IMPROVEMENTS IN PAINLESS DENTISTRY BY APPARATUS FOR 39 FOR COOLING AND TEMPERING AIR AND APPLYING IT AS AN ANESTHETIC AGENT
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Darsie Morrison, of No. 8, Wemyss Place,
Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, North Britain, Dentist, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PAINLESS DENTISTRY BY APPARATUS FOR
39
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Darsie Morrison
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th December 1864.
I, JAMES DARSIE MORRISON, of No. 8, Wemyss Place, Edinburgh, in the
County of Mid Lothian, North Britain, Dentist, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PAINLESS DENTISTRY BY APPARATUS
FOR COOLING AND TEMPERING AIR AND APPLYING IT AS AN ANESTHETIC AGENT," to
be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the double cooling of atmospheric air through
external mediums, and through the self-exhausting principle, by which the air
in performing the very work required of it, consumes its remnant heat, as
applied in a tempered and continuous current, as a local anoesthetic agent, for
the purpose of rendering the nerves of the gums and teeth insensible, so as to
enable the dentist to perform as painlessly as possible his various operations.

page_text: In carrying out this application, the Inventor makes use of a powerful
double-acting air pump placed between and attached to two separate series of
small strong coiled seamless copper tubes.
This pump is so constructed, that whilst with one half it empties the supply
series of tubes, with the other half it transfers and compresses the air into the
reservoir series of tubos. These tubes are small that the air within them may
be in a state of extreme division; strong, that this divided air may be highly
compressed; and long, that they may be coiled, so that this divided and
compressed air may pass slowly through them, in order that these copper
tubes acting as heat conductors may have time to extract the heat from the
air within, and transfer it to the ice or water without, in which the whole
apparatus is embedded. A branch coil from the reservoir series after being
heated with hot water, rejoins the main current in a double screw stop valve
cock, to which is attached a strong flexible tube for the conveyance of either
currents of air to the instrument operated with, and through which these
currents are applied directly to the gums.
These instruments may be of any kind, as forceps, knives, saws, but only
constructed with channels for the conveyance and application of the
prepared air.
The peculiarity claimed for this Invention as applied to these instruments
is, that they individually do the entire work to be done, that is, they not only,
through the hands of the operator, simultaneously apply the anaesthetic agent,
and perform the surgical or mechanical work required, but gradually and
under the complete control of the operator reduce the temperature of the
gums from blood heat to a state of insensibility for the operation; and after
the operation is performed, gradually restore the gums again to the natural
temperature
.SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Darsie Morrison in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 29th June 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
DARSIE MORRISON, of No. 8, Wemyss Place, Edinburgb, in the County of
Mid Lothian, North Britain, Dentist, send greeting.
3
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of December, in the year of our 3
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant

page_text: unto me, the said James Darsie Morrison, Her special licence that I,
the said James Darsie Morrison, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said James Darsie Morrison, my executors, ad-
ministrators, 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 PAINLESS DENTISTRY BY
APPARATUS FOR COOLING AND TEMPERING AIR, AND APPLYING IT AS AN ANESTHETIC
AGENT," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Darsie
Morrison, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
ny, 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 Darsie Morrison, do hereby
declare the nature of my 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 accompanying Drawings, that is to say:
The correlation of physical forces teaching the convertibility of one form of
force into that of another, of the generation of heat in air by pressure and
friction, and of the consumption of heat in air by making it do mechanical
work. This Invention by giving effect to this law may be said to couvert the
slow heat-conducting power of air into a fast heat-abstracting agent, and by
applying this principle to the gum abstracts therefrom its heat, thereby
rendering it insensible to dental operations.
To concentrate in one instrument the power to continuously blow on both
sides of the gum air warmed to blood heat, then to gradually lower the
temperature to any degree of cold required to render the gum insensible,
to be always ready to instantly and as painlessly as possible extract any tooth
or stump the moment the gum is blanched or benumbed to continue the air
blast throughout the entire operation, and when over to gradually restore the
benumbed part to itself again has been the object of this Invention.
And in order that my Invention may be properly understood, I shall now
proceed to describe the several parts and illustrated Figures upon the
explanatory Sheet of Drawings.
The apparatus required to confer on one instrument so many varied powers
of action consists of ten principal parts, namely, a pump, supply tubes, reservoir

