Portable Bandaging-table.
Year: 1894

page_text: Portable Bandaging-table.
I, SALOMON LICHTENSTEIN, Dr. Med, Physician, of Neuwied in the Province
of Rhineland and Kingdom of Prussia, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The portable bandaging-tables hitherto used by surgeons while examining.or
operating on patients had only a single slab of a material easily cleaned such as
glass, marble, metal etc., on which the surgeon laid the bandages, his instruments,
old pieces of bandaging covered with blood or matter and bleeding pieces of flesh,
growths etc. removed at the operations. During the various manipulations these
different things got mixed up, the one dirtying the other, so as to cause much
unpleasantness and trouble. It also frequently happened that after laying down
profusely bleeding parts of the body or pieces of bandaging soaked in blood on the
table, the whole slab with every thing on it was so to say swimming in blood, the
latter often running down the edge of the table and soiling the floor and carpet of
the room and the clothes of the doctor and the persons assisting him. Further-
more it was not convenient to place any materials for washing such as towels,
soap etc. on the bandaging-tables hitherto in use, nothing having its special place
on the table and the whole slab being often soiled.
In order to do away with these inconveniences I have constructed the bandaging-
table represented in the annexed drawing and now to be described. This table by
its novel arrangement answers all the requirements of the profession and is yet on
the whole simple in its construction, although everything has been done to produce
a thoroughly serviceable article.
The annexed drawing shows the bandaging-table in various aspects. Fig. 1
to 3 represent it in front, side and upper-view, 4 and 5 give a cross and longitudinal
section through the top of the table in its new basin-construction; Fig. 6 shows
a detail of the frame of the table.
The table consists of two chief parts, the top, which is most suitably made of
enamelled iron and consists of several parts, and of a frame b on which the top is
fastened and which further serves as usual to carry a bucket and the irrigator
which can be accurately adjusted as regards height.
The top of the table consists primarily of a plate e perforated like a sieve and
made of enamelled iron or other suitable material and of such a shape that the
perforated surface slopes very slightly from the edge towards the centre, while the
horizontal flat unperforated margin rests on the edge of a rather deep basin a placed
like a bottom under the table c. The basin a is provided at its lowest point in the
centre with a discharge-tube d which terminates just above the bucket f (or other
vessel) situated below on a ring or plate e of the frame of the table. In the
plate c three (or more) holes are cut, it being advisable that the material of the
In these holes little
plate should rise slightly towards the edge of these holes.
bowls or basius o are placed, so that they lie with their flat or raised margin on the
edge of the corresponding hole, projecting somewhat upwards above the surface
of c.
These bowls are intended for the reception of the different articles used by
the doctor when at work and which are to be kept apart e.g. one for the instruments,
one for the bandages, one for the sponge, soap etc. The other objects which are
covered with blood, matter, water etc. such as old bandages, pieces of flesh etc. are laid
by the doctor on the unoccupied perforated surfaces of the plate c near the basins o,
so that the blood etc. flows directly through the holes of c into the basin
and

page_text: through its discharge tube into the vessel f. Any splashing up of the blood is
prevented by the basin a and the slight fall from d to the vessel f.
The rod is however
In order to make the table which runs on castors g still more portable, it may
also be furnished with a handle k; one or more rails or rods 7 for hanging up
towels etc. on may also be attached at the circumference of a.
The other arrange-
ments are the same as those in ordinary bandaging-tables.
tubular and contains another rod i, which moves up and down in it in telescope-
fashion and can be adjusted by a set-screw n. The rod i bears an irrigator h, the
tube of which may be hung on a hook at the bottom of the rod. In the irrigator
shown in the drawing there is a novelty in the shape of a graduated glass plate m,
by means of which the height of the water may be ascertained from the outside
and the quantity of spray-water to be used be accurately regulated.
It goes without saying that the table may vary greatly as regards the material
and shape of the frame and basin as well as the number and kind of little bowls
and the arrangement of the irrigator, towel-rails etc.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :
Portable antiseptic bandaging-table, distinguished by:
1. The arrangement of the combination table-top, consisting of the perforated
plate e, allowing blood etc. to flow through, of the bowls o placed separately therein
and easily taken out, for the reception of bandaging and washing requisites,
instruments etc., and of the basin a, situated under the whole table-top and having
a discharge-tube d above the vessel f.
2. The arrangement of a graduated glass-plate m on the irrigator / attached to
the rod b, of the frame of the table, so that the level of the fluid may be ascertained
at any time from the outside and its consumption thus accurately regulated.
Dated this Twenty-eighth day of April 1894.
For SALOMON LICHTENSTEIN,
B. Brockhues.