Improved Means applicable for Use in Washing Bottles, Jugs, and the like.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Sept., 1896-Accepted, 9th Jan., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Means applicable for Use in Washing Bottles, Jugs, and
the like.
1, CARL WENIGMANN, of 6, Herderstrasse, Koln-Lindenthal, in the German
Empire, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to an improved method of and apparatus for washing
bottles, jugs and similar vessels and is designed to reproduce by mechanical means
the shaking motion of the arm and hand to which such vessels are subjected when
the operation of washing or rinsing is effected by manual labour and where shot is
employed as a scarifying agent.
It is well known that a thorough cleansing of bottles and the like is best effected
by using shot, because the pellets work into the corners formed by the bottoms.and
sides of the vessels. Repeated attempts have been made to carry out the operation
by mechanical means, but none of these have proved entirely successful. According
to one method, the bottle remains at rest whilst the shot are driven round therein by
means of water under high pressure. According to another system, brushes are
caused to rotate within the vessel; and again, according to a third method, a bottom
provided with brushes rotates in a cylindrical vessel, or the bottles roll on an endless
hand, but without the see-saw motion of the human arm. In order to produce
this motion, machines have been. constructed, in which the bottles are put into a
frame in a more or less complicated manner, and this kind of machine fairly fulfills.
the desired object, but owing to the complicated mechanism and the difficulties and
dangers incidental to working it, such machines have not come into general use.
A bottle washing machine designed to work according to my improved method is
represented in the accompanying drawings, whereof Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section;
Fig. 2 a transverse section and Fig. 3 a plan. Figs. 4, 5 and 6 illustrate the different
positions assumed by the bottles whilst under treatment.
A water-tank a, fixed on the supports bb is provided with a system of cylindrical
rollers ccc, the spindles of which are parallel, these rollers receiving the bottles to
be washed, one bottle above each two rollers. The spindles of the rollers are con-
nected with one another, outside the tank, by any suitable driving mechanism; in
the present instance, by means of a pitch chain d which engages with the pitch
wheels e ele, the rollers thus rotating in the same direction.
The first roller c is actuated either by power applied to the pulley for by means
of a strap from the pulley k, g being the fly-wheel shaft, h the crank and i the pedal
worked by the foot.
The essential feature or peculiarity of the machine consists in the bearings of each
roller being not only eccentric to the double eccentric borings, and surface thereof
but eccentric to one another so that no two points lying opposite to one another in
adjacent rollers ever move in the same horizontal plane.
Referring to Figs. 4, 5 and 6, it will be seen that when the roller 1, Fig. 4 has
its fullest part towards the adjoining roller m, the fullest part of the latter points in an
upward direction, with the effect that the bottle o is tilted into such a position that
the shot flows fully as far as the neck of the bottle. If, on the contrary, as in Fig. 5,
the smaller diameters of the rolleis occupy the positions above referred to, the

page_text: bottle o lies low. at the back, and the shot moves completely on the bottom and sides
of the bottle. In Fig. 6 the roller is at its lowest position and the roller m at its
middle position and in consequence of this the bottle o lies horizontally. The setting of
the several rollers on their respective spindles is moreover timed in such a manner as
to impart not only longitudinal but lateral rocking movements to the bottles.
As the machine is designed to run at a high speed, the shifting position of the
bottle is very sudden. To limit the movements of the bottle laterally a metal spring
or band p p formed with loops is arranged as shewn, the neck or each bottle being
confined within one of the loops. The spring band may be altered in shape to suit the
form of the bottle.
By manual exertion so rapid a motion is not attainable. Moreover by the
simultaneous rotary motion of the bottle, the cleansing of the same is effected in the
shortest possible time. Experiment has shown that half a minute or less suffices and
this without any previous steeping of the bottles being necessary.
If vessels with handles for use in connection with mineral waters are to be cleansed,
the handles pass by the rollers without hindrance; and the operation is otherwise
the same.
After the bottle or other vessel has been cleansed, the spray apparatus or jet is
brought into operation, Figs. 1, 2, 3, r being a fixed hopper with spray tube s, stop
cock t and india-rubber tube u.
The bottle having been removed from the machine empties its shot in the
bottle, the latter standing on a spring supported base w; and the rinsing of the
bottle vis effected by the opening of the cock t.
Another peculiarity pertaining to the working of this machine is that every bottle
or other vessel placed on the cylinders has a strong see-saw motion imparted to
it in the horizontal direction, whilst at the same time only a circular movement is
observable, and not any side movement as in other machines having rotary bottoms
or endless bands, and for which extra partition walls have to be constructed, on which
the bottles must be held, so as not to collide. with one another; other means being
also necessary in order to impart a see-saw movement to the bottles.
According to the system hereinbefore described, every bottle lies free or loose,
and can be easily put in place or taken out; and if by inadvertence a defective
bottle be supplied and break into pieces, these simply fall between the rollers into
the tank a, so that any chance of injury or damage is reduced to a minimum.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I claim :-
1. The improved bottle washing or rinsing machine constructed and operating
substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
2. In a bottle washing or rinsing machine, the employment of two or more rollers
arranged horizontally side by side and mounted to rotate in the same direction on
axes which are out of parallel with the axes of the said rollers; the timing of each
pair being such as to impart to the bottle or other vessel resting upon them a
combined see-saw and rotative movement, substantially as herein described and for
the purpose set forth.