IMPROVEMENTS IN SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS KNOWN AS LITHOLYCITES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Melville Clark, of 53, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS KNOWN AS LITHOLYCITES."—A
communication from abroad by Henry Whittington Bradford, of
Randolph, in the County of Norfolk, and State of Massachusetts,
United States of America.
Sealed the 19th February 1875, and dated the 31st December 1874.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Alexander Melville Clark
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition
and Declaration, on the 31st December 1874, pursuant to the
9th Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lanc, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for “IMPROVEMENTS IN
SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS KNOWN AS LITHOLYCITES," and have petitioned Her
Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns,

page_text: Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn
Declaration that it has been communicated to me from abroad by
Henry Wittington Bradford, of Randolph, in the County of Norfolk,
and State of Massachusetts, United States of America.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
scal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to bo performed, in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :—
This Invention relates to litholycites of the kind in which are used a
bag and jaws to be inserted in the bladder for scraping up and enclosing
the stone, and a tubo for introducing acid into the bladder for dissolving
the stone, and removing it by flowing out through a tube. It consists
essentially of a tube having curved jaws, to which a rubber bag is
attached to be inserted in the bladder, and opened and operated to scoop
up the stone, then closed and locked to retain it, by contrivancos
extending from an exterior case along the tube to the jaws, so that
the stone may be dissolved by nitric acid, conducted into the bag through
a platinum tube introduced after the stone has been secured, and bo
removed by flowing out through the principal tube.
The case before mentioned contains the mechanism for operating the
contrivances for adjusting, closing, opening, and locking the jaws, all
as herein-after particularly described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings, in which Figuro 1 is a side clevation of the improved
instrument; Figure 2 is a longitudinal section with the jaws and the
bag open; Figure 3 is a section with the jaws closed; Figuro 4 is a
cross section on the line x, x, of Figure 2; Figure 5 is a section through
the jaws and the bag on the lino y, y, of Figuro 2; Figuro 6 is a detail
of the apparatus for opening and closing the jaws, partly in section and
partly in side clevation; Figuro 7 is a cross section on line 2, ≈, of
Figure 3. Similar letters of referenco indicato corresponding parts.
A represents tlie jaws having the rubber bag B attached for scooping
up the stone in the bladder, and enclosing it so as to apply a solvent-like
nitric acid to it with safety. These jaws are jointed at C to rods D:
extending along the tube E to its extremity from the wheels F and G,

page_text: by which they are rotated foward and backward to open and close the
bag by swinging the jaws from and towards each other.
The lock for fastening the jaws so as to close the bag for securing the
stone and retaining the acid consists of the sliding bar H in one of the
jaws having hooks I, which engage in the slots J of the other jaw when
the jaws come together, and the bar is moved lengthwise a little. It is
moved for this purpose by the bar K, which is pushed forward by the
screw-threaded sliding block L, to which it is connected, and the block
is moved by the internally screw-threaded tube M, which is fitted on
the outer extremity of tube E so as to be revolved by its milled head N.
A spring O pushes the locking bar back when the bar K is drawn
back.
The jaws are pivoted to the rods D, so that they can take the position
represented in Figure 1 when being introduced into the bladder, and bo
swung down so that their free ends will be in the line of the tube or
thereabout, the former position being the best for introducing them, and
the latter being the best for operating the bag. To swing them down
in this way a rod P is employed to push against the jaws at Q just over
the pivots, the bar being extended along tube E to the pinion R, with
which it gears by a toothed portion S, and the pinion goars with a
toothed bar T attached to the sliding block L, so that when said block
moves forward to lock the jaws by bar K, bar P will be drawn back,
and when bar K is drawn back to allow the jaws to open, the bar P
will go forward to swing the jaws into and keep them in the position
for turning in the bladder to scoop up the stone, and close the bag
around it. The wheels G and F are turned for rotating the rods D to
open and close the jaws by the tube U, which fits over tube M, but
within case V, and couples at W with the wheel G. The wheel G gears
with the wheel F by an intermediate wheel X, so that the jaws are
moved together when the tube U is turned in one direction, and from
cach other when it is turned in the opposite direction.
The tube E is divided in a portion of its length by a partition y,
which separates the upper part Z, to which the rubber bags is connected
at a so as to receive the tube b, through which the acid is introduced
from the other part d, along which the rods D and bars P and K extend,
and which is open from e to f to make room for the bars K, P, and T,
and pinion R. A short tube g surrounds tube E to form bearings for

page_text: 7thly. The tube E having the rubber bag B attached to it, the space d
for the rods D and bars K, P, in combination, with the jaws, and
arranged substantially as specified.
Sthly. The combination of the tube U, gear wheels F, G, and case V
with the rods D and tubo E, substantially as specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of
December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-four.
Witness,
HY. SWALES,
53, Chancery Lane,
London.
A. M. CLARK. (L.S.)