IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS. FOR WASHING CLOTHES AND THE LIKE.
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th March 1880. A communication
from abroad by Charles James Clowes Perry, of Williamstown, Victoria,
Australia, Gentleman.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS. FOR WASHING
CLOTHES AND THE LIKE. [A communication from abroad by Charles James Clowes
Perry, of Williamstown, Victoria, Australia, Gentleman.]
This Invention relates to an apparatus for expeditiously cleansing clothes and
the like in an ordinary boiler; the said apparatus being placed in the boiler
operates as a fountain, receiving the water through apertures at its base, and
delivering it at an elevation several inches above the surface of the water in the
boiler; the water thus flowing through the apparatus creates a general circulation
through the clothes, which circulation has a cleansing effect.
In carrying the said Invention into practice I provide a stout metal box or base
of circular form, quite open at the bottom, and somewhat resembling an inverted
funnel, the bell mouth orifice at the upper and tapered end being connected with
an upright tube extending upward to a few inches above the surface of the water;
this tube is in two parts, working telescopically on each other, and admitting of an
adjustment of the height of the tube to suit the boiler in which it may be employed.
When the water boils the water within the said apparatus attains a higher tem-
perature than the remainder, and is forced out at an increased elevation, thus
keeping up a flow as a fountain.
The lower orifice of the said tube is enlarged by attaching thereto a bell shaped
mouth piece spreading to about three times the diameter of the tube, where it
connects with the aforesaid metal box, this form giving greater facility to the
upward flow of the water than a more contracted aperture, or one at right angles
with the upper surface of the box would do. The two parts of the tube are of about
equal length, the lower one, that is to say, the part with the bell mouth piece
attached, is to be permanently fixed to the box or base, while the other part which
forms the upper section of the tube is fitted to slide up and down telescopically over
the first named part in order to raise or lower the upper end (out of which the water
flows) to suit the depth of the boiler. The sliding tube has a vertical longitudinal
slot, also transverse slots at equal distances, the former to allow of the raising or

page_text: Jowering of the tube taken as a whole, and the latter to fix it at the required
altitude, and at the same time lock the tube to the box or base, and thus prevent
the latter from falling off the tube. A pin is placed about half way up the lower
tube piece, which pin fits in the slots to adjust and fix the height of the tube, as
may be required; the pin enters the sliding tube by what is called a bayonet slot.
There is a conical or otherwise shaped cap at the upper end of the tube, and the
water is distributed by this cap.
This improved washing apparatus may be made of any required size to suit
boilers of different dimensions, and the material may be copper, brass, iron, tin, or
zinc.
A medium size machine is about twelve inches in diameter at the base, and
about four inches high, and tapered to receive a pipe of one and a half inches
diameter.