- Email: [email protected]
COXETER'S PATENT CONSTANT CURRENT BATTERY.
29
New Inventions. COXETER’S PATENT CONSTANT CURRENT BATTERY. COXETER have MESSRS. produced a battery which has novel The element is a modification of the points. many Leclanche element, which consists in the replacing of the carbon by a strip of platinum foil. The Coxeter element possesses all the enduring qualities of the Leclanché, and will remain in action for months at a time, without requiring attention of any kind. It has the advantage of being somewhat lighter and smaller than the Leclanché, and batteries .composed of it are consequently more portable. Messrs. Coxeter do not keep their elements distinct from each other, but weld them together, by means of an insulating material. The battery is provided with screw terminals, to which the connexions are made. The thirty-cell battery, which we have examined, has nine screw terminals, numbered + 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 30, so that almost any number of cells can be brought into circuit as required. The conductors are
be inserted in the battery itself, or into rheophore, so that the manipulator, by and forwards, can regulate the a button backwards sliding of the current intensity employed. This is an ingenious notion, and Messrs. Coxeter are certainly on the right track in trying to simplify the construction of batteries by substituting a graduated resistance for the very complicated regulators hitherto in vogue. At present, however, their success in this direction is but partial. The battery has a galvanometer, which might, we think, be as well omitted. Those who are content with a simple battery, furnished merely with screw terminals, by which to regulate the strength employed, will, we believe, find Coxeter’s instrument to be durable, efficient, and most portable. Fig. 1 represents the sponge-holder and rheostat combined. Fig. 2 gives a general idea of the appearance of the battery.
The rheostat the handle of
can a
Correspondence. "Audi alteram partem,"
A TWENTIETH LICENCE TO PRACTISE MEDICINE.
composed of ordinary telegraph-wire, which when screwed to the terminals forms the most[perfect connexion obtainable. Messrs. Coxeter have done well in discarding the ,conductors, which are still sold by many instrument makers, and which waste half the battery-power by their excessive ,resistance. The battery is furnished with a current-reverser, a rheostat, and a galvanometer, which can be included in the circuit or be excluded from it at pleasure. The current-reverser is of the well-known barrel pattern, which is certainly the most convenient. The rheostat is meant to regulate the strength of the current by interposing a resistance in the circuit. If the rheostat were perfect, only two terminals would be necessary to the battery, and a regularly graduated intensity oi current, from zero to the maximum, could be obtained, according to the amount of resistance interposed. Good rheostats are very expensive articles, but Messrs. Coxeter, by making a mixture of a conductor with a non-conductoi {in powder) have produced a cheap one. It is, how. ever, not quite satisfactory in its action, and it appears tc us that the difference in intensity of current when no resistance is employed, and ’when the minimum amount oj resistance is used, is infinitely greater than between the minimum and maximum resistances.
To the Editor of THE LANCET. there is one subject of medical politics on which SIR,—If most men are agreed, it is in regretting that the number of . medical licensing bodies in this country is so large as it isno’less than nineteen. Yet it would appear, from the announcement which was made by the Government in both ’ Houses of Parliament last night, that they intend to grant a charter to Owens College, Manchester. We are threatened with a twentieth medical licensing body. Do the medical profession think this desirable, or are they so indifferent about the whole thing as to allow this new ,:licence to be established merely from absence of opposition? The arguments and considerations which have induced the Government and others to support the’scheme of a new university have been those which refer to literary and scientific teaching. Politicians and literary men know little or nothing of the reasons for or against establishing new medicine. It is because Owens College is a welldegrees in and successful literary and scientific corporation equipped that they consider it has earned the right to examine and grant degrees in arts and science. But it seems probable that the affiliated School of Medicine in Manchester, by reason of its association with Owens College, is also to be elevated into the dignified position of a University Faculty of Medicine, with the right to create doctors and bachelors of medicine. What are the qualifications of the Manchester Medical School for this high eminence ; and why are we to have a twentieth medical licensing corporation ? ’Of course, the terms of the charter are not yet made public, but it is generally understood that the Owens College authorities intend to require residence in Manchester, at least for a time, as a condition of their degree. Their University is not to be on the plan of the London Universityopen to all, though possibly less severe in its requirements. They claim to be a teaching as well as an examining body, of the type of Oxford or Cambridge or of the Scotch uni.
versities.
Now has the Manchester School of Medicine shown itself to be such an efficient and successful teaching body as to entitle it to this elevation above all other London and provincial medical schools ? Do its students take a high stand at the London University examinations ? Does Manchester figure well in the lists of the examinations at the College of Surgeons ? What are the facts ? At the last examination of the College of Surgeons, 22 out of 33 of their
primary
men were
rejected.
the matter is deserving of some consideration on the part of the Medical Council and the medical profession, and we ought not to have a twentieth medical licensing body set up without our knowing the reason why. I am, Sir, yours, &c., A MEDICAL TEACHER. . July 1st, 1879.
