MENTS IN PORTABLE MANGLING AND WRINGING APPARATUS
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Harper Twelvetrees at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th September
1863.
I, HARPER TWELVETREES, of Bromley, in the County of Middlesex, Manu
facturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PORTABLE MANGLING AND WRINGING APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
.
My improvements in portable mangles consists in disposing two small
rollers of the requisite length with their ends or bearings in suitable end
frames; on the axis of the lower one of these rollers I fix the winch handle,
by which motion is imparted to the rollers by which the mangling is effected,
thus the power is applied at once and direct to the rollers without the inter-
vention of multiplying gear of any kind. The two rollers are geared together:
at one end by a pair of equal wheels, but the rollers being of small diameter,
these wheels are necessarily small, and may be accurately fitted. In conse-
quence of the rollers being small, and the gearing wheels being accurately
fitted, there need be little or no back lash, consequently the surfaces of the
rollers are not liable to rub together when the direction of motion is reversed,..
and consequently not liable to tear, strain, or abrade the articles passed
between them, as is the case in other mangles. From the smallness of the.
rollers I am enabled to place the handle on the axis of one roller; as before
described, it having sufficient leverage to give the necessary power to drive,
the mangle. I fix the gear pinions on with squares and screw nuts, as also
the handle, whereby they are easily removed, this readily admits of taking the
mangle to pieces, when the stays connecting the end frames are disconnected.

page_text: I use small hard wood rollers of about twenty inches long, and two and a
quarter inches in diameter, with an iron axis throughout their length; the
lower one is fitted in fixed bearings, and the upper one in rising and falling
bearings, which are pressed on by a wooden spring, the pressure of which is
regulated by a screw in the middle of the cross stay at top, or by weighted
levers as usual. I sometimes apply a fly wheel on one of the rollers, if so,
the driving handle may be fixed upon its rim, or one of its spokes, and also
make the rollers occasionally with brass hoops fitted on each end to prevent
the wood splitting. I apply slanting boards on each side of the rollers for the
feeding, or entrance, and delivery of the clothes or other articles to and from
the mangle.
My improvements in wringing apparatus consist in forming the rollers
with iron shafts, upon each of which is mounted a body of wood, the surface
of which is covered with a tube of india-rubber. The wood roller is made
rough upon its surface to receive a coating of cement, and the india-rubber
tube being instantly put in its proper position, is firmly secured. Instead of
the wood I sometimes employ several thicknesses of felt or other textile
fabric, firmly wrapped round the iron shaft, and secured by varnish or liquid
cement, but in both cases the tube of india-rubber of about one-quarter of an
inch in thickness forms the outer surface of the roller.
For wringing purposes, I sometimes employ two small wood rollers, each
mounted upon an iron shaft, having a thick covering or tube of india-rubber
made fast upon the wood by insoluble or other cement. These rollers are
driven by a winch handle, and have two small cog wheels similar to those
used in the mangling apparatus. Instead of an iron frame, I usually employ
one made of wood, forked at the bottom, for fitting on to the side of a washing
vessel, and having two adjustable screws for making it fast thereto. The
bearings of the rollers, at the end where the cog wheels and handle are fixed,
are both stationary, but at the other end the bearing of the top roller is made
so as to slide up and down. Upon the top of this bearing a lever with a very
short fulcrum is made to act, the end of which passes through the frame at the
side where the handle works convenient for the hand of the operator. This
lever is made to act also as a spring, and when its end is at its highest point,
& moderate pressure is produced upon the rollers, and by exerting pressure
upon it, any degree of squeezing power can be put upon the rollers while the
articles are being passed through them; a screw may be made to act upon
the end of this lever or a small ratchet for fixing it at any required point. At
the front of the wringer I fix a board having an oblong shaped hole nearly the
length of the rollers, for guiding the clothes properly between and preventing

page_text: their getting entangled at the ends of the rollers. At the back of the lower
roller I dispose a board slanting downwards for sliding off the clothes into a
basket or other receptacle. As in the mangling apparatus, the rollers are
acted on by a wooden spring, the pressure of which is regulated by a screw
or by weighted levers as usual.