page_text: tubes, pressure gauge, cistern, hot air apparatus, double screw stop valve
cock, thermometer, flexible tube, and forceps.
The pump, which ought to be powerful enough to get up and keep up
12 atmospheres of pressure, is an ordinary well made gun metal double-acting
air pump worked to between 1 and 6 atmospheres, according to the pressure
of cold wanted. It is placed vertically in the centre of any kind of very
strong circular vessel, of 3 feet diameter, and of sufficient weight to contain
not only the pump but all the coils of tubes and fittings hereafter to be
described. To the bottom of this strong vessel the entire pump is to be
strongly secured against any possible movement by strong water-tight bolts.
The supply tubes are seamless, made of copper, 200 in number, each
40 feet long, th of an inch inside diameter, and th of an inch outside
diameter. All the one ends of this bundle are gathered into one tube, which
divides to supply the two suction parts of the pump; all the other ends are
gathered together into a gun metal receiving box, so made that there will be
200 holes in it to receive the 200 tubes, and at the same time allow all their
mouths to be open to admit the air, which is to fill the two tubes leading to
'the pump.
The reservoir tubes, also seamless, and made of copper, 112 in number, and
divided into large and small, 12 each, 20 feet long, an inch inside diameter,
and of an inch outside diameter; 100 each, 40 feet long, th of an inch
inside diameter, and ths outside diameter. All the one ends of each bundle
are gathered together into one entrance and one exit. The one end of the
bundle of large tubes is coupled to the one end of the bundle of small tubes so
as to form a clear passage from one bundle into the other; the other end of
the bundle of large tubes divides into two to supply the two compressing parts
of the pump, the other end of the bundle of small tubes lead into a tube,
which occupies the one half of an ordinary double-screw stop valve cock.
From the pump end of the bundle of large tubes two branch tubes are taken,
one to supply a pressure guage within sight of the operator, the other long
enough to form a coil to be placed within any convenient hot water apparatus
to rejoin the main current, and to occupy the other half of the double-screw
stop valve cock. To the valve cock is attached one end of a strong flexible
tube, having fitted to it a thermometer ranging from above blood heat to
below freezing; the other end of the flexible tube is attached to a tube so
made that a right-angled slit in it allows the forceps to be fastened to it just
as a bayonet is fastened to a gun.
Fig. 1 represents the straight pair of blow pipe forceps intended for
operations principally of the upper jaw, the action precisely the same, as fully

page_text: described in Fig. 2, showing the flexible tube connection going within the
forceps.
Fig. 2 is a full-sized Drawing of a section of the bent blow pipe forceps
intended for operations on the under jaw. B is the drilled part or channelled
half of said instrument, showing throughout its entire length the drilled channel
A, through which the tempered air from the flexible tube passes along
continuously into and through the two-way cock, Fig. 3, which occupies the
hole in the centre of the joint, and into and through the black colored bits a, a,
to the gum of the patient. The parts colored blue represent the solid steel
parts of which the entire instrument is made; b, b, are the drilled sockets of
the forceps, into which the colored bits a, a, are fitted; c, c, are the wedges
which fix them there; e is the tube which connects by a bayonet joint the
drilled limb B to the flexible tube f. The marginal darkish colored narrow
edge bordering which encloses the blue colored steel of the instrument shows
the thickness of the non-conducting vulcanite covering of the handles, the
object of which is to prevent the conduction of heat from the hand of the
operator to the passing cold air within, or of cold from the passing air within
to the hand of the operator without.
Fig. 3 shows the two-way cock, having one entrance into it through the
drilled limb B, Fig. 2, and two ways out of it to the bits a, a, of Fig. 2, and
which forms the pin of the centre of the round joint in the forceps; in ordinary
forceps this would be a mere screw nail holding the two limbs together like a
pair of scissors; this two-way open cock I deem an important feature of my
Invention. Suppose this piece halved, as shewn by Fig. 3, the parts which
move on each other and where the air would escape are ground like an
ordinary stop-cock, and the same at the ends; the parts where the little holes
are situated are where the holes in the bolt or way cock, as I call it, meet the
channel of the drilled holes both of the forceps and the bits, and so continues
the passage of the air. The bits painted black are first drilled while the steel
is in a straight rod half the capacity of the th of an inch channel, which is
drilled through the solid lower limb B. This instrument is intended by means
of its several shaped and adapted bits, points, or pieces to do all the tooth and
stump extracting work of the upper jaw, and also the back part of the under
jaw; a separate Drawing of the bits is not given, as every dentist has his own
shape in the ordinary forceps. I wish it to be understood that although for
the sake of shewing the wedge it is put in the side of the bit, I prefer the
wedge in the centre with a hole through it to pass on and continue the current ;
the entire instrument could be made without the bits being movable, but
made in one piece. like the ordinary forceps. There is more to drill in the

