CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON A MACHINE FOR WASHING, CLEANSING, AND WHITENING COTTON, LINEN, SILK, AND WOOLLEN GARMENTS, OR PIECE GOODS
Year: 1823

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JUNIUS
SMITH, of Old Broad Street, in the City of London, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of January, 1828, in the fourth year
of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Junius Smith, my exors,
adiiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Junius Smith, my exors, adiñors, and assigns,
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON A MACHINE
FOR WASHING, CLEANSING, AND WHITENING COTTON, LINEN, SILK, AND WOOLLEN
GARMENTS, OR PIECE GOODS :" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso that if I, the said Junius Smith, shall not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and
cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advan-
tages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become
void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with. the said proviso, I, the said
Junius Smith, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say) :-
My Improvements on a Machine for Washing, Cleansing, and Whitening
Cotton, Linen, Silk, and Woollen Garments, or Piece Goods, consists in the
introduction of an open cylindrical vessel within a closed angular vessel, which
cylinder (containing the articles to be cleansed) being made to revolve carries
the goods through the water or other fluid contained in the closed vessel. A
machine heretofore employed by dyers and others, called a wash wheel, bears
some resemblance to my cylinder; but the improved construction and adapta-
tion of my machine embraces many advantages over this wash wheel and
every other description of washing machines hitherto employed both in the
process of bleaching goods and also in the cleansing of garments in the laundry.
The Drawings hereto annexed exhibit the construction of my improved ma-
chinc, the respective letters referring to the same parts in every Figure.
Fig. 1 is an end view of the machine, which is an angular steam-tight vessel,
formed of wood or metal (copper I prefer). This vessel is supported by a
framework of wood properly jointed together. Fig. 2 is a side view of the
- same, with a portion of the pipes and stopcocks above, which are intended
to supply the vessel with hot or cold water, steam, acid, alkali, or any
other fluid which may be required in the process of bleaching or cleans-
ing the articles within the cylinder. Fig. 3 is a cross section of the
machine, shewing the interior of the close vessel and the revolving cylinder.
Fig. 4, a section of the machine taken lengthwise, by which the construction
of the revolving cylinder will be clearly seen. The periphery of the cylinder
is formed by ribs of wood or metal, and its interior divided into several com-
partments by rails or bars radiating from the centre shaft. Into these com-
partments the articles intended to be operated upon are introduced through
the apertures a, a, a, a, at the end shewn in Fig. 3, access to which is obtained
by the door b, seen in the outer vessel, Fig. 1; the cylinder being occupied
with the articles about to be washed, and the external vessel closed steam
tight, the stopcock is to be opened, which, by a branch pipe, admits the
alkali to the tube d, d. This tube d, d, extends along the top of the steam-
tight vessel, and is perforated with small holes for the purpose of allowing the
.fluid introduced into the tube to distribute itself as a shower over the articles
contained in the open cylinder. When a sufficient quantity of the alkali in
solution has been introduced for the purposes of the operation, the stopcock c

page_text: is to be closed and the steam cock e opened, by which steam from the boiler
may be allowed to fill the interior of the closed vessel and insinuate itself
through the goods. The cylinder being now made to revolve by means of a
winch F, or by attaching gear to the centre shaft, the goods will be so per-
fectly acted upon by the steam and the alkali that all impurities will be driven
off into the liquid below. By this mode of washing it will be that the goods
are mere turned over by the motion of the cylinder, that solutions of any
required strength may be throwed upon them when in motion, steam of any
degree of heat applied, and the goods afterwards perfectly cleansed by boiling
water, and rinced in cold water if required, without removing them from the
machine or subjecting them to any sort of friction, the whole operation
being effected by the fluid within the vessel without touching the goods by
hand, after they are introduced into the cylinder, until they are finally removed
in a perfectly cleansed state. It is also to be remarked, that there will be
little or no loss of alkali or of heat by this process; the former is preserved and
evaporated for future use, and the heat of the steam may be conducted off to
the drying rooms in pipes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Junius Smith, bave hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord