US32603A - Improvement in galvanic soles - Google Patents

Description

S. NOWLAN.v Gaivanic Shoe Sole.

. Patented june 18, 1861.

r ,m n, 1 4l, In l' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL NOWLAN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO CHARLES METTAM 85 CO., OF SAME PLACE.l

IMPROVEMENT IN GALVANIC SOLES.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL NowLAN, of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Galvanic Sole for Medical Purposes, applicable as an interior fitting or lining to or of boots, shoes, and slippers; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, that form part of this specification, is such a full and clear description thereof as to enable others skilled in contrivances to which this my improvement relates to make and use the same.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l represents a plan view of the improved sole; Fig. 2, a longitudinal section thereof 5 and Fig. 3 a plan view of the skeleton-insulator belonging to the same detached. f

One of the many applications of galvanic or voltaic electricity has been the formation of different articles of wear about the personin the shape of rings, chains,boot and shoe soles, Sac., composed of copper and zinc, or their chemical equivalents or substitutes, and which, as positives and negatives in close contact or juxtaposition, develop a large or continuous amount of electricity of feeble intensity that, acting upon the nerves of the wearer, is found beneficial for various complaints or infirmities. That copper and zinc or their equivalents will, when brought in contact, establish vol-taie electricity without the aid, as in the galvanic battery, of an acidulous exciting medium, is a fact beyond a doubt, and the only problem requiring solution, so far as the practicability of such to medical purposes is concerned, is, whatis the best or cheapest and most efficient mode of developingor applying the same? Among the best applications of the kind have been loose or inner soles for boots and shoes, as before referred to, because these, acting on or against the feet, transmit the electricity developed by them upwardly through the body, and because the heat evolved by the contact of the positive and negative plates of said soles serves, in a gentle manner, to keep the feet warm,while the acid contained in the perspiration which exudes from the feet quickens or excites the electrical capacity'of the plates, also, because positives and negatives, in the form of plates, are preferable to many or most others, and for other reasons. rTo form an efcient voltaic pile, however, it is desirable to employ a multiplicity of plates or plate-sections separate at their edges from each other in preference to a single plate or plates of equal area and thickness. The galvanic soles heretofore used or proposed have been defective in this respect as well as in the binding rigidity of lthe same to the foot. They have, it is true, been made in two or three sections, hinged together at or near the front of the tread, to give certain pliability; but such is a very insignificant provision, or no provision at all, either as regards general pliability or multiplication and division of the plate-surfaces. This and other radical defects are obviated by my improvement, which largely enhances the value, in a working or medical capacity and in other respects, of such contrivances, as the following description will serve to explain.

` Referring to the drawings, the sole is or may n be made up of two negative tiers, in preference to one, with the positive in between them, or this order may be reversed. The negative or upper and lower tier of the pile is or may be formed of copper plates or sections a a a a, and the positive of Zinc plates or sections b b b b, so divided and kept separate, preferably longitudinally as well as transversely of or to.l the sole, as to establish a multiplicity of negatives and positives with their contiguous edges exposed and breaking contact, whereby a more efficient sole-battery is produced, and so as to establish an articulated character to the sole of general pliability.

The several sections of the copper and zinc plates are or may be connected or hinged together by a flexible insulating strip or strips of, say, india-rubber or any other suitable material, united to the sectional plates by metah lic or other eyelets, c. This makes a cheap, expeditious, and efcient mode of holding together the articulated sole formed of sections, as described; and in order to give a more united character to the whole, as well as to facilitate manufacture, I prefer to connect several or all of the sections, in the manner described, by a single insulating-strip or interposed medium, d, made with perforations in it, or of skeleton form or build,4 so as to admit of the copper and zinc plates, or rather those by means of a flexible insulating strip or strips and eyelet fastening, substantially as described, and for the purpose set forth.

In testimonyr whereof I have signed my name to Ithis speciiication before two subscribing Witnesses.

SAMUEL NOWLAN.

Witnesses:

A. PoLLoK, C. L. HUGHIJs.

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