Improvements in and Connected with Bottle Washing and Rinsing Machinery.
Year: 1888

page_text: Improvements in and Connected with Bottle Washing and Rinsing
Machinery.
I, THOMAS CASSWELL MOLESWORTH, of Ketton, near Stamford, in the County of
Lincolnshire, Brewer, and Spirit Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
The object of my invention is to provide efficient means for washing and rinsing
bottles, and whereby to a great extent an action similar to that now obtained by hand
washing and rinsing or substantially similar thereto is obtained in and by simply
constructed machinery, and in such manner that bottles of any size and shape can be
easily arranged and carried in a frame in a vertical position, but can be placed in a
horizontal position, and a to and fro motion imparted to same, while at the same time
the bottles receive a slow rotary motion in order that the outside of them may be
cleaned by a brush or brushes all substantially as hereafter described.
A convenient construction of machine suitable for the purposes of my invention
may be composed as follows: I provide a frame which for convenience may be
circular in shape and mounted on trunnions, so that the whole frame and parts
connected therewith may be turned into the position that may be required and as
hereafter explained. Within the aforesaid frame there is a tooth wheel mounted on a
central spindle from which it receives rotary motion, and into this wheel there are
geared as many pinions as may be required, the number varying according to the size
of the machine and the number of bottles the machine is intended to accommodate.
These pinions are mounted on hollow spindles, or are, or may be, conveniently made
in a piece therewith, slots, perforations, or apertures being provided in the spindles for
the exit of water when rinsing, and it is into the hollow spindles that the shot or other
cleansing material is placed, provision being made that the shot or other material shall
not escape from the interior until it is desired or required to remove same therefrom.
There is an outer casing or jacket surrounding each hollow spindle to prevent escape
of the contents when the bottles are in the horizontal position, and there is also an
perture provided for the exit of same when the bottles are in a vertical position.

page_text: The top of each spindle is provided with means to connect and disconnect and to
change when necessary an india rubber or other suitable washer having an aperture
therein sufficiently large to receive and grip the bottle neck, into which aperture the
bottle is placed, retained, and supported, no matter in what position the said bottle
may become placed; provision is or may he made to afford support to the base and
sides, as well as the neck of the bottle, the side support, and which may be made
chiefly of wood, acting as a guide for the introduction of the bottles to the machine.
Water is admitted to the interior of the bottles by a jet tube or jet tubes passing
through the hollow shaft or shot chamber, the said jets being in connection with
some convenient source of supply. Each pinion and shaft is fitted and supplied in the
manner before described and arranged as aforesaid round the large tooth wheel in
the required number.
The trunnions on which the frame of the machine is mounted, carry flanged or
other guide wheels, free to run on rails, there provided for the purpose, or in any
suitable slide, or slide arrangement, and to which the required to and fro movement is
imparted, through crank and connecting rod or rods receiving motion from any
suitable prime mover and when the machine is placed in a horizontal position and
motion communicated to same it receives a reciprocating movement, as likewise do
the bottles which are mounted in the frame, the shot or other cleansing material being
thus thrown from end to end of the bottles ard the interior thereof is thereby as
effectually cleaned as if cleansed by hand labour, but at considerably greater speed.
The frame too may be set at an angle, if required, or its position may be adjusted
according to requirement. On the central shaft of the tooth wheel there is a flyer
carrying arms provided with brushes adjustable on the arms so as to accommodate
themselves to the size of bottles being cleaned; the position too of the flyer on the
shaft is adjustable; as the flyer revolves it cleanses the outside of the bottles, while
the latter slowly revolving on their axes have their whole outer surface covered by the
brushes, while the interior is being cleansed by the effect of the reciprocating motion
before described. The bottom or lower row of bottles may be arranged to move in
a water bath or tank which also acts as a supply for water to wet the brushes
for the cleansing of the exterior of those bottles which come above the water in the
tank or trough.
Suitable driving, change and clutch gear are provided as may be required
according to circumstances, and to the size of the machine as well as for the main
wheel motion which communicates through its pinions. the rotary motion to each
bottle.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and Connected with Bottle Washing and Rinsing
Machinery.
I, THOMAS CASSWELL MOLESWORTH, of Ketton, near Stamford, in the County of
Lincolnshire, Brewer and Spirit Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by thefollowing statement :—
The object of my invention is to provide efficient means for washing and rinsing
bottles and whereby to a great extent an action similar to that now obtained by hand
washing and rinsing, or substantially similar thereto, is obtained, in and by simply
constructed machinery, and in such manner that bottles of any size and shape can
be easily arranged and carried in a frame in a vertical position, but can be placed
in a horizontal position, and a to and fro motion imparted to same, while at the
same time the bottles receive a slow rotary motion in order that the outside of
then may be cleaned by a brush or brushes, all substantially as hereafter described.
