IMPROVEMENTS IN SOLDIERS' LITTERS, ANDd in Trucks. OR AMBULANCES CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Prince at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th
July 1870-A communication from abroad by Dr. Carl Heinrich
Rudolf Stanelli, residing at Moscow, in the Empire of Russia.
I, ALEXANDER PRINCE, of the Office for Patents, 4, Trafalgar Square,
Charing Cross, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SOLDIERS' LITTERS, ANDd in Trucks.
OR AMBULANCES CONNECTED THEREWITH," a communication to me from abroad
by Dr. Carl Heinrich Rudolf Stanelli, resident at Moscow, in the Empire
of Russia, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the construction of
litters for the conveyance of sick or wounded soldiers, and in ambulances
or trucks to be used therewith, the object being to render such litters
more easily portable, and capable of being folded up in a small compass,
and adjusted in various positions to suit the comfort of the patient.
The litter is constructed in three planes or divisions joined together so
as to be inclined to accomodate the human body in its threefold flexure,

page_text: thus enabling the patient to sit or lie with the hip and knee joints duly
and naturally bent, instead of being stretched out at full length hori-
zontally as is the case in all other contrivances for such purposes.
The litter consists of a board or plane to receive the back, another as
a seat and for the thighs, and a third for the legs. The back is fixed at
right angles with the seat, and the leg board again forms a right angle
therewith. The seat and back, however, are so connected that the latter
may shut down flat upon the former. The board for the lower limbs is
connected with the seat in such manner as to be capable of being moved
upwards to lie in the same plane with the latter and form one surface
with it, but in the opposite direction or downwards it is only capable
of being brought into right angles with the seat. When extended in
the same plane the seat and leg board are together as long as the back,
so that when the back is shut down upon them the top of the same
coincides with the bottom of the leg board. The litter rests on a thick
bar fixed under the seat at its junction with the back by means of two
pins, which like trunnions of a gun play in sockets made in two rests,
forming a bed for the whole; the litter therefore rests in this bed, and
by means of the pins may be inclined to any angle required, and thus
will form a chair, couch, or litter.
To fix the apparatus at the required angle two moveable vertical
bars are fixed to the back of the litter bed, one on each side, and con-
nected to the back board.. At each side and near each end of the bed a
ring is fixed, above which four others are fastened, two on each side of
the couch itself, one immediately over that at the back of the bed and
the other over that in front. These upper rings are fastened to the sides
of the back and seat so that by aid of a rope or strap passed through the
rings in the bed and then through those in the frame or boards of the
litter the apparatus can be fixed and adjusted as well as with the side
vertical bars. And in this case the latter can be employed to stretch out
and maintain the position of the boards. The upper rings are used for
the purposes of transport, and the apparatus can be slung as a hammock
by passing ropes through all the rings. In the centre of the back part
of the seat is an oval aperture closed by a trap or valve opening down-
wards and so constructed as to be opened and closed at pleasure by the
person occupying the seat. At the lower end of the leg board are two
ring bolts for the extension of the lower limbs if required, and at the
back part of the leg board a drawer is constructed for bandages and other

page_text: necessaries, and in front a tablet for the name of the patient. When
not in use the apparatus can be shut or folded up close. The ambulance
or truck consists of two wheels and an axle on which two parallel bars
are supported by bearings through the bars on which the apparatus hangs
from the rings on the back and seat, one apparatus being suspended to
the bars on each side of the axle.