IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND MACHINERY FOR MAKING ITALIAN PASTE COVERS FOR THE PURPOSE OF ENCLOSING MEDICINAL SUBSTANCES
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Albert Emile Adolphe Detiaque, of Chateau Thierry, in
the Department of the Aisne, and Republic of France, Apothecary, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND MACHINERY FOR
MAKING ITALIAN PASTE COVERS FOR THE PURPOSE OF ENCLOSING MEDICINAL
SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 6th April 1877, and dated the 12th October 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Albert Emile Adolphe Detiaque
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th October 1876.
ALBERT EMILE ADOLPHE DETIAQUE, of Chateau Thierry, in the Department of
the Aisne, and Republic of France. Apothecary. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF
AND MACHINERY FOR MAKING ITALIAN PASTE COVERS FOR THE PURPOSE OF
ENCLOSING MEDICINAL SUBSTANCES."
The original idea of my Invention is not so much in the machine which is its
natural consequence, but in envelopes or covers of Italian paste enclosing any kind
of medicinal substance.
These coverings are composed of two caps or cups, each formed of a sheet of
Italian paste of about 1/2 th of an inch (one millimetre) in thickness. The shape of
these caps or cups may be compared to that of a hat, the brim of which instead of
being round will be cut square. They are joined together by their brims, lips, or
borders, and enclose the medicinal substance in the small chamber closed on all
parts which they form by their junction. These caps or cups are joined together
by their brims, or lips, or borders by means of a pressure which diminishes by one-
half the total thickness of these superposed borders.
The object of these coverings of Italian paste is to facilitate the ingestion of the
medicinal substances in most general use by concealing them in the forin and
appearance of a pottage or soup.

page_text: On the accompanying Sheet of Drawing Figure A represents a front view of one
of my envelopes or covers drawn times the ordinary size; Figure B, section
through same to show its formation, the dots indicating the medicinal substance ;
Figure C, plan view of an envelope of ordinary size; and Figure D, side view
of same.
I will now describe the machine or apparatus by means of which I manufacture
these envelopes, and which is only the corollary of my Invention, reference being
had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawing, upon which Figure 1 represents a
complete apparatus of my Invention; Figure 2, a section through the plate A;
Figure 3, a section through plate B; Figure 4, a section through plate C; and
Figure 5, a section through plate D.
My machine is composed of four metal plates A, B, C, D. The plates A, B, C,
may by means of hinges come down alternately on to the plate D. These four
plates are of equal length and breadth.
Plate D. This plate is composed of three pieces, which are, 1°, a fixed frame
E, F, G, H, to which are attached the hinges of the three other plates; 2°, a
moveable plate which fits exactly into this frame and rests upon a inner ledge or
flange at the lower part of the fixed frame, as is shown in the section of the plate D
at Figure 5; 3°, a moveable frame e, f, g, h, which is placed, as is also shown in
Figure 5, upon the depressed edge of the moveable plate. This frame is about
1/2 th of an inch (4 millimetres) broad, and 3/25th of an inch (3 millimetres) thick.
Each of its sides has the face which is towards the projecting parts a, b, c, d, of the
moveable plate, rounded as shown, Figure 5; it should be about 1/10th of an inch
(22 millimetres) distant from this projecting portion of the moveable plate, which
it surrounds. Its surface should be 22th of an inch (2 millimetres) at least beneath
the surface of this projection portion of the moveable plate, which itself should be
1/6th part of an inch (1/2 millimetre) below a plane passing over the surface of the
fixed frame. The moveable plate, which is at least 4th of an inch (20 millimetres)
thick, has slits or slots of 1/2 th of an inch (one millimetre) broad, and 2/th of an
inch (10 millimetres) deep, which traverse it in both directions, one lot going from
one side to the opposite side, cutting at a right angle the others which go from
one of the other two sides to the other. These slots divide the projecting part
a, b, c, d, of the moveable plate into a certain number of prisms with square base.
In the bottom of each of these prisms is hollow a small hemispherical excavation of
about 32th of an inch (3 millimetres) in diameter. In this little excavation or
cavity there may therefore be put the half of a sphere of the 3/28 th of an inch
(3 millimetres) in diameter. As the base of each prism should have 4/25th of an inch
(4 millimetres) of side, there should therefore be between the excavation hollowed
out of it and the slot of 12th of an inch (1 millimetre) a plane portion of 1/50th of
an inch (/, millimetre) at the narrowest spot, see Figure 6, which gives the base of
a prism on an enlarged scale, the scale being only 12th of an inch in the machine.
