US2316333A - Applicator and boiler for thermalvapor treatment of congestions in the human body - Google Patents

Description

Apnl 13, 1943. w. E. HILLEBRAND 3 APPLICATOR AND BOILER FOR THERMAL-VAPOR TREATMENT OF CONGESTIONS IN THE HUMAN BODY Filed July; 19, 1940 Patented Apr. 13, 1943 UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE APPLIOATOR AND BOILER FOR THERMAL- VAPOR TREATMENT OF CONGESTIONS 3 Claims. ,(c1. 4-165) My invention relates to applicators and boilers used in thermal vapor treatments indicated for alleviating the results of sprains, contusions, abrasions and other swellings or inflammatory conditions in various parts of the human body. i

velop a new boiler for generating necessary vapor I and new applicators more desirable than some of the former ones, especially in large hospitals. Another object of my present invention has been to devise a better means of handling some of my former applicators in the process of the thermal vapor treatment. And another object of my present invention has been to point out a very desirable location for my thermostat, or thermal switch, for regulating the temperature of the thermal vapor in the process of the treatment of a patient. Other objects of my present invention will be disclosed in the process of this specification. V

The foregoing objects have been attained in my present invention; and my new and useful improvements in applicators and boilers with their accessory parts for alleviating swelling and inflammatory conditions in various parts of the human body. illustrated in the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification, are practical devices of my invention, embodying the aforesaid novel means and other new I and useful details of construction, arrangement and combination of parts, all of which together with their functions, will be described in detail with reference to said drawing and will be definitely pointed out in the claims that follow this description, so that any person skilled in the art may be able to construct and use this invention.

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of one phase of my invention, the parts thereof being assembled for service, showing one form of my small applicators provided with a thermal switch and a flexible rubber hose connection designed for the thermal vapor treatment of different surface places on the human body, and a light portable supporting frame for the parts thereof, including a small circular glass boiler and an electric heater thereunder.

Fig. 2 is a detail view in perspective of the transparent dust-proof cover designed to fit over the outer part of the thermal switch, showing the knurled head of the rotary adjusting shaft of the thermal switch and the adjustable indicator for the dial thereof.

This invention has been designed and experimentally developed in its details of construction for the purpose of producing, at a minimum of cost, new and useful forms of applicators and boilers provided with accessory equipment of great en'iciency in the service of alleviating swellings, congestions and inflammations in different parts of the human body, by means of the thermal vapor treatment of said afflicted parts. And with said purpose and the special objects aforesaid in view, I will now describe my invention more fully in detail, pointing out the new and useful features of the construction and the operation of the individual parts and the combinations thereof, as illustrated in the drawing hereinabove described, in which similar letters and characters refer to similar parts, throughout the several views.

Light-weight equipment One phase'of my invention for the thermal vapor treatment of inflammatory conditions in individual parts of the human body, is shown in a side elevational view in Fig. 1 of the drawing. In this phase of my invention, I have designed a comparatively light-weight equipment adapted to be readily moved about and placed upon a table or on the floor for operation in the thermal vapor treatment of small superficial areas on individual parts of the human body, in cases of local bruises, burns, abrasions, boils, c'arbuncles, poison ivy and other such afflictions. 'This light-weight equipment shown assembled for service in Fig. 1 of the drawing, consists of a rigid supporting tripod provided with a strong circular base-plate l, to which the lower portions of the legs of said tripod are securely fastened and other parts hereinafter described. For upon said base-plate I have se curely fixed a small circular electric heater 2; and upon said heater I have mounted a circular water-boiler 3 which I have designed and developed experimentally for use with this lightweight equipment, said boiler being provided with a circular cap 4 adapted to be screwed onto the upper threaded end of said boiler in service. This electric heater 32 and the boiler 3 are designed to furnish the thermal vapor for any one of the various manually-operative applicators which may be used with this said equipment, all of which applicators, in construction and equipment, are designed to be similar to the conical applicator 5, shown in Fig. 1 and made of soft rubber and equipped with a wooden handle 3!, a short angular nozzle 29 and an automatic thermal switch. This hollow applicator 5 shaped somewhat like a truncated cone, has soft flexible rubber sides and a stiff, concaved baffle-plate 50 indicated therein with dotted lines and fastened in the inside top thereof by means of the screw shown in dotted lines therein holding the wooden handle 5a to the top of said applicator, which is also provided with a plane circular wide-open bottom designed to be placed over the inflamed or swollen surface on the body of the patient undergoing thermal vapor treatment. For this light-weight equipment I have also designed other applicators of different sizes, but similar in construction and equipment, though some of them may have deep curves in the bottom lines thereof adapted to fit various normal curves in different parts of a patients body, to prevent the excessive escape of thermal vapor therefrom in the process of the thermal vapor treatment. This small applicator 5 is connected with the boiler 3 by means of a long, soft rubber tubing 6, which extends from its connection with the nozzle 1 down to the upper end of the angular metal tube Zfi which passes down through a central boring in the hexagonal block 8 and thence down into the vertical stem of the circular cap 4 of the boiler 3 in a long, vapor-tight slip-fit connection.

