Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/82

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��Popular Science Monthly

���The massaging is accomplished by the alternat- ing inflation and deflation of the attached tubes

A Machine that Massages Your Pains Away with Air

AN air-operated massage apparatus with action somewhat like a milking machine has been devised by Frank and Wilfred Shurtleff, Moline, 111. Elastic tubes are attached to the inner portion of a broad belt, and into these, flexible air-pipes are led. Air is pumped through these pipes by a pump driven by an electric motor. As the tubes are alternately inflated and deflated, they perform a constantly shifting

��or massaging action without discomfort to the patient. The two pump-cylinders are con- nected by a bypass with a valve to regulate the pressure of air in the massaging tubes. Belts of different sizes may be readily at- tached to the apparatus, making it adapt- able to a variety of treatments.

��Sleeping on a Mattress Filled with Water

ONE of the things needed by physi- cians is a bed that can be heated or cooled according to the needs of the I)atient, and one that a patient can lie upon for months, if necessary, without getting bed sores. An inventor has filled this want with what he calls a water bed. The bottom and sides of the bed are' built of galvanized steel, and the top is made of rubbered canvas. When this is filled with water it makes as soft a mat- tress as any one could desire. A reser- voir is stationed at the head of the bed, which holds enough water to make the pressure in the mattress the same at all points. '

TKe reservoir will hold one hundred pounds of ice for keeping the bed cool and comfortable for typhoid fever patients or for anyone in the summer time.

Under the foot of the bed is an oil stove which has a flue that runs under the center of the bed to the head. This artificial heat would be useful in case of a patient who was suffering from surgical shock, hemorrhage, chill or collapse. A thermometer is attached.

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��The temperature of the water is kept under con- stant control. Ice water is used for fever patients and heated water for suf- ferers from shock or chill

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