Untitled record

Application filed March 21, 1889, Serial No, 304,164. (No model,)

To cdl whom it may concern

Be it known that I, Harry P. Pratt, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illi5 nois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Electric Brushes, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide an improved construction of the kind of brush io having a galvanic battery so arranged and supported upon it that the battery-circuit shall be normally open, and closed through the body of the user when taken in the hand and applied to the body. The principle re15 mains the same whatever the form of brush or analogous article in which my invention may be embodied, though I prefer to describe my improvement in detail in connection with a tooth-brush and the peculiar construction 20 of the latter involved, and so illustrate it in the accompanying drawings, in which—

Figure 1 shows by an enlarged longitudiinal sectional view a tooth-brush provided with my improvement, and Fig. 2 a face view 25 of one of the battery-disks.

A is a tooth-brush, having the bristles B secured in a perforated metal plate r, fastened upon the head portion q of the brush, and having a metallic extension j» passing through 30 the neck portion n, (which, like the part q, is composed of non-conductingmaterial, asivory, bone, or the like,) and terminating in a flanged metal socket m. The neck portion n of the brush is enlarged toward its extremity and 35 hollowed out to receive the flanged socket m, and it terminates in a screw Z, to receive one threaded end of a metallic tube or handle C, forming the handle of the brush, and provided at its opposite end with a removable 40 and adjustable metal screw-cap k, having a socket i in line, when the cap is in place, with the socket m.

D is the battery composed of a series of alternating copper, zinc, and felt plates or 45 disks, marked, respectively, c, z, and /, and each having a central opening h and two smaller openings h' on opposite sides of the center, and the disks are strung in proper order on a rod or tube g, of insulating mate50 rial, which passes through the openings in the centers of the series of disks, and sup ports the latter in the tube or handle C by resting at its opposite ends in the sockets m and i. The disks are held together by rods or tubes e, of insulating material, passed 55 through the openings h' and threaded, where they extend beyond the ends of the pile, to receive the metallic nuts d, which serve to clamp the disks of the voltaic pile together and to produce metallic connection between 60 the terminal metal disks (respectively zinc and copper) and the cap k at the one end and the flange of the socket™ at the opposite end.

The voltaic pile afforded by the disks and their supporting means in the tube or handle C 65 is readily removable on unscrewing the cap k, as for the purpose of taking it out to saturate it with the necessarj⁷ exciting-liquid (as vinegar) and, when desired, reversing its poles. 7c

To use the device, the bristles or non-metallic part corresponding therewith (as the block of corrugated felt in another form of tooth-brush) should be moistened, and on being applied to the teeth, with the tube C in 75 the grasp of the hand, the circuit will be closed through the body and the effect of the current exerted upon the teeth.

By inserting the voltaic pile at its positive or negative end first into the handle C the 80 current from the “acid” (positive) pole or that from the “alkali” (negative) pole may be directed to the teeth, the former serving to alleviate pain and the latter for use in destroying microbes, cleaning, polishing, and 85 the like, and owing to the non-metallic nature of the bristle portion no disagreeable metallic taste will be experienced in the use of the device as a tooth-brush, and as a hair or flesh brush the compactness of the bristles, com- 90 pared with the wires serving their purpose in metallic brushes, presents a conducting and distributing medium so extensive as to avoid burning of the body by the current.

By directing the positive current to the 95 gums teething may be hastened and the attendant pain alleviated.

While I have thus mainly confined my description and the illustration to the application of my improvement in the form of a 100 tooth-brush or analogous article, it may, obviously, be applied to other forms of brushes

407,115 and various toilet· and other articles applied by the hand to the body, and through the medium of which it may be desirable to subject certain parts of the body to the effect of 5 a galvanic current. Accordingly I desire to be understood to include as within the spirit of my invention any such appliance provided with my improvement.