IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING MACHINES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Soutter, of Hoxton, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING
MACHINES."
Sealed the 9th November 1858, and dated the 11th May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Soutter at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th
May 1858.
I, JAMES SOUTTER, of Hoxton, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
WASHING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the constructing of washing machines in the
manner hereafter described.
Inside a trough I fix what I term a skeleton drum, that is, a drum con-
sisting of two discs for the ends, and of several strips or laths let into the
dises to form the sides. I connect studs to the outside of the discs, and insert
these in the sides of the trough to allow of the drum being rotated by a crank
handle connected to one of the studs. Inside the trough and near the sides
of the drum I fix upon springs, rods, bars, blocks, or other pieces of wood, to
act as rubbers, and provide means for regulating the distance thereof from the
sides of the drum. Inside of the drum I fix two, three, or more projections,
for the purpose of stopping or retarding the articles placed inside the drum to
be washed. The laths or some of them are free to be drawn apart for the
purpose of placing articles inside the drum, and removing them therefrom, also
for the purpose of nipping between them the ends of any large articles to be

page_text: washed, such as sheets, tablecloths, &c., which are wound round the outside
of the drum, and which have both sides washed by first turning the drum in
one direction and then in the contrary direction.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Soutter in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
11th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
SOUTTER, of Hoxton, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Soutter, Her special licence that I, the said James Soutter, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Soutter, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
WASHING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said James Soutter, my exccutors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Soutter, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say:-
My Invention consists in the constructing of washing machines in the
manner hereafter described. Inside a trough I fix what I term a skeleton
drum, that is, a drum consisting of two dises for the ends, and of several
strips or laths let into the discs to form the sides; I connect studs to the
outside of the discs and insert these in the sides of the trough, to allow of

page_text: the drum being rotated by a crank handle connected to one of the studs.
Inside the trough and near the sides of the drum I fix upon springs, rods,
bars, blocks, or other pieces of wood to act as rubbers, and provide means for
regulating the distance thereof from the sides of the drum. Inside of the
drum I fix two, three, or more projections, for the purpose of stopping or
retarding the articles placed inside the drum to be washed. The laths
or some of them are free to be drawn apart, for the purpose of placing articles
inside the drum and removing them therefrom, also for the purpose of nipping
between them the ends of any large articles to be washed, such as sheets,
tablecloths, &c., which are wound round the outside of the drum, and which
have both sides washed by first turning the drum in one direction and then in
the contrary direction.
In the annexed Drawings Figure 1 is an external view in perspective, and
Figure 2 also an external view in perspective, of one of my washing machines.
In the latter Figure the cover and parts of the trough are removed. A, A, is
the trough; B is a skeleton cylinder placed in suitable bearings, and capable
of being rotated by the crank handle C; D, D, are rubbers, of which there
are two or more fixed inside the cylinder, and composed of wooden rollers;
these are intended to act upon the clothes placed inside the cylinder; E is a
rubber for acting on the clothes or articles wound round the outside of the
cylinder or drum. I prefer to arm the wooden bar F with bass or other
suitable fibres, and I regulate the distance of the fibres from the cylinder by
such a screw adjustment as that shewn in the detached view, Figure 3; there
may be more than one of these bass rubbers fixed inside the trough.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the constructing
washing machines in manner hereiu-before described, and represented in tho
Drawings annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Soutter, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Eleventh day of November, Oue thousand eight
hundred and fifty-eight.
JAMES SOUTTER. (L.S.)