An Improved Washing Machine and Steam Generator.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 12:h Oct., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 3rd Mar., 1890-Accepted, 12th Apr., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Washing Machine and Steam Generator.
I HENRY JOHN Fox Rose of High Bluff, in the County of Portage la Prairie in
the Province of Manitoba Dominion of Canada, Gentleman, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows
This invention relates to an improved domestic clothes washer applicable also as
a generator for supplying steam for any purpose required.
The washer is of that class in which a continuous circulation of boiling water is
produced by the action of the heat, the water being forced up through a channel
by the pressure generated beneath the mass of clothes and being discharged onto the
clothes from above and descending through the same to the space below to be again
raised and discharged and so on continuously whereby the clothes are cleansed
without labor.
This improved washer is specially constructed to ensure great heating power, a
powerful upward circulation of the boiling water, an even discharge thereof all over
the mass of clothes and a rapid suction downwards of the same through the clothes.
The whole of the internal portion is easily removable for cleaning, and a special
steam tight lid is provided for application when a jet of steam is required. The body
of the washer is a double vessel being an inner and outer vessel having an
intermediate water space between them at the sides and bottom, the bottoms of both
being similarly corrugated with longitudinal and transverse corrugations of consider-
able depth whereby the heating surface is greatly increased.
The inner vessel has perforations at the bottom of its corrugations whereby
the interior of the inner vessel is put in communication with the intervening
space. Instead, however, of the corrugations, sets of concentric tubes might
be used.
The sides of the outer vessel are rather higher than those of the inner vessel and
are provided on the interior with a deflector whereby the stream of boiling water
ascending between the walls of the inner and outer vessels is discharged inwardly over
the upper edge of the inner vessel and down in a continuous all round shower onto
the clothes therein. In order that the inner vessel may be withdrawn for cleaning, the
deflector is removable and is supported by resting on an inwardly directed lip formed
on the outer vessel which prevents the water passing up behind the deflector.
The washer may be placed on any ordinary cooking stove or hinged upon a special
portable stove having a flue plate slotted to receive the corrugated bottom of the
vessel so that the intervals between the corrugations act as flues.
When the apparatus is required to furnish steam a special lid is secured thereon,
and for this purpose the upper edge of the outer vessel is surrounded by a grooved
flange, a corresponding groove being formed in the lid wherein a packing is received
to make a steam tight joint. The lid is secured by thumb screw bolts engaging with
lugs and is provided with a safety valve and with an outlet for coupling to a hose
pipe for conducting the steam where required for cooking cattle food for instance or
for any other purpose.
Dated this 19th dow of Databer 1889

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Washing Machine and Steam Generator..
1, HENRY JOHN Fox Rose of High Bluff in the County of Portage la Prairie in
the Province of Manitoba Dominion of Canada, Gentleman do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This Invention relates to an improved domestic clothes washer applicable also as a
generator for supplying steam for any purpose required. The washer is of that class
in which a continuous circulation of boiling water is pro luced by the action of heat
applied to the bottom of the washing vessel, the water being forced up through a
channel by the pressure generated beneath the mass of clothes and discharged on to
the clothes from above; the water descending through the clothes to the space below,
to be again raised and discharged and so on continuously whereby the clothes are
cleansed without labor. This improved washer is specially constructed to ensure great
heating power, a powerful upward circulation of the boiling water, an even discharge
thereof all over the mass of clothes, and a rapid suction downwards of the same
through the clothes. The whole of the internal portion is easily removable for
cleaning, and a special steam tight lid is provided for application when a jet of steam
is required.
Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this speci-
fication, wherein figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of a portable washer.
Figure 2 is a plan of the wash vessel or boiler, with the cover removed. Figure 3 is
a cross-section of the wash vessel or boiler. The same letters of reference indicate
like parts in all the figures.
The body of the washer is a double vessel, being an outer vessel A and an inner
vessel B placed removably within the outer vessel and being supported therein by
suitable studs or distance pieces; the inner vessel being so much smaller than the
outer vessel as to leave an intermediate space C between them at the sides and bottom
sufficient for the passage or circulation of the quantity of water required. The
bottoms of both the inner and the outer vessels are similarly corrugated with corruga-
tions a 6 of considerable depth whoreby the heating surface is greatly increased, the
intermediate space C extending between the bottoms, sides, and tops, of the said
corrugations a b. The inner vessel B has perforations at the bottoms of its corruga-
tions whereby the interior of the inner vessel is put in communication with the
intervening space.
