Patent GB-146906-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in washing machines
IPC: D06F23/04
Filed: 1920-07-06
Abstract: 146,906. Laundryette Manufacturing Co., (Assignees of Kirby, J. B.). July 19, 1915, [Convention date]. Hydro - extractors. -A machine for washing clothes and subsequently drying or straining them comprises a rotary perforated clothes receptacle 25 within a water tank 1, and symmetrically arranged plungers 47 having a verticallyreciprocating motion, the plungers being swung out of the casing after the washi n g operation is finished and the receptacle then raised out of the liquid and rotated at a high speed to remove the liquid from the clothes by centrifugal action. The clothes receptacle is provided with a central sleeve 13 rotatable on a fixed sleeve 10 and secured to the driving-shaft 11, and the bottom 18 is braced by a conical plate 20 united thereto at the centre and at its periphery. The machine is driven through variable-speed friction gear and toothed gear from an electric motor 95 supported on a vertically-adjustable shelf 93, a friction disk 96 on the motor shaft being normally held in contact with a friction wheel 30 on the sleeve 10 by a spring acting on the motor support, but adapted to be moved out of contact to stop the machine by operating a screwed spindle 98, Figs. 2 and 4. The wheel 30 carries a toothed' wheel 31 meshing with a wheel 32 carrying a pinion 34 meshing with a toothed wheel 110 keyed on the shaft 11. The pinion 34 is provided with a crank-pin in the form of a ball 33 engaging the cupped end of a rooking-member 71 formed with an extension 73 connected to a fixed lug 75 by a spring 74. This extension engages a lug 69 on a rod 40 pivoted to the machine frame at one end and provided at its other end with a pin 41 slidable in a slotted guide 42 at the lower end of a vertical rod 43 carrying the plungers. The plungers may be swung upwards when out of use, as shown in Fig. 4, or their supporting arm 46 may swivel on the vertical rod 43 so that they may be swung aside, a spring catch being fitted to retain the arm 46 in its set position; or both of these arrangements may be employed. The lower end of the shaft 11 is supported on a curved surface 86 on the end of a member 85 pivoted to the machine, frame, the member being held up by the end 80, Figs. 2 and 4, of a treadle 79. When this treadle is depressed the shaft 11 is raised, and a roller 88 on the part 86 engages the rod 40 to lift the plungers out of the casing, as shown in Fig. 4, the rod 40 being shaped so that the arm 85 is nearly normal to it in the raised position. A spring 90 connecting the guide-pin 41 and the roller 88 on the part 86 serves normally to maintain the lug 69 in contact with the extension 73 during the down-stroke of the plungers, but yields under an excessive thickness of clothing or other obstruction. When the receptacle is being raised for the straining operation this spring partly balances the weight of the receptacle. In the upward movement of the shaft 11 a cap 12 at its lower end abuts against the hub 116 of the toothed wheel 110 and lifts it out of gear with the wheel 34, at the same time bring- ing a clutch plate 114 on the wheel 110 into engagement with a bevelled rib 115 on the friction wheel 30, so that the shaft 11 is driven directly. In this position a looking-treadle 103 may be engaged with the machine frame to hold the receptacle in the raised position. Further depression of the main treadle raises the wheel 30 towards the periphery of the disk 30 and increases the speed. A wood lattice 121, normally held submerged by the receptacle, floats on the surface of the liquid and prevents violent splashing when the receptacle is raised. The legs of the machine frame are fitted with castors to minimize vibration of the upper part of the machine, and one of them is fitted with a toggle extension 126, 129, Fig. 16, tc raise one side of the machine to facilitate emptying of the tank 1.