IMPROVEMENTS IN WRINGING, MANGLING, AND WASHING MACHINERY, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Harlow, of Macclesfield, in the County
of Chester, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WRINGING,
MANGLING, AND WASHING MACHINERY, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE
APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES."
Sealed the 23rd September 1873, and dated the 26th March 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Harlow at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 26th March 1873.
I, BENJAMIN HARLOW, of Macclesfield, in the County of Chester,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN WRINGING, MANGLING, AND WASHING MACHINERY, PART OF WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES," to be as follows :—
The first part of this Invention relates to a compact and powerful
combination and arrangement of levers for imparting the necessary
pressure to the rollers ordinarily used in wringing and mangling machines,
and in other machines where pressure is required to be exercised by
rollers, and consists in arranging a bracket at a suitable distance above

page_text: each of the journals of such rollers, which brackets form the fulcrums
of two levers which are disposed in contrary directions above the rollers.
These levers exercise pressure upon the upper roller by impinging upon
the top of a guide rod resting upon cach of the journals of such upper
roller, whilst the long arms of such levers are guided by grooves formed 5
in a pedestal rising from the centre of the crosshead usually employed
for binding the framework (which carries the rollers) together. This
pedestal may also form the fulcrum of two other levers which are
arranged to act upon the long arms of the first-mentioned lovers, and so
constitute a compound lever arrangement of great power in a small 1
compass, which may be regulated at pleasure by employing a sliding
weight or india-rubber or metallic spring to act at any point in the
length of the levers, which have their fulcrums in the pedestal herein.
before mentioned.
The fulcrums of all the levers herein-before mentioned consist, by 1
preference, of suitable shaped, projections on the under side of the
brackets or pedestal, which projections take into recesses formed in the
levers, and thus the expense of turning and drilling in fitting up these
levers is entirely dispensed with.
The second part of this Invention relates to a novel arrangement of 2
apparatus suitable for washing clothes, textile fabrics, and other similar
articles, and consists in the use and application of a suitable shaped
receptacle, having a corrugated or ribbed bottom for containing the
clothes or other articles to be washed. This receptacle is, by preference,
mounted upon wheels, and is caused to travel backwards and forwards a 2
suitable distance upon rails, or it may be moved to and fro upon wheels
revolving upon fixed studs, or in any other convenient manner. Inside
this receptacle a roller is mounted in slides which permit such roller to
move up and down and to revolve, but prevent such roller following the
receptacle in its to-and-fro motion.
.
The action of this roller is to rub the clothes against the corrugations
or ribs upon the bottom of the receptacle as it passes to-and-fro beneath
such roller, and thus the clothes or other articles are effectually cleansed
or washed by such rubbing action, the to-and-fro motion of the receptacle
being imparted either direct by hand or by a lever or eccentric arrange, a
ment of mechanism worked by power.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Benjamin Harlow in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 26th September 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
HARLOW, of Macclesfield, in the County of Chester, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Benjamin Harlow, Her special
license that I, the said Benjamin Harlow, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Benjamin Harlow,
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 Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN WRINGING, MANGLING, AND WASHING MACHINERY, PART OF
WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Benjamin Harlow, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, 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 immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Benjamin Harlow, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement (and accompanying Drawings), that is to say :-
The first part of the said Invention relates to a compact and powerful
combination and arrangement of levers for imparting the necessary
pressure to the rollers ordinarily used in wringing and mangling
machines and in other machines where pressure is required to be
exercised by rollers, and consists in arranging a bracket at a suitable
distance above each of the journals of such rollers, which brackets form
the fulcruins of two levers which are disposed in contrary directions:

