CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON TRUSSES
Year: 1823

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
GAWAN, of Fleet Street, in the City of London, Truss Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by.
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom, bearing.
date at Westminster, the Eleventh day of November, 1823, in the fourth
year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Gawan, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Thomas Gawan, my exors, admors, and assigns,
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON TRUSSES;" in which said Letters"
Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said Thomas Gawan, shall
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, by writing under my hand
and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties
and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine,
and become void, as in and by the same, relation 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
Thomas Gawan, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention of
certain improvements on trusses are herein-after fully described and ascer-
tained, that is to say:
They consist of certain alterations and additions or changes in the form
and construction of the several trusses for the cure or prevention of the dis-
order called hernia or rupture, which trusses are constructed without metal
springs, whether the same be made under the authority of His Majesty's
Royal Letters Patent, granted to Philip Pindin, of Farningham, in the County
of Kent, on or about the Twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord 1819,
or otherwise; but I declare that they apply more particularly to the patent trusses
of the said Philip Pindin than to any others I am acquainted with. For the
form and construction of these said trusses I therefore refer to the description
of the same as contained in the Specification and Drawings of the said Patent
which was inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery on or about the
Eighteenth day of October, 1819, it being my intention in the present instance
to make no further or other reference to such trusses, or to any others now
before the public, than will enable me to describe and elucidate the nature of
my aforesaid improvements, without claiming any right to the matters or things
to which they may be applied or affixed. I accordingly declare, in the first
place, that my improvements in the umbilical or navel and inguinal trusses
aforesaid consist in a more efficient way of keeping the same to its situation
and bearing with greater ease and comfort to the wearer. The pad and body-
belt with its appendages I construct and apply nearly in the same manner as
described in the Drawings, and Specification which was duly inrolled by the
aforesaid Philip Pindin; but instead of the straps, which he describes and
denominates thigh belts, and which are buckled or otherwise secured round the
thigh for the purpose of being connected with leather or other straps, which
pass up and are attached in front to the pad, as represented by the dotted
lines a, a, in Figures 1 and 3 upon the Drawing which is hereunto annexed,
for the object of keeping the pad from rising up out of its place, I prevent the
said pad and body belt from rising upwards by means of an under strap or
straps, which is formed and applied in an improved manner as follows:-The
strap which is intended to be used as an under strap, and which is adapted to
pass between the thighs, is. made broad at the hindermost part, and is forked
or divided into two branches, the extremities of the said branches being con-
nected in any convenient manner with the hind part of the body belt, as seen
at A in the Figs. 2 and 4 upon the annexed Drawing; the said under strap
passes between the thighs and rises in front sufficiently to be buckled or

page_text: buttoned upon the outside of the pad, as. seen at 6 in the Figures. This strap
is rendered as pliable and soft as possible at the part where it passes between
the thighs, for which purpose I sometimes discontinue' (at about the termina-
tion or junction of the divided part) the leather or other material which forms
the said strap, and I attach a number of threads of linen, silk, or other fibrous
material in a secure manner to the end of the said strap something resembling
a skein of of silk or thread; the threads which compose this skein are after-
wards covered or surrounded with flannel, leather, or other suitable material,
so as to form it into a soft pliable belt or cord of a round or oval figure; the
other extremity of the skein of threads is securely fixed to a short strap for
the purpose of buckling or buttoning it upon the pad. By means of these
divided or forked under straps, so prepared or applied, I am enabled to keep
the pad with its appendages from rising out of its place without the use of any
straps or belts, which are buckled round the thighs and which are sometimes
found inconvenient and troublesome to the patient. The manner of applying
and fixing my said improved under straps in cases of umbilical or navel rupture
are shewn by the Figures 1 and 2 upon the Drawing which is hereunto
annexed, and the manner of applying them to cases of inguinal hernia are
represented by the Figs. 3 and 4 upon the same Drawing. In some cases I
find it adviseable to employ another method of keeping the pad and body belt
from rising upwards, which improvement, if desired, may be adopted instead
of the forked or divided under straps herein-before described. This improve-
ment consists in the employment of a kind of casing or stays, made of linen,
flannel, or other suitable material, which is adapted to fit the form of the upper
part of the body of the patient, so as to reach up under the arm-pits; this
casing or stays is intended to be laced, buttoned, or otherwise secured upon
the body, and is furnished with a number of ribs of whalebone or other suitable
clastic material, which ribs are inserted into proper cavities formed by sewing
or otherwise in the materials composing the casing or stays, the said ribs being
placed in such a position as to be capable of sustaining a perpendicular
pressure; the upper parts of this casing or stays have soft paddings attached
to them, which are adapted to bear under the arm-pits; they have also slight
straps, which pass over the shoulders in the manner of shoulder straps. The
lower end of the said casing or stays is secured by straps, laces, or in any other
convenient manner, either to the pad or the body belt; by this improvement
the pad and body belt is kept from rising by the rigidity or stiffness of the ribs
of whalebone, or other elastic materials, as before mentioned, instead of being
kept down by the draught or tension of the forked or divided strap, which is
adapted to pass between the thighs, as herein before described.
In some

page_text: particular cases of umbilical or navel rupture I secure the pad and the body
belt from rising out of its place by the application of a secondary or under
body belt, which is adapted to encompass the body below the largest or most
prominent part of the abdomen, being secured in its place by buckles, buttons,
or lacing; this secondary belt is attached by short straps, either to the pad or
to the ordinary body belt, in such a manner that it will effectually keep the
said pad from rising out of its place. The form and proportions of the pads
and the lengths of the various straps must be adapted to the size of the patient
or to the nature of the complaint, but they will still be found to produce the
effects which I have herein-before described and set forth; the materials of
which the various parts may be made may also be varied according to the
circumstance of the case.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Gawan, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Tenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.
THOMAS (L.s.) GAWAN.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Tenth day of January, in the
year of our Lord 1824, the aforesaid Thomas Gawan came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.