Washing Apparatus.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 26th Jan., 1895-Accepted, 16th Mar., 1895
Washing Apparatus.
I, JULIUS WINDMÜLLER, Manufacturer of Rubenstrasse Cologne on the Rhine,
in the Province of Rhineland and Kingdom of Prussia 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 :-
Already for a long time an apparatus is known in England, which serves to do
washing and is intended to substitute the rubbing of the articles to be washed, on
the hand or on the washing board by the use of air. The apparatus consists in a
kind of beater with a hollow head, which on being pressed into the water drives
the air contained in it through the water or through the clothes contained in it, the
latter being beaten and cleansed by the motion of the water. In England however
the apparatus, which was well received at first, was not able to obtain a firm
footing and to maintain it position, because it showed great defects in its ordinary
construction. And yet-in spite of this-the same machine has been lately again
brought on the market in Germany and in consequence of very extensive advertising
has found a rapid sale. All mistresses however and servants and laundry-women,
who up to the present have given the machine a trial, have given it up and
complain of the same disadvantages, which led to this mode of washing being
discarded in England some time before. The disadvantages consist in the fact,
that the laundry woman, after having driven the air out of the head by pressing it
into the water, is obliged to raise it up in order to let fresh air enter in below the
head and to press it again through the water. On the one hand much labour and
expenditure of force is necessary, partly on account of the height of the stroke,
partly because in the vacuum situated below, the head enough water has to be
raised along with the beater to overcome by its weight the external pressure of the
atmosphere, and because the adhesion of the circumference of the head to the
surface of the water must be overcome, ou the other hand when the head is suddenly
withdrawn from the surface of the water, the adhering water spurts about to a
great distance and wets every object in the neighbourhood, but especially the
laundry-woman, who after a short time is wetted through and through.
In order to avoid these disadvantages and to make a practical use of the good
idea, on which the article in question is founded, I have constructed my new
washing-apparatus.
The apparatus consists, as is represented in the annexed drawing in Fig. 1 in a
front view, in Fig. 2 in a vertical section, chiefly of an upturned vessel A (in the
shape of a disk, pot or bell etc.) in the upturned bottom of which there are arranged
one or more valves, preferably the so-called lip-valves B, and which is provided
with some kind of a handle as in the drawing, or one or more straight handles etc.
In order not to allow every one to get at the valves, and to protect them from
injuries, there is a little cap D provided with perforated or slit sides (also made of
wire-gauze and the like); then there is further below the valves and enclosing
them, a second vessel E (shaped like a cup, bell or funnel) with perforated, slit,
sieve or grate-like bottom F below, which however does not reach as far as the
lower rim of the vessel A and only has a small diameter.
If this apparatus is dipped under water, the valve (or the valves) remain closed,
and the air lying under the cup A is driven through the clothes or the water, and
the latter is agitated. When the apparatus is lifted up again, the valves B are
opened, allow the water which may have entered previously, on the apparatus

page_text: being dipped in, from above through the perforated sides of D, to run off below
and air to enter, which passes from the space surrounded by the vessel E through
the openings in the bottom F into the space under the cup A, as soon as the
bottom is above the surface of the water. The bottom F on account of its
small surface easily separates from the surface of the water, while the rim of A,
which reaches deeper down, can remain quietly in the water, and need not be lifted
out of it until one wishes to put away the apparatus.
It will thus be apparent to every one, that there is much less work with this
apparatus than with those hitherto known, and that the drawbacks are greatly
diminished.
For firstly it is no longer necessary to lift the apparatus so high or quite out of
the water, secondly the bottom F easily detaches itself gently and easily from the
surface of the water, and if a little water is splashed about, this occurs in the
interior of A, without wetting other objects or annoying the washerwomen.
It goes without saying that the apparatus can be used for washing other things
besides clothes, for instance spun and woven goods, raw stuffs, porous or spongy
materials or other objects such as sand etc.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :
In the washing apparatus acting by means of air driven through water by means
of the vessel A, the arrangement of one or more valves B. close to the highest part
of the bottom, which open on the apparatus being raised and remain closed when
it is being lowered, in connection with the vessels D and E protecting and enclosing
the valves, the vessel E having a perforated bottom F reaching not quite so far as
the rim of A.
Dated this Twenty-fifth day of January 1895.
For JULIUS WINDMÜLLER,
Bernh. Brockhues.