IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS FOR AIDING RESPIRATION
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Julius Jeffreys, of Kingston Hill, in the County of
Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS FOR AIDING
RESPIRATION."
Sealed the 17th October 1856, and dated the 18th April 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Julius Jeffreys at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th April 1856.
I, JULIUS JEFFREYS, of Kingston Hill, in the County of Surrey, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS FOR
AIDING RESPIRATION," to be as follows:-
My improvements consist in new constructions for the instrument for which
I introduced the name respirator.
First, I employ for the metal fabric of the operative part of the instrument
flattened spiral coils of wire, between the coils of which the currents of the
breath pass transversely; by this simple structure all horizontal bars or wires
arresting the descent of moisture may be avoided.
Secondly, I render the warming power of the instrument variable in every
degree desirable, not by varying the number of layers, as hitherto, but by
rendering variable at will the distances between the parallel wires themselves of

page_text: each layer (whether made of the above coiled fabric or otherwise), so as to
allow the currents of the breath to escape with varying degrees of freedom
between the wires. Where perforated metal plates are employed, I effect
the object of varying the apertures, by causing the plates to slide over each
other, so as to close or open the apertures.
Thirdly, in the form of respirator patented by me in 1850, in which the
currents of breath are made to traverse longitudinally through the courses of
metal, and parallel to their direction instead of transversely. I employ cylin-
drical or flattened coils of wire, plain or twisted, and known as "bullion," to
form flexible tubular passages along the hollow spaces of which the currents
pass.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Julius Jeffreys in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
18th October 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JULIUS
JEFFREYS, of Kingston Hill, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
1.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Julius Jeffreys, Her special licence that I, the said Julius Jeffreys, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Julius
Jeffreys, my executors, administrators, 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
INSTRUMENTS. FOR AIDING RESPIRATION," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Julius Jeffreys, my executors or administrators, by an in-
strument in writing under my, 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 Julius Jeffreys, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-

page_text: formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
My improvements consist in new constructions for the instrument for which
I introduced the name "respirator."
First, I employ for the metal fabric of the operative part of the instrument
flattened spiral coils of wire, between the coils of which the currents of the
breath pass transversely; by this simple structure all horizontal bars or wires
arresting the descent of moisture may be avoided.
Secondly, I render the warming power of the instrument variable in every
degree desirable, not by varying the number of layers, as hitherto, but by
rendering variable at will the distances between the parallel wires themselves
of each layer (whether made of the above coiled fabric or otherwise), so as to
allow the currents of the breath to escape with varying degrees of freedom
between the wires. Where perforated metal plates are employed, I effect the
object of varying the apertures, by causing the plates to slide over each other,
so as to close or open the apertures.
Thirdly, in the form of respirator patented by me in 1850, in which the
currents of breath are made to traverse longitudinally through the courses of
metal, and parallel to their direction instead of transversely. I employ cylin-
drical or flattened coils of wire, plain or twisted, and known as "bullion,"
to form flexible tubular passages along the hollow spaces of which the currents
pass.
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 represent the metal frame and operative metal
work of a respirator of the first kind included in the above Provisional Speci-
fication. B, B, B, B, is an oblong plate of metal, seen flat in Figures 1, 2, 3,
and 4, and having its central portion b, b, b, b, Figures 3 and 4, (which Figures
shew the side next the mouth of the wearer) perforated into a "lattice," and its
upper and lower edges L, L, L, L, bent forwards into flanges, seen in Figure 5,
which are notched, to admit of the plate B, B, being arched and fitted with
soft lip-tucks H; H, of jean or other fabric, into a mouth frame. In front of
this mouth frame and in the recess formed between the flanged edges L, L,
L, L, lies the operative metal work C, C, C, C, Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, formed
of continuous and very flat coils or skeins of wire, each forming two layers'
(about a fiftieth of an inch apart) of parallel lines, which at their upper and
lower bends e, e, e, e, Figures 1 and 2, are sewn to an elastic wire "bullion "
or web. This elastic edging e, e, e, e, when allowed to shrink, as in Figure 2,
keeps the lines of wire almost touching each other, and the whole packet of
metal work contracted to the length C, C, C, C, which is the front aspect. The
metal work then just covers the latticed or perforated portion b, b, b, b, of the