My invention will be best understood by reference to the accompanying drawings
which illustrate a convenient construction of machine suitable for carrying the
invention into effect. Figure 1 being a side elevation with a portion of the water
tank broken away, in order to shew the machine more clearly, Figure 2 a plan of
the same machine, Figure 3 is an inverted plan of the bottle frame drawn on a
larger scale than the previous figures. Figure 4 is a detailed vertical section of
one of the bottles fitted in the shot chamber, and Figure 5 is a similar view
shewing a modified arrangement of shot chamber.
Similar letters of reference to like parts in all the figures.
I provide a frame which for convenience may be circular in shape, and mounted
on trunnions B, the axis being horizontal and so that the whole frame and parts
connected. therewith may be turned into the position that may be required, and as
hereafter explained.
The frame consists of an upper ring A' which may conveniently be made of
wood formed with holes or apertures to receive the bodies of the bottles which are
inserted therein in an inverted position, this ring is shewn in plan at Figure 2,
and in sectional elevation at Figure 1, and is supported by suitable pillars (not
shewn) from the lower circular plate A'. This circular plate A' is formed with a
central boss which is loosely mounted on a vertical central shaft C; holding devices
are provided also carried by the plate A2 for receiving and holding the necks of the
bottles and giving motion thereto as hereafter described. Within the aforesaid frame
and overlying the circular plate A' there is a tooth wheel D, loosely mounted on the
central spindle or shaft C, and into this wheel D there are geared as many pinions C³,
as may be required; if preferred wheels could be used faced with india rubber so as
to drive by friction instead of toothed wheels, the number varying according to the

page_text: size of the machine and the number of bottles the machine is intended to accommodate.
These pinions are mounted on hollow spindles E, best seen at Fig. 4, or are or
may be conveniently made as shewn in the drawing in a piece therewith. This
hollow spindle is composed of a tube somewhat conical in section at its upper part,
and reduced in diameter at its lower end, this end is received into a socket or
cup A screwed to, or formed in a piece with, the lower ring A2 of the frame
and through which ring A' the tube E passes, and has a bearing, the ring A² and
tube E being flanged for this purpose. E¹ are slots, perforations or apertures
provided in the spindles or tubes E for the exit of water when rinsing, and it is
into the hollow spindles that the shot or other cleansing material is placed, pro-
vision being made that the shot or other material shall not escape from the interior
until it is desired or required to remove same therefrom, which may be effected
by inverting the hollow spindle E. The outer casing or jacket A surrounding
each hollow spindle E at its lower end, is for the purpose of preventing escape of the
contents when the bottles are in the horizontal position, and there is also an aperture A
in the surrounding jacket A³, provided for the exit of the cleansing liquid when the
bottles are in a vertical position. The top of each spindle is provided with means
such, as a screwed cap E³, to connect and disconnect and to change when necessary
an india rubber or other suitable washer Es having an aperture therein, sufficiently
large to receive and grip the bottle neck, into which aperture the bottle is placed,
retained and supported, no matter in what position the said bottle may become placed;
provision is or may be made to afford support to the base and sides as well as the neck
of the bottle, the side support A¹ before referred to and which may be made partly of
wood, acting as a guide and support for the bottles while being rotated; a segment of
each hole facing the inside is left open, as will be seen at Fig. 2, to allow the brushes
to better cleanse the exterior of the bottles, and the said holes also facilitate the
introduction of the bottles to the machine; or in some cases adjustable clips could,
for example, be employed to hold the bottles in position. Water is admitted to the
interior of the bottles by a jet tube F, or jet tubes, passing through the hollow
spindle E or shot chamber, the said jets being in connection with some convenient
source of supply, as hereafter explained.
The device shown at Fig. 5 for receiving the bottlo necks slightly differs in the
details of construction to that shewn at Fig. 4. In the said fig. 5 the conical mounted
tube E runs in bearings in the frame A2 and does not extend entirely through same
but abuts onto the mouth of the socket or tube A* which is fixed to the frame A²;
this tube A is bent as shown and in such manner that when the frame has been
caused to assume a horizontal position, the shots will enter and be retained in the
bottle, while the said bottle is being shaken. The tube A³ is provided with apertures A*
for the escape of water and is fitted with the nozzle F.
