IMPROVEMENTS IN BATHS
Year: 1844

page_text: HAZARD, of Clifton, near Bristol, Confectioner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Thirtieth day of May, in the seventh year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Robert
Hazard, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Robert Hazard, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Robert Hazard, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BATHS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Robert Hazard, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Hazard, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:-

page_text: My Invention of Improvements in Baths consists,――
First, in the construction of a portable shower bath, the body of which is
similar in its object and use to the well-known nursery or hand bath; and
secondly, in a novel and convenient form of the necessary receiver or
footpan in which the operator stands when using the bath, as will more fully
appear by the accompanying Drawings and explanation, in which the same
letters of reference are used to identify the same parts wherever they occur.
Figure 1 represents the shower bath in use, and which consists of a vessel
A, of any convenient form, pattern, or device, of tin, or other suitable material,
and of any convenient dimensions. This vessel has a perforated bottom and
close top, except at the centre; there is a hole communicating with the passage
or channel of a swing joint, ball and socket joint, or any other description
of a flexible connection a, similar to those used in gas-light fittings, which
joint or connection is fitted to the top of the bath. Unto the joint forming
the centre of motion is fixed a pair of handle rods b, b, one or both of which,
being hollow, form a direct communication for air from the interior of the
bath to the handles, where there is a hole X in any convenient position for
being covered with the thumb, finger, or spring valve.
Figure 2 represents a similar bath, but which is suspended in any way
convenient for invalids or infirm persons, and the air is admitted to or expelled
from the interior through a flexible air pipe f, f, one end of which is fastened
to the bath, and the other terminating with a hole to be stopped or covered
with the thumb, finger, or spring. valve, as described in Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a vertical section of a portable receiver or footpan as it would
appear when open for use. B, B, is the receiver, made of tin plate, or any
other suitable material, in the centre of which I form a raised platform or
vessel D, D, for containing hot water, with a moveable_cover, thereby forming
a feet-warmer, on which the operator stands. In order to enlarge the receiver
so as to catch and collect the falling water, I make use of an inverted funnel-
shaped curtain G, G, either of oilcloth or other suitable material, distended by
means of jointed rods in the following manner :-In the top of the vessel B, B,
is fitted a moveable ring h, h, furnished with joints, to which are connected
any number of rods i, i, i, i, each of which have a joint at K to enable it to
be folded down into the receiver, as shewn by the lines m, l, and n, o, when
the whole apparatus forms the compact body as represented by Figure 4,
convenient for travelling purposes.
Figure 5 is a larger receiver for domestic purposes, which, in addition to
the feet-warmer D, D, has a dipping well E, so that the operator repeats the
shower by dipping the bath into the well as often as he pleases. In con-
sequence of the increased size of this receiver or footpan it will only require

page_text: single jointed rods, covered with the curtain, as described for Figure 8, and
which, when not in use, is folded down within the circle for storing away.
The manner of using the bath will be as follows:-The folding curtain being
distended, the operator dips the body of the bath into water, which, entering
the perforations in the bottom, soon becomes filled, when he closes the air
hole X at the handle, and standing in the receiver lifts the bath over his
head, when, by uncovering the air hole, the air rushes in above the water,
which then descends in a shower, and falls into the receiver B, B, and the
well E in Figure 5. In using the bath with the receiver Figure 5 it is only
necessary to say that the experiment may be repeated at pleasure by lowering
the bath into the well and using it in the same manner.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not
claim as my Invention the constructing of baths in which the water descends
on the admission of air through a small aperture at or near the top; but
what I do claim as my Invention, as secured to me by the said Letters
Patent, is,
-
First, the construction of such baths, the connection between the vessel
containing the water and the handles or points of suspension of that vessel
being a swing or flexible joint, as above described. And,
Secondly, I claim the peculiar construction of the receiver with the folding
curtain, for enlarging the diameter with single or double jointed rods, combined
with the feet-warmer and dipping well, as described in Figures 3, 4, and 5.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Hazard, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
ROBERT (L.8.) HAZARD.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirtieth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1844, the aforesaid Robert Hazard came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, 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.
Enrolled the Thirtieth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-four.