IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SWEEPING CHIMNEY OR THING
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Washington, of Batley, near Dewsbury, in
the County of York, Machinist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR SWEEPING CHIMNEY OR THING"
Sealed the 22nd January 1856, and dated the 6th October 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Washington at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th October 1855.
I, JAMES WASHINGTON, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SWEEPING CHIMNEYS OR FLUES" to be as
follows:
This Invention consists in obtaining expansion and contraction in apparatus
for sweeping chimneys and flues by a new mode or method, nearly similar to
what is used in opening and closing an umbrella; also in the machine embody-
ing and practically applying the afore-named mode or method to apparatus for
sweeping chimneys and flues, which possesses the peculiarities of―
1st, effectually filling and cleansing a chimney or flue from the great extent
of its expansion and contraction.
2nd, with great ease ascending or descending, and passing the various
obstructions in chimneys or flues.
3rd, longitudinal action of the spring which causes lateral expansion.

page_text: 4th, connection of the stretchers and brushes, so that the brushes are
nearly horizontal when contracting and expanding.
kept
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Washington in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
5th April 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
WASHINGTON, of Batley, near Dewsbury, in the County of York, Machinist,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Washington, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her special
licence that I, the said James Washington, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said James Washington, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SWEEPING CHIMNEYS
OR FLUES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Wash-
ington, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was
to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Washington, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
(I.) The nature of the said Invention, which has already been described by
the Provisional Specification filed on application for the said Letters Patent,
is hereby, in compliance with the aforesaid condition therein contained, par-
ticularly described and ascertained, as follows:-

page_text: These improvements consist, firstly, in obtaining expansion and contraction
at the head or brush part of apparatus for sweeping chimneys or flues, by a
mode or method nearly similar to that which is adopted for effecting the
opening and closing of ordinary umbrellas and parasols, by ribs and stretchers;
but differs therefrom, inasmuch as in my improved apparatus for sweeping
chimneys and flues there are two stretchers (answering to the rib and stretcher
aforesaid, jointed together, and having whalebones or brushes secured to the
points of junction or thereabouts, the extremities of which stretchers may be
free to move in slide grooves or guides (or free to move with sliding pieces to
which they might be connected), and connected to springs, to secure, under the
variations of pressure that occur in use, the expansion and contraction of the
brush or brushes, whereby the stretchers in action will be caused to form a
greater or less angle according to the variations of pressure, and whereby
the brushes will be caused to protrude considerably from the rod or centre
filling the chimney or flue, and effectually cleansing the same, and yet may be
so much compressed as to pass into and through a common chimney pot.
Secondly, these improvements consist in connecting or jointing together the
parts of the canes or rods to which the head or brush is attached, by means
of a joint, which is simply a nut, having a left-hand thread, which secures,
fastens, or "locks" the common right-hand thread of the ordinary joint,
whereby the chance of the joints becoming unscrewed in use in a chimney or
flue is prevented.
(11.) Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, I now proceed to particularly describe and ascertain in what
manner the same is to be performed, wherein I shall refer to the illustrative
Drawings accompanying this Specification, by the words, figures, and letters
following (which appear on the said Drawings), that is to say:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 is a partial elevation of the head or brush part of an apparatus for
sweeping chimneys and flues constructed according to my said Invention
Fig. 2, partial plan view thereof; Fig. 3, detail section, shewing the manner
of securing the whalebones, and keeping them horizontal or nearly so in use;
Fig. 4, plan view, shewing the construction of the slide grooves; Fig. 5, view
of the lower part of the joint aforesaid; Fig. 6, section of the upper part of
the said joint. At the said Figures, A denotes the lower slide grooves of the
head or brush part of the apparatus; and B, the upper slide grooves thereof;
C, denotes a stretcher, or part of a compound stretcher, one end of which is

page_text: free to slide in the groove A, whilst the other end is jointed by means of a
pin or rivet to the brush stock at the part marked . This brush stock is
formed of brass or other suitable metal, and consists of two parts D¹ and D²;
an edge view being given at Fig. 1, a plan at Fig. 2, and a section at Fig. 3,
(D³ only being shewn at Fig. 2, it being precisely the same as D',) these two
parts being connected together by bolts passing through the same, and near
to the piece of wood or other suitable material (e), which is what may be
termed the back of the brush, to which is secured the whalebone or other
suitable material forming the brush. To the part D, at *, *, is jointed by
pin or rivet, in the same manner as at *, D', one end of another stretcher, or
part of a compound stretcher (marked E), the end of which slides in one of
the grooves B. It will be observed that the ends of the stretchers (C and E)
are notched, which is with the view that when the brush is pressed near to the
centre or rod, as shewn by the dotted lines, the whalebones may thereby be
kept in a horizontal position or nearly so. Fig. 3 illustrates this more clearly.
Wires are connected to the ends of the compound stretcher which are in the
grooves (A and B,) by passing their ends through orifices in the same, these
wires marked F, which have hooked ends at F*, whereby springs formed of
india-rubber or other suitable material are secured thereto, the other ends of
which springs are rivetted or fastened to the parts A* and B* respectively;
this keeps the sliding ends of the stretchers or compound stretcher as near
each other as the parts A and B will permit, tending to keep the whale-
bones from the centre, but yet allow them to be pressed nearer to the centre,
by any outward pressure they may encounter in use. The slide groove A thus
allows the brush to come near the centre in ascending, and the slide groove
B allows the brush to come near the centre in descending. The said slide
grooves A and B are constructed as shewn at Fig. 4. A, B, denote the
main slide groove, and f, f, slide grooves open to the same, and at right
angles thereto, in which the pin C* (Fig. 1,) see also e* (Fig. 2) slides.
These slide grooves f, f, are not continued through the parts A* and B*, but
are terminated by those parts. These grooves are lined with brass or other
suitable metal, and the part between or frame thereof is of wood or other
suitable material. To facilitate turning in crooked chimneys, a wheel I is
placed at top of the brush part, and for the same purpose the rod or centre
before mentioned should be formed of flexible cane, and the stretchers should
be of spring steel. As regards Figs. 5 and 6, Fig. 5 shews the lower part of
the joint, wherein K¹ denotes the left-hand male screw, and K2 the right-
hand male screw; L (Fig. 6) denotes the female thread for the reception of

page_text: the right-hand screw (K2, Fig. 5); M is a nut with a female screw for the
reception of the left-hand male screw K', which nut is prevented from coming
off the part L by a pin N, as seen at Fig. 6.
(III.) Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I
would here remark, that although I have described and illustrated by the
accompanying Drawings the mode of construction, and the materials for
the construction, of the parts composing my improved apparatus for sweeping
chimneys or flues, yet I do not limit or confine myself thereto; what I claim
being the Invention, the nature and character whereof is set forth in the
outset (I.) of this Specification.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Washington, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Second day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Signed and sealed before me,
JOHN ODDY,
Cleckheaton.
JAMES WASHINGTON. (L.S.)