AN IMPROVED IRONING MACHINE
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Podger of Bromley in the County of Kent and
William Hook Davey of Highgate in the County of Middlesex for an
Invention of AN IMPROVED IRONING MACHINE
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Podger and William
Hook Davey at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th August
1882.
HENRY PODGER of Bromley in the County of Kent and WILLIAM HOOK DAVEY
of Highgate in the County of Middlesex "AN IMPROVED IRONING MACHINE
Our Invention relates to an improved ironing machine which is especially
adapted for ironing shirt-fronts, collars, cuffs, and fancy articles but is also well
adapted for general work.
The Invention consists mainly in the combination with a vertically adjustable
inovable table of a longitudinally reciprocating iron. It also consists in a gas or
steam heated iron which is double faced and reversible-so that the one face is being
heated whilst the other is being used.
a suitable
The ironing table is supported on a bed which is movable vertically in
frane, by means of a treadle in order to bring the table up to the iron and cause
the necessary pressure to be applied to the fabric. The table rests upon this bed
and is supported on rollers running on ways on the bed to permit of the table being
run to and fro under the iron in a direction at right angles to the reciprocating
motion of the iron. The iron is hung on end pivots in a frame suspended from,
and travelling to and fro along a horizontal guide rod fixed by its ends to a strong
arm or frame extending above the table of the machine. The frame in which the
iron is suspended has two bearings at a considerable distance apart, sliding upon
its guide rail so as to avoid any liability to canting of the iron endwise. The
frame is traversed to and fro by a connecting rod from a crank pin on the driving
shaft.
The iron is hung on end gudgeons and one or both of which is tubular to admit
gas or other heating agent and the iron has two faces on opposite sides so that
when one is downwards for use the other is upwards and is being heated whilst
the other is getting cold.

page_text: both irons and extends across and beyond the ends of the two arms A' of the
frame. This guide rod I runs to and fro between pairs of grooved guiding
rollers K above and beneath it, these rollers running loose upon the bolts which
brace the pairs of frames A¹ together. L is the driving shaft with fast and loose
pulleys (and a flywheel not shown) and a disc carrying a crank pin which is
coupled by a connecting rod M to the rod I.
The irons are represented as heated by steam supplied and exhausted through
a pair of pipes S S¹ extending between the irons and connected at an intermediate
point to flexible pipes leading up or down to main pipes fixed in any convenient
position.
The construction of a single iron machine will be sufficiently clear without
further drawing or explanation.
Figure 4 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of a reversible or double faced
iron which may be used in lieu of those before described. Figure 5 is an end
view, and Figure 6 a cross section of the iron. It is made of box form and of cast
iron with two steel ironing faces H¹ H2 and is hung by end gudgeons h h¹ in
the arms of a suitable frame fixed to rod I as before. The one gudgeon h¹ is
tubular and into it is screwed or fixed a perforated pipe N forming the gas burner.
This burner turns with the iron and is perforated at the sides so as to answer
either side uppermost. A gas pipe P of smaller diameter than the bore of the
journal h projects concentrically thereinto so as to leave an annular inlet for air
thus constituting an atmospheric burner. The gas pipe P is supported by any
suitable frame from the guide rod I so as to move to and fro with the irons without
being connected therewith, leaving the irons free to turn quite independently of
the gas pipe. R is a disc fixed on the journal h having two recesses r, with either
of. which engages a locking lever T pivoted at t to the frame to lock the iron in
position. are air holes in the sides of the iron.
Having described the nature of our Invention and the manner of performing
the same we declare that what we claim as our Invention to be protected by the
herein before in part recited Letters Patent is : —
1st In an ironing machine the combination of a horizontally reciprocating iron
with a vertically and horizontally movable ironing table, substantially as herein
shown and described.
2nd The combination and arrangement of parts constituting the improved
ironing machine, substantially as herein specified.
3rd The construction and employment of a reversible or double faced gas heated
iron hung on gudgeons, substantially as shown and described.
In witness whereof we the said Henry Podger and William Hook Davey
have hereunto set our hands and seal this twelfth day of February in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty three.
(L5)
WILLIAM HOOK DAVEY (L.S.)