IMPROVEMENTS IN MANGLES
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Watts and John Joseph
Cooper at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 1st May 1865.
We, WILLIAM WATTS, of Nottingham, and St. Martin's Lane, London,
now residing at Nice, and JOHN JOSEPH COOPER, of No. 10, Bloomsbury.
Market, St. George's, Bloomsbury, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MANGLES,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in mangles, and the improve-
ments are applicable to the ordinary description of mangle, in which the
articles to be mangled are placed on a flat bed and rollers pressed downwards
by a weighted box are moved to and fro over them. In constructing mangles
according to this Invention, we form them in such manner that when out of
use the upper surface of the mangle may be used as a table; for this purpose
the mechanism by which the moving box of the mangle is actuated is arranged
to be within the interior of the box, and the top of the box is covered over, so
that the top of the box may serve as a table. Flaps are also, by preference,
hinged to the sides of the box, which when the mangle is out of use are turned
down to cover the side frames of the mangle, between which the box moves to
and fro, as is usual; these flaps when the mangle is in use are turned over on
to the top of the box, so as to be out of the way. The following are ways
in which the mechanism for actuating the moving box may be arranged.
According to one arrangement a horizontal rack is placed within the moving

page_text: box. The rack is composed of a number of pins projecting out horizontally
from a bar, the ends of which are connected to slides that are capable of
rising and falling in guides carried by the two ends of the box, so that either
end of the rack can rise and fall freely; into the teeth or pins of this rack a
pinion gears, one end of the axis of which is carried by a bearing capable of
sliding to and fro in a horizontal groove formed along one side of the moving
box, and on this end of the axis a socket is formed, by which an axis having
a crank handle upon it can be readily connected or disconnected with it; the
other end of the axis is received into a groove formed in the bar carrying the
rack teeth; this groove is formed all around the row of teeth, and is always
equidistant from them, so that the pinion always gears correctly with the
teeth; the axis of the crank handle passes through a slot, which descends
downwards from the top of the centre of one of the side frames of the mangle,
between which the box moves to and fro; this allows the axis to rise or fall
freely, as well as to rotate. When the axis is turned by its crank handle the
pinion gearing in the rack teeth causes the rack, and consequently the box, to
move, and when the rack has been moved to such an extent that the last pin
or tooth at one or other end of the rack has arrived up to the pinion, the
pinion will move around this pin (the rack by rising or falling in its guides
allowing it to do so) and pass from one side of the rack to the other, when by
continuing to rotate the axis the rack and box will be moved in the contrary
direction; thus by continuing to turn the crank handle the box will be moved
constantly to and fro. In place of this arrangement two parallel racks may
be fixed within the interior of the box, both racks running from end to end of
the interior of the box, and being placed at a distance apart from each other.
The teeth of one of these racks are caused to point downwards, and the teeth
of the other upwards; into each rack a pinion gears; both pinions are carried
by one axis, and are loose upon it. This axis' passes out through a slot in the
side of the box, and is carried by a bearing capable of rising or falling in a slot
in the centre of one of the side frames of the mangle, and on
axis is a crank handle, by which the axis can be turned. Either of the
pinions can be made fast upon the axis by a clutch capable of sliding endwise
upon the axis. Around this clutch is a disc, and as the moving box in its
to-and-fro movement arrives near one or other end of its motion, a spring
carried at the end of the box strikes against the disc and shifts the clutch so as
to set fast the pinion that before was free upon the axis, and release the pinion
that was previously fast; this causes the movement of the box to be reversed,
and when the box has arrived at the opposite end of its motion, another spring
at the other end of the box acts on the disc, and again shifts the clutch, which
the end of the

page_text: causes the box to be again moved back, in order that when the clutch has so
been moved from one pinion to another it may not afterwards shift from its
place. A rail is placed between the two racks and parallel with them.
When the clutch is to be shifted, the disc will have moved just beyond one
end of this rail, and after that the clutch has been shifted the disc upon it will
have been moved from one side of the rail to the other. When the box
commences to travel in the opposite direction the rail comes on one side of a
portion of the disc, and so prevents the clutch from shifting until the opposite
end of the rail has moved past the disc, when the clutch will be again shifted
by the spring at that end of the box, so as to move it from one pinion to the
other.
Another arrangement of mechanism for giving the to-and-fro motion to the
sliding box is composed of a pair of racks placed back to back and one below
the other, and the racks at their ends are connected together by curved ends
so as to form one endless rack; this endless rack is fixed within the moving
box and runs lengthwise of it; into the rack a pinion gears; on the axis of this
pinion is another pinion, into which a pinion on an axis furnished with a crank
handle gears; this crank handle passes out through a slot in the side of the
box, and is carried by bearings capable of rising or falling in a vertical slot in
one of the side frames of the mangle, as in the arrangement just described.
The axis of the pinion that gears with the rack is carried by an arm capable
of turning freely around the crank axis; and the end of this axis comes in a
line equidistant between the two racks placed back to back as above described.
By this means when the crank handle is turned the pinion which gears with
the rack is turned also, and so causes the rack and box to travel when the box
has arrived at one end of its motion, the pinion that gears with the rack
moves around the curved end, which unites the two racks together, and so
moves from one rack to the other, and causes the movement of the box to be
reversed; this motion from one rack to the other the pinion is free to make
as its axis is carried by an arm capable of turning around the crank axis, as
above described.
In order to lift the moving box so as to remove the articles that have been
mangled from beneath the rollers which support the box, a lever is placed at
the centre of one of the side frames of the mangle; this lever has two short
arms projecting one on each side of its axis, and between them is a long arm;
near the outer end of this arm a quadrant is fixed to the side frame of the
machine, having three holes formed in it, through which a pin can be passed
to fix the lever in either of these positions. When the mangle is at work the
lever is fixed in its central position. When it is desired to lift one or other

page_text: end of the box, the box is moved so as to bring that end near the centre of
the side frame of the mangle; the long arm of the lever is then either raised
or lowered (according as it is desired to raise one or other end of the box);
one of the shorter arms of the lever then acts on a small projection, which is
placed at the side of the box near its end, and raises that end of the box, and
the box can be so held by fixing the lever to the quadrant by the pin, as before
described..