AN IMPROVED BATH
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
HICKS, of Conduit Street, in the County of Middlesex, Surgeon, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of March, in the sixth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Robert Hicks, His special licence that I, the said Robert Hicks, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert
Hicks, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the, Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also within all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention
of "AN IMPROVED BATH;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Robert Hicks, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seals, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and
to cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six months next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Hicks, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained
by the Drawing in the margin hereof, and the description which follows, that
is to say:-
A, B, is an open vessel of the size and in the form of the common slipper,
or the open bath, for a full grown person, moveable on castors. C, D, E, F, is
a flat tube about three inches deep, and extending over the surface of the
base of the bath to within about an inch and a half of the sides, and has an
opening at C, D. Six or more small wells or cups are sunk or let through
the upper part of the tube nearly to the bottom of the same, of about two
inches diameter. These cups are introduced with the view of carrying off
more quickly the caloric, as by their introduction into the tube the conducting
medin become increased. E, F, G, is a flue attached to the tube C, D, E, F,
and passes through a corresponding one that is affixed to the chimney
board H, I, which is fitted closely into the opening of the fireplace in the
room at the opening of the tube C, D, E, F. At C, D, there is a chamber
extending the breadth of the tube, and five or six inches wide, and about
one inch deep, capable of containing two quarts of fluid, which. varies accord-
ing to the size of the bath. K is a vessel that will hold two quarts of fluid,
which varies according to the size of the chamber,, but is never made to con-
tain more fluid than the chamber fastened to the side of the bath, from which
the fluid can pass through a pipe L into the chamber at C, D. The materials
of which I make my baths are: the exterior, of tin, iron, or copper, and some-
times of wood; the tube C, D, E, F, of copper; and the flue E, F, G, of tin,
iron, or copper. Above the flat tube C, D, E, F, is placed a perforated piece
of wood, forming a false bottom. I put sixty gallons of cold water into this
bath for a full grown person, and three pints of spirits of turpentine into the
vessel K; I then let some of the turpentine pass into the chamber at C, D,
and set fire to it; whilst it is burning the turpentine should gradually flow from
the vessel K into the chamber at C, D. In the space of fifteen minutes the
water can be heated to the temperature of ninety-eight degrees Fahr. Before
the open part of the tube C, D, E, F, at C, D, may be hung on a blower. I
employ different fluid combustibles, but give the preference to spirits of turpen-
tipe and carburetted hydrogen gas. When I employ the latter I use it from
Gordon's lamp. with an extended burner passing into the chamber at C, D, of
the tube C, D, E, F. Such is the construction of the bath for common pur-
poses; but when a medicated fluid is to be used, the exterior of the bath must
be constructed of wood, and then instead of the false wooden bottom there

page_text: must be a permanent one with a few perforations only, so that they may
readily be closed with plugs water-tight, in order that the fluid surrounding the
copper tube underneath this wooden bottom may be drawn off, otherwise it
might act on the copper. I place a tap at the bottom to draw off that part of
the medicated fluid, which medicated fluid may be immediately returned into
the bath, and thus the action of the medicated fluid only goes on whilst the
bath is heating, and consequently the same fluid may be employed several
times.
I do not claim the sole use of burning spirits of turpentine or carburretted
hydrogen gas to heat water, nor any particular parts of the bath, but
I claim as my Invention the combination above described as adapted to
heating water in baths by means of burning spirits of turpentine or carburetted
hydrogen gas in chambers in baths, in tubes passing through or under them.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Hicks, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.
ROBERT HICKS (L.B.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-second day of
September, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Robert Hicks came
O before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
5
Inrolled the same Twenty-second day of September, in the year above
written.