On disinfection by heat : with a description of a new disinfecting chamber / by James Adams, M.D.

  • James Maxwell Adams
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On disinfection by heat : with a description of a new disinfecting chamber / by James Adams, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Wlicn selecting an ap[)aratus for disinfecting by heat, there is a somewliat embarrassing choice between those which are more or less ])ortable, and sold in the ordinary course of com- mercial manufacture, and those which are erected on an exten- sive scale to special designs and for the needs of a large population —between those which are employed for occasional use, and those where the process of disinfection may be a matter of daily or hourly requirement. In a description of my own apparatus I will, therefore, best indicate the points wherein otliers in frequent use seem defective, and wherein nvy own contrivance seems to supply a desideratum. I say so much because I was led to realise my conception on the request of Major-General Collinson, Architect to the Prisons' Commission for Scotland, who did not find in existing apparatus the economy and convenience or efficiency that were desirable, and in his view attainable. He sought a portable appliance that could be easily fitted up in an ordinary appartment of a gaol, and be quickly brought into use for the few hours during which disinfection of clothing, &c., was occasionlly required. Dr. Littlejohn, with whom I also freely discussed my plan, and to whom, as well as to General Collinson, I exhibited a small model, was clearly of opinion that the appa- ratus was pecuharly suitable for the service of gaols, workhouses, small hospitals, small country towns and various localities where the use of disinfecting chambers were practically excluded, be- cause of first cost usually was then doubled by the conjoined ex- pense of a special building, and subsequent considerable cost of working, irrespective of their shortcomings in real sanitary effi- ciency. Several medical officers of health with whom I have since exchanged views, have added their cordial concurrence in this opinion. The principles on which my chamber is planned have re- 'ference to the follomng points. 1. Portability, cheapness of construction, and economy in use.* 2. Improved method of causing heat and of preventing subsequent waste of fuel. 3. Equality of heat throughout the chamber. 4. A maximum or any desired temperature maintained by a simple contrivance acting automatically. 5. Germs or other infective matter dis- eno-aged from infected objects, not permitted to escape into ffener al atmosphere. 6. Infected objects not exposed to pro- ducts of gas combustion, but only to pure air, conjoined with moisture when desired. 7. Gas consumption regulated by auto- matic governor to an efficient average quantity. * The compaDy that manufactured the workshop model shewn at the- Sanitary Exhibition at Glasgow has, with my permission taken out a Patent, and I am informed that the selling price of a chamber of 130 cubic feet mside capacity will be about .£40.