Electro-Magnetic Dental Engine, Patent Model
date: label: date made
content: ca 1873
label: patent date
content: 1875-08-17
name: label: maker
content: Bishop, Joaquim
notes: label: Description
content: Patent model for Joaquim Bishop, “Improvement in Electric-Magnetic Dental Engines,” U.S. Patent 166,843 (August 17, 1875); rights assigned to Samuel S. White of Philadelphia.
label: Description
content: Joaquim Bishop (1803-1886) was born in Portugal and emigrated to the United States as a child. In 1832 he worked as an assistant to and instrument maker for Robert Hare, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1842, having mastered Hare's method of refining platinum using the oxy-hydrogen blow torch, he established the J. Bishop & Company Platinum Works in Philadelphia; this firm later relocated to Sugartown, Pa.
label: Description
content: From the patent application: "The object of my invention is to gain an increased battery-power from a battery of given strength. My improvement consists in combining in a dental engine two independent electro-magnets of similar polarity, an interposed revolving armature, and a shifting break to reverse the direction of rotation of the armature by throwing one or the other of the magnets into action...The herein before-described electro-magnetic dental engine, consisting of the combination of the frame, the revolving armature, independent electro-magnets of similar polarity, and the circuit-shifting break-lever, which throws one of the magnets into and the other out of action to reverse the direction of rotation of the armature, substantially as set forth."
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Sugartown
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.M-04245
label: accession number
content: 89797
label: patent number
content: US166843A
label: catalog number
content: M-04245
objectType: label: Object Name
content: dental plugger
label: Object Name
content: patent model
label: Object Name
content: dental device
label: Object Name
content: dental plugger, electro magnetic, patent model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 in x 3 in x 9 1/4 in; 5.08 cm x 7.62 cm x 23.495 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/8 in x 9 3/8 in x 3 1/8 in; 5.3975 cm x 23.8125 cm x 7.9375 cm