A NEW AND IMPROVED ELECTRO-VOLTAIC POCKET BATTERY
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Washington Agnew at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th
December 1861. Partly a communication from abroad by Henry
Palmer, of the City of London, in West Canada.
I, JOHN WASHINGTON AGNEW, of the City of London, in West Canada, but
at present of Windsor Chambers, Great St. Helen's, in the City of London,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, for. "A NEW
AND IMPROVED ELECTRO-VOLTAIC POCKET BATTERY," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to produce an electro-voltaic battery 'so
simple in its construction, easy in its use, and capable of producing a. great
quantity of electro-voltaic fluid, combined with weak tension and great
chemical action, having a mild continuous polar current sufficient to overcome
the resistance of the human body without inordinately shaking or convulsing
the nervous system; and highly applicable for surgical and therapeutical pur-
poses. It is constructed as follows:-A series of any number of hollow spiral
tubes are formed; composed of zinc and platinized silver ribbons or flattened
wires, or any other of the heterogeneous metals, separated from each other
by crotchet cord or other absorbent material calculated to retain moisture, so
as to prevent contact between the two metals, and these ribbons or flattened
wires and the crotchet cord are regularly and methodically twisted to the
right and to the left in alternate tubes, and the tubes are placed horizontally
parallel to one another, at a sufficient distance to prevent contact except at
their extreme ends, where the metallic ribbons separate and diverge at right

page_text: and left angles by the heterogeneous metal of the one crossing that of the
other, and are efficiently soldered thereon. These series of tubes are held together
on both sides by a framework composed of narrow slats of glass or other
similar material, coated with dissolved sealing wax, and adhering to narrow
strips of gutta percha or other non-conducting material cemented to the series
of tubes. The great advantage of this construction of battery is that the tubes
being hollow and open from end to end, an immense quantity of electricity is
evolved by means of the atmospheric action, and the action of the acids or
other exciting fluids upon their interior as well as exterior surfaces.
Twenty-one or more tubes so arranged form a wing, and two or more wings
of the above hollow spiral tubes or elements being hinged together so as not
to break contact on galvanic principles form a battery, and one end of the
zine bon or flattened wire forms the positive pole, and the opposite end of
the platinized silver ribbon or flattened wire forms the negative pole..
When the wings are folded together, the battery is most conveniently com-
pact and portable, constructed upon electro-galvanic principles, and capable
of conveying a continuous mild streaming current of electricity to any part of
the human body, and admirably adapted for application in medical and
surgical diseases where great quantity, low tension, and great chemical
decomposition is required, and this can also be cheaply and conveniently
.directed to the arts and sciences.
By adding any additional number of wings, greater power and intensity
can be obtained as may be desirable for passing over and through difficult
conductors, and thereby become highly serviceable in surgical cauterization,
general thereapeutics, and telegraphic and other purposes.