US403350A - Lett and harry c - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

G. F. HORSEY. ADJUSTABLE PAD FOR CLEANSING AND POLISHING TEETH.

No. 403,350. Patented May'l l, 1889.

N. PETERS, Phnwiilhugmpher, Washinglon, D. C

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE F. HORSEY, OF UTICA, NET/V YORK, ASSIGNOR TO CHARLES L. BART- LETT AND HARRY C. ALLBRIGHT, BOTH OF SAME PLACE.

ADJUSTABLE PAD FOR CLEANSING AND POLISHING TEETH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 403,350, dated May 14, 1889.

Application filed April 2 5, 1887. Serial No. 236,022. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE F. HORSEY, of Utica, in the county of Oneida, and in the State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Adjustable Pads and Holders for Cleansing and Polishing Teeth; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 shows a perspective view of my holder with my pad inserted and held therein; Fig. 2, a similar view of the holder with the pad removed; Fig. 3, a detail perspective view of the pad; Fig. 4, a sectional view of the pad and holder on line a: a: in Fig. 1; Fig. 5, a detail perspective view showing a portion of a modified form of my pad, and Fig. 6 a transverse section of such modified pad.

Letters of like name and kind refer to like parts in each of the figures.

The object of my invention is to provide improved means for polishing and cleaning the teeth; and to this end my invention consists in the tooth cleansing and polishing pad, and in the holder therefor adapted for use and in combination with the pad, as hereinafter specified. 7

In my pending applications for United States Patent, Serial Nos. 214,238 and 218,363, I have shown and described a removable tooth cleansing and polishing rubber of felt, and a holder for such rubber adapted to clamp and hold the same. The rubbing or polishing pad which I show, describe, and claim in the present application has its body also made of felt, but is constructed differently from and has certain advantageous features not shown by the pad or rubber claimed in my said pending applications. Such material is preferred for the body of the pad, as being soft, fieX- ible, elastic, and agreeable to the touch.

I am aware that tooth=polishing brush es have heretofore been made of other materials in place of bristles. I do not, therefore, claim herein or intend to claim, broadly, a tooth cleaning and polishing pad made of other ma terial than bristles; nor dolclaim in this ap plication, broadly, a pad made of felt.

In the drawings of this present application, A designates the handle of the holder, which is substantially like that shown in one of my previous applications referred to above. For receiving and holding the removable pad or 7 rubber B, this handle is provided with the loop A, preferably of metal, and connected with the handle proper by means of the tang C. Such tang is split at c, as shown in the drawings, and the two parts of it tend nor- I mally to spring apart, as shown in Fig. 2. Each half of the tang forms a continuation of one side of the holder-loop. Upon the tang is the sliding ring, adapted to force and hold the two parts of the tang together when it is pushed out into the position shown in Fig. 1. To increase the action of the ring in forcing the tang parts togethensuch parts near the holding-loop can be made with a slight swell or flare on their outer sides.

With the two parts of the tang forming, as described and shown, continuations of the two sides of the holder-loop A, theforcing and holding of such parts together by means of the ring will contract the width of the loop 4 and hold it contracted, so that the sides of the loop will then clamp firmly a piece which could easily be inserted between them before such contracting.

The loop is preferably provided at its ends and along its sides with an entwined fiange' o or rib, a, at its back. From such rib the sides and ends of the-holder incline some what inward, as shown best in Fig. 4. This construction affords a concave or channel around the inner side of the loop to grasp and hold the back or upper portion of the pad or rubber B, and the flange a furnishes a support engaging the back or upper side of the pad to support the latter against upward pressure. I

The polishing and cleansing part of the pad, rubber, or piece B is, as already indicated hereinbefore, nade of felt. I do not intend to limit myself to any particular kind of feltfor this purpose. It can be made of any fiber or material, whether wool, vegeta ble, or mineral.

Whatever fiber is used for the felting it should be of such nature that the resultant pad will be soft, flexible, elastic, and porous 10o or absorbent.