Instead, however, of the corrugations, sets of concentric tubes might be used, for
the purpose of increasing the heating surface as hereafter described, that is to say
the bottom of the outer vessel A would be made flat and short tubes closed at their
lower ends would be fixed in holes therein their open upper ends being flush with the
bottom of vessel A with the interior of which the said tubes communicate and a
corresponding set of short tubes open at both ends are fixed in holes in the bottom
of the inner vessel B and descend within the other tubes, than which they are so
much smaller in diameter as to leave the necessary annular space for the circulation
of water down the inner tubes and up between the inner and outer tubes.
The sides of the outer vessel A are rather higher than those of the inner vessel B
and are provided on the interior with a deflector D which overhangs the top of the
vessel B and whereby the stream of boiling water ascending through the space C
between the walls of the inner and outer vessels is discharged inwardly over the upper
edge of the inner vessel B and so down in a continuous all-round shower on to the
clothes therein. In order that the inner vessel may be withdrawn for cleaning, the
deflector D is removable and is seated on an upwardly and inwardly directed narrow
lip d fixed to the side of the outer vessel, which supports the deflector and prevents
the ascending stream of water passing up between it and the vessel A. This lip,
being rather narrower than the space C, permits the withdrawal of the vessel B. The
deflector D is attached, by short legs, to the body of the inner vessel B so as to be

page_text: removable therewith and its outer edge fits down between the lip & and the sides of
the vessel A.
The washer may be placed on any ordinary cooking stove and when so used, for
all sizes adapted for use on ordinary cooking ranges, the most convenient form for the
washer is circular and of a diameter about three inches larger than that of the
aperture over which it is to be seated, the corrugations being made small and numerous
and of such length as to just drop through the aperture in the stove plate where they
are exposed directly to the fire no flue passage as hereafter described, being
required.
In figure 1, however, the washer is represented as hinged at e upon a special port-
able stove E so that the wash vessel can be easily turned up for the purpose of being
emptied, the vessel when in use being seated, as shewn, over and within an aperture
in the top of the stove. This form of apparatus is intended for large sizes intended
for outdoor use, and, in that case, with a view to economy of fuel, the upper part of
the stove is partly divided by a horizontal flue plate Fat a short distance below
the top, said plate being slotted to receive the corrugated bottom of the vessel, the
corrugations being, in this case, large and deep so that the intervals between the
corrugations act as flues. A chimney G communicates at the front side or end with
the space above the flue plate while at the opposite side or end a passage is provided
for the products of combustion to pass from the fire H to the upper part and so
between the corrugations of the bottom of the wash vessel to the chimney.
The portable stove shewn in figures 1 and 3 is transportable in the manner of a
wheelbarrow, being provided with a wheel and removable handles.
When the apparatus is required to furnish steam, a special lid is secured thereon,
and for this purpose the upper edge of the outer vessel A is surrounded by a grooved
flange i, a corresponding groove being formed in the lid K wherein a packing k is
received to make a steam tight joint. The lid is secured by thumb-screw bolts
engaging with lugs, and is provided with a safety-valve L and with an outlet M for
coupling to a hose pipe for conducting the steam where required, for cooking cattle
food, for instance, or for any other purpose.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is;
1. In a clothes washer, the combination of the inner and outer vessels A B, each
having corrugated bottoms or pendent tubes fitting the one within the other,
substantially as and for the purpose specified.
2. In a clothes washer, the combination of the inner and outer vessels having
corrugated bottoms or pendent tubes fitting the one within the other and of the
deflector D and lip d, substantially as and for the purpose specified.
3. In a clothes washer and steam generator, the combination of the double vessel A B
the lid K secured as described and of the packing k fitting between the lid and the
groove i, substantially as specified.
4. The herein described clothes washer having a corrugated bottom in combination
with a stove having a plate adapted to close the corrugations at the underside and
form flues of the intervening spaces, substantially as described.
Dated this 3rd day of March 1890.
Dated this 3rd day of March 1890.
H. J. F. ROSE.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Patent Agents.