IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR BRUSHING THE HAIR
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Langford Oliver at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
November 1864.
I, CHARLES LANGFORD OLIVER, of Child-Okeford, near Blandford, in the
County of Dorset,. do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR BRUSHING THE HAIR," to be as follows:-
The objects of this Invention are, firstly, to dispense with the use of shafting
and elastic driving bands for actuating rotary brushes, so that the machine is
portable and self-contained.
And, secondly, to brush ladies' hair by mechanical means without the aid.
of rotary or revolving brushes.
In carrying out the first part of my Invention, I construct a machine as
follows: An upright rod or standard (by preference tubular) provided with
a suitable foot, supports near its lower end, a fly wheel or pulley with a
grooved rim; and rotary motion is communicated to this pulley by means of
a treadle worked by the foot of the operator. Near the upper end of this
standard is binged a lever, which projects horizontally, or nearly so, over the
head of the person to be operated on, and at the outer end of this lever is a
pair of grooved pulleys, from one of which the rotary brush is suspended by a
short endless driving cord or gut. Motion is communicated to the other
pulley by means of a longer driving cord or gut, which passes round the
grooved fly wheel and over two pulleys mounted on the fulcrum of the lever,
and thence around the pulley on the outer end of the lever. The outer end
of the lever is supported by a spiral or other spring, one end of which is

page_text: fixed to a rigid bar projecting from the top of the standard above the lever,
so that as the rotary brush is held in the ordinary manner, and caused to
revolve by the action of the foot upon the treadle, it can also be raised or
lowered as may be required. Another method of providing for the rising and
falling of the brush is to dispense with the lever, and to substitute a rigid
bar (either hollow or solid), and to mount thereon a pair of pulleys capable
of sliding to and fro, but always drawn towards the outer end thereof by a
spiral or other spring. In this instance one rigid driving band only is used,
which passes from the fly wheel over carrier pulleys, and thence over the
sliding pulleys, and downwards to the brush. The action of the spring upon
the sliding pulleys has always a tendency to raise the brush, but allows of the
brush being drawn downwards by the hand of the operator when required
without stretching the driving band.
In carrying out the second part of the Invention, instead of having a
rotary brush (which cannot be used with long hair), I propose to use two
rollers.mounted upon parallel axes at a suitable distance apart, and having a
broad endless web (elastic or not) passing round them; upon this web at
suitable intervals brushes are to be mounted transversely. One of these
rollers is to be driven by any convenient means, and the other is to be used
precisely in the same manner as a rotary brush, the effect being that the hair
instead of being wound round the brush, as it would be by a rotary brush, is'
carried straight out by the brushes on the endless travelling web, and the
longest hair can thus be brushed with safety. The ends of the hand roller
are furnished with broad dished flanges, to prevent the possibility of the hair
becoming entangled with the axle.