IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING MACHINES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Anthony Mason, residing at 103, Station
Street, Burton-on-Trent, in the County of Stafford, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING MACHINES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Anthony Mason
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 16th April 1875.
I, JOSEPH ANTHONY MASON, residing at 103, Station Street, Burton-
on-Trent, in the County of Stafford, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING MACHINES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in washing machines
suitable for washing linen, wearing apparel, and other such like articles
and substances. For this purpose the machine is formed of a vessel of
any required size and form, by preference circular vessels are used, they
may be formed from disused ale barrels divided into two parts, or when

page_text: specially made they may be of metal such as galvanized sheet iron, and
formed by preference wider at the top than at the bottom and with the
bottom rounded. At the upper part of the vessel is mounted a solid
horizontal disc in such a manner that it can be caused to rise and fall,
this disc may be of any suitable material and of from say ½ to the
superficial area of the bottom of the vessel.
The upward and downward motion may be given to the disc either
directly by hand by means of a cross handle fixed to a spindle carrying
the disc, but by preference. I connect the spindle which carries the disc to
a crank on an axis mounted at the top of the vessel, and either give
motion to this axis by a crank handle upon it, or give motion to the axis
by gearing at an increased speed from a second axis having the crank
handle upon it and also a fly wheel. In place of the crank axis being
caused to revolve it might be made to oscillate in about 2 to 3rd of an
entire revolution by the ordinary bow string movement, or by a weight
attached to a handle or fly wheel and moved as a pendulum. The disc
may be either plain or corrugated in a variety of ways with corre-
sponding corrugations on the bottom of the vessel. It is made to rise
and fall at any required velocity, and may be set to move an equal
distance into and out of the water and materials operated on, or it may
be constantly immersed, but by preference it is arranged to be moved
about 1 or 2 inches out of and 3 or 4 inches into the mass.
When it is required to combine wringing and mangling rollers with
the washing machine, the rollers are mounted above the vessel in such
manner that they are pressed together by the weight of the vessel. One
roller is for this purpose carried by the standards of the machine, and
the other by the vessel which is so carried as to act as a lever and press
the roller carried by it against the roller carried by the standards.
The pressure between the rollers can be adjusted by moving either
one or other of the rollers, to cause the upper roller to press more or less
on the side in place of on the top of the lower roller. One of the rollers
may be driven from the axis which imparts an up-and-down motion to
the disc of the machine before mentioned.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Anthony Mason in the Great Scal Patent
Office on the 16th October 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
ANTHONY MASON, residing at 103, Station Street, Burton-on-Trent, in
the County of Stafford, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Anthony Mason, Her
special license that I, the said Joseph Anthony Mason, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph
Anthony Mason, my 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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING MACHINES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Anthony Mason, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Anthony Mason, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
One part of the Invention relates to apparatus for washing linen,
wearing apparel, and other suitable articles or substances, and the
washing or cleansing is effected in the following manner:-Take a
suitable vessel of any desired shape and material say a wood cask, and
3 having removed the head procure a disc of wood or other suitable
material corresponding in shape, and from one-half to three-fourths the

page_text: superficial area of the bottom of the cask. Into this disc insert a shaft
or spindle provided with a handle passing transversely through the
upper end of the shaft, and having placed the articles to be washed in
such a quantity of boiling hot suds or prepared water as will allow them
to swim or roll freely about, give the disc a reciprocating movement in
the direction indicated in the Drawing, Figure 1, and continue it till the
desired cleansing is effected. A lid to confine the steam and spray is
desirable. This I consider to be the most simple mode of carrying out
the Invention, and although there are several methods of giving effect
to the principle, it will be unnecessary to mention more than one, that
is to say, the crank and speed wheels movement fully explained by the
plan and elevation, Figures 2 and 3, where the handle may be turned in
cither direction, but if it be desired to give a pendulous motion to the
crank or pivot carrying the disc whilst the hand of the operator moves
in continuous circuit, the ordinary bow string motion known to all
mechanics will give such movement. Otherwise a heavy pendulum may
be used.
Another part of the Invention relates to apparatus for wringing and
mangling, which is effected in the manner shewn in the plan and
elevation, Figures 4 and 5, where a is the vessel; b, c, the rollers;
d, d, d, and e, e, e, metal frames, the frames d, d, d, carrying the roller
b, and e, e, e, the roller c. From the metal frames d, d, d, is suspended
the vessel a by pivots f, f, on each side of the vessel. On each side at
the points 9, 9, are hinges which hold the frames d, d, d, and e, c, e,
together, and the vessel a increases or decreases the pressure upon the
rollers by being drawn forward or pushed backward by means of the
pivots fon each side of the vessel, and slots h in the frames d, d, d.
The fly wheel is keyed upon the cranked axle k carrying the disc, and
the disc is secured to the crank or removed from it by a spring taking
into a groove on the end of the pivot by which the disc is attached to
the block 7. A screw m passing through the block enters a groove on
the cranked axle / to secure the block from sliding from side to side,
but admitting of its free revolution; n, o, are toothed wheels for the
purpose of driving the disc at a slow or quick rate, according to the
quantity of articles operated upon. The toothed wheel p for driving the
mangle is thrown out of gear during the process of washing. The metal
frames e, e, e, are carried above the top roller b and support a shelf q.
▲ reversible drip board is made to deliver the drip from wringing