
number will really exist.
The cavities and holes of the three rows are so arranged behind one another
that lines passing through their centres are perpendicular to the length of the
finger-board.
The practice on the apparatus is as follows:
As it is shown in Fig. 1, first the tips of the fingers of both hands are so inserted
into the cavities of the finger-board, that the thumbs and the little fingers enter
the cavities of the first row, the three middle fingers (the forefinger, middle finger,
ringfinger) to the cavities of the second row, or, to express it more distinctly, all
the ten fingers enter the cavities which are marked by horizontal hatchings in
Fig. 3.
Then the digital gymnastics begin by proceeding alternately so as to lift some
of the three middle fingers, stretch them, insert them into (the) cavities of the
third row and bring them back into their former position. Afterwards also the
thumbs and little fingers are lifted, stretched, moved forward, and placed backward
into their first position. When these gymnastics have been practiced for not too
short a time, say for some weeks, with slow progress, the gymnast, begins to move
some fingers sideways and to bring them back into the initial position.
After the fingers and hands have acquired some force and mobility in the course
of the said exercise, comparatively more difficult changes of the places of individual
or several fingers of each hand are practiced simultaneously, in which also the
initial places are temporarily completely abandoned and later on reoccupied.
From the necessity of the ability of passing to such a higher order of gymnastics
it will be found expedient that all the three rows of the finger-board should be
furnished with cavities in their whole length, and that, under certain circumstances,
even a fourth row of cavities should be made. If this exercise has been practiced
in the described manner for a sufficient time, the gymnast has to proceed to a
further development of the muscular sense by intensifying the. resistance found in
inserting the fingers into the cavities of the finger-board by means of covering the
latter with an elastic sheet, say an india rubber sheet, and of making the thickness
of this sheet increase in time more and more. For this purpose the frame
represented in Fig. 5, holding the elastic sheet, g, and a perforated plate, c, is laid
over the finger-board, and on the former, the perforated covering sheet, d. The
digital gymnastics are then begun and continued in the same manner as they were
on the uncovered finger-board.
In order that the fingers during this sort of gymnastics may not be hurt by
sharp borders of the holes, it may be found advisable, as to thick covering sheets,
well to take off the upper sharp edge of the holes by rounding, and, in the case of
thin covering sheets (c and d), to bend the edge downward so as to give these
holes a biconcave-shape.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention, and in what mauner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is :
An apparatus for the development of the sensation of muscular force and of

page_text: the muscular sense in general in hands and fingers characterized by a finger-board
firmly fixed, having several rows of cavities crossing each other at right angle, in
combination with sheets elastically yielding to pressure and making the insertion
of the fingers into the cavities of the finger-board more and more difficult, and
with a perforated covering sheet, the holes of which lie over and in the direction
of the central axes of the cavities of the finger board so leading the fingers to be
inserted into the latter by pressing down portions of the aforesaid elastic sheet, in
the manner described and for the aforesaid gymnastic purpose.
Dated this 1st day of February 1897
F. H. HAASE,
Agent for the Inventors:
Adalbert Kupferschmid, Doctor Medicinæ, and Max Richter.