IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED IN WASHING CLOTHES, FABRICS, AND OTHER MATERIALS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Phipps and Edward
Blackshaw at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th May
1880.
JOSEPH PHIPPS and EDWARD BLACKSHAW, both of Arnold, in the County of
Nottingham. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED
IN WASHING CLOTHES, FABRICS, AND OTHER MATERIALS.”
We employ two or more modifications of machinery and apparatus. The first
consists of a bed plate to which two pair of standards are bolted; between each
pair a friction step is secured to the bed plate, upon which a hollow spindle rests,
the lower end of which is secured to and carried by a cross piece of metal firmly
fixed to the underside of the bottom of a circular tub. The upper end of the spindle
is passed through a bearing secured to a cross bar carried by the top of the
standards, below which the spindle is provided with a toothed bevel wheel, and at
a short distance from the bottom of the tub the spindle has a false bottom keyed
on it; this bottom is pierced with a number of holes, to allow the suds to pass
through to the bottom of the tub, from which they escape through a stop cock
when open. A friction plate is secured to the top side of the false bottom, which with
the tub revolve together. Outside the spindle is a pipe, the lower end of which is
keyed to or forms part of a second friction piece which lies on the one carried by
the false bottom. This pipe is provided with a number of arms or pegs which
revolve the reverse way to the hollow spindle, being driven by a toothed bevel
wheel secured on its upper end above a bearing bar carried by the standards,
the spindle and pipe being caused to revolve the reverse way to each other
simultaneously, by one or more bevel wheels at or near one end of an horizontal
driving shaft running in bearings carried by the standards.
The hollow spindle is provided at its upper end with a stuffing box, and
above it is a stop valve to admit steam from a boiler to heat the water in
the tub.
The driving shaft, intermediately of its length, carries a toothed wheel gearing
into the teeth of an arc, which has a too and fro movement communicated to it by
a crank on a shaft provided with a wheel which is driven by a wheel forming one
of a series, the lower or outermost of which is on a shaft provided with a fast and
loose pulley for a belt from any prime mover. The bevel wheels on the horizontal
shaft are capable of being thrown in or out of gear by hand levers kept in position

page_text: by spring stops, thus enabling the attendant to start or stop either or both of the
tubs and arms or pegs at will.
A second modification consists of one pair of standards, tub, and apparatus as
above described, with the driving shaft provided with a fly wheel and handle to
be driven by hand power, and furnished with a mangle and wringer of the usual
construction.
A third modification consists of a pair of standards and an outer wooden or
metal vessel, which may be partly let into the floor of the chamber in which it is.
fixed. The lower end of a vertical shaft passes through the bottom of the vessel,
and a stuffing box below it through which it passes,.and has a toothed bevel
wheel keyed on it gearing into a similar wheel driven by gearing carried by the
standards.
The vertical shaft carries an inner vessel made of perforated metal plates or open
wire work, which revolves within the outer vessel; the inner vessel contains the
clothes or other material to be washed. Or instead of being revolved as above
described, the vertical shaft may be revolved or partially revolved & reversed by
a crank and connecting rod attached to either its lower or upper end, the crank
being operated by toothed gearing carried by the standards.