IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC ROTARY BRUSHES
Year: 1885

page_text: We, WALTER SHELVERTON FROST, of 92 Copeland Road Peckham London, in
the County of Surrey, Telegraph Engineer, JEAN LODOIS MERIGOT, Medical
Electrician, and GUSTAVE CHARLES CHRISTIAN FEIN, Medical Electrician, both of
No 56 Conduit Street, London, in the County of Middlesex do hereby declare
the nature of our invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC ROTARY BRUSHES'
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement:—
"
Our Invention relates to the production of an Electric Rotary Brush to be used
with and worked by ordinary or any suitable Rotary Hair Brushing Machinery,
and capable of applying the Galvanic Voltaic, Induction, Medical, Magneto Static,
and other Electric currents to the head and different parts of the body, for the
purpose of accelerating the growth of Hair, and the cure of those diseases to which
the human body or that of animals is subject, and where electricity as a remedy is
or may be applicable.
Our improvements consist in certain novel and useful peculiarities of construction
and relative arrangement of parts, which we will now proceed to fully describe by
reference to the accompanying Sheet of Drawing upon which:-
Figure 1 represents a sectional elevation of a Brush with the handles shown
partly withdrawn or disconnected.
Figure 2 being an end view of the handle showing position of contact springs.
Figure 3 is an end view of the commutator.
Figure 4 illustrates the Brush complete drawn to a reduced scale.
A A¹ being metallic wires.
BB are bristles.
C is the body of the Brush.
D pulley attached to same.
E driving band.
FF commutator.
G axle.
HH wires leading from commutator to metallic wires in Brush.
II' are the handles.
K recess in handle.
LL' metallic contact springs.
M M metallic tubes.
N N¹ contact pegs.
Similar letters of reference indicate similar parts in each of the Figures
respectively.
We substitute for part of the bristles of the ordinary rotary, or circular hair
brush suitable metallic wires A A¹ preferably of crimped German Silver, the
ordinary bristles B B being so arranged as to divide the metallic wires, into two or
Price B71

page_text: more independent portions insulating these portions the one from the other, so that
they may form the positive and negative poles of an Electric Current as hereinafter
described.
We prefer to place the portions of wire and bristles in rows, the circular way of
the brush, so as to form alternate rings, or bands upon it, as shown upon the
Drawing where it will be seen that the brush is made with two portions of
wire A A¹, each portion composed of say three or four rows and divided by say
four or five rows of central bristles B; outside of the metallic wires, on each side,
are two or three more rows of bristles, and thus we make a Brush of two circles of
wire A A¹ divided and surrounded by three circles of bristles B, B, B. We may
however otherwise divide the metallic wires and bristles; and we may also in
order to obtain more elasticity mix some bristles in the rows or clusters of metallic
wire.
The body C and handles I I' of the brush we make of insulating material. The
body of the brush C having a pulley wheel D attached to.one side for the purpose
of receiving the band E to revolve the Brush, and on the other side of the said
Brush body C is a commutator consisting of the two metal tubes or cylinders F F¹
fixed centrally one inside the other, with a small space between them, to insulate
one cylinder from the other; these cylinders being placed centrally they revolve
round the axle G. A wire connection H is made from one of these cylinders F to
one portion A of the German Silver wires in the brush, and a similar connection H¹
is made in like manner from the other cylinder F¹ to the other portion A¹ of
German Silver wires.
The body C is made to revolve on the rod or spindle G which is passed through
the centre, having the handle I fixed at one end with the recess K cut in the ferrule
part of the handle for the purpose of receiving the aforesaid metal cylinders F F¹ in
Euch manner that they can revolve freely in the recess, in which are fixed two metal
contact springs L L, the one to press on the inside of one of the cylinders F, and
the other to press on the inside of the other cylinder F¹, forming the commutator
in such manner that the springs L L' will maintain perfect contact during the
revolving of the Brush, and at the same time to allow the Brush to be taken off
the spindle G when required, for the purpose of cleaning the Brush and to be
readily replaced thereon.
In the handle are fitted two small metal tubes M M₁ to receive the contact
pegs N N¹ of a connecting wire cord; a connection is also made from each of these
tubes to each of the contact springs L L in the recess.
Having placed the Brush freely on the spindle G and with the commutator F F¹
against the ferrule of the recess K of the handle I, we fit the handle I¹ loosely on
the other end of the spindle which is passed through the brush, the spindle passing
through this handle and having a screw cut thereon to receive one or two nuts, to
prevent the handle from coming off.
The brush is thus held free to revolve between, the two handles on the spindle..
Now it will be understood that the Brush can be connected Electrically by means
of two connecting wire cords having their pegs N N¹ placed in the small metal
tubes M M at the end of the handle I, the other end of each wire cord being
attached to a medical coil and battery, Galvanic, Static, or such other Electric
apparatus as may be desired; further the two connecting wire cords conducting
both the positive and negative poles of the Electrical apparatus, or battery to the
Brush, can be used as only one pole, while the other pole can be held by the hand
and the Electric current be thus applied to any desired part of the body. We use
any suitable material for the handles and several parts of our Brush.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, We declare that what
We Claim is
1° An Electric Rotary Brush constructed, combined, and arranged to operate
substantially as herein before described and illustrated in the accompanying Sheet
of Drawing.

page_text: 2° In an Electric Rotary Brush, the commutator F F¹ formed of two concentric
pieces in connection with the metallic brushing surface and with a Battery,
substantially as described.
3° In an Electric Rotary Brush the contact plates or springs L L' in combination
with the tubes M M' in the handle I to receive the contact pegs N N', substantially
as described.
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