IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WASHING CLOTHES AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Redmayne at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th February 1877.
THOMAS REDMAYNE, of Sheffield, in the County of York. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR WASHING CLOTHES AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES."
This Invention relates to improvements in apparatus used for washing clothes or
other textile fabrics, by which improvements economy of time and labour is effected
as compared with such apparatus as ordinarily constructed and used. I take
a vessel in which the clothes or other articles to be washed are placed with a
sufficient quantity of water, soap, or other cleansing materials. A short cylindrical
tube of tin or other suitable material, open at its lower end, is placed vertically in
this vessel and is raised and lowered vertically by means of a handle or staff fixed
to the upper end of the cylinder, and worked up and down by hand or other con-
venient power. Inside the cylindrical tube. I fit a piston or plate of metal, wood, or
other suitable material, which works freely up and down in the tube, towards the
lower or open end of which it is forced by one or more metal or other springs placed
above it, a stop or stops being arranged to prevent the piston from being forced out
of the tube, or a perforated plate may be fitted to the end of the cylindrical tube.
Outside the cylindrical tube I place a second tube of tin or other suitable material,
open at its lower end and preferably conical, its smaller end being uppermost and
attached to the upper or closed end of the tube, so as to leave an annular space
between them increasing in outside diameter towards their lower edges, and I make
a series of openings from the inner tube into the upper part of this annular space;
and I also make a series of openings into the cylindrical tube near its lower edge
but above the piston, when the latter is at the lower end of its stroke. I prefer to
make the lower edge of the inner tube descend below that of the outer conical one,
so that the latter can never be pressed down against the bottom of the vessel, and
to the bottom of the piston I attach a projection, preferably in the form of a cylinder
or bar, the lower end of which descends from the lower side of the piston to a dis-
tance equal to the vertical stroke of the latter. The upper end of the cylindrical
tube has preferably formed upon it or attached to it a conical cover, through the upper
end or point of which the handle above described is passed.
The action of the apparatus is as follows:-When the handle is raised the piston
is depressed by the spring above it, and water passes into the space above it through

page_text: the annular space and the openings at the upper part of the cylindrical tube, and
when the piston is at the lower end of its stroke the water can also pass above it,
through the openings already described near the lower edge of the cylindrical tube.
When the handle is depressed the projection below the piston is forced down upon
the clothes or other articles being washed, or upon the bottom of the vessel, and the
water is forced back through the upper series of openings, down the annular space
and against and amongst the articles being washed, which are thereby thoroughly
cleansed. When the apparatus is raised the articles are separated and stirred up
by the action of the cover of the cylindrical tube.
Sometimes I arrange one or more vertical air tubes outside the cylindrical tube,
the lower ends of which air tubes open into the cylindrical tube above the level of
the lower series of openings already described, whilst their upper ends are open at
or about the level of the top of the cylindrical tube. By this means, when the
apparatus is raised by the handle to the top of its stroke the upper ends of the air
tubes are open to the air, which can pass above the piston as the latter approaches
the lower end of its stoke and is expelled together with the water when the handle
is forced down and the piston raised.
Instead of a cylindrical tube and piston as described, I sometimes use a tube prefer-
ably of greater diameter and less depth, at or near the lower edge of which a
diaphragm of India rubber, canvas, or other sufficiently flexible material is stretched
across its centre, being forced down by a spring in the same way as the piston
already described. In this arrangement only the upper series of openings into the
cylindrical tube is required.
Another part of my Invention consists of arranging two or more tubes and pistons
or their equivalents, or cylindrical or conical tubes open at their lower ends without
pistons or their equivalents, upon one or more cross bars or a frame, to the centre
of which the handle or staff for working the apparatus, as above described, is attached,
instead of to the top of one of the cylindrical tubes, as in the arrangement first
described. In this way greatly increased effect is obtained as compared with that
where one such apparatus only for washing is used.
The cross bars or frame may be made to revolve freely horizontally upon the
handle or staff instead of being fixed to the latter, a collar or other suitable device
being used to prevent the cross bars or frame from moving up and down upon the
handle.