US448691A

US448691A - Mary st

Info

Publication number: US448691A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1891-03-24
Anticipated expiration: 1908-03-24

Description

(No Model.)

M. ST. JOHN.

BED PAN.

No. 448,691. Patented Mar. 24, 1891.

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PATENT MARY ST. JOHN, OF NEIV YORK, N. Y.

BED-

PAN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 448,691, dated March 24, 1891.

Application filed October 28, 1890. Serial No. 369,019. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it-known that I, MARY ST. JOHN, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city,

county, and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Bed-Pans, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in bed-pans such as are used in the sick-room and hospitals by patients who are unable to rise from their beds to evacuate the bladder and bowels.

The objects of my improvements are, first, to provide such a bed-pan as can be not only employed as a receptacle of urinal and fecal discharges of the sick, but which can be also used to give the patienta local douche, either liquid or vapor; second, to provide a hinged and practically air-tight cover to such bedpans to conceal from view their offensive contents when being removed from the bed, but especially to prevent the escape into the atmosphere of the sick-room of the poisonous disease-bearing effluvia of fecal discharges, as in cases of cholera, typhus fever, &c., as

also to enable the nurse to more effectively" disinfect such discharges, and to utilize the cover, when the bed-pan is applied to the patient, as part of the bearingsupport 011 which the body of the patient rests. I attain these objects by the peculiar construction of my device, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a top view of the device as it appears with the cover closed; Fig.2, a top View as seen with the cover open; Fig. 3, a section seen on the line 3 3 of Fig. 3, andFig. r a section seen on the line i 4 of Fig. 3.

Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

A represents the shell or bowl of the pan; B, the cover; C, the nozzle or discharge-opening; D, the aperture into the pan; E, Fig. 1, the handle of the cover and its (the covers) support when the patient rests upon it; F, the handle by which the pan is carried, whether it be empty or otherwise, and D a sliding bolt for fastening the cover.

a is a staple or socket into which the sliding bolt D is thrust to hold the cover.

I) is the hinge of the cover.

e and c are the legs of the handle E,which are joined in the tube e, and all taken together constitute the handle of the cover, and which, by placing 6 under the raised end d (see Fig. 3) of the bolt D, serves as the support of the cover when the pan is in use.

(Best shown by Fig. 3.) c e of this cover handle and support is hinged to the cover cl and c are two posts in the cover, under the heads of which slides the bolt D. The peculiar construction of this handle and support of the cover enables it to be folded flat down to the cover and so out of the way when it is not in use.

The outlet-nozzle O, as seen in Fig. 1,is provided on its exterior surface with a thread for screwing on a cap 0, as seen in Fig. 2, or for screwing on a hose-pipe O, as seen in Fig. 4, when it is required to give the patient the douche.

The cover B, when closed, as seen in Fig. 4, is oval on top; but when it is open, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, it is concave on top, Fig. 3, being seen on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2, the concavity of the cover being provided to more, or less accurately conform to the human body.

The shell or bowl of the pan may be made of any suitable material, as plain metal, or porcelain-lined metal, or rubber, 630., while the cover may be made of the same material or some other-that is, the cover need not necessarily be made of the same material as the shell or bowl of the pan.

I am aware that simple, removable, and detached covers are used on bed-pans, but that they are not otherwise employed than such simple covers and do not otherwise form a part of the bed-pan, and the only function of such detachable covers is to simply close the bed -pan after it has been used by the patient, as shown, for example, in Patent No. 380,478, issued April 3,1888,t0 K. M. Duffey. Therefore I do not claim, broadly, a simple cover for or connected to bed-pans, whether detached or attached thereto by hinges or otherwise; @but it will be seen that in my device the cover 13 is not only employed as a cover for closing the bed-pan, but that when it (the cover) is opened and the pan is in use the chief function of this socalled cover is to serve as an extension or folding platform of the bed-pan itself, in that it takes the place of the nose end of thepan (asit is usually made) and furnishes support for the body of the patient, it (the cover) being concave When open to adapt it for this purpose. By the double use of this cover-extension the pan (when it is folded or shut) is made much shorter and so more convenient to handle. In fact, the cover B, I prefer to and will term a foldingplatform extension of the bed-pan instead of calling it a cover, which extension,wl1en folded up on the bowl A, serves as a cover to the aperture 1).

Having pointed out the various parts of my device and more or less described their func tions, no further explanation of its operation seems necessary WVhat I claim as new and useful, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a bed-pan, the bowl A, haviiu, the nonzle C, cap C, and aperture l),in combination I with the folding-platform extension 13, attached by hinges to the nose end of the bowl, so as to form a platform-support when unfolded and a cover to the aperture 1) when folded, substantially in the manner and for the purpose described.

2. In a bed-pan,tl1e bowl A, having the nozzle C, cap C, and aperture 1), in combination with the cover B, having the folding handle and support E, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In a bed-pan, the bowl A,having the nozzle C, cap (1, aperture D, and hose-pipe C", carrying handle F,in combination with the cover 13, having the folding handle and sup port E, and sliding belt I), substantially in the manner and for the purpose described.

MARY ST. JOHN.

Witnesses:

M. BARNETT, WM. R. CAMPBELL.