Each slit or slot has a depth of about 2/th of an inch (10 millimetres), widens out
and forms a channel of about 2/25th of an inch (2 millimetres) in diameter.
Plate B. This plate is at least 1/6th of an inch (5 millimetres) thick, and presents
as many projections like nipples or knobs as there are cavities on the surface of the
moveable plate. When the plate B is brought down on the plate D by means of
the hinges each knob must lodge in one of the cavities of this plate. Each knob
has two parts, as shown in enlarged view, Figure 7, the one hemispherical, A, the
other cylindrical, B. The hemispherical part is the half of a sphere of 3/25th of an
inch (2 millimetres) in diameter; the cylindrical portion, which has a depth of only
1/6th of an inch (/2 a millimetre), has for base a circle also of th of an inch in
diameter. I need scarcely observe that these two portions of nipple or knob which
I have considered apart, the one after the other, actually form but one piece together
and with the plate. The result is therefore that when the plate B is superposed on
the plate D, the fixed frame of this latter passing 10th of an inch (1/2 millimetre)
beyond the surface of the moveable plate, this frame stops the plate B at 1/50th of an

page_text: inch distant from the moveable plate. Consequently all the points of the surface of
the plate B are 1/6 th of an inch apart from the moveable plate.
Plate A. This plate is about 10th of an inch ('/, millimetre) thick, and pierced
with as many holes as there are cavities in the plate D. Each hole should be
round and have a diameter of about 2/2 th of an inch (2 millimetres). As with the
knobs on plate B each hole corresponds with a cavity in plate D, with which it
coincides when the plate A is brought down on the plate D. The plate A when
brought down on the plate D is separated therefrom by a space of 1/50th of an inch,
because of the fixed frame of the plate D upon which it rests by its edges.
Plate C. This plate, at least 2/th of an inch (10 millimetres) thick, is furrowed
at 1th of an inch (5 millimetres) at the least from its edges (in every case at a
distance from its edges equal to the breadth of the fixed frame of the plate D) with
a recess or furrow about 1/2 th of an inch (6 millimetres) broad, by 1/6th of an inch
(5 millimetres) deep. In this furrow is placed a moveable frame e¹, f, g, h¹, having
the same dimensions as that of the plate D, from which it differs only by two holes
pierced in each of its sides c¹, h¹, and f¹, h¹, which correspond with two others
passing through the border E', F, G, H, of the plate, and into which are put the
pins y, y, intended to fix the moveable frame. The portion a, b, c, d, of this plate,
portion surrounded by this moveable frame, is pierced through and through in its
entire thickness with as many holes as there are cavities in the surface of the
plate D. Each of these holes should be round, have a diameter of 3/25th of an inch
(3 millimetres), and correspond with one of these cavities, with which it coincides
when the plate C is brought down on the plat D. Consequently each row of holes
is separated from the next by a space of 2/25th of an inch (2 millimetres). In the
middle of this space and equally distant from the two rows of holes runs a ridge or
blade of th of an inch (2 millimetres) in depth, and of such a thickness that it
may when the plate C is superposed upon the plate D enter exactly into the corre
sponding slit of the plate D. A similar blade runs along the border of this portion
a, b, c, d, of the plate C, and when this plate is brought down on the plate D it
comes outside the portion a, b, c, d, of this latter. When the plate C is brought
down on the plate D there also occurs with this plate C that which takes place with
the two others A and B, that is to say, that the surface of the portion a¹, b², c¹, d¹,
the ridges being abstracted, is arrested by the fixed frame of the plate D at 10th of
an inch (/, millimetre) from the portion a, b, c, d, of the moveable plate, into the
slits or slots of which the ridges or blades above mentioned therefore enter to a
depth of 30th of an inch (11/, millimetres). The plate C when brought down upon
the plate D rests upon the fixed frame E, F, G, H, of this plate by its border
E, F, G, H, the breadth of which is equal to that of the fixed frame. To this
plate C is fitted a case i, j, k, l, of copper or other suitable material. The bottom
of this case, the distance of which from the plate is unimportant and may con-
sequently vary, is pierced with two openings. To one of them, the opening u, u¹,
is fixed a pump barrel in which is a piston, which is moved up and down in the
pump barrel by means of a screw V, the end of which is enlarged into a disc or
ball and set in an inner chamber of the piston, in which it turns. By turning the
screw from right to left the piston will be moved from u towards (see Figure 4),
and vice versa; by turning from left to right the piston will be driven from ?
towards u. Upon the second opening, situated in the middle of the bottom of the
case, is fixed a tube of copper or other suitable material, closed hermetically by a
disc p, p, of the same metal, which screws on to the tube and is pierced with a
small opening o which is stopped by means of a slightly conical copper rod or plug.
