IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF DISINFECTING OR DEODORIZING ROOMS, BUILDINGS, AND SHIPS,
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Estor, of Hampstead, Analytical Chemist,
and Charles Thomas Pearce, of Maddox Street, Regent Street, both
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MEANS OF DISINFECTING OR DEODORIZING ROOMS, BUILDINGS, AND SHIPS,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Estor and
Charles Thomas Pearce at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 7th October 1868.
We, WILLIAM ESTOR, of Hampstead, Analytical Chemist, and CHARLES
THOMAS PEARCE, of Maddox Street, Regent Street, both in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF DISINFECTING OR DEODORIZING Rooms,
BUILDINGS, AND SHIPS, APPLICABLE ALSO TO OTHER SUCH LIKE PURPOSES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the means of
disinfecting or deodorizing localities, whether rooms, buildings, ships,
or otherwise, affording a perfect antiseptic in cases of sickness, or the
prevalence of disease; and purifying the air as well as clothing, bedding,

page_text: and other such like purposes. We propose to employ the two gases
known as sulphurous acid gas and chlorine in combination, and they
may be generated in any convenient manner. One method is to use a
small receptable of pottery ware coated externally with a composition
containing sulphur, and provided internally with chemicals capable of
generating chlorine; the receptacle being then placed on a stand of
metal or pottery is touched with a lighted match, and the sulphurous
acid is produced, and ultimately the chlorine, and the two gases will
become mixed with the atmospheric air, and be found to possess the
necessary properties of a perfect disinfectant, deodorizer, or antiseptic,
and may be also used to fumigate clothing, bedding, and for other such
like purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Estor and Charles Thomas Pearce in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 7th April 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
ESTOR, of Hampstead, Analytical Chemist, and CHARLES THOMAS
PEARCE, of Maddox Street, Regent Street, both in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said William Estor and Charles Thomas
Pearce, Her special licence that we, the said William Estor and Charles
Thomas Pearce, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said William Estor and Charles Thomas Pearce, our
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 IN
THE MEANS OF DISINFECTING OR DEODORIZING ROOMS, BUILDINGS, AND SHIPS,
APPLICABLE ALSO TO OTHER SUCH LIKE PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said William Estor and Charles Thomas Pearce, our

page_text: executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, 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 we, the said William Estor and Charles Thomas
Pearce, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement and the Drawings
therein referred to (that is to say) :-
:-
Our Invention has for its object a convenient and effectual method of
disinfecting the air (of sick rooms, hospitals, churches, chapels, lecture
rooms, theatres, ships, cabs, carriages, or omnibuses) which has become
vitiated or infected by fever, sewer gas, mephitic or other noxious
exhalations, as also purifying or deodorizing clothing or similar
articles from contagious effluvia by the evolution of gases generated by
heat in a simple, ready, and inexpensive manner, and consists of a cup
or vase of any convenient size, externally coated with finely divided
charcoal (mixed with adhesive substances, such as gum, starch, or
gelatine) and powdered or liquid sulphur, which is dried in a hot room;
the interior of the cup is partly filled with chloride of lime, from which
sulphurous acid gas and chlorine are liberated, filling the apartment
and thereby destroying all infection, animalculæ, vegetable and animal
spores, and leaving the atmosphere pure.
And in order that our said Invention may be more fully understood
and readily carried into effect, we now proceed to describe the same by
aid of the accompanying Drawings, reference being had to the letters
and figures thereon marked (that is to say):
:-
Fig. 1 represents a front view of the disinfecting cup in accordance
with our said Invention; Fig. 2 a top or plan view thereof; Fig. 3 a
transverse vertical section taken through the dotted line in Fig. 2; Fig. 4
a perspective view of the cup, showing the mode of igniting the external
composition and disinfecting substances from which the disinfecting
gases are eliminated; and Fig. 5, outer case or wrapper inclosing the
cup, having the lid or cover removed, and separately shown at Fig. 6.
In each Figure the same letters of reference denote similar corresponding
parts.

page_text: A, A, the cup or vase formed of burnt pipeclay, glass, porcelain,
enamelled metal, or prepared wood; B, B, pedestal upon which the vase
stands; C, C, disinfecting composition, consisting of chloride of lime (or
other earths or salts holding or containing chlorine) and a solution of
sulphate of iron (or other sulphates) in suitable proportions for forming
a stiff compost; D, D, external combustible coating composed of an
inner layer of finely divided charcoal intimately mixed with gelatinous
or mucilaginous substances aforesaid, upon which an outer surface of
sublimed, powdered, or liquid sulphur is applied; E, E, cap of thin
india-rubber, gutta percha, or other prepared substances, for hermetically
sealing or closing the contents of the cup; F, F, inflammable band,
string, or ribbon (prepared with a solution of collodion and gumbenzoin,
or other ignitable ingredients) surrounding the neck or lower portion
of the vase in contact with the combustible coating, by which the same
is lighted through the medium of a match or taper G, G, as shown at
Fig. 4; H, H, box or wrapper enclosing the cup or vase in which the
same is commercially vended; I, I, lid of same.
In addition to the above a capsule of glass, membrane paper, or
porcelain clay, sealed or luted down, is also employed for containing
and doubly protecting the disinfecting composition enclosed within
the cup.
In putting the disinfecting cup into operation, the thin india-rubber
cap E is first removed, the capsule is next broken, and the light applied
to the combustible ribbon F, whereby the external coating of sulphur
and charcoal aforesaid is ignited, and sulphurous acid gas given off in
conjunction with the chlorine liberated from the internal compost by
means of the heat communicated thereto.
In conclusion to the foregoing description, we would here briefly note
that we are aware that chlorine and sulphur have before been separately
used for disinfecting purposes, but hitherto independently of any
systematic order or combination of ingredients as employed by us.
And we would further note that in cases where chlorine is objection-
able, as in a sick room, the sulphur cup can be used independently of
the internal compost.
Having now fully described and ascertained the nature of this our said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed and
carried into effect, we would have it clearly understood that we do not
intend to confine ourselves to the precise details herein-before set forth

page_text: and described, as the same may be otherwise varied without departing
from the general principle of these our said improvements, nor do we
claim as new and of our said Invention the exclusive use of the several
ingredients, combinations, and processes above referred to, except when
the same are employed in and for the purposes of our said Invention,
which we hereby declare to consist in the exclusive right of obtaining
and combining the above-mentioned prepared substances and mode of
employing the same for disinfecting purposes, in the manner herein-
before set forth and described.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Estor and Charles Thomas
Pearce, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Seventh
day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-nine.
5
Witness,
THOMAS M. CORNOCK,
WILLIAM ESTOR.
(L.S.)
CHARLES THOMAS PEARCE. (L.S.)
Clerk to Mess. Weatherdon & Co.,
77, Chancery Lane.