For the strong and rigid anchorage of the upper ends of the legs of said supporting tripod, I have designed the oblong hexagonal block 8; and to three several, equally-spaced facets around said block I have securely fastened the upper ends of the legs of said tripod. And to one of the intervening facets of said block, I have securely fastened the handle 9 of said lightweight equipment, to enable the operator to move said equipment readily from one place to another; and to another intervening facet of said hexagonal block, I have fastened an angular holder-rod l5, upon the upper end of which an operator may hang the applicator 5 when not in use, by pushing the upper end of said holderrod through the perforation in the wooden. handle 5a of said applicator, shown in Fig. 4.

Operation of said light-weight equipment When the operator of this light-weight equipment is preparing to give a patient a thermal vapor treatment for alleviating the swelling and pain in some local superficial afiiiction on the patients body, the operator, after making the patient ready for treatment and arranged in a comfortable position, would place said lightweight equipment upon the table or on the floor, near the patient. And then, to energize the electric heater 2, the operator would connect his electric current lines with the source of electric supply; and the current now flows in along line H, which for safety and convenience I have passed through the rubber tubing 6, inserting it through a small opening in the tubing near the junction thereof with the angular metal tube 26. and allowing it to come out throu h another small opening in said tubing near the junction. thereof with the nozzle 29, from which this line H enters the automatic thermal switch installed in the side of the applicator 30. And from said switch the current returns in line i 2 entering the rubber tubing again at said opening near nozzle 5b, and passing down through said tubing and coming out again through said opening near the tube 1. From this said opening, line l2 passes down carrying the current to the electric heater 2, energizing that and returning in line 13 back to the source of supply. These electric lines, H, l2 and 13, in the drawing and specification are represented as separate lines to illustrate the course of the current from the source of supply, through the thermal switch and the heater; but in practice, of course, these lines would be incased in one cord which, at the switch and the heater, would be cut open to make the connections for those parts.

Thus the water in the boiler 3 is heated, producing thermal vapor under pressure therein; and, consequently, the vapor passes out of said boiler through the metal tube 1 and the rubber tubing 6 through the nozzle 5b into the applicator 5, where it flows against said baffle-plate fixed therein for the purpose of dispersing and tempering the stream of thermal vapor as it enters the applicator from said nozzle.

The operator now grasps the knurled head l4 fixed on the outer end of the rotary adjusting shaft of said automatic thermal switch and turns the shaft, adjusting it so that the switch will open and cut the electric current from the heater 2 at the temperature required in this particular thermal vapor treatment. The operator then sets the indicator l4 at the index of said required temperature marked on said dial; and with the set-screw shown in Fig. 2, he fastens to said rotary adjusting shaft the indicator l4 pointing temporarily to this said index of temperature required for this particular treatment.

