IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR WASHING, RINSING, AND DRYING LINEN AND THE LIKE, AND FOR SOAKING OR LIXIVIATING AND DRYING HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Lloyd Wise, of 7, Whitehall Place, in the City
of Westminster, for an Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR WASHING,
RINSING, AND DRYING LINEN AND THE LIKE, AND FOR SOAKING OR
LIXIVIATING AND DRYING HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
A communication from abroad by Matvey Kosmitch Muchin, of Riga, in the
Empire of Russia.
(Void by reason of the Patentee having neglected to file a Specification in
pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Lloyd Wise at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 24th June 1880.
WILLIAM LLOYD WISE, of 7, Whitehall Place, in the City of Westminster.
"IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR WASHING, RINSING, AND DRYING LINEN AND THE
LIKE, AND FOR SOAKING OR LIXIVIATING AND DRYING HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER
FIBROUS MATERIALS." (A communication from abroad by Matvey Kosmitch
Muchin, of Riga, in the Empire of Russia.)
.
This Invention relates to the combination of an archimedian or water screw
with centrifugal apparatus in such manner as to enable washing, rinsing, soaking,
or lixiviation to be effected with considerable economy of liquid, the arrangement
being such that the screw is caused to suspend its action as soon as the direction
of motion of the machine is reversed, so that the liquid remains in the lower part
of an outer vessel without passing through an inner vessel, under which conditions
the centrifugal apparatus acts as a drying apparatus.
One arrangement is as follows:—
Through the outer vessol, which is open at top, passes a rotating shaft provided
with a single or multiplex thread, archimedian, or water screw. This shaft carries
also the cylindrical inner vessel, likewise open at top, and suitably perforated (it
may be like a sieve) at its circumference. The lower part of the outer vessel is
provided with a pipo surrounding, but not touching, the shaft, and extending

page_text: upward as far as the inner vessel, or even penetrating into it. This arrangement
allows of the lower part of the outer vessel being filled with the warm or cold
liquid prepared for washing, rinsing, soaking, or lixiviating (which may likewise
be water alone) without the use of a stuffing box or any other packing for the
shaft. The things to be operated upon by the machine are placed in the inner
vessel, which is then set in rotary motion, and thus whilst the shaft is turning in
the appropriate direction liquid will, by the action of the screw, be caused to
ascend in a perforated pipe of the inner vessel, which pipe surrounds (but does not
touch) the shaft above the screw. The ascending liquid issues through the
perforations of the pipe or runs over the top of the pipe, and being driven by
centrifugal force penetrates into the things contained in the inner vessel, thus
washing, rinsing, soaking, or lixiviating the same, and then passes through the
perforated mantle or circumference of the inner vessel and descends within the
outer vessel, where it may again be acted upon by the screw, and used over again
as many times as desired.
As soon as the operation of washing, soaking, or lixiviating is accomplished the
shaft is turned in an opposite direction, and liquid is thereby prevented from
passing from the outer vessel to the inner one, and the things contained in the
inner vessel are dried. Machines according to this Invention can be arranged to
be worked by hand or other power. It is advantageous to provide at the bottom
of the outer vessel a receptacle for dirt or deposit. Also there may be applied in
the outer vessel a sieve provided with radially disposed partitions or baffles serving
to prevent the whirling motion of the liquid. The outer vessel may be made
double sided or jacketted, and the intervening space between the two sides bo
charged with steam or some other source of heat for keeping warm or boiling the
liquid in the vessel. For the process of drying this is likewise useful as a means
of heating the air in the machine.