An Improved Device for use in Washing Textile Fabrics and the like.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 5th Oct., 1897-Accepted, 6th Nov., 1897
[Communicated from abroad by CHARLES HENRY HIRTZEL Merchant of 104 Com-
missioner Street, and JouN LEVINS KUHLMANN, Accountant, of Fraser Street,
both of Johannesburg, South African Republic. ]
An Improved Device for use in Washing Textile Fabrics and the like.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be
particularly described in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to a pneumatic washer, and has for its object the
thorough cleansing of articles such as wool, cotton, textile fabrics and the like,
with a minimum expenditure of time and labour, one person being enabled with
our apparatus to deal with 4 to 5 times a given quantity in any given time, as
is usually accomplished by hand.
It consists essentially of a convenient handle, to one extremity of which is
attached an inverted vessel, preferably cone shaped, within which are a series of
smaller vessels similarly inverted, the whole being of such a nature that on being
introduced mouth downwards into water, the air within excludes the water, on
the same principle as a diving-bell.
The invention will be more readily understood with reference to the accom-
panying drawings, in which:-
Fig. 1 is a sectional view, and
Fig. 2 a view from the under side of our apparatus.
A is an inverted, vessel, constructed of any material impervious to air or water,
attached to any convenient handle B. Within the vessel A a series of smaller
vessels CCC, similarly inverted, are arranged.
In actual use the vessel A is introduced into the wash tub, and worked up and
down by the operator until the cleansing of the articles is completed. In action,
the vessel A, together with the smaller vessels C C C, form chambers in which
the air is imprisoned by the water below, and, on being pressed down, the articles
to be cleansed are squeezed; while on being raised, the air within the vessels
sucks up the articles, thus drawing the water through the same, and consequently
performing all that is usually effected by the laundress when washing by hand.
It will be apparent that our invention is readily adaptable to the employment of
any motive power other than manual labour, the inverted vessels being caused to
rise and fall by means of suitable cranks and connecting rods, or by cams, or any
other known convenient means of producing reciprocating motion.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
y my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is:
1. In an apparatus for washing wool, cotton, textile fabrics and the like, an
nverted vessel A with a series of smaller inverted vessels CCC therein, con-
TD 077

page_text: structed to retain the air already within when introduced mouth downwards into
water, substantially as described and illustrated on the accompanying drawings.
2. An apparatus for washing wool, cotton, textile fabrics and the like, sub-
stantially as described and illustrated on the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 5th day of October 1897
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.