A MANGLE ON AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION
Year: 1812

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
FRANCIS SNOWDEN, of Oxford Street, in the Parish of Saint George, Hanover
Square, and County of Middlesex, Engine Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of
March, in the fifty-second year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
William Francis Snowden, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William Francis
Snowden, my exors, aduiors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during
the term of years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A
MANGLE ON AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso that if I, the said William Francis Snowden, shall not
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and scal, and cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery, within two calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties
and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and

page_text: become void, 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
William Francis Snowden, do declare my said Invention consists in a new and
improved method of working rollers covered with cloaths, to be mangled up
and down between two vertical plane surfaces, as also of obtaining an equal
pressure on the cloaths during the whole of the operation in a lateral direction.
Fig. 1 is a front view of the mangle, shewing the mode by which the rollers
(a, a) work up and down between the beds (b, b, b, b).
Fig. 2 is a front view of the mangle in that state when the weight or pres-
sure is taken away and the rollers liberated.
The manner in which the pressure is obtained against the rollers is as
follows: First, I have a fixed bed (c) against one side of the frame (d), and
in the middle of the mangle between the rollers (a, a) I loosely suspend, by
means of a chain, rack, or screw, or other contrivance, a box (e) sliding up and
down upon or between two fixed standards (t, t), and guided by two swinging
uprights (ff); then, by means of a pressing bed (g) hund between parallel
arms (h), which I let fall, press and confine against the fixed bed the rollers
and the box together, as in Fig. 1. This pressure is acquired by means of a
weight (1), increased by leverage, being a continuation of the lower parallel
arins (h), suspended from the pivots (2), and to which the pressing bed (g) is
attached by the pivots (k). To discharge the rollers from pressure a winch,
with a rope and pulley or other contrivance, draws up the weight or lever (1),
which takes off the pressing bed from confining the rollers, as in Fig. 2. The
rollers may then be taken out, and fresh linen put upon them. The rollers,
being replenished with linen, are again placed in the mangle, see Fig. 2.
There are two cross rails fixed to the rails (a), attached to the pressing bed (g),
which is a floor or rest for the rollers to slide on when being placed in the
mangle; they also are a floor or rest for the cloaths on the rollers; and altho
there may be a great thickness of cloaths on one roller, and none on the other
roller, yet they always will start fair, as the cross rails or floors are carried
down with the pressing bed (g), and the ends of the rollers where there is no
cloaths has a bearing on the rails (y) before the pressure can be thrown against
them, consequently before the box can give them motion. The weight or
lever () is then let down, as in Fig. (1), until the pressing bed (9) confines the
rollers (a, a) and box (e) against the fixed bed (c). In this situation the
mangle is ready to be worked, when, by moving up and down the box (e),
which in its then confined state with an equal pressure carries the rollers with

page_text: it, and thus the linen on the rollers become mangled. The box (e) may be
raised and sunk by various contrivances, none of which I wish to claim as part
of my Invention; but I only lay claim to such as I have before expressed, to
be my Invention. This contrivance has enabled me to produce mangles
occupying much less space with equal power or effect to the largest box
mangle. The contrivance or means by which I prefer to work my mangle is
explained by the Drawings and following references, whereof the letters refer
to the same parts in every Figure. (J) is a winch, turning both the fly wheel
(m) and the cog wheel (n), which last works in the upper cog wheel (o)
attached to the harbour or spindle (p), upon which is the pinion (7) connected
with the lower pinion (1) by means of a chain (s), particularly described in
Fig. 4, which is a section the longest way of the box, and shews the manner
by which the box is raised and depressed. To two of the links of the chain (s),
which I call an endless chain, a projecting stud (U) is attached, working in
the groove V, and raising the box until it arrives at the pinion (q), which the
stud (U) passes round, and, sliding to the opposite side of the groove V, carries
the box down again. By this operation it will be observed that the rollers are
carried up and down, pressing the linen on the rollers between the beds and
the box, which produces the effect called mangling.
Fig. 5 represents a double mangle, performing perfectly the business of two
mangles at one operation, contrived in every respect upon the same construc-
tion with the preceding, as far as I claim to originality. I prefer to work my
double mangle with a rack instead of a chain or other contrivances by which
it may be worked. The advantages of this my double mangle over every other
consists in its working four rollers with linen at the same time with great ease;
and as a further advantage, the mangle need not be stopt to release the rollers
in order to change the linen, as the weight may be raised by turning the
handle, and the rollers liberated on one side, while the other side is performing.
its work. This my double mangle I propose also to manufacture upon a much
larger scale then is necessary for laundry purposes, when a mangle of great
power is required, as in the operation called calendering, upon which occasion
it may be necessary to put my said mangle in motion by horse, steam, or other
power.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Francis Snowden, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twelve.
WILLIAM FRANCIS SNOWDEN. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of May,
in the year of our Lord 1812, the aforesaid William Francis Snowden cam
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.