It will be noticed that it is not necessary, in this case, to entirely invert the frame
in order to cause the shot to enter the bottles, as this can be offected when the bottles
are placed horizontally.
The jet tubes F, which may be of any length, are preferably bent in such
manner as to throw the jet of water against the sides of the bottle, as the latter
is slowly rotated, thereby obtaining a more perfect rinsing of the same.
Each pinion C³, and shaft or hollow spindle E, is fitted and supplied in the
manner before described and arranged as aforesaid round the large tooth wheel D in
the required number.
The trunnions B on which the frame A¹ A² of the machine is mounted, carry flanged
or other guide wheels, free to run on rails there provided for the purpose, or in any
suitable slide or slide arrangement and to which the required to and fro movement is
imparted, through crank and connecting rod or rods, receiving motion from any suitable
prime mover; it will be obvious that this rocking motion may be obtained by any suit-
able combined mechanism, I have illustrated an arrangement which 1 have found in
practice to answer the purpose well. In this case the hollow trunnions B are mounted
in bearings carried by the frame G fulcrummed at H in the bed of the machine. Motion
is communicated to this frame G from a shaft J carried by a standard K. The.

page_text: shaft J is provided with a hand wheel L and on the said shaft J there is a crank
arm M from which there is a connecting rod N pivotted to a forked arm G¹ which
is fixed to or forms part of the rocking frame G, so that by communicating
rotary motion to the shaft J, a to and fro movement is communicated to the bottle
frame A¹ A².
Mounted loosely on one of the trunnions B (the front one) on which the bottle
frame A¹ A rocks, is a flanged internally toothed wheel P which is shewn in elevation
and plan Figs. 1 and 2, and also in the plan at Fig. 3 on a larger scale and inverted.
The said wheel P has fixed thereto an arm (shewn in dotted lines at Fig. 1) the said
arm being connected at its upper end to a connecting bar P¹ which extends and is
connected at its other end to the fixed standard K by means, for example, of an
extension of one of the bearing bolts of same, as shown, and the wheel P is thus
caused to communicate a reciprocating rotary motion to a spur pinion P', by means
of the rocking of the axis B, upon which the wheel P is loosely mounted, and with
the teeth of which the pinion P is in gear.
The spur pinion P is mounted ou al shaft P³, turning in bearings on the
underside of the circular plate A' of the bottle frame, being clearly shewn in the
inverted plan Figure 3; and an extending arm from the inner of these bearings
forms a support, or step bearing, to take the lower end of the vertical or central
shaft C hereinbefore referred to.
On the inner end of the shaft P³, is keyed a bevil wheel P4, in gear with a bevil
wheel C keyed to the shaft C, and this shaft will therefore also receive a recipro-
cating rotary motion communicated to it from the spur pinion P2, although the
amount of such motion may be varied as required according to the relative sizes of
the wheels composing the intermediate gearing between the wheel P and the shaft C;
generally speaking I have found one or one and a half revolutions of the shaft P to
each rocking motion of the trunnions B, sufficient.
Mounted by an adjustable collar on the shaft C and above the frame A³, is a
flyer S, Fig. 2, which carries on its two opposite arms, brushes S' which are prefer-
ably made adjustable radially on the said opposite arms S, so as to suit the size or
diameter of the bottles to be cleaned, the said brushes S¹ being also adjustable
lengthways of the bottles, by means of the before mentioned collar and the recipro-
cating rotary motion given to the brushes S¹ by shaft C, effectively cleanses every
part of the outside surface of the bottles as the latter are slowly revolved and subjected
to their action (by means now to be described).
On the shaft C, and below the aforementioned bevil wheel C¹, is keyed an
eccentric T, the sheave of which is provided with an eccentric rod or arm T clearly
shewn in the inverted plan view Fig. 3; the arm T is bifurcated and carries between
its bifurcations, double pawls T2 T2 which act during the forward and backward
thrusts of the arm T¹ on a ratchet wheel T³, on which the forked ends of the arm T¹
rest for supporting same.
The pawls have rearward extensions extended by springs for holding the said
pawls to the said ratchet wheel T3. The latter wheel T3 is mounted on a shaft T
carried by bracket bearings from the bottle frame A2, and is provided with a spur
pinion T keyed thereon which gears with the wheel D. In this manner the
reciprocating motions of the eccentric rod or arm T¹ is converted to continuous
rotary motion and is communicated through the shaft T and pinion Ts to the wheel D
and thence by the pinions C in gear therewith to all the bottles respectively.