page_text: extra length of course, but being drilled straight the thing of course can
be done, the bending taking place afterwards.
In case that any part my Invention may not be quite plain, it will be
necessary for me to more particularly here describe how the tubes are put
together, what the purpose and reason of so many instead of one. This will
best be done by selecting for illustration the 12 reservoir tubes. These tubes
serve three purposes :-Firstly, they act as a reservoir to hold the compressed
air; secondly, to. keep up a continuous pressure of compressed air onwards
and into the 100 small tubes beyond them leading to the operator; thirdly,
to rapidly cool the compressed air. One large tube would perfectly answer the
first and second purpose, but not the third, the reason is simply this, that air
is an exceedingly bad conductor of heat, and can only be cooled by being
thinned out either into a thin sheet or divided into small portions. Engineers
and jewellers talk of drawing a mass of metal into wire, practically I do the
same thing with a mass of air, my mass is the atmosphere which I draw into
threads, or, if allowed the expression, into air wires, 200 in number, each 40
feet long and th of an inch diameter, and the tool I use for the purpose is
the 200 40 feet long supply pipes attached to the drawing parts of my pump.
I also press the air into 12 rods, each 20 feet long and an inch diameter;
also into 100 air wires, each 40 feet long and th of an inch diameter; and the
moulds I use are the 12 large and 100 small reservoir tubes attached to the
compressing parts of my pump. This must be so plain to the mind of a
mechanical engineer, that I need not say more than remark that each end of
each tube is so fitted into a corresponding hole, into any convenient box or
coupling as shall serve to gather the entire contents of each bundle of tubes
into one tube only, so as to continue the passage of the air into the correspond-
ing one tube of the next bundle, the whole Invention may be considered as
practically one tube leading the atmosphere into the pump and another
leading it out again into the patient's mouth. The divisions and subdivisions
for cooling purposes not in any way interfering with the free passage of air
within the connected succession of tubes, the joints of which may be considered
as so many inosculations which pass the air from one tube to another.
The apparatus thus described as far as putting it together, nothing now
remains but to properly secure the pump to the bottom of the cistern, and coil
round it at the distance of the inside diameter of the vessels the supply and
reservoir tubes. The neck of the stuffing box requires to be produced beyond
the top of the cistern so as that when the cistern is filled with water, ice, ice
and salt, or other cooling mixture none shall get into the pump.
The trunk and two branches of tubes, stop-cock, guage, thermometer,

page_text: flexible tube and forceps, are of course fitted up in the operating chair or other
suitable piece of furniture, and all the rest of the apparatus out of the sight of
the patent, and worked in another room.
The manner of using the forceps is first to select such forceps or forceps
points as will exactly suit the tooth or stump to be extracted, then turning on
or off the hot or cold air stop-cocks, so as to allow either hot or cold air to
enter the flexible tube till the thermometer stands at blood heat, then placing
the forceps points over the tooth to be extracted, but not touching it, gradually
increase the cold till the gum is blanched, when the forceps points are to be
closed on the tooth, which is extracted with little or no pain to the patient;
the air by an arrangement in the points, still blowing on the gum, will be
sufficiently near the jaw to blow warmer and warmer air till the gum is
restored to the natural state.
Having now particularly described my Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be carried out, I do not confine or restrict myself to any par-
ticular or precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to
describe or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without
deviating from the principal or main features of my Invention, but what I
consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the improvements
in painless dentistry by apparatus for cooling and tempering air, and applying
it as an anaesthetic agent by means of the forceps, or other instrument used
bringing the tooth or gums into the anaesthetic condition by reducing them
by a nice but rapid graduation from blood heat to insensibility, and after the
dental operation, by a like graduation restoring them from insensibility to
blood heat, and which instrument besides being the anaesthetic channel, is
itself continuously and immediately the very instrument for extracting the
tooth, thus combining in one instrument the action of a continuous double
blow pipe, for anaesthetic application, with the action of an ordinary dental
forceps or other instrument for mechanical operation, substantially as herein-
before described, or any mere modification thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Darsie Morrison, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Twenty-ninth day of June, in the year of
Our Lord One thousand night hundred and sixty five
J. D. MORRISON. (L.S.)