page_text: mouth frame B, B, B, B, Figure 4, which is the back aspect, or that next the
mouth of the wearer. The whole packet of wirework, which consists of
several of the flat coils or skeins, does then occupy the perforated space or
field of action of the mouth frame; the instrument is then at its greatest
power. To reduce the power, a leathern thong D is attached firmly to a bar at
each end of the metal work C, C, C, C. These thongs D, D, have several
pairs of holes f, f, f, f, a small distance apart, and the frame B, B, has at each
end of it pins i, i, i, i, on a line with the holes f, f, in the thongs. The
middle of the packet C, C, being secured to the middle of the mouth frame
B, B, above and below at k, k, the thongs at each end are pulled length-
ways and fixed on the points i, i, i, i, passed through a pair of the holes f, f.
Figure 1 shows the thongs drawn apart to the utmost and lodged on the pins
by the last pair of holes. The instrument is then at its lowest power, for not
only is half of the operative wirework by the stretching of the elastic edges
e, e, e, e, drawn away from the field of action b, b, b, b, Figure 3, and hidden
behind the wings of the mouth frame B, B, but the distance between each line
of wire is quadrupled, so as to allow much of the air of each current of the
breath to pass through the metal work unaffected by it.
By this construction of a respirator, a person wearing it in a frosty:ātmo-
sphere can, even without removing it from his face, vary the power of his
instrument in several different degrees, ranging, when the outer air is at, say,
30° of Fahrenheit, from 45° to 75°; and when the temperature of the air varies
greatly, as from 25° to 55°, he can command, by simply adjusting the power of
the instrument accordingly, an equable climate of any temperatare he pleases
as from 60° to 70°.
The formation of the flattened coils (of which several placed over each other
form the "packet" or operative metal work) is shown in Figure 8, where C, C,
represents an exaggerated expansion of the coil, showing it to consist of a
single wire, commencing at F and ending at G, coiled or bent sharply over,
above, and below at e, e, e e, &c., along which points the coil is attached to an
elastic substance (as already described in Figures 1 and 2) when the coil is to
be expanded or contracted laterally. But when the distance between the
several longitudinal lines of the coil is fixed, as in the following instrument,
stout wires A, B, Figure 8, are passed through the coil above and below,
and all the points or bends of the coil e, e, e, e, &c. are soldered to these
stout wires.
.
For carrying out with best effect the form of respirator described in the
Provisional Specification as frames of metal with gratings or bars sliding over
each other so as to vary the size of the apertures, coils of wire c, c, Figure 8,

page_text: are made precisely similar to C, C, and soldered at the top and bottom bends
e, e, e, e, to wires a, b; but the coil c, c, is sufficiently less than C, C, in height
and thickness to admit of its being slid completely within the latter coil until
the points A and a, B and b are contiguous. In the Figure the coil c, c, is
shewn partially introduced into C, C. When it is in situ it is plain that by a
slight lateral movement of the inner coil its bars or lines of wire may be made
either to fall behind those of the containing coil C, C, so as to leave the aper-
tures or slits between the vertical lines of the coils open, or the bars of the
inner coil c, c, may lie in the way of the slits, so as to reduce them greatly in
width and to double their number. When the coils thus intercept each other's
spaces, the currents of the breath passing through them are subjected to a
greatly increased conductive action, and the power of the instrument is pro-
portionably increased. By placing several of these double coils of wire together
a complete operative "packet" of metal work is formed, of which Figure 9
presents an end view. Figure 10 is a slide movement for adjusting all the
contained coils c, c, &c. of the "packet." I, I, is a plate of metal, attached
along its ends to all the stout wire ends b, b, (cut short) of the contained coils
c, c, of the packet. H, H, is a plate, the stapled ends h, h, h, h, of which
enclose I, I, and are fixed on the stout wire ends B, B, of all the containing
coils C, C, of the packet. The thumb screw L passes through the screw nut
M in II, H, and turns in a swivel joint N in the plate I, I. By turning the
screw L the plate I, I, is made to draw or push all the contained coils c, c,
laterally within their several containing coils C, C, so as to produce the effect
of varying the power of the instrument, as above described. In place of the
arrangement of wires, Figures 8 and 9, perforated metal plates may be employed
to slide one on the other to accomplish the like object.
Figures 6 and 7 represent the operative part of another form of respirator
to be worn like a shawl wrapper, Figure 7 being a vertical transverse section
of Figure 6 along the line a¹, d'. In Figure 6 the shield B, B, is not shown.
A, A, A, A, are a series of parallel tubes, about twenty in a row, and four rows
deep from front to back at top, but below spread out like a fan, so as to be of
forty in the row, and two rows deep, the rows interlaying. Each of the tubes is
a cylindrical or somewhat flattened spiral of fine wire, like the article made
by gold fringe makers "bullion" or "pearl." In this instrument the currents
of the breath pass longitudinally through the tubes of the coils, the exhaled
currents entering the upper orifices of the tubes a, a, and passing out at the
lower orifices d, d, and the inhaled current entering at d, d, and passing out of
the tubes at a, a, and thence into the mouth of the wearer, the pad b resting
B, B,
against his upper lip and the cloth lining at C' against his lower lip.

page_text: Figure 7, is an arched plate of metal, which screens the mouth and gives
direction to the currents. C, C, C, C, are sections of the inner and outer layers
of the shawl wrapper, containing the operative work, but lined next the
metal work over the front and back surface with an air-proof tissue, the
lower orifices d, d, of the tubes being freely open to the atmosphere for easy
respiration.
In this construction of respirator the power is not variable, nor is it other-
wise equal to the above, but it lies so flatly on the mouth, and from the
flexibility of the tubes has so nearly the flexibility of a shawl wrapper, as not
to be distinguished from it.
-In witness whereof, I, the said Julius Jeffreys, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
G. HASELDEN.
JULIUS JEFFREYS. (L.B.)