This tube is traversed by a copper rod carrying a reel, upon which winds a cord or
chain;
the end is attached to a metal plate m, m³, upon which are fixed as many
metal rods or stems as there are holes in the plate C. Each of these rods is entered
partly into the corresponding hole of the plate C. Each rod is cylindrical, having
à diameter of 25th of an inch (2 millimetres), and such a height that when the
plate m, n, which carries it is applied upon the bottom k, j, of the case, its upper

page_text: This
end, which is a plane, is 1/6th of an inch (5 millimetres) distant from the surface of
the plate C, the ridges being abstracted, that is to say, at 1/6th of an inch from the
orifice of the hole in which the rod is engaged. The part of the plate m, m¹, situated
above the orifice of the pump barrel or chamber is pierced with one or more holes
with the object of placing it in communication with the interior of the case.
plate m, m, is also pierced with one or several holes in that part situated above the
orifice of the copper tube fixed on the middle opening in the bottom of the case.
The pump barrel or chamber, the copper tube fixed on the middle opening in the
bottom of the case, and the reel enclosed in this tube are of no fixed dimensions.
These dimensions are arbitrary and suitable to the size of the machines, which may
have a greater or lesser number of moulds for making my paste envelopes.
Accessary Instrument.-This instrument is a rectangular iron frame. Between
the short sides of this rectangle are stretched steel blades of 10th of an inch thick
by 1/6th of an inch broad. These steel blades should be as numerous as the slits or
slots in the moveable plate of the machine, and 9th of an inch (4 millimetres)
apart. In saying that the blades of the frame should be as numerous as the slits or
slots in the moveable plate of the machine I mean the slots running parallelly from
one edge of the moveable plate to the opposite one. This rectangular frame should
be sufficiently large to permit the simultaneous penetration of the steel blades into
the slots of the moveable plate and to the bottom of these slots, and then give them
a come-and-go motion.
1°. Starch is sprinkled upon the four plates.
2°. A layer of paste (the composition being the same as that of the Italian or
Genoese paste of commerce) of 10th of an inch thick (1/2 millimetre) is spread on
the moveable plate and is fixed by the aid of the frame e, f, g, h.
3°. The plate B is brought on the plate D, in each cavity of which the layer of
paste moulds.
4°. The plate B is removed, the plate A brought over, and the medicinal sub-
stance, either in a pulverised state or of the consistency of a liquid paste, is spread
over it with a stick or with a roller. This being done the plate A is removed.
5°. A sheet of paste of 1/60th of an inch (/, millimetre) thick will have previously
been spread on the plate C. This sheet of paste is fixed by the frame e¹, f, g, h,
then covered with a slight layer of albumen; then by the aid of the piston the
interior pressure of the copper case is lessened. By the effect of the atmospheric
pressure the sheet of paste becomes slightly depressed beneath each of the holes
with which this plate is pierced. The plate C may then be brought over upon the
plate D without fear of the sheet of paste, now held in adhesion by atmospheric
pressure, becoming detached. Pressure is then put upon the plate C, and the copper
rod which stops the hole o of the obturatory disc of the copper tube placed in the
middle of the bottom of the case i, j, k, l, is removed. The air entering by this
hole re-establishes the equilibrium of pressure between the interior of the case and
the exterior.
The operation is now complete,, the plate C is removed, and the paste envelopes
or covers filled with the medicinal substance used appear in the form of small grains,
as shown, Figures C, D.
If a few remain sticking to the plate C the moveable plate of the machine is
removed and the plate C brought down upon its fixed frame E, F, G, H. Then by
turning in the proper direction the reel upon which is wound the cord or chain
keeping the plate m, m¹, against the bottom of the case i, j, k, l, this plate m, m¹, is
lowered, and the metal rods which it carries penetrating into the holes of the plate C
detach and push out the adhering grains.
The accessary instrument, that is to say, the rectangular iron frame, serves for
cleaning the slits or slots of the moveable plate which after a certain number of

page_text: operations becomes choked with paste. For this purpose the blades of this frame
are made to penetrate into the slits of the moveable plate withdrawn from its fixed
frame and a to-and-fro motion given to it.
If the paste issues with difficulty the moveable plate is carried to the stove, and
when the paste filling its slits or slots is dried it is easily broken by the blades of
the frame.