IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR WASHING CLOTHES, APPLICABLE ALSO AS A CHURN
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Colborne Cambridge, of Bristol, Agricul-
tural Implement Maker, for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
WASHING CLOTHES, APPLICABLE ALSO AS A CHURN."
Sealed the 20th March 1863, and dated the 1st October 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Colborne Cam-
bridge at the Office of the Commissioners, of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 1st October 1862.
1. WILLIAM COLBORNE CAMBRIDGE. of Bristol. Agricultural Implement
Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR WASHING CLOTHES. APPLICABLE ALSO AS A CHURN," to be as
follows:-
The chief object of this Invention is to simplyfy the construction and to
expedite the operation of apparatus for washing clothes. These advantages
1 obtain chiefly by the introduction into washing machines of two fixed dash
boards, which, as the agitated solution or liquid contained in the machine is
thrown upwards. will deflect the same down and cause it to impinge upon the
clothes under operation. The washing machine may be described in its
simplest form as a wooden box or chamber with an opening at top to receive
the clothes and saponaceous liquid. The sides of the box are vertical and
formed at their lower edges like rockers. The ends are slightly inclined
outwards towards the top. and the top of the box is made of boards inclining
inwards and forming the fixed dash boards above referred to. The bottom of
the box
prefer slightly to incline towards the ends of the box and to give it

page_text: a rise in the centre. The ends, bottom, and top of the box I clothe with
corrugated zinc, which, while presenting a smooth surface to the clothes, will
ensure their rolling over as the machine is rocked, and being presented, every
portion in turn, to the action of the saponaceous liquid. The opening in
the top of the box is to be closed with a cover during the working of the
machine.
When applying the Invention for churning it will only be necessary to reduce
the size of the machine, the construction being the same in all material points
as above described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Colborne Cambridge in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 1st April 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
COLBORNE CAMBRIDGE, of Bristol, Agricultural Implement Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and, successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Colborne Cambridge. Her special license that I, the said William
Colborne Cambridge, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as 1, the said William Colborne Cambridge. my executors, administrators, 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
"IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR WASHING CLOTHES, APPLICABLE ALSO AS A CHURN,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Colborne
Cambridge, by an instrument in writing under my hand and scal, 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 1. the said William Colborne Cambridge, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the

page_text: following statement. reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
The chief object of this Invention is to simplify the construction of apparatus
for washing clothes and to expedite that operation.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 shews my improved machine in
longitudinal section, and Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same taken in
the line 1. 2. of Fig. 1. The peculiar construction of this machine ensures
that the saponaceous solution or liquid placed therein will, when put into
violent agitation, be thrown upwards and then deflected downwards, so as to
impinge upon the clothes under operation. The washing machine may be
described as consisting in its simplest form of a wooden box or chamber a with
a central opening at top to receive the clothes or other articles to be washed
and the saponaceous liquid. The sides of the box are vertical, and their lower
edges are carried down below the bottom of the box to form rockers b, b,
which serve to support the machine. The ends are slightly inclined outwards
towards the top, and the top of the box is closed with fixed dash boards c, c,
and a removable lid or cover c. The bottom of the box I prefer slightly to
Incline upwards towards the ends of the box, as at d, d. and in the centre
I form a segmental projection or bridge e, whereby the turning over of the
clothes during the rocking action is greatly facilitated. The ends, bottom, and
top of the box I clothe with corrugated zinc f. f. or other non-oxidizable metal
lining, arranging the metal lining so that the corrugations will lie in trans-
versely to the rockers. This lining, while presenting to the clothes a surface
that can in no respect injure them, which pegs and such like projections are
very liable to do, will ensure their rolling over as the machine is rocked, and
thus every portion of the clothes will be presented in turn to the action of the
saponaceous liquid. An advantage incidental to the use of the metallic lining
as described is. that by making it somewhat broader than the intended internal
breadth of the box or chamber a (as shown at Fig. 2), and applying it pre-
viously to fixing on the side pieces, I am enabled to press the edges of the metal
into the wooden sides, and thereby ensure secure water-tight joints. The ends
of the sheet zine or other metal secure by means of two overlying bevilled
bars of wood g, g. set transversely of the machine and fixed to the edges of the
dash boards, of which they form a part. These bars serve to deflect the liquor
and also the clothes thrown up against the dash boards on to the bridge below,
and thereby, through a kind of rinsing action, to wash out the dirt which has
been disturbed by the rubbing of the clothes against the ribbed surface of the
box. The opening in the top of the box is to be closed by the cover c* during
the rocking of the machine, which motion is readily effected by the attendant

page_text: by alternately raising and depressing the handle h carried by arms i, i, attached
to the sides of the box.
When applying the Invention for churning it will only be necessary to
reduce the size of the box, and if thought desirable, the machine may be
supported on trunnions in a separate frame instead of standing on rockers.
The construction will, however, be the same in all material points as above
described.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of improved apparatus for
washing clothes, applicable also as a churn, and explained the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above
in part recited Letters Patent [ claim constructing washing machines and
churns with an internal ribbed or corrugated metal surface in the manner
above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Colborne Cambridge, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-eighth day of March, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
W. C. CAMBRIDGE. (L.S.)