Improvements in Electric Hair-brushes.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Dec., 1899-Accepted, 3rd Feb., 1900
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Electric Hair-brushes.
I, KARL ROBERT SCHMUTZ, Trading as K. Robert, of 16, Great Russell Street,
Bloomsbury, London, W.C., Hairdresser, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to improvements in electric hair-brushes, and has for
its object to provide a brush of this description, which whilst being employed to
brush a person's hair, will convey to such user a steady and continuous current
of electricity, in such a manner as to be highly beneficial in the case of nervous
disorders and the like.
By the peculiar arrangement of the bristles of the brush, the danger of the
current being intermittent and of varying strengths, (such as exists in the electric
brushes at present in use), is entirely eliminated.
In order that this my said invention may be the more readily understood and
carried into practical effect, reference is hereby made to the accompanying sheet
of illustrative drawings, wherein :-
:-
Fig. 1, is a plan view from the underside, of an electric brush made in accordance
with my invention.
Fig. 2, being a perspective view thereof looking from the upper side, while
Fig. 3, is a side elevational view.
Referring to the drawings, wherein like letters of reference indicate correspond-
ing parts throughout the several figures, a represents the stock of the brush into
which the bristles are fixed.
The arrangement of the said bristles, which constitute an essential part of
my invention, is as follows:-
I arrange one or more rows of wire bristles b (connected to one pole of the
electric battery) around the stock a nearest to the outer edge of same, and inter-
pose between such row or rows b and a number of central rows of wire bristles c,
(connected to the other pole of the battery) one or more rows d of ordinary hog's
bristles or other suitable animal or vegetable bristles. By this means, the two
sets of wire bristles which convey the electric current to the user's head, are
perfectly insulated, and the risk of the electric current being short circuited
through the two sets of bristles, connected respectively with the positive and
negative poles of the battery, is entirely eliminated.
If desirable, I may provide an outer row of ordinary animal or vegetable non-
conducting bristles, between the rows band the edge of the stock a, in order to
prevent the permanent bending or displacement of the outer row of the wire
bristles.
The electric current may be conveyed to the wire bristles by means of the in-
sulated wires e e¹, connected in the usual manner to the copper binding wires f
which hold the wire bristles in the brush, such insulated wires being in contact
with the poles of a suitable electric battery.
If desirable I may so arrange the insulated wires as to lead from the battery and
be removably connected, by means of binding-screws or their equivalent with two

page_text: permanent short wires located in the handle of the brush and communicating
with the copper binding wires f.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said in-
vention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
The improvements in electric hair-brushes, consisting essentially in arranging
the rows of wire conducting bristles b and c, in the stock of a brush, with a row
of non-conducting animal or vegetable bristles & between said rows of conducting
bristles so as to perfectly insulate the conducting bristles connected with the
positive pole of the electric battery, from contact with the bristles connected with
the negative pole of said battery, in order to pervent the electric current flowing
through the said bristles being short-circuited, substantially as described and as
illustrated by the drawings.
Dated this 15th day of December 1899
HUGHES & YOUNG,
55 & 56, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Agents for Applicant.