Now if the temperatiu'e of the thermal vapor in the applicator 5 should fall below the temperature required in this thermal vapor treatment, the rotary adjusting shaft automatically turns back, taking along with it the indicator I which the operator has previously fastened thereto with said set-screw, the automatic thermal switch closes, sending the current again through the heater 2, which quickly revives the temperature of the thermal vapor in the applicator 5, to the predetermined degree required for this specific treatment. Thus the operator, with the help of the visible indicator on the graduated visible dial of the automatic thermal switch, is able to give his attention to the patient in the treatment, always having the assurance of the practically uniform temperature of the thermal vapor in the applicator. And in case of any material change in the electric current on the supply line to the heater, a glance at the movement of the indicator [4' above or below its required index mark on the dial, warns him to investigate without delay and make the necessary correction for a successful treatment. The operator now grasping the handle 5a of this manually-operative applicator, proceeds to cover therewith the congested or inflamed area on the body of the patient, thus bathing the afiiicted part with the thermal vapor circulating in the now enclosed applicator, and exerting a slight intermittent pressure thereon, thus starting up active circulation in the afilicted part, which soon brings about desired relief therein.

But, as I have previously explained, in the full equipment of the physical features of my present invention, other applicators than this herein shown, would be needed, made of different sizes and shapes adapted for the treatment of different aiilictions in various parts of the human body; but all of these, like the applicator herein shown, should be made in accordance with the common features of the applicators of my instant invention, that is, in construction and equipment, similar to the applicator herein shown and provided with bafileplates and the automatic thermal switches. And it should be understood that the specific detail of the various parts of the present embodiment of my invention, as I have illustrated in the drawing thereof and fully described, are not to be considered as limitations in the construction of my equipment for the thermal vapor treatment of afflictions in different parts of the human body, and that I may make desirable modifications in these details, to facilitate production or to economize in the fabrication of the parts thereof, provided I keep faithfully within the scope of my invention and claims.

Now, having thus described the various features of my invention, the detail construction, arrangement and combination of its parts, as well as it functions and the ways and means of operation and application; those features and accessories of my invention adapted for administering thermal vapor treatment to afilictions in difierent parts of the human body, that I con sider new and useful and on which I desire Letters Patent granted to me, I have hereinbelow set forth and specifically described in the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a portable apparatus designed for the thermal vapor treatment of congestions in various individual parts of the human body, as described, the combination of a rigid tripod provided with a hexagonal block fastened in the upper part thereof and with a broad horizontal shelf fastened to the tripod-legs near the bottom thereof; means for generating the thermal vapor for said treatment, comprising an electric heater on said shelf, with its electric supplywires coming from a source of electricity; a circular glass bottle mounted on said heater and partly filled with water; a tubular metal cap screwed on the top of said bottle; means for efiiciently supplying said thermal vapor for said congested parts, comprising an angular metal tube running down through said hexagonal block and connecting with said tubular metal cap in a sliding vapor-proof joint; a long flexible rubber-tube connected to the upper end of said angular metal tube, and encasing said electric supply-wires from said heater; and a soft rubber-applicator of conical shape attached in a vapor-proof joint to the outer end of said long flexible rubber-tube.

2. In a portable apparatus designed for the thermal vapor treatment of congestions in various individual parts of the human body, as described and defined in claim 1, including a handle for this light-weight equipment, said handle being fastened to a facet of said hexagonal block, and a holder-rod fastened to said hexagonal block, to hang said applicator upon when not in use.

3. In a portable apparatus designed for the thermal vapor treatment of congestions in various individual parts of the human body, as described, a soft rubber-applicator of conical shape, wide open at the bottom and adapted to be filled with thermal vapor as said applicator is applied to any individual congested part of the human body, said applicator being provided with a baflle-plate for tempering and dispersing the inflowing thermal vapor, and provided also with an automatic thermal switch with indicator for controlling the temperature in said applicator.

WILLIAM E. HILLEBRAND.

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