Improved Means for Disinfecting, Deodorizing, or Perfuming the Air of Rooms and other Places, and for Supplying Antiseptics or Disinfectants to Bandages or Surgical Dressings.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 21st Feb., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 20th Nov., 1893-Accepted, 6th Jan., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improved Means for Disinfecting, Deodorizing, or Perfuming the Air
of Rooms and other Places, and for Supplying Antiseptics or
Disinfectants to Bandages or Surgical Dressings.
I, CHARLES THOMAS KINGZETT, F.I.C., F.C.S., Analytical Chemist, of
96 Amhurst Park, Stamford Hill, in the County of Middlesex, (partly a
communication to me from abroad by Reginald Cowdell Woodcock, of 636 to
642 West 55th Street, New York, United States of America,) do hereby declare
the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention concerns appliances for the automatic and continuous disinfection,
deodorization and perfuming of the air in rooms, hospital wards, and other places,
also for the maintenance of a constant supply of liquid antiseptics or disinfectant
preparations to bandages or surgical dressings.
I use a wick of any substance having sufficient capillarity and attach or insert
one end of same on or into a mass of any suitable absorbent material such as
plaster of Paris formed or moulded into a block of appropriate shape; the other
end of the wick is connected with a reservoir containing the liquid to be diffused.
The wick, the absorbent material (diffuser) and the reservoir may be permanently
connected or each severally detachable from the others.
For example the block of absorbent material may be placed or fixed upon the
top of a reservoir containing the liquid and which is closed with the exception
of a central orifice at the top through which the wick passes and a short projecting
neck at one side through which the reservoir may be filled.
Such an apparatus may be placed in any suitable position and the purification or
perfuming of the air is effected by means of the disinfectant or perfume which is
volatilised from the diffuser as hereinbefore described. It should be explained that.
the use of a diffuser in this way largely promotes the dissemination of the disinfectant
or perfume by enabling it to volatilise and diffuse from a great surface which is kept
soaked with it by means of the wick which by capillary action in its turn draws it
from the reservoir.
If desired the block of absorbent material may be separate from the reservoir
and the wick simply be allowed to hang down into the liquid through an open mouth
at the top of the reservoir or through a cork or other attachment.
Or the diffuser may be adapted to a mechanical fan or punkah the absorbent
material being connected with the blades and the wicks led from it to a central
reservoir containing the liquid.
It will be obvious that blocks of absorbent material which are herein described
by the name of diffuser kept saturated in this way with antiseptics or volatile
disinfectants may be usefully employed in connection with surgical bandages or
dressings, for by their employment the said bandages or dressings may be kept
impregnated with the same active principles and the neighbouring air can be
preserved in an aseptic state. Of course where plaster is used as an immediato
application in the nature of an absorbent dressing it may be made to constitute
the diffuser by suitably connecting with it the wick that leads from the reservoir.
As illustrations of the liquids which may be employed in connection with these
appliances I may mention oil. of eucalyptus as a volatile purifying agent and
permanganate of potassium or sanitas fluid as surgical applications, but of course
any perfumes or chemical agents that are compatible with the absorbent material
constituting the diffuser may be used.
Dated this 18th dox of Februar 1902

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Means for Disinfecting, Deodorizing, or Perfuming the Air
of Rooms and other Places, and for Supplying Antiseptics or
Disinfectants to Bandages or Surgical Dressings.
I, CHARLES THOMAS KINGZETT, F.I.C., F.C.S., Analytical Chemist, of
Elmstead Knoll, Chislehurst, in the County of Kent (partly a communication to
me from abroad by Reginald Cowdell Woodcock, of 636 to 642 West 55th Street,
New York, United States of America) do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention concerns appliances for the automatic and continuous disinfection,
deodorization and perfuming of the air in rooms, hospital wards, and other places,
also for the maintenance of a constant supply of liquid antiseptics or disinfectant
preparations to bandages or surgical dressings.
I use a wick of any substance having sufficient capillarity and attach or insert
one end of same on or into a mass of any suitable absorbent material such as plaster
of Paris formed or moulded into a block of appropriate shape; the other end of
the wick is connected with a reservoir containing the liquid to be diffused.
