A MACHINE FOR WASHING LINEN, AND COTTON CLOTHES, AND OTHER SIMILAR THINGS, TO WHICH MAY BE AFFIXED OR OMITTED AT PLEASURE A CONTRIVANCE FOR PRESSING THE WATER FROM THEM, NOW COMMONLY DONE BY WRINGING
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ZACHARIAH
BARRATT, of Croydon, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
by His Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirty-first day of
October now last past, did give and grant unto me, the said Zachariah
Barratt, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Zachariah Barratt, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"A MACHINE FOR WASHING LINEN, AND COTTON CLOTHES, AND OTHER SIMILAR
THINGS, TO WHICH MAY BE AFFIXED OR OMITTED AT PLEASURE A CONTRIVANCE FOR
PRESSING THE WATER FROM THEM, NOW COMMONLY DONE BY WRINGING;" in
which Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Zachariah
Barratt, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Zachariah Barratt, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
manner following (that is to say) :-

page_text: I construct a wooden trough; of a convenient size for one person to stand at,
with an inclined bottom, and I make an uneven surface on the lower part of
the inside of the trough by forming grooves or projections thereon, taking care
to leave no sharp angles that may catch and thereby damage the things put into
the machine to be washed; and at certain convenient distances, say about an
inch asunder, I hollow out the ribs of the grooves so as to give them a wavy
appearance; and into these hollows I sometimes introduce and fasten small
pieces of buff or other leather, or other elastic and suitable substance, of about
two inches long, and of about an inch wide, which, in the operation of washing,
are presumed to act similarly to the human fingers. These elastic pieces are
not absolutely necessary, though the washing is better performed with than
without them. A hole should be made in the bottom of the trough to let off
the suds when done with. On the inside of the trough, and parallel with its
ends, nearly about the top, I fix on centres a roller either partly or entirely
covered with cork, leather, or some soft substance; to prevent noise in the
operation of washing, which operation is performed by a person pressing the
cloaths in the trough with a loose board, Fig. 2, called an agitator, the under
side of which is supported by and moves on the roller above mentioned. This
agitator is constructed of one or more picces of board, of about two feet six
as to form a flat surface, nearly
inches in length, framed together, so
of the width of the interior of the trough, having two holes or spaces cut
out on the upper end for the operator's hands. The lower end, about an
inch high, is covered with leather, cork, or other fit elastic soft material, with
one or two pieces projecting at the bottom, similar to those in the hollow parts
of the grooves in the insido of the trough. I fix across the top of this trough
a strong bar or shelf of wood, on which, when required,-I-place an apparatus
of any proper construction for pressing out the water from the things that
have been washed, to be used instead of wringing them by the hand in the
mode now commonly practised. In the margin of these Presents is shewn an
apparatus of simple construction for the purpose above mentioned; it is merely
a box or tub into which the wet things may be put, and the water pressed out
by a piece of wood (of the size nearly of the interior of the box) attached to
the end of a screw fixed in a frame as exhibited in the Drawings. But a lever
or any other means of creating a pressure on the wet things may be adopted, as
fancy and convenience may suggest; though, if the screw be employed, as
shewn in the Drawing, it should be encircled to a convenient height with a
cylinder of leather, or other proper material, to keep it free from wet, which
would render its action stiff and unpleasant.

page_text: REFERENCES TO THE DRAWINGS IN THE MARGIN OF THESE PRESENTS.
Figure 1 is a transverse section of a trough divided by a partition (a) so as
to form a double machine, one side having leathers (b) inserted in the hollow
parts of the grooves, and the other without any leathers; (c, c,) the rollers on
which the agitators work; 9, end of pressing apparatus.
Fig. 2 shews one of the agitators; d, the lower end of the agitator covered
with leather, under which I sometimes put cork; e, projecting pieces of leather;
f, Figs. 1 and 3, the cross bar on which the pressing apparatus may rest.
Fig. 4, the pressing apparatus (grooved at the sides and bottom, which forms
holes to let the water out) into which the wet things are to be put to be
pressed.
Fig. 3 is a view of the top of the double machine Fig. 1. A single machine
consists of a trough similar to either of those on the sides of the partition (a),
Fig. 1.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and coal this Thirtieth
ZACHARIAH (L.S.) BARRATT.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirtieth day of November,
in the forty-ninth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third,
the said Zachariah Barratt came before our said Lord the King in His
Chancery, and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing
therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instru-
ment aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in
the forty-eighth year of His said Majesty's reign.