IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING INFANTS AND INVALIDS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benoit Lang, of Skinner Street, Snow. Hill, in the
City of London, India-rubber Manufacturer, for the Invention of Iм-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benoit Lang at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd February
1861.
I, BENOIT LANG, of Skinner Street, Snow Hill, in the City of London,
India-rubber Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING INFANTS AND INVALIDS," to
be as follows:-
My improvements relate, first, to feeding apparatus in which tubes are
used which descend into the bottle or vessel containing the milk or fluid which
the child draws through the tube; I prefer the tube to be of india-rubber, but
it may be of other material.
My improvement consists in the introduction of a valve in this tube, which
prevents the return of the fluid down the tube when the child discontinues to
suck and which at same time permits the free passage of the fluid when the
child sucks, thus the tube always keeps full and the child is prevented drawing
air therefrom.
The second improvement consists in making the india-rubber nipples applied
to feeding bottles of an elbow form (the angle of the bend may be varied),
instead of straight as usual, whereby the bottle can be kept in a vertical posi-
tion, or nearly so, while the nipple is horizontal or in other convenient position
for the child to suck. I conduct the tube before mentioned up in the

page_text: interior of this nipple, and unite it close to the orifice of the nipple; I some-
times further make a small air hole in the elbow part of nipple (when fur-
nished with internal suction tube) for the admission of air at the neck of the
bottle.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Benoit Lang in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd August
1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENOIT
LANG, of Skinner Street, Snow Hill, in the City of London, India-rubber
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of Febuary, in the year of our
.Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Benoit Lang, Her special licence that I, the said Benoit Lang, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I the said Benoit
Lang, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR FEEDING
INFANTS AND FOR INVALIDS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Benoit Lang, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Benoit Lang, do hereby declare the nature
of said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement, relates
to apparatuses for feeding infants, which improved apparatus may be also used
for other like purposes.
The apparatuses hitherto in use consists of a mouth-piece of some flexible or
other material attached to a bottle or some other vessel, or first attached to a
tube, which tube is inserted in the milk or other nutritive liquid, the liquid is
then drawn into the mouth of the infant by suction or exhaustion; but when

page_text: the suction or exhaustion by the mouth ceases, the milk or other liquid in the
tube and teat runs back into the bottle, so that when the teat is again applied
to the mouth, the tube is either wholly or partially filled with air, and this air
has to be exhausted by the infant before the liquid will ascend or flow into
the mouth, the liquid will even descend while the infant respires in the act of
feeding, and consequently the operation of continually exhausting the air and
sucking up the liquid is one of great fatigue to the infant, and induces hernea
and various other complaints.
To remedy this evil I prepose to place in the tube to which the teat is attached
a valve, so that when the teat and tube are once charged or filled, the milk or
other liquid is retained therein; this operation may be performed in the first
instance by the nurse, if required, and then the tube and teat being thus charged
or filled from the bottle or other vessel containing the liquid, and into which
the teat tube is inserted, and applied to the mouth of the infant, the infant
can instantaneously draw off the milk, &c., through and from the tube and
bottle or other vessel, and feed itself without the least fatigue; the liquid
will flow instantaneously and continuously, and being retained by the valve will
not and cannot run back down the tube into the bottle or vessel either while
the infant respires or ceases to suck; with this improved apparatus the infant
is thus not only enabled to feed without the fatiguing operation before
described, and consequent with the common feeding bottles, tubes and appara-
tuses, but is enabled to do so with the same ease and facility.
The valve may be of the same or any suitable form or construction as may
be found convenient, a hollow or truncated cone, or a lip or flap valve, elastic
or non-elastic, or rising or fulling plug, wedge, or ball, elastic or non-elastic, and
may be placed either at the base of the tube where it is inserted into the
liquid, in any part of the tube itself, or in the neck or other part of the teat
or mouth-piece, and one or more of the said valves may be used if required,
and of similar or dissimilar form or forms.
The valve operates by retaining the liquid in the tube below as well as above it.
I propose to use any animal, vegetable, or mineral substance or compound,
natural or artificial substance, which may be adapted to the formation of these
apparatus.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benoit Lang, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this 22nd day of August, A.D. 1861.
BENOIT LANG.
(L.S.