Surely
New Inventions. COXETER’S PATENT CONSTANT CURRENT BATTERY. COXETER have MESSRS. produced a battery which has novel The element is a modification of the points. many Leclanche element, which consists in the replacing of the carbon by a strip of platinum foil. The Coxeter element possesses all the enduring qualities of the Leclanché, and will remain in action for months at a time, without requiring attention of any kind. It has the advantage of being somewhat lighter and smaller than the Leclanché, and batteries .composed of it are consequently more portable. Messrs. Coxeter do not keep their elements distinct from each other, but weld them together, by means of an insulating material. The battery is provided with screw terminals, to which the connexions are made. The thirty-cell battery, which we have examined, has nine screw terminals, numbered + 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 30, so that almost any number of cells can be brought into circuit as required. The conductors are
be inserted in the battery itself, or into rheophore, so that the manipulator, by and forwards, can regulate the a button backwards sliding of the current intensity employed. This is an ingenious notion, and Messrs. Coxeter are certainly on the right track in trying to simplify the construction of batteries by substituting a graduated resistance for the very complicated regulators hitherto in vogue. At present, however, their success in this direction is but partial. The battery has a galvanometer, which might, we think, be as well omitted. Those who are content with a simple battery, furnished merely with screw terminals, by which to regulate the strength employed, will, we believe, find Coxeter’s instrument to be durable, efficient, and most portable. Fig. 1 represents the sponge-holder and rheostat combined. Fig. 2 gives a general idea of the appearance of the battery.
The rheostat the handle of
can a
Correspondence. "Audi alteram partem,"
A TWENTIETH LICENCE TO PRACTISE MEDICINE.
composed of ordinary telegraph-wire, which when screwed to the terminals forms the most[perfect connexion obtainable. Messrs. Coxeter have done well in discarding the ,conductors, which are still sold by many instrument makers, and which waste half the battery-power by their excessive ,resistance. The battery is furnished with a current-reverser, a rheostat, and a galvanometer, which can be included in the circuit or be excluded from it at pleasure. The current-reverser is of the well-known barrel pattern, which is certainly the most convenient. The rheostat is meant to regulate the strength of the current by interposing a resistance in the circuit. If the rheostat were perfect, only two terminals would be necessary to the battery, and a regularly graduated intensity oi current, from zero to the maximum, could be obtained, according to the amount of resistance interposed. Good rheostats are very expensive articles, but Messrs. Coxeter, by making a mixture of a conductor with a non-conductoi {in powder) have produced a cheap one. It is, how. ever, not quite satisfactory in its action, and it appears tc us that the difference in intensity of current when no resistance is employed, and ’when the minimum amount oj resistance is used, is infinitely greater than between the minimum and maximum resistances.
To the Editor of THE LANCET. there is one subject of medical politics on which SIR,—If most men are agreed, it is in regretting that the number of . medical licensing bodies in this country is so large as it isno’less than nineteen. Yet it would appear, from the announcement which was made by the Government in both ’ Houses of Parliament last night, that they intend to grant a charter to Owens College, Manchester. We are threatened with a twentieth medical licensing body. Do the medical profession think this desirable, or are they so indifferent about the whole thing as to allow this new ,:licence to be established merely from absence of opposition? The arguments and considerations which have induced the Government and others to support the’scheme of a new university have been those which refer to literary and scientific teaching. Politicians and literary men know little or nothing of the reasons for or against establishing new medicine. It is because Owens College is a welldegrees in and successful literary and scientific corporation equipped that they consider it has earned the right to examine and grant degrees in arts and science. But it seems probable that the affiliated School of Medicine in Manchester, by reason of its association with Owens College, is also to be elevated into the dignified position of a University Faculty of Medicine, with the right to create doctors and bachelors of medicine. What are the qualifications of the Manchester Medical School for this high eminence ; and why are we to have a twentieth medical licensing corporation ? ’Of course, the terms of the charter are not yet made public, but it is generally understood that the Owens College authorities intend to require residence in Manchester, at least for a time, as a condition of their degree. Their University is not to be on the plan of the London Universityopen to all, though possibly less severe in its requirements. They claim to be a teaching as well as an examining body, of the type of Oxford or Cambridge or of the Scotch uni.
versities.
Now has the Manchester School of Medicine shown itself to be such an efficient and successful teaching body as to entitle it to this elevation above all other London and provincial medical schools ? Do its students take a high stand at the London University examinations ? Does Manchester figure well in the lists of the examinations at the College of Surgeons ? What are the facts ? At the last examination of the College of Surgeons, 22 out of 33 of their
primary
men were
rejected.
the matter is deserving of some consideration on the part of the Medical Council and the medical profession, and we ought not to have a twentieth medical licensing body set up without our knowing the reason why. I am, Sir, yours, &c., A MEDICAL TEACHER. . July 1st, 1879.
Surely