IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE WASHING OF CLOTHES, FABRICS, MATERIALS, AND OTHER ARTICLES, APPLICABLE ALSO AS A CIRCULATOR OR MIXER IN BREWING, CHEMICAL, AND OTHER PROCESSES."
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by. Alfred Cooper at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 2nd May 1881.
"
ALFRED COOPER, of Clerkenwell, in the County of Middlesex, Commercial
Traveller. IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE WASHING OF CLOTHES,
FABRICS, MATERIALS, AND OTHER ARTICLES, APPLICABLE ALSO AS A CIRCULATOR
OR MIXER IN BREWING, CHEMICAL, AND OTHER PROCESSES."
My Invention relates to an improved construction of well known circulating
apparatus used in the washing of clothes, fabrics, materials, and other articles, and
is applicable to like apparatus for use in brewing, chemical, and various other
processes.
To make my Invention clearly understood, I will now describe the apparatus in
ordinary use, in the improved construction of which my Invention consists. The
said apparatus which varies in size according to the purpose for which it is to be
used, is commonly made of zinc, and when used for washing purposes is sometimes
known by the names of "self acting washer" and "wash boiler fountain," and
consists in its best known form of a chamber resembling an inverted pan open
underneath, and having one or more holes in its circumference; the said chamber
is usually about 2 inches deep, and from 6 to 12 inches in diameter; to the centre
is attached a vertical tube about 2 inches in diameter, and sufficiently long to take
a removable tube which slides over it, and has its upper end curved or so arranged
as to direct liquid forced up the said tube in a desired direction. When the said
apparatus is used in the washing of clothes, it is placed in the bottom of the boiler
or copper which contains the clothes which have been treated with soap in the
ordinary manner, and is about two thirds full of water, and the fire having been
lighted under the said copper or boiler, the apparatus, of which the chamber or
base is in the hottest part of the boiler, by a well known principle of hydraulics
acts as a fountain or circulator, and by constant suction through the holes in the
circumference and underneath the chamber, and by the discharge of boiling water
upon the clothes through the vertical tube, maintains a constant circulation of the
water through the clothes, thereby effecting or greatly assisting the separation of
the dirt from the said clothes. The chamber of the said apparatus is sometimes
hollow, and sometimes the interior arrangement consists of a spiral or tortuous
psssage, into which the water enters through a hole or holes in the circumference
CD71

page_text: of the said chamber, and passing along the said passage is discharged up the
vertical tube. Sometimes concentric passages and sometimes radial divisions are
substituted in place of spiral or tortuous passages, and other dispositions of the
interior of the chamber are made, which chiefly have for their object improved
circulation by the extension of the water passage, or the more equal distribution
of the suction by the disposition of the orifices around the entire circumference of
the chamber combined with radial or other divisions of the interior.
Having now described the apparatus in ordinary use in the washing of clothes,
I would have it understood that the use of the said apparatus described in the
washing of fabrics, materials, and other articles, and as a circulator, agitator, or
mixer in brewing, chemical, and other processes is well known.
Whereas in the apparatus as known and used the water or liquid passes
through one chamber and is then discharged through the vertical tube, my
Invention consists in the construction of apparatus having an auxiliary or
additional chamber or chambers, through which the water or liquid must pass
before being discharged from the apparatus.
I prefer to construct my improved apparatus with one chamber immediately over
the other, and I make various suitable dispositions of the passages, divisions, and
arrangements in the said chambers, which are in communication with each other,
in such manner that the water or liquid first. enters the base or lower chamber
through which it passes into the chamber next over the said base chamber, and
when the apparatus is made with only two chambers it passes from the said second
chamber into the vertical or discharge tube, but when the apparatus is made with
more than two chambers it passes through the chamber next over the last chamber
from which it passes, and so on, until the water or liquid has passed through all
the chambers when it passes into the said vertical or discharge tube.
By the use of my improved apparatus I obtain among other advantages greatly
improved circulation of the water or liquid, whether the apparatus be used in the
washing of clothes, fabrics, materials and other articles, or as a circulator, agitator,
or mixer in brewing, chemical, and other processes.