AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF SYRINGE OR HAND PUMP
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Lewis Figgett, of Missionary Place, Walworth,
in the County of Surrey, Surgical Turner, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF SYRINGE OR HAND PUMP."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Lewis Figgett at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th August 1858.
I, JAMES LEWIS FIGGETT, of Missionary Place, Walworth, in the County of
Surrey, Surgical Turner, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF SYRINGE OR HAND PUMP," to be as
follows:-
The chief object of this Invention is to throw a small continuous stream for
medical purposes by the use of one hand only, instead of two hands, as is at
present required to work injecting syringes. For this purpose I construct an
air-tight barrel, to the lower end of which I fit a hollow piston, the hollow rod
of which forms the supply pipe. In this piston I mount a ball or other valve,
and at about the middle of the barrel I provide a second and similar valve,
above which branches off the discharge pipe. The piston I connect with the
lower end of the barrel by means of a coiled spring, the action of which is to
draw down the piston to the bottom of the barrel. Air-holes are made in the
barrel to admit air to the under side of the piston.
When the instrument is required to be used, say, for medical purposes, the dis-

page_text: charge pipe is connected by means of a flexible tube with a pierced discharge
tube suited for the special object for which the syringe is for the time to be
applied, and the foot of the hollow piston rod is inserted in the vessel con-
taining the injecting fluid. The operator then grasping the barrel in one hand
presses it down, and thereby compresses the spring; then, by removing the
pressure, he allows the spring to expand and draw back the piston, and so
a rapid pumping action is produced, both the descent and advance of the
piston causing a discharge of the fluid.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Lewis Figgett in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
19th February 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
LEWIS FIGGETT, of Missionary Place, Walworth, in the County of Surrey,
Surgical Turner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Lewis Figgelt, Her special license that I, the said James Lewis Figgett,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Lewis Figgett, 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 "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF
SYRINGE OR HAND PUMP," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said James Lewis Figgett, by an instrument in writing under my band and
seal, 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 James Lewis Figgett, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thercon (that is to say) :-

page_text: The chief object of this Invention is to throw a small continuous stream for
medical purposes by the aid of one hand only (instead of two hands, which
are at present required to work this class of injecting syringes) thus leaving
the other hand of the operator free for directing the stream or for other
employment.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 shews, in sectional elevation, the
improved syringe in action; and Fig. 2. is a similar sectional elevation, but
shewing the parts in different relative positions to those of Fig. 1. a, a", is a
cylindrical barrel composed of two parts, and connected together by screwing
on to a valve box b, at opposite sides thereof. In the seat of this valve box
fits a spherical valve c, or it may be a clack or conical valve, and from the box,
just above the valve seat, projects laterally a discharge pipe . The upper
end of the barrel is closed air-tight, but the lower end is closed with a pierced
cap, which is screwed in its place and forms a guide for the hollow rod d of
the piston of the syringe. This rod d, which forms the supply pipe to the
syringe, is made with a splayed foot e, or cup with an indented edge at its lower
end, and to its upper end is fitted a hollow piston f, provided with a spherical,
or it may be any other suitable valve g, and a grating for confining the valve
in place. Coiled round the piston rod and inserted between the piston and
the cap on the lower part of the barrel, is a spring h, which has a tendency to
draw down the piston into the position of Fig. 1, and create a vacuum in the
barrel below the valve box, which vacuum when the open piston rod is
immersed in a basin of water will be quickly filled by the rise of water up the
piston rod, through the piston, and into the lower part of the barrel. By
pressing with the hand upon the upper end of the barrel, the barrel will be
forced down and the spring expanded. This movement of the barrel (equivalent
to the thrusting inwards of the piston) will force upwards the water contained
in the space between the two valves c and g into the barrel, cause it to lift the
valve c off its seat (as shewn at Fig. 2) and pass out at the discharge pipe *.
The pressure of the hand being then removed from the top of the barrel the
spring will be free to contract and draw down the piston. During this
movement the valve g will rise from its seat and admit a further supply of
water above the piston. On to the end of the discharge pipe e a flexible pipe i
of any required length is screwed, and to this pipe i is fitted at its opposite end
a nozzle k, which is intended to receive a jet or rose-head of any suitable con-
struction for directing or diffusing the stream. Air-holes are made in the cap
at the lower end of the barrel to admit air to the under side of the piston, but
the
upper end is closed air-tight, in order to enclose a column of air which
shall act upon the column of water forced into the barrel above the valve box,

page_text: and by its expansion, when the pressure of the hand is removed from the top
of the barrel, discharge the water through the pipe *.
When the instrument is required to be used, say, for medical purposes, the
flexible tube is fitted with a pierced ivory or other discharge pipe suited for
the special object to which the syringe is for the time to be applied, and the
foot of the hollow piston rod is inserted in the vessel containing warm water
or other injecting fluid. The operator then grasping the barrel in one hand
presses it down, and thereby compresses the spring h; then, by removing the
pressure, he allows the spring to expand and draw back the piston, and so a
rapid pumping action is produced, both the descent and advance of the piston
causing a discharge of the fluid. The piston rod may either be permanently
attached to the piston or made removeable therefrom, as indicated by the
Drawing, to facilitate the packing of the portable instrument. The same
principle of construction, it will be understood, may be readily applied to a
garden engine, or where a more copious stream is required to be projected
than for medical purposes.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved Con-
struction of Syringe or Hand Pump," and explained the manner of carrying
the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part
recited Letters Patent I claim, constructing syringes or hand pumps, as herein
described, whereby with the exercise of one hand alternately pressing upon
and releasing the pressure from the barrel, the operator is enabled to throw a
continuous stream, thus leaving the other hand free for directing the stream
or for other use.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Lewis Figgett, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
JAS FIGGETT. (L.S.)