On this day in 1905 William M. Davis was granted the patent for FIRST AID PACKET. U.S. Patent No. 779,266.
This invention relates to what are known as “first-aid” or “emergency” packets carried by soldiers or others exposed to danger and containing antiseptic compresses, band ages, and other appliances for use in the first dressing of wounds.
The first-aid packets heretofore generally in use have been provided with wrappers of cloth coated with rubber or wrappers of Mackintosh cloth, which is more or less waterproof, and on the outside of which wrappers was printed a list of the contents of the packets, with directions for use. These old-style first aid packets have not always given entire satisfaction, in that they have not been sufficiently tight, and consequently not as waterproof and germ-proof as they should be, and this has been particularly the case with packets used in hot and moist climates, where the climatic influences have a deteriorating or rotting effect on the rubber of the wrappers, so that the contents of the packets became after a time more or less exposed to contamination and infection by disease germs.
The objections above referred to are obviated by the present invention, which provides a first-aid packet with a wrapper which is absolutely waterproof or moisture-proof, which is not subject to deterioration by atmospheric influences in warm and moist climates, which is sufficiently strong and tough to resist the wear to which it may be subjected, and which can be quickly and conveniently opened when an emergency occurs which requires the use of the contents of the packet.
To this end the wrapper of the improved packet consists of a sheet of tough and flexible substance which is entirely water-resisting and which is preferably of celluloid or some similar cellulose compound and in which the packet is enveloped by-a proper folding of the wrapper, and when this has been done the joints of the wrapper are hermetically sealed by a waterproof or water-resisting adhesive, which will preferably be a solution of celluloid or cellulose substance and which when dried will not lose its adherent qualities by any amount of exposure to atmospheric heat or moisture. The packet is preferably provided beneath the waterproof wrapper with an encircling cord or small flexible wire, the end of which protrudes slightly through an opening made therefor in the wrapper and which opening is afterward hermetically sealed, and when it is desired to open the packet the protruding end of the cord or wire will be seized,and by pulling thereon the-wrapper will be cut, so that it can be quickly and easily undone. Also to hold the packet in shape its edges are preferably encircled beneath the waterproof wrapper by a band of somewhat stiff and preferably waterproof material, which may be celluloid or vulcanized fiber about the thickness of somewhat thin cardboard.
