IMPROVEMENTS UPON THE INSTRUMENT CALLED THE SPRAY PRODUCER.
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jaines Dewar, Doctor of Medicine, residing in
Kirkcaldy, in the County of Fyfe, North Britain, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS UPON THE INSTRUMENT CALLED THE SPRAY PRODUCER.'
$
"
Sealed the 24th September 1867, and dated the 27th April 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Dewar at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th
April 1867.
I, JAMES DEWAR, Doctor of Medicine, residing in Kirkcaldy, in the County
of Fyfe, North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS UPON THE INSTRUMENT CALLED THE SPRAY PRODUCER," " to be
as follows:-
According to my Invention the "spray producer" is to be made or composed
of the substance called "vulcanite," whereby sulphurous acids and other
corrosive liquids can be used for the purposes of cure by inhalation and
otherwise without injury to the instrument.
My Invention does not consist in the Invention of the instrument called the
spray producer," but in the employment of "vulcanite," as the material from
which the instrument is to be manufactured. The substances at present
employed for that purpose are either very expensive and brittle or of a cor-
rodible nature, and unsuitable for the application of sulphurous acids and
other corrosive liquids to the purposes of cure by inhalation and otherwise.

page_text: My Invention renders the instrument both more durable in its nature and
not liable to injury by trifling accidents. The instrument may be formed
entirely of "vulcanite," which I prefer as economical, but it may be partly
formed of other substances, as, for example, the points may be formed of some
metal such as silver, electro-gilt, gold, or platinum.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Dewar in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
25th October 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
DEWAR, Doctor of Medicine, residing in Kirkcaldy, in the County of Fife,
North Britain, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Dewar, Her special licence that I, the said James Dewar,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Dewar, 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 UPON
THE INSTRUMENT CALLED THE SPRAY PRODUCER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said James Dewar, 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 James Dewar, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, viz :-
The nature of my Invention is the employment of the well-known substance
produced by a combination of india-rubber and sulphur, which is called and
generally known as vulcanite, in the construction of the instrument commonly

page_text: known as the spray producer. The manner in which vulcanite is produced is
well known.
For the sake of more clearly defining my Invention I shall now describe
the instrument called the spray producer as at present usually constructed,
and of which a Drawing is hereto attached. The numbers herein-after
mentioned have reference to and correspond with those marked on that
Drawing.
The instrument generally consists of an air vessel or chamber No. 1
composed of some elastic material, and capable of being discharged of the air
contained in it by pressure, and of being refilled by its own elastic action.
This chamber has an orifice for the admission of air in the shape of a short
pipe, and it as well as the vessel or chamber No. 3, herein-after described, is
fitted with a valve to prevent the backward expulsion of the air. No. 2 is a
flexible tube conducting the air discharged from the chamber last described
into a second elastic vessel or chamber No. 3, which is fitted with a valve to
prevent the backward escape of the air, and is covered with a network of silk
or cotton to restrain expansion, and which forms a reservoir by which a.
continuous current of air may be kept up through the flexible tube No. 4,
which conducts the air discharged from the aforesaid reservoir to a straight
tube No. 5, terminating in a tapered point with a small orifice No. 6. No. 7
is a wide mouthed vessel or bottle which has a lid or stopper with holes in it,
through which pass the tubes 8 and 10, herein-after described. The liquid
from which the spray is intended to be produced is placed in this vessel or
bottle. No. 8 is a bent tube terminating in a point No. 9 curved upwards,
and which point has a very small orifice. The other end of this tube passes
through the lid or stopper into the vessel No. 7, and is submerged in the
liquid therein contained, from which the spray is to be produced. No. 10 is
another bent tube, the upper half of one end of which being filed or cut off
forms a trough or drain by which the surplus liquid is caught and run back
into the vessel or bottle, and by which air is also admitted into the vessel or
bottle. The other end of this tube is inserted into a hole in the lid or stopper
of the vessel or bottle. No. 11, 11, are bands holding the tubes 5, 8, & 10
in the position represented in the Drawing. No. 12 is merely a wooden box
for holding the instrument. The air being discharged by pressure from the
air chamber No. 1 passes through the tube No. 2 into the chamber No. 3,
from which it again passes through the tube No. 4 into the tube No. 5, from
the point of which No. 6 it issues with some force, and playing exactly over
the upturned orifice of the point No. 9 of the tube No. 8 exhausts the air in
that tube. The liquid contained in the vessel No. 7 rising into the tube to fill

page_text: the vacuum thus produced is caught by the current of air issuing as aforesaid
from the point No. 6, and is broken up into a cloud of spray. The tube
No: 10 catches any drops which may fall from the point No. 9 and conveys
them back into the vessel or bottle No. 7.
The above is a description of the usual arrangement of the several parts of
the instrument, though a différent arrangement may be made.
The instrument is employed for the production of sprays from liquids of
various descriptions, but it is more particularly useful in the production for
medical purposes by inhalation or otherwise of sprays from liquids, some of
which are of a corrodent nature, such as sulphurous acid. The instrument
is generally constructed partly of india-rubber and partly of metal or glass.
When glass is employed the instrument is very liable to be broken; when metal
is employed the instrument is either costly or liable to be injured by corrosion.
Vulcanite is neither brittle nor costly, nor corrodible by acids usually employed
for medical purposes, and it therefore forms a very advantageous material for
the construction of those portions of the instrument with which the liquid
comes in contact, instead of glass or metal or other substances heretofore
usually employed.
The manner in which my Invention is to be performed is as follows:-I
construct the instrument with its usual mechanical parts, which are already
well known, but I use vulcanite for the construction of those portions of the
instrument with which the liquid employed for the production of spray comes
in contact, namely, the vessel or bottle in which the liquid from which the
spray is to be produced (No. 7 in the Drawing) is contained, together with its
lid or stopper, the tube No. 8 by which the liquid rises from the vessel, the
tube No. 10 by which the waste liquor is conducted back to the vessel, and
the tube No. 5 which conducts the air from the flexible tube No. 4 to the
point No. 6 where the air is discharged, and the bands No. 11, 11, uniting
the three tubes Nos. 8, 10, & 5.
For the sake of greater economy I also construct the point No. 6 from
which the air is discharged and the point No. 9 from which the liquid issues
of vulcanite, but these may be advantageously constructed of silver, electro-
gilt, gold, or platinum, or any other metal or substance not liable to corrosion
by the liquids intended to be used in the instrument. I find that the air
chambers and tubes conducting the air, but with which the liquid does not
come in contact, may conveniently be constructed of the materials heretofore
employed, which are generally india-rubber and silk or cotton net.
of
I do not claim the Invention of the instrument called the spray producer, nor
any of its mechanism, nor the Invention of the substance called vulcanite;

page_text: what I claim as my Invention is, the employment of the substance called
vulcanite as the material out of which are to be constructed the parts of
the instrument with which the liquid used for the production of spray comes
in contact.
It is not essential to my Invention that all the parts herein-before described
as to be constructed of vulcanite should be formed of that material, but I
find it most useful and economical to employ that material for the construction
of the whole of them.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Dewar, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
JAMES DEWAR. (L.S.)