Patent GB-589374-A (GB)
Title: Improved clothes washing machine
IPC: D06F13/04
Filed: 1945-02-24
Abstract: 589,374. Washing-machines. CONSTANTINE, W. W. (General Motors Corporation). Feb. 24, 1945, No. 4675. [Class 138 (ii)] A clothes washing-machine comprises a rotatable tub 10 and a hollow agitator in the .tub containing a removable screen which is adapted to retain lint, scum, and like-sized particles and through which water in the tub is induced to flow in a minor circulation by movement of the agitator in order to collect extraneous substances formed during the washing operation. The agitator may be verticallyreciprocable or rotatably oscillatable. As shown in Fig. 1, the vertically-reciprocable agitator 11 is formed with a lower conical member 14 and an upper apertured cylindrical member 13 containing a cylindrical screen 12. Circulation of liquid through the screen 12 is caused by a valve 16 consisting of a flexible disc held, by a nut 17 on the operating shaft 19, against a perforated valve seat 18 so that the valve opens away from the seat on the upstroke and closes on the downstroke of the agitator. A detergent dispenser may be fitted in the agitator and may comprise a funnel 23 having an open lower end 24 and perforations 23a at its upper end which is flanged at 26 to overlap a distance flange 25 on the screen 12 and is held in place by a shoulder 28 on a removable cap 27. In operation, with a detergent in the funnel 23, the agitator is reciprocated to produce a toroidal circulation 21 of the clothes and water in the tub, the upper surface of the water assuming the shape indicated by the line 33. A minor circulation 34 is also produced by the action of the valve 16, through the screen 12 and past the funnel 23 and any particles of lint or scum carried through openings 15 in the member 13 are arrested by the screen. Circulation of liquid near the funnel 23 and surging into it, mixes the detergent'with the washing water, flow into the funnel being produced by its passing through the opening 23a and by surging upwardly and downwardly through the opening 24. After the agitation operation, the tub is rotated to dry the clothes centrifugally, the water flowing through perforations 10c in the inner tub wall 10b and over the lip 32 of the outer wall 10a. In a modification, the valve 16 is dispensed with and the scum which contains the detergent is arranged in the lower half of the member 13 which is closed at its lower end. On operation of the agitator, liquid flows into the upper part of the member 13 through peripheral holes therein and flows out through the screen and through similar holes in the lower part of the member. Figs. 3, 4 show a rotatably oscillatable agitator comprising hollow radial vanes 213 having openings 214, 215 fitted with coarse screens 222 adapted to be closed alternately by a hinged valve 216 or a flexible valve held at one edge. Openings 218 in the base of the agitator lead to the bottom of the tub and a removable cap 220 allows an internal screen 212 to be cleaned and replaced as desired. In operation, oscillation of the agitator in either direction causes the valve 216 to swing against one or other of the openings 214, 215 and water is forced through the openings 218 back into the main body of water, extraneous substances being held by the screen 212. A lower horizontal screen disc 212a may be fitted so that detergent may be placed inside the screen 212. In a modification, the screen 212 is mounted in the upper part of the agitator which contains peripheral openings through which the liquid flows into the agitator, through the screen and out through openings in the lower radial vanes, the circulation being induced by the centrifugal action of the water in the vanes.