IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING, WRINGING, AND MANGLING MACHINES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Rowbottom, of Halifax, in the County of York,
Gas Engineer, and Thomas Standeven, of the same Place, Millwright,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING, WRINGING, AND
MANGLING MACHINES."
Sealed the 22nd September 1858, and dated the 23rd March 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Rowbottom and
Thomas Standeven at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 23rd March 1858.
We, JOHN ROWBOTTOM, of Halifax, in the County of York, Gas Engineer,
and THOMAS STANDEVEN, of the same Place, Millwright, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING, WRINGING, AND
MANGLING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
Our said Invention relates to machines for washing, wringing, and mangling
domestic linen or articles of clothing, or wearing apparel, and other textile
fabrics and fibrous substances, and consists,―
Firstly, in the employment of two discs or circular plates of wood or other
suitable material, corrugated on their broad face or surface, which are placed
in a suitable vessel with their corrugated surfaces towards each other at a
suitable distance apart, each disc having a reciprocating and a partial rotary

page_text: motion given to them in a contrary direction to each other. The clothes,
fabrics, or fibrous substances to be washed are placed betwixt the said discs
with water, &c., where they receive a combined rubbing and squeezing operation
by the action or motion of the said discs..
Secondly, in the use of a pair of rollers, one of which is recessed, or having
the middle part less in diameter than the ends, or having flanges at each end,
and the other roller formed so as to fit in the recess or betwixt the said flanges,
whereby the clothes on being passed between the said rollers are prevented
from spreading out laterally by the flanges or sides of the recess, and thereby
are more effectually wrung or the water purged out.
Thirdly, in the application in combination with the aforesaid improvements,
of springs of ash or other suitable wood for pressure on the aforesaid wringing
rollers and also on the ordinary plain mangling rollers.
Fourthly, in the employment of a worm and worm wheel for turning the
said wringing and mangling rollers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Rowbottom and Thomas Standeven in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 23rd September 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
ROWBOTTOM, of Halifax, in the County of York, Gas Engineer, and THOMAS
STANDEVEN, of the same Place, Millwright, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said John Rowbottom and Thomas Standeven, Her special licence that
we, the said John Rowbottom and Thomas Standeven, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Rowbottom and
Thomas Standeven, our 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 "IMPROVEMENTS
IN WASHING, WRINGING, AND MANGLING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said John Rowbottom and Thomas Standeven, by an

page_text: instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and
seal of one of us 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 we, the said John Rowbottom and Thomas
Standeven, do hereby declare the nature. of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement (that is to say) :-
Our said Invention relates to machines for washing, wringing, and
mangling domestic linen or articles of clothing, or wearing apparel, and
other textile fabrics and fibrous substances, and consists in the employ-
ment of two discs or circular plates of wood or other suitable material,
corrugated on their broad face or surface, which are placed in a suitable
vessel with their corrugated surfaces towards each other at a suitable dis-
tance apart, such discs having a reciprocating and a partially rotary motion
given to them in a contrary direction to each other. The clothes, fabrics, or
fibrous substances to be washed are placed betwixt the said discs with water,
&c., where they receive a combined rubbing and squeezing operation by the
action or motion of the said discs, any suitable arrangement of machinery or
apparatus being employed for operating such surfaces. The manner in which
our said Invention is to be performed will be clearly understood by reference to.
the accompanying Sheet of Drawings and the letters thereon, similar letters
referring to the same parts of the apparatus in the different views or figures.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a combined washing, wringing, and mangling
machine according to our said Invention, and Fig. 2 is a plan of the same;
Fig. 3 is a cross section, taken through the line A, B, in Figs. 1 and 2, and
Fig. 4 is a longitudinal and vertical section taken through the lines C, D, in
Figs. 2 and 8.
a, a, are the discs which are mounted on the ends of the spindles b, b, sup-
ported and carried in the frames c, c, in which they are free to rotate; d, d, are
plates of galvanized iron, fitting into grooves in the discs and fixed to the frames
c, c. The frames c, c, are capable of reciprocating or sliding in the bearings
e, e, and are carried on the friction rollers f.f, motion being communicated by
means of the levers 9, 9, which are actuated by the rods h, h, connected to
the stud wheels i, i, which gear together and give motion in opposite directions
to the frames and consequently to the discs, so that each advance and recede
simultaneously, or at the same time; j, j, j, j, are rods attached by swivel.

page_text: joints to the discs at one end, and at the other end to the vessel, and are so
placed across or diagonally to the discs or surfaces, or relative points of fastening
or to each other so that when the discs are forced or projected towards each.
other the said rods cause them to turn on their axes, thus giving a partial
rotation to each disc in opposite directions, whereby a combined squeezing and
rubbing action is obtained as the discs approach each other, their surfaces being
corrugated or otherwise made uneven.
.
The machine is turned or worked by means of a winch handle or swape
attached to one end of a shaft k, on the other end of which is affixed a pinion
which gears into one of the stud wheels i. This shaft is capable of sliding
endwise, so that the pinion can be pushed out of gear with the stud wheel i and
into gear with another stud wheel 1, attached to which is a pinion which gears
with a wheel m affixed on the shaft of the roller n, thereby giving motion to
the wringing and mangling rollers. The drop catch o holds the shaft k in
either position; p is a board, from which the clothes are fed to the rollers; 1
is another board for conducting them to the basket, and r is a portable table.
for the mangling to be removed when washing. It will be seen that although
we have shewn and described two discs working simultaneously together, yet.
one of such discs would suffice to some extent, thereby reducing the cost and
size of apparatus; but we prefer the employment of two, as herein set forth.
It will also be readily perceived that this combined reciprocatory and partial
rotary motion may be obtained by various mechanical means or equivalents,
namely, by having an arm projecting at right angles from the spindles b, which
may move in a diagonal groove or slot plate fixed on the vessel, thus causing
the discs to turn on their axes as the frames c, c, reciprocate; or instead of the
spindles and frames the discs may be mounted on the ends of coarse pitched
screws working in nuts and partial rotary motion given thereto.
Having thus fully described the nature of our said Invention and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, we desire it to be distinctly
understood that we do not confine ourselves to the precise details herein set
forth, as such may be varied or modified without departing from the principle
thereof; but we claim as our Invention, and which to the best of our
knowledge and belief has not been bitherto used within the realm.
Firstly, the application and use of discs of wood or other suitable material
having a combined, reciprocatory, and partial rotary motion for the purpose of
washing fabrics and fibrous substances substantially as herein described and
illustrated, whatever be the means or arrangement of apparatus for giving or
imparting such motions thereto,

page_text: And, secondly, the general arrangement and combination of parts of apparatus,
s herein set forth for the purposes of washing, wringing, and mangling.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Rowbottom and Thomas Stand-
even, have hereunto set our hands and seals,. this Twenty-first day
of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-eight.
(L.S.)
JOHN ROWBOTTOM.
THOMAS STANDEVEN. (L.S.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the within-
named John Rowbottom and Thomas
Standeven in the presence of
WALTER BRIERLEY,
Clerk to Wm. Tasker, Patent Agent,
Halifax