IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN DISINFECTING LINEN AND BED CLOTHES, AND THE WALLS, CEILINGS, AND FLOORS OF ROOMS, AND FOR OTHER LIKE PURPOSES
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jean Teychenné at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 13th April
1875.
I, JEAN, TEYCHENNÉ, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Upholsterer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
“IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN DISINFECTING LINEN AND BED
CLOTHES, AND THE WALLS, CEILINGS, AND FLOORS OF ROOMS, AND FOR OTHER LIKE
PURPOSES," to be as follows .-
-
My Invention consists of apparatus constructed substantially as
herein-after described, to be used principally in disinfecting linen and
bed clothes which have been worn or used by persons suffering from
infectious diseases, previous to the washing of the same; and also in
disinfecting the walls, ceilings, and floors of rooms used by such persons;
but the said apparatus may also be used for other like purposes, such as
articles of furniture, closets, and drains.
I prefer so to arrange the parts of the apparatus constituting my
Invention that it may be used for the double purpose (of disinfecting
linen and bed clothes and for disinfecting rooms, and I will describe the

page_text: apparatus as so constructed -The said apparatus consists of a pan or
vessel of any required size and shape, so supported that the bottom
thereof may be heated by gas or other flames, or by a fire-place or by
steam passed under it.
The said apparatus may be either portable or fixed, and is divided by
a vertical partition into two compartments.
One of the said compartments consists of a closed vessel capable of
resisting a high pressure, and contains disinfecting liquid or material,
and the other compartment consists of a chamber open at top.
For convenience of description 1 will call the closed vessel the
disinfecting vessel, and the other the clothes receiver or chamber. The
said clothes receiver or chamber has a removable horizontal partition
made of perforated metal or wirework, which said partition is supported
a short distance from the bottom of the said receiver. Upon this
perforated partition the linen or clothes to be disinfected arc laid The
clothes receiver or chamber is covered when in use by a lid having a
stop-cock in it to permit of the escape of vapour or gas A stop-cock in
communication with the disinfecting vessel opens into the clothes
receiver or chamber, so that the disinfecting vapour or gas under
pressure may be passed into the upper part of the clothes receiver or
chamber. The top of the disinfecting vessel is provided with a weighted
safety valve and also with a gauge for indicating the pressure in the
vesscl.
By means of a stop-cock the said vessel is charged with the disinfecting
liquid or material, a second stop-cock serving to empty the vessel.
Access to the vessel for cleaning it is obtained by an opening at the
top, which is closed steam or gas-tight when the apparatus is in use.
An india-rubber or flexible pipe provided with a stop-cock and a
swivelling connection is secured to the top of the vessel, and conveys
the disinfecting vapour or gas under pressure from the vessel to any part
of the room which it is wished to disinfect.
In using the apparatus for disinfecting linen or clothes I place
disinfecting liquid or material in the bottom of the clothes receiver or
chamber, replace the perforated partition, place upon the latter the
clothes or linen to be disinfected, and cover the receiver or chamber with
its lid. The disinfecting vessel is also charged with disinfecting liquid

page_text: or material.
The apparatus is now heated so as to volatilize the
disinfecting liquid or material, and the tap in connection with the
disinfecting vessel is opened so as to convey the disinfecting vapour or
gas to the clothes receiver.
By the combined action of the disinfecting vapour or gas arising from
the liquid or material at the bottom of the receiver and that conveyed
thereto under pressure from the disinfecting vessel, the linen and clothes
are thoroughly disinfected.
In using the apparatus for disinfecting walls, ceilings, or floors, and
for other like purposes the tap conveying the disinfecting vapour or gas
to the clothes receiver is closed, and the tap of the india-rubber or
flexible pipe in the top of the vessel is opened, and the disinfecting
vapour or gas under pressure is directed upon the surface to be dis-
infected.
My Invention is applicable to disinfecting by the use of carbolic acid
and chlorine, whether evolved from chloride of lime or generated by
heating a mixture of hydrochloric acid and peroxide of manganese, and
generally such other disinfecting materials as may be gencrated or
volatilized at ordinary or moderately elevated temperatures