US304896A - John baeey - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) J. BARRY.

CLINICAL THERMQMETBR.

Patented Sept 9, 1884.

' UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

JOHN BARRY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CLINICAL TH ERMOMETER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 304,896, dated September 9, 1884.

Application filed April 10, 1884. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN BARRY, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Clinical Thermometers; and the following is declared to be a description of the same.

Clinical or medical thermometers of various shapes have heretofore been made. These thermometers are usually provided with a mercurial index within the tube, said index being moved by the column of mercury as it expands, and being kept separate from the column of mercury by a small quantity of intervening air. These mercury thermometers are liable to roll when laid upon a table and to be broken. Many of these thermometers have been made of a shape to prevent rolling; but they are liable to injure the person when inserted into the passages of the body.

The objects of my present improvement in thermometers is to prevent rolling or breaking, and to form as wide a surface as possible for the lines and figures, so that they will not be overcrowded on the surface of the glass over the index.

111 the drawings, Figure 1 represents the thermometer. Fig. 2 is a cross section in larger size, and Fig. 3 is a cross-section. in larger size of a slightly-modified form.

The tube or stem ais made with a mercurybulb, b, at one end, as usual, the tube or stem itself being of the semicircular shape shown in Fig. 2, with the bore or mercury-tube c in about the center of the glass, the glass in section being substantially a semicircle. The back 2 corresponds to the diameter of the circle, and the face is a half-circumference at 3, with the corners 4 5 rounded, to relieve them from sharpness. The mercury-tube 0 being nearly equidistant between the front and back of the glass, there is a certain amount of magnifying effect, although not so much as in some thermometers heretofore made; but the mercurytube, being fiat and wide, is very easily observed. The tube a (shown in section, Fig. 3, as a modification) is almost semicircular in shape, the sides 5 6 being slightly flattened. This form, however, will accomplish the same objects as that shown in Fig. 2. The semi-cylindrical surface 3 gives ample room for the divisions or graduations and for the figures, as shown, without being crowded. The position of the index can be clearly discerned, and the fiat back at 2 presents a surface for the thermometer to rest on that effectually prevents its rolling. The glass tube contains a sufficient body of glass for strength and safety from breakage. There is usually a layer of white glass at d to render the mercury more apparent. This thermometerglass may be used for any other kind of thermometer.

I do not claim a thermometer-tube of either a triangular or square form sectionally with the corners rounded, or with one of the sides convex, as these have been used; but they are not adapted to lying upon the fiat back with the divisions uppermost, or else they are of a shape that is not adapted to insertion into the cavities of the body.

I claim as my invention The thermometer-tube having a fiat back, a face semicircular, or nearly so, containing the graduations, the mercury-tube nearly equidistant between the front and back, and the white glass behind the mercury, substantially as set forth.

Signed by me this 4th day of April, A. D.

JOHN BARRY. WVitnesses GEO. T. PINCKNEY, WILLIAM G. Mom.

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