AN IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING PLATES OR PALATES FOR ARTIFICIAL TEETH."
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Ellis. Harris, of 136, Mile End Road, in the
County of Middlesex, Dentist, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF MAKING PLATES OR PALATES FOR ARTIFICIAL TEETH."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Ellis Harris at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 2nd February 1869.
I, ALFRED ELLIS HARRIS, of 136, Mile End Road, in the County of
Middlesex, Dentist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING PLATES OR PALATES FOR ARTIFICIAL TEETH,"
to be as follows:-
It being a well-known fact to all dentists or people wearing artificial
teeth, and whom I shall call the patients, that the metals or other sub-
stances which fit exactly over the gums, and on which the artificial
teeth are fixed, and which are commonly called by dentists the "plates,"
and which I shall continue to call by that name in the course of this
Provisional Specification; by covering the top of the upper palate and

page_text: the bottom of the lower jaw of the mouth prevent those parts of the
mouth from coming in contact with the solid food and liquids the
patients eat or drink, and prevent also the patients from placing their
tongues on the top of their palates or the bottom of their lower jaws,
and thereby from enjoying the taste or flavour of the food they cat or the
liquids they drink, and therefore impair generally the tasting powers of
the patients.
Now I obviate this, firstly, by cutting away the parts of the plates
which correspond to the top of the upper palate or the bottom of the
lower jaw where the tongue would naturally rest in the act of tasting,
and by inserting in the space so cut a piece of perforated platinum of
exactly the same shape as the piece cut away, and consequently filling
up its place entirely.
Secondly. Or by perforating the plates with small holes.
Thirdly. Or by cutting away the plates as in the first process, but
without inserting the piece of perforated platinum; but in this latter
case the plate has not the suction that it possesses in the two other pro-
cesses, and the gums would protrude through the open space; and
from personal experience I prefer the first process as being the most
effectual.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Ellis Harris in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th July 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
ELLIS HARRIS, of 136, Mile End Road, in the County of Midddlesex,
Dentist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Alfred Ellis Harris, Her special licence that
I, the said Alfred Ellis Harris, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Alfred Ellis Harris, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from

page_text: 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 "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING PLATES
OR PALATES FOR ARTIFICIAL TEETH," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Alfred Ellis Harris, 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, und 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 Alfred Ellis Harris, 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 :-
It being a well-known fact to all dentists or people wearing artificial
teeth, and whom I shall call the patients, that the metals or other substances
which fit exactly over the gums, and in which the artificial teeth are
fixed, and which are commonly called by dentists the plates, and which
I shall continue to call by that name in the course of this Specification,
by covering the palate and the bottom of the lower jaw of the mouth
prevent these parts of the mouth from coming in contact with the solid
food and the liquids the patients eat or drink, and prevent also the
patients from placing their tongues on their palates or the bottom of
their lower jaws, and thereby from enjoying the taste or flavor of the
food they eat or the liquids they drink, and therefore impair generally
the tasting powers of the patients.
Now I obviate this by cutting away the parts of the plates which
correspond to the palate or the bottom of the lower jaw where the
tongue would naturally rest in the act of tasting, and by inserting in
the space so cut away a piece of perforated platinum of exactly the same
shape as the piece cut away, and consequently filling up its place
entirely.
In my Provisional Specification I stated that I arrived at a similar
result by a second process of merely perforating the "plates," and also
by a third process of cutting away the plates as in the first process but

page_text: without inserting the perforated platinum, with a preference for the first
process as being more effectual.
Having found since that the first process was far preferable, I will
confine myself entirely to it in the description of the manner in which
it is to be performed, and which is as follows:-When a
"for
"plate
an upper piece" is to be made in metal I cut a piece of metal of the
proper shape, as is well understood by dentists, and represented in the
accompanying Drawing at Fig. 1; I then cut out of it the part marked
A, A, A, and having cut a piece of perforated platinum of exactly the
same shape and sizes, see Fig. 2, I insert it in the space A, A, A, and
solder it all round at the edges, as represented, Fig. 3. The "
plate"
being so prepared is ready to be struck up in the ordinary way. When
a "plate" for an upper piece is to be made of a soft plastic substance,
such as is called vulcanite or dental rubber, then the piece of perforated
platinum having been cut, as in Fig. 2, is first to be fitted to the
plaster model of the mouth by being struck up on a zinc model in the
ordinary way known to dentists; then being fixed in its proper place on
the plaster model the dental rubber in the plastic state is moulded round
it and hardened by the ordinary process, so that the piece of perforated
platinum is inserted in the dental rubber "plate," and embedded all
round at its edges, whilst nearly the whole of its surface is perfectly
free, so as to be in contact on one side with the palate or roof of the
mouth and on the other side with the tongue.
.
I find in practice that the maximum of efficiency is obtained when
the holes of the perforated platinum are about one twenty-fifth part of
an inch in diameter, as in that case the gum cannot in any way protrude
through them. Therefore what I claim to be my Invention is, the
insertion of a piece of perforated platinum in the plates or palates for
artificial teeth in the manner here above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Ellis Harris, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this 30th day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.