The wick, the absorbent material (diffuser) and the reservoir may be permanently
connected or each severally detachable from the others.
For example the block of absorbent material may be placed or fixed upon the
top of a reservoir containing the liquid and which is closed with the exception of a
ceutral orifice at the top through which the wick passes and a short projecting neck
at one side through which the reservoir may be filled.
Such an apparatus may be placed in any suitable position and the purification or
perfuming of the air is effected by means of the disinfectant or perfume which is
volatilised from the diffuser as hereinbefore described. It should be explained that
the use of a diffuser in this way largely promotes the dissemination of the
disinfectant or perfume by enabling it to volatilise and diffuse from a great surface
which is kept soaked with it by means of the wick which by capillary action in its
turn draws it from the reservoir.
If desired the block of absorbent material may be separate from the reservoir and
the wick simply be allowed to hang down into the liquid through an open mouth at
the top of the reservoir or through a cork or other attachment.
Or the diffuser may be adapted to a mechanical fan or punkah the absorbent
material being connected with the blades and the wicks led from it to a central
reservoir containing the liquid.
It will be obvious that blocks of absorbent material which are herein described
by the name of diffuser kept saturated in this way with antiseptics or volatile
disinfectants may be usefully employed in connection with surgical bandages or
dressings for by their employment the said bandages or dressings may be kept
impregnated with the same active principles and the neighbouring air can be
preserved in an aseptic state. Of course where plaster is used as an immediate
application in the nature of an absorbent dressing it may be made to constitute the
diffuser by suitably connecting with it the wick that leads from the reservoir.
As illustrations of the liquids which may be employed in connection with these
appliances I may mention oil of eucalyptus as a volatile purifying agent and per-
manganate of potassium or sanitas fluid as surgical applications, but of course any
perfumes or chemical agents that are compatible with the absorbent material
constituting the diffuser may be used.
In the drawing annexed I have shewn two examples of means for diffusing
purifying or perfuming agents into the air in rooms and other places.
In Figure 1A is a bottle or vessel holding the purifying agent to be diffused say

page_text: for instance "eucalyptus oil" with which it is charged up to level of dotted line
in figure.
B is a funnel shaped head fitting into A at its neck.
C is a round or other shaped mass of absorbent material-say for instance of
plaster of Paris or plaster in admixture with saw-dust.
D is a wick (of one or more strands) embedded into mass C and which soaks up
and feeds it with the purifying agent contained in A. In this way the mass
(which may merely lodge in B and be therefore detachable from it-or may be cast
into it to take its shape) is made to constantly diffuse the vapour and exercise the
purifying effects of the chemical reagent which may be used.
The funnel may if desired be made to fit through a cork into the neck of the
vessel and a second small neck closed by a stopper be provided to allow of the liquid
being poured into the vessel without removing the funnel.
U
Figure 2 shows an arrangement for purifying the air entering into a room through
a grating or a Tobin's tube (for ventilating purposes).
A is receptacle holding volatile or other purifying agent.
B is the wick communicating with C.
C is the absorbent diffuser which is here represented as lodged on a small shelf in
a Tobin's tube so that the air entering a room through the tube and travelling past
the absorbent diffuser is perfumed and purified.
D represents part of a Tobin's tube.
It is obvious that the receptacle A may be placed under the boards of the floor
or in any suitable place the wick alone reaching from it to the diffuser wherever
placed for instance up an angle of the wall or behind the wall paper or passing
through a hole in the wall from another room. In this latter way one large
receptacle may be made to feed any number of wicks which for protection may be
lightly cased in some sheathing of suitable material-said wicks leading to different
parts of a house or hospital. In the last named case the wicks are available for
inserting into any plaster or other bandages or for like uses.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The improved means hereinbefore described for disinfecting deodorizing or
perfuming the air of rooms and other places and for supplying antiseptics or
disinfectants to bandages or surgical dressings.
2. The combination of an absorbent block of plaster of Paris or such like block
of absorbent material a wick partly embedded in the block, and a receptacle holding
volatile disinfecting deodorizing or perfuming liquid into which the wick is made
to dip.
Dated this 17th day of November 1893.
C. T. KINGZETT.