One or both of the trunnions B is or are hollow, and is or are connected by a
suitable joint with a tube from a cleansing liquid supply tank or otherwise, and the
hollow trunnions B are connected by suitable connections with an annular tube B₁
arranged and held beneath, and connected with the nozzles A screwed into the lower
part of the sockets or cups A before described, which receive the tubes E.
On one of the trunnions B is keyed a hand wheel U, by which the trunnions may
be rotated and the position of the bottle frame consequently changed, say from the
vertical position, as shewn at Fig. 1, to such a position that the bottles will be axially
horizontal, and the machine is provided with a suitable device for holding the frame

page_text: in the position it has been caused to assume, such a device being for example a spring
lever U¹ having its lower end bolted to the rocking standard G, and provided with
an operating handle U at its upper end. This lever U¹ is provided with a tooth,
which takes into suitable notches on the back part of the periphery of the hand
wheel U, thus by pushing back the spring lever U1 and releasing its tooth, the hand
wheel U may then be turned until the bottle frame A¹ A' is at the required angle,
and by releasing the spring handle U it may be locked in the required position.
V is a tank suitably supported by, for example, supports V₁ V, or otherwise from
some fixed portion of the bed, and when the machine is in operation and during the
rocking action given to the frame the bottles and brushes take sufficient water to
effect the cleansing of the bottles.
The mode of operation of the machine is as follows: The bottles to be cleaned
are inserted in the frame A¹ A³ in an inverted position, the necks being forced through
the india rubber rings E³ and so held while the bodies are supported in the upper
frame A¹ or by other means such as adjustable clips.
The operator then inverts the frame A¹ A' by means of the wheel U and thus
causes the shot in the tube or shot chamber E to be emptied into the bottles that
are to be cleaned; the wheel U is then turned back, a quarter of a revolution,
bringing the bottles into a horizontal position, in which position the frame A¹ A' is
retained by means of the spring lever U¹ U' as described, and water is admitted by
the jets F. The wheel L is then turned (by hand or otherwise) and the frame G is
rocked on its fulcrum H, thus causing the bottle frame A¹ A and the bottles to
receive a lengthways reciprocating motion, while the latter are slowly rotate by
means of eccentric T T', ratchet, spur pinion, and shaft T, T³, T, and by the spur
wheel D through pinions (and at the same time the shaft C is rotated by means
before described and the brushes S₁ are thereby revolved in contact with the bottles,
and one or more sets of the said brushes may be employed on the same spindle
the said brushes receiving a supply of water from the tank V during the rocking
of the frame A' A'. 'When the bottles are thoroughly cleansed both inside and
out, the frame is placed in the position shewn at Figure 1 the shot falls back into
the tube or shot chamber and the bottles are rinsed by the jet F and then removed
from the machine.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. In hottle washing and rinsing machinery, the combined motions in one and
the same machine of a horizontal reciprocating motion to bottles containing shot,
which also have a jet of water acting preferably on the side of the inside of same,
while at the same time the bottles are each rotated, thus causing the shot and jet
of water, to act on every part of the internal surface, while the outer surface is,
by the same rotative movement of the bottles, submitted to the action of revolving
cleaning brushes, all substantially as herein set forth.
2. In bottle washing and rinsing machinery the frame A' A' for carrying the
bottles to be cleaned (mounted on trunnions B) and to which a reciprocating motion
is given by suitable means, together with mechanism for rotating the bottles, for
revolving the brushes, the rinsing jet arrangement with passages for liquid through
hollow trunnions B and annular tube B¹, the shot-receiving chambers, the mechanism
for giving reciprocating rotary motion to the brush carrying spindle C, and the
wheel U and retaining lever U₁ for revolving and holding the said frame A¹ A' in
the required position, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
3. In bottle washing and rinsing machinery the construction and arrangement of
device or apparatus for grasping the necks of the bottles and rotating same, also
forming a receiver or holder for shot, and having apertures for draining away the
rinsing water, and also arranged for carrying a jet pipe which enters the necks of
said bottles, all substantially as and for the purposes described with reference to
Figs. 4 and 5 of the accompanying drawings.

page_text: 4. The general construction, combination and arrangement of parts composing my
new or improved bottle washing and rinsing machine and essentially consisting of
the bottle-carrying frame A' A² and parts connected therewith as and for the purpose
set forth in claim 2, together with the mechanism for giving such frame A' A' a
reciprocating motion and with vat or tank V all substantially as and for the purposes
set forth, together with any mere modification or modifications thereof.