An Improved Process and Apparatus for Impregnating Air with the Essence of Fir Wood.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Mar., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 7th Nov., 1894-Accepted, 8th Dec., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Process and Apparatus for Impregnating Air with the
Essence of Fir Wood.
We JOHANN SCHMEISER, Builder, of Offenburg, Baden, and Dr. ADOLF
BILLIG, Physician, of Karlsruhe, Baden, both in the Empire of Germany, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows :-
This process for the production of fir impregnated air in living rooms has for its
object to check lung diseases as far as it is possible. It consists essentially in
boiling pine cones in a kettle and conducting the steam produced therefrom to the
patients room, whilst at the same time pine twigs (if possible from the upper forests)
are dried or withered in separate heaps and the vapour therefrom is also conducted
to the patients room.
Both conductors can be regulated separately and brought
to the same outlet.
In the accompanying sheet of drawings:-Figs. 1 and 2 are vertical sections of
an apparatus constructed according to this invention and Fig. 3 is a horizontal
section of the same.
Above the fire space a is fitted a container 6 partly filled with water whilst pine
cones can be introduced or withdrawn therefrom. The steam produced on boiling
the water impregnated with the ether oils of the pine cones is led to the
patients room through the pipe c. At the same time pine twigs are dried or
withered on the drying plates e arranged in the space between the smoke outlet
pipes d the vapour from which is collected in the vapour chests f and led to
the patients room through the tube g where both tubes are united and one tube
outlet opens into the patient's room.
The smoke from the stove is led by the pipe h
in the usual manner, to the chimney.
As however no moisture should be brought to the pine twigs to be dried, whilst
the drying trays are preferably arranged above the boiler, it is preferable to arrange
a safety valve i and a steam outlet pipe connected thereto, so that it opens into
the atmosphere. The filling of the water container b can, when cold, be effected
through a filling pipe, or when in operation by means of a corresponding small hand
pump. The extract formed from the boiling of the pine cones can afterwards, when
more or less diluted by water, be drunk with advantage.
Dated this 20th day of March 1894.
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE,
40, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Agents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Process and Apparatus for Impregnating Air with the
Essence of Fir Wood.
We JOHANN SCHMEISER, Builder, of Offenburg, Baden, and Dr. ADOLF
BILLIG, Physician, of Karlsruhe, Baden, both in the Empire of Germany, 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 subject of the present invention is a process and apparatus for impregnating
air in dwelling rooms, or rooms for the temporary abode of patients, with the

page_text: volatile products of distillation of the cones and twigs of coniferous trees in order
to impart to the air the essential properties of fir forest air which, inhaled by
the patient, has a remedial effect on diseases of the lungs and other respiratory
organs.
The object of the new process is to directly produce the volatile and balsamic
substances of coniferous trees in an inhalable form and to introduce them into a
closed room where they can be inhaled by the patient in a more condensed state
and in larger quantity than is furnished by nature, even in dense fir forests,
and free from otherwise injurious atmospheric or climatic influences.
The new process consists in boiling certain parts of coniferous trees, for instance,
the cones and twigs of pines or firs, preferably of those grown ou mountains, in a
boiler and conducting the steam loaded with the volatile substances of the cones
and twigs to the patients room, whilst at the same time the vapours of twigs
which are separately dried or desiccated at a temperature not exceeding 160° C.
-are also conducted to the same room. Each current can be regulated separately
in order to allow the proportion of the products of the wet and of the dry
distillation in the patients room to be varied, keeping the proportions as may
be required by the special case with regard to the nature of the affection.
The volatile products obtained by dry and wet distillation differ widely in
their qualities and nature: the former, poor in terpenes and esterlike compounds
but rich in products of decomposition of said compounds, such as acetic acid
etc. principally consist of phenoles but do not contain carbonic oxyde nor hydrogen
which generally originate from wood heated in a closed vessel to above 160° C. ;
the wet distillation yields limonen about 70 % and acetate of bornyl about
13 %
The described products of distillation may be obtained by means of an
apparatus constructed as shown in three figures of the sheet of drawings filed with
the Provisional Specification of which
Figs. 1 and 2 are vertical sections of the said apparatus, and Fig. 3 is a horizontal
section of the same.
The boiler a arranged over the fire place is partly filled with water and pine-
cones or twigs. The vapour arising, loaded with the volatile products from the
cones or twigs, issues through a pipe e into the patients room. Meanwhile the
vapourous exudations from the twigs, being desiccated on the plates or gratings e
arranged over the boiler between the flues d, collect in the receptacle whence
they issue through a pipe 9 also into the patients room.
g
The two pipes c and g
may be coupled so as to discharge their contents through one mouth, the arrange-
ment of cocks for regulating the relative proportion of the products of dry and wet
distillation being disposed before their junction. The smoke from the stove is led
by the pipe in the usual manner into the chimney.
As however the twigs on the gratings e must be kept free from moisture it is
preferable to arrange on top of the boiler a safety valve i and a steam outlet
or waste pipe connected thereto, so that it opens into the atmosphere.
The boiler 6 can be supplied with water by a filling pipe or by a small hand
pump. The extract of the boiled pine cones and twigs may, properly diluted, serve
as a remedial preparation.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is :-
1. A process for imparting to the air in dwelling or other rooms the remedial
properties of fir forest air consisting in extracting the volatile substances of cones
and twigs of coniferous trees by wet and by dry distillation and conducting the
same into the room in controlable proportions substantially as described.
2. An apparatus for extracting the volatile substances of cones and twigs of
coniferous trees both by wet and dry distillation consisting in the combination of a
stove a, d, h with a boiler & gratings e and pipes c and g, which conduct the vapours

page_text: both from the boiler and the gratings into a common room substantially as described
and shown by the drawing.
Dated this 7th day of November 1894.
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE,
40, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Agents.