IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS FOR EFFECTING ELECTRO-HYDRO-THERAPEUTIC
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS ¡PATENT to Walter Alfred Barlow, of 6, St. Paul's Churchyard,
in the City of London, Patent Agent. and Engineer, for an Invention of
“IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS FOR EFFECTING ELECTRO-HYDRO-THERAPEUTIC
•
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Alfred Barlow at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th January 1882.
WALTER ALFRED BARLOW of 6 St. Paul's Churchyard in the City of London
Patent Agent and Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS FOR EFFECTING ELECTRO-
HYDRO-THRAPEUTIC TREATMENT OF PATIENTS EFFECTED BY DESEASE." A com-
munication from abroad by Messieurs L. Encausse et Canésie of Paris France.
The system of treating deseases by means of absorption through the skin, of
certain medicinal substances has of late years become more and more employed.
In many cases recourse is had to electricity but in most cases the use of both
modes is indispensible. Meanwhile nobody has yet combined the two treatments
in such a way that all the necessary apparatuses are under hand in the same
chamber which is thus a complete Electro-Hydro-Therapeutic Chamber.
The Apparatus is disposed in a chamber so that the whole treatment by both
the Cutaneous Absorption and by Electricity is effected in a regulated and simul-
taneous or successive manner. And this will be done without exposing the patient
to any change in the temperature which change is always injurious.
The chamber is constructed as follows:- Å steam box is made of wood and
contains two Electrodes and in the cover of said box is an opening for the head of
the patient. A seat and a foot stool are placed inside the box upon a false bottom
pierced with holes. The two Electrodes are in connection with a regulator for the
control of the volume of the current which may be so regulated as to be of the
strength required. Steam arrives under the false bottom through a pipe, the end
[Price 6d1
"

page_text: whereof is furnished with perforations. The condensed steam is carried away by
means of a waste pipe and the steam freed of its moisture is then diffused in the
box. Two air balls are provided so as to allow a certain quantity of air to enter
thus preventing the temperature becoming too hot. Inside the chamber is placed
a ball of vaporization into which steam arrives through a pipe, and this steam
charged with medicinal chemical substances by its passing through a box con-
taining the said medicinal substances is then discharged into the chamber, by
means of a tap. The said ball is provided with an automatic blow-off apparatus
constructed as follows:-Two washers perfectly in contact are placed one upon
the other and a float is fixed to the top washer so as to cause it to turn
whilst the bottom washer is immovable and in connection with the blow off
pipe and there is a hole in it corresponding to the said pipe.
.
The moveable washer has a slot which may take a position just over the
hole of the immoveable one and in this latter case the water of condensation
which is in the ball of vaporization is driven off through the blow off pipe. This
Automatic blow-off Apparatus will thus clear the steam of the moisture carried
by it.
A resting couch which may be heated through a system of pipes situated
under it, is placed in the Chamber; there is also a wardrobe heated by the same
system of pipes. which is also used for the purpose of carrying steam into the
chamber.
A regulator for the temperature of the steam is provided having two springs
with tension screws fixed to two tubes placed on the same straight line and screwed
into a middle piece in which may run horizontally two slides upon which press the
tension screws: Through the expansion of the tubes under the action of the
temperature the spring approach, and also the tension screws which thus act upon
the slides and close the passage of the steam when this latter is too hot.
There is placed in the Chamber an articulated framed arm-chair for the purpose
of treatment by electricity which arm-chair is composed of moveable pieces which
may be placed in any position by means of thumb screws and special pieces are
fixed anywhere upon the said arm-chair for the purpose of fastening the electric
wires thereto.