Instead of felting, I contemplate using, if

desired, a block or pad of some fibrous material, compacted and held together in any suitable way. Of whatever material the pad is made it is desirable to corrugate the rubhing-surface, as shown in the drawings.

To stiffen the pad or rubber and afford a good hold thereon for the clamping-loop A, I fasten to its outer or upper side the back 15', preferably made of water proof card board or paper. I do not, however, limit myself to the use of such material for this back. Any materialsuch as rubber, wood, or other substance capable of forming a stiffening layer on the back of the pad-can be used.

In practice I connect the water-proof cardboard to the piece of felt by means of cement or by gutta-pcrcha.

\Vhen the completed pad is sprung in between the open sides of the loop A and such sides are forced in toward each other again by ring D, the stiffening-back B is around its edges engaged by and held firmly in the concave or channel around the inner side of the loop, as shown best in Fig. i. The holder gets then a much firmer hold on the pad than was possible where, as described and shown in my other applications referred to, the pad had no back and the holder merely clamped the felt itself.

In cutting out the pieces of felt to form the pad I have found that it is necessary to cut them in a particular way. If the pieces were cut from a sheet of felt, so that the top sun face of the felt would be the rubbing-surface, and such top were corrugated, as the rubbing face of the pad is shown in the drawings, the fibers on the corrugated face wouldcome off freely when the pad was used, as the felted fibers are to a certain extent in layers that is, the fibers as deposited at different times in making up the felt lie substantially in parallel planes and those above are locked with the ones below only by the interlocking of the small barbs or spurs on the fibers themselves.

IVhile there may be no well-defined layers in the felt, it can be .properly said that the fibers lie substantially either in the same or parallel planes, and these planes are parallel to the upper and lower faces of the sheet of felt. If, then, it be attempted to corrugate the upper or lower surface of a piece of felt, the grooves cut in making the corrugations will cut down through the fibers or layers of fibers, so as to leave the ribs of the corrugations formed of short pieces of fibers only held down in place by the interlocking of the barbs on the fibers, as no fibers run down through a sheet of felt.

To provide a pad of felt in which the fibers will be firm and not come loose, I cut the pads from a sheet of felt, so that the corrugated surface will be in a plane at right angles to the upper and lower sides of the sheet. To save material, I do this with a V- shaped knife, which, reciprocated at right angles to the sheet of felt, cuts out at the same time the corrugated faces for two pads. With the pads so made, as will be plain to one familiar with felt-manufacture, fibers will run substantially at right angles to the rubbingface of the pad, as roughly indicated in Fig. 4, and in the ribs of the corrugations there are no fibers which are not interlocked with and held in place by such other fibers. There are then no loose fibers or broken layers of fibers on the face of the pad, and no fibers will come loose in the month during the use of the pad.

The cement or heated guttapercha which is used to attach the felt portion of the pad to its back fastens the outer ends of the fibers running to the side of the pad opposite to its rubbing-surface firmly to such back. I contemplate also, instead of having the stiffening-back made separate and attached to the pad, forming a stiffening back or portion on the pad by dipping the same in or treating it with some preparation adapted to form the outer or back portion of the pad into a still firm layer adapted to be grasped by the holder, as is the paperback shown and described hereinbefore.

I do not limit myself to a corrugated rubbing-surface on the pad.

I do not claim herein the form of holder shown and described, as such holder is covered by the claims in my pending application, Serial No. 218,363; nor do I claim herein, broadly, a corrugated felt pad, as such a pad is broadly claimed in my pending applica tion, No. 214,238.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is 1. In combination with the piece of felt having the roughened face at right angles to the planes in which its fibers run, the stiffening-back cemented to the side of the piece opposite to the roughened face, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. A polishing or cleansing pad consisting of a block of felt having its rubbing-face at right angles to the planes in which the fibers of the felt run corrugated transversely, and a layer of stiff material attached to the side of the felt block opposite to the rubbing-face by means of cement, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I. have hereunto set my hand this 14th day of April, 1887.

GEORGE F. IIORSEY.

Vitnesses:

W. P. CARPENTER, FRANK H. CLARK.

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