CERTAIN IMPROVE MENTS IN FLEXIBLE SYRINGES, TUBES, BOTTLES, HOSE, AND OTHER LIKE VEHICLES AND VESSELS
Year: 1845

page_text: BEWLEY, of Dublin, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourth day of September, in the ninth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Henry Bewley, my exors, adñors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Henry Bewley, my exors,
admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Bewley, my exors,
admors, and 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 for "CERTAIN IMPROVE
MENTS IN FLEXIBLE SYRINGES, TUBES, BOTTLES, HOSE, AND OTHER LIKE VEHICLES
AND VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the
said Henry Bewley, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Bewley, hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is performed, are particularly described in and by the
present Specification thereof :-
I employ as the principal element in my said improvements the substance
lately first introduced into this country from the East Indies, called gutta
percha, and in one or other of the following states:-I employ it either in its
natural liquid state, or in an artificial state of solution, or in a plastic state, or
in a sheet state, or in a granular state, or in a state of combination with other
substances, one, two, or more; and I either procure it in these states ready
for use, or I reduce it to the five states last before mentioned, by the means
directed to be used for the purpose, in the Specification of Letters Patent for
England, granted to Richard Archibald Brooman, of date the Eleventh March,
One thousand eight hundred and forty-five, and in the Specification of certain
other Letters Patent for England, granted to the said Richard Archibald
Brooman, of date the Twenty-seventh March, One thousand eight hundred
and forty-five; with respect to which means themselves I make no claim.
And, firstly, I manufacture the said flexible syringes, tubes, hose, and other
like vehicles and vessels, wholly of gutta percha in manner following:-I
either take the gutta percha in a plastic state, and press it into or upon and
over moulds of the shape or figure of the vehicle or vessel desired to be pro-
duced, or I apply it in a liquid state to the exterior surface of suitable moulds,
adding one coat after another till the requisite thickness has been obtained,
and allowing each coat to dry before another is added; aud in this case I make
the moulds of plaster or clay, or some other material that will admit of its
being broken up after the cast has been obtained; or I pour the gutta
percha in a liquid state into suitable moulds, and leave it to solidify; or
I fill suitable moulds with the substance in a granular state, and subject
these moulds to a heat sufficient to liquify the gutta percha, which on
subsequent cooling will be found to retain the exact shape or figure of
the moulds; or 1 cut sheet gutta percha of a suitable thickness into strips
or pieces of such given forms, that when combined together vertically or hori-
zontally, or otherwise, they will form the required vehicle or vessel, and
join or cement these strips or pieces together, either by overlapping and
cementing, or by cementing them together edge to edge, either by heating the
edges, or by coating them with a solution of gutta percha or of caoutchouc, or
bycompressing them strongly together; or when making tubes, hose, and such
like articles, I force gutta percha in a plastic state through an apparatus such

page_text: as shewn in section in the Drawing hereunto aunexed, where A represents a
cylinder containing the gutta percha; B, a piston; C, a die box kept hot by
steam, consisting of a disc c¹, having a number of holes through which the
gutta percha is forced by the piston into a cup c², whence it passes out round
a core D, and descends of the desired tubular form into a receiver or of cold
water E beneath; or I make tubes and bose by rolling one long strip of sheet
gutta percha round a mandril in a spiral or other direction, and cementing it
together at the edges, as aforesaid, either by the application of heat or of a
solution of gutta percha or caoutchouc, or by passing the mandril with the roll
of gutta percha wound upon it through grooved rollers, or by immersing the
mandril with the gutta percha wound upon it, as aforesaid, in hot water, or
subjecting it to the action of hot air for a sufficient time. Should it be desired
to give a polished or figured surface to anyvessel, which has been produced of
a plain or dull exterior, by any of the said methods, I introduce the vessel into
a metal mould, nade smooth or figured on the inside, as may be required, and
force hot water or air into the interior of the vessel, so as to press it out
against the inner face of the mould, and into every line, hole, or indentation
which there may be in it. Gutta percha being a substance which is but little,
if at all, affected by fats, oils, or grease, or acid fluids, or alkaline fluids, it is
peculiarly suitable for the construction of surgical instruments, as catheters,
bougies, urinals, &c.
Secondly, I manufacture by the same processes as aforesaid, one or other of
them, the said flexible syringes, tubes, hose, and other like vehicles and vessels
of gutta percha combined with other substances, oue, two, or more; as, for
example, combined with cloth or leather, or mixed with more or less of caout.
chouc, or sulphur, or French chalk, or ground emery, or asphalte, according
as the articles are required to be made softer or harder or cheaper, or other-
wise modified, all as pointed out and explained in the before-mentioned
Specifications of Richard Archibald Brooman; and sometimes also Isubstitute
for the sulphur in such combinations an equal quantity of calamine reduced
to a state of powder, or use equal portions of sulphur and calamine.
Thirdly, I use the gutta percha, both in the simple and mixed states before
described, as a coating for flexible syringes, tubes, hose, and other like vehicles
and vessels made in the body thereot of other substances, as caoutchouc,leather,
cloth, &c., in order to render the same impervious to water, or to enable them
to resist the action of grease and oils or of acid or alkaline fluids, and I apply
the same either to both the inside and outside, or to the outside only, or to the
inside only. The articles may be dipped in a solution of gutta percha, or the

page_text: gutta percha may be laid on with a brush or sponge in a liquid state, and in
one or more coats, as may be judged expedient, or it may be applied in sheets
cemented to the articles by a solution of gutta percha or of caoutchouc, and
joined at the edges by any of the means before described under the first head
of this Specification. Tubes and hose of other materials as aforesaid may also
have a continuous sheathing of gutta percha, without joint or break, given to
them in manner following:-The tubes and hose are passed through the holes
of a steam draw plate or box, similar to those used by lead pipe makers for
drawing lead pipes,and these holes, which are of a conical form with the broad
end innermost, and are in their least diameter a little larger than the tubes or
hose, are kept supplied with gutta percha in a soft or nearly semi-fluid state,
so that as the tubes or hose are drawn through the mass of gutta percha, they
carry a sheathing of the stuff along with them. To make the gutta percha
flow kindly, the steam plate or box should be kept at a temperature of about
two hundred and thirty degrees.
Fourthly, when caoutchouc has been employed merely as a coating for
flexible syringes, tubes, bottles, hose, and other like vehicles and vessels made
of some other material or materials than caoutchouc, I superimpose upon it
internally or externally a coating of gutta. percha, and thereby obviate the
stickiness and susceptibility to the action of grease and oils which belong to
the caoutchouc in the unprotected state. In this case the gutta percha is
best added in a liquid state, and a thin layer of it will suffice.
Fifthly, should any of the flexible syringes, tubes, bottles, hose, and other
like vehicles and vessels manufactured by any of the processes aforesaid from
gutta percha in the simple or mixed state require to have more or less flexi-
bility given to them, I subject them in their manufactured state to the action
of sulphur, either by dipping them in a bath of hot sulphur, or exposing them
to the fumes of burning sulphur, both as described in the first of the before-
mentioned Specifications of Richard Archibald Brooman.
And, sixthly, I make the said flexible syringes, tubes, bottles, hose, and
other like vehicles and vessels of a great.variety of colors, by mixing with the
gutta percha,in the simple or,mixed states aforesaid, employed in the construc-
tion thereof, and however the same may be employed, the pigments or other
matters suitable for imparting such colors..
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be employed, I declare that I lay no claim to any of
the modes of preparing the gutta percha before mentioned, or to any of the
modes before pointed out of giving it form or figure; but that what I claim