IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED IN ANTISEPTIC AND OTHER SUBSTANCES FOR INHALATION, DISINFECTION AND FOR OTHER MEDICAL PURPOSES
Year: 1883

page_text: L
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Arthur Hill Hassall at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 2nd October 1883.
"
THE VAPORIZATION
OF
ARTHUR HILL HASSALL M.D. of 54 Holborn Viaduct in the City of London
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED IN
ANTISEPTIC AND OTHER SUBSTANCES FOR INHALATION, DISINFECTION AND FOR
OTHER MEDICAL PURPOSES
"
This invention has for its object improvements in apparatus to be employed in
the vaporization of antiseptic and other substances for inhalation disinfection and
for other medical purposes.
Certain antiseptic and disinfectant chemical substances such as carbolic acid,
thymol and creosote, at ordinary temperatures possess only a slight degree of
volatility, particularly when the quantity exposed to the air either in the solid
form or dissolved in water or any other appropriate menstruum is but small and
the surface over which it is spread is restricted to a small space.
I find however from experiment that when these same substances are exposed to
the air in greater quantities and are spread over a larger surface that they as well
as many other antiseptics lose in weight rapidly and to a surprising extent. One
instance of this is afforded by carbolic acid, a very powerful and important
antiseptic: 800 grains dissolved in water and spread over the surface of a
moistened cloth having a superficies of 10 feet were found at the end of 30 hours
to have become volatilized and to have wholly disappeared.
I find that different substances have different rates of volatilization when thus
treated according to their chemical composition and characters. The rate in each
case is modified by a variety of circumstances and conditions but is capable of
being worked out for each substance in a definite form so that the actual and
relative loss which takes place hour by hour may be definitely ascertained and
expressed in figures.

page_text: I find that a similar augmentation of evaporation takes place in many cases
when the antiseptic or other suitable substance is spread over a comparatively
large surface of water and even when dissolved therein.
I find further that the rate of evaporation is in most cases greatly increased by
raising the temperature of the water on which the substance either floats or in which
it is dissolved. The temperature at which this result is best effected varies with
different antiseptics as shown by my experiments but it is rarely necessary that it
should exceed 165 F.
Availing myself of these principles and data which I have diligently investigated
and worked out I have been led to devise new and improved forms of apparatus
for inhalation and disinfection purposes.
I construct a Chamber Inhaler and Disinfector as follows:-It consists of a long
linen fabric woven so as to afford a very large extent of surface for evaporation.
The length and breadth of this fabric vary with the extent of the effect required to
be produced. It is extended in several regularly disposed layers by means of two
frames; these are attached to a box and each is provided with a series of rails; the
frames are readily removed and when not in use are packed away in the box.
The cloth also is packed away in a metal case contained within the box.
A cloth eight inches wide and seven feet six inches long, arranged in eight layers
will be found suitable but in some cases a larger apparatus will be required.
When required for use the cloth is saturated with a measured quantity of the
liquid containing the antiseptic disinfectant or other medicinal substance so that it
will absorb and retain the whole without dripping and it is then extended upon
the rails of the apparatus. If carbolic acid be employed 50 grains dissolved in one
hundred cubic centimetres of water will be a suitable charge for a small apparatus
8 inches by 7 feet 6 inches. More than one half of the charge will be expended in
about six hours if the apparatus be exposed under ordinary conditions in the ward
of a Hospital or in a dwelling room. In about twenty four hours the entire charge
will be practically exhausted.
Another apparatus also a Chamber Inhaler and Disinfector consists of an outer
water-bath say nine inches long eight wide and five inches deep. This is supported
over a lamp so that the water is capable of being regulated to and maintained at
any required temperature.
It contains also an inner bath divided into four parts; the divisions of this are
also filled with water, the temperature of which can be regulated to a nicety, by
the aid of a thermometer dipping into it. The substance or substances intended to
be used as thymol, creosote, camphor or turpentine &° (one or more of them) is
placed in the inner bath the temperature of the water therein being raised to the
required point rarely more than 165 F. as the melting point of the solids. A charge
of four or five grammes will be suitable for an apparatus of the dimensions stated
but of course larger apparatus will sometimes be necessary. In this apparatus the
advantages of extent of surface with augmented temperature are combined, a
valuable practical combination.
Another apparatus is the Globe Oro-nasal Inhaler. In this the principle of
obtaining increased evaporation of substances of little volatility at a low
temperature by the exposure of a large surface is also made use of and applied.
This object is attained by attaching to the ordinary valvular adaptor of an oro-nasal
inhaler a receptacle of any convenient form usually globular or oval made of glass
or any other suitable material from an inch and a half to three inches diameter
having a tube on the distal side for the admission of air and filled with some light
and readily permeable substance, which by its interspaces and porosity gives a
greatly extended surface in a very small space. The material used, is moistened
with the antiseptic or other substance employed, and the air drawn through during
inspiration.
Another apparatus is the Globe Oral Inhaler. In this the oro-nasal part or
valvular adaptor of the apparatus last described is dispensed with, and the air is

page_text: simply drawn through the globe, charged as in the previous apparatus, by means of
a tubular mouth-piece furnished with a valve to prevent the passage through the
globe, of the respired air.
The action of this apparatus is entirely different in several important particulars
from that previously described. One of these is that the nose and mouth are
uncovered and that the ordinary respiration is therefore not interfered with or
impeded.