IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR BRUSHING, COMBING, CLEANSING, DRYING, AND PERFUMING HAIR
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Ritchie at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th November
1867.
I, CHARLES RITCHIE, of Upper Tulse Hill, Brixton, in the County of Surrey,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR BRUSHING, COMBING, CLEANSING, DRYING, AND PERFUMING HAIR,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for brushing,
combing, cleansing, drying, and perfuming hair.
I employ in brushing hair a bar or axis which is held by the operator in
his two hands, one at each end, just within the grasp, at one end of the bar
or axis a collar or stop is formed and in a similar position at the other end of
the bar or axis is an annular groove. The bar receives upon it a circular
brush, a driving drum, and a tubular stop piece which slips on to the bar or
axis; this stop piece is secured by a screw which enters down into the groove
in the bar. The brush, the driving drum, and the stop piece may be formed
together, but it is more convenient to make them separately and arrange the
brush and the driving drum to clutch the one to the other. I employ a flat.

page_text: endless driving band and I make the part of the driving drums over which the
band passes of elastic or compressible material.
In order to render the apparatus applicable for brushing long hair I apply
a small roller (or rollers) parallel to the brush, which roller (or rollers) should
be driven at a greater surface speed. The hair whilst it is brushed rests or
is carried on this roller (or rollers), which by its rapid motion keeps it
distended and prevents it lapping around the brush which is applied between
the roller and the head of the person. In some cases I apply a comb behind
the roller (or between the rollers), which comb may, at will by the hand of
the operator (acting on a spring or other suitable arrangement) be elevated
above or depressed below the line of the rollers, and which when the apparatus
is applied close up to the head and then drawn back again combs the hair at
the same time that it is brushed by a rotatory brush. Sometimes I omit the
rotatory brush from the arrangement, and then along with a comb I arrange
in a similar way a non-rotating brush which is applied also in a similar way
upon the hair, and thus along with the aid of the rollers simultaneous brushing
and combing is effected. In some cases the non-rotating brush may be
omitted from the arrangement, and then the roller (or rollers) serves as a
carrier, working with and in aid of the combing. Sometimes I omit the comb
and then the roller (or rollers) may be employed to polish or cleanse the hair,
the surface of the roller or a portion thereof being of a soft or sponge-like
material impregnated with liquid or otherwise, such surface being fixed upon
or inserted through the roller (or rollers) so as not to be an excessive drag
upon the hair, and used wet or dry, according to circumstances, heating irons
or other heated surfaces arranged within the rollers may sometimes be
employed for drying the hair, as also perfuming substances for perfuming it.
Sometimes for convenience in applying my apparatus, and the more complete
cleansing or drying of long hair, I use a series of rollers with, by preference, a
suitable fabric strained over them to form an endless surface made to rotate
within a frame which may be attached to the chair of the person operated
upon and so as to receive the long hair upon the rollers, or to a standard fixed
in the floor behind the chair; these rollers may derive motion apart from the
brushing and combing apparatus, and be regarded as a distinct arrangement
which may be employed in any kind of hair dressing, serving to bring up the
long hair to the hand of the operator, the long hair resting upon the
rotating surface, and in some cases being cleansed or dried thereby; this frame
may be arranged to be raised or lowered as desired. The frame may be made
with guides or grooves in it to receive wheels which I sometimes attach to
the brushing and combing apparatus, and which wheels may be arranged to rest

page_text: on or to be moved backwards and forwards in the grooves or guides or rails,
the apparatus then operating by the application of one hand, only in some
cases the brushing and combing apparatus may be arranged to operate by
treadle motive action within the grooves upon the frame.