page_text: above the rollers, these levers exercise pressure upon the upper roller by
impinging upon the top of a guide rod resting upon each of the journals
of such upper roller; whilst the long arms of such levers are guided by
grooves formed in a pedestal rising from the centre of the crosshead
usually employed for binding the framework (which carries the rollers) |
together. This pedestal may also form the fulcrum of two other levers
which are arranged to act upon the long arms of the first mentioned
levers, and so constitute a compound lever arrangement of great power
in a small compass, which may be regulated at pleasure by employing
a sliding weight or india-rubber or metallic spring, to act at any point 1
in the length of the levers, which have their fulcrums in the pedestal
herein-before mentioned.
The fulcrums of all the levers herein-before mentioned consist by
preference of suitable shaped projections on the under side of the brackets
or pedestal, which projections take into recesses formed in the levers
and thus the expense of turning and drilling in fitting up these levers
is entirely dispensed with.
The second part of this Invention relates to a novel arrangement of
apparatus suitable for washing clothes, textile fabrics, and other similar
articles, and consists in the use and application of a suitable shaped
receptacle, having a corrugated or ribbed bottom for containing the
clothes or other articles to be washed, this receptacle is by preference
mounted upon wheels and is caused to travel backwards and forwards
a suitable distance upon rails, or it may be moved to and fro upon wheels
revolving upon fixed studs, or in any other convenient manner. Inside
this receptacle a roller is mounted in slides which permit such roller
to move up and down and to revolve but prevent such roller following
the receptacle in its to-and-fro motion. The action of this roller is to
rub the clothes against the corrugations or ribs, or bottom of the
receptacle as it passes to and fro beneath such roller, and thus the
clothes or other articles are effectually cleansed or washed by such
rubbing action, the to-and-fro motion of the receptacle being imparted
cither direct by hand or by a lever, or eccentric arrangement of
mechanism worked by power.
Fig. 1 on the accompanying Drawing represents a side view, and
Fig. 2 a front view of a washing, wringing, and mangling machine drawn
to a scale of about two inches to the foot and having my improvements
applied thereto.

page_text: ⚫A is the cast-iron framework of the machine which is of the ordinary
construction bolted together by the stays or rods B, and by the cross
head C. D, D, are the rollers used for wringing and mangling which
are also mounted in the usual manner and actuated by the winch handle
E, pinion F, and internal toothed wheel G. The top bearings or blocks
H of the upper roller are pressed downwards by the compound lever
arrangement herein-after described acting upon the top of the guide
rods I, which rest upon the top of bearings or blocks H by passing
through holes formed in the crosshead. The crosshead C is constructed
with a pedestal J, in the centre through which a slot is formed to receive
the ends of the two levers K, K, which have their fulcrums upon the
pins L, L, in such slot, and their arms disposed in contrary directions
as illustrated. At either end of the crosshead O, brackets M, M, are
situated having pins a passed through them forming the fulcrums of
two other levers N, N, which are disposed beneath, and have the
extremity of their long arms in contact with the first-mentioned. levers
at N2, and so together constitute a compound pair of levers in a compact
form for exercising pressure upon the top of each of the guide rods I,
which in their turn communicate the pressure to the rollers D. The
pressure upon these levers is obtained either by the use of an-india-rubber
elastic band O, stretched over the extremities of the short arms P of
the lower levers N, and the long arms of the upper levers K, or by a
weight capable of sliding along each of the upper levers K, by means of
which the pressure upon the rollers D may be adjusted to the greatest
nicety. Instead of using the pins L and a, the fulcrums of all the
levers may be constructed by casting a U-shaped projection on the upper
end of each of the slots in which such levers are mounted, in which case
a depression or recess is formed in the lever to receive such projection,
the advantage of these U-shaped fulcrums over pins or studs being that
turning and drilling of the pins and holes is thereby. dispensed with,
and the cost of fitting proportionately reduced. Although I have only.
described the application of my improved compound lever arrangement
to the rollers of wringing and mangling machines it will be readily
apparent that such combination is equally applicable to other machines
in which pressure is required to be obtained by the use of rollers.
I will now proceed to describe my improvements in washing machines
which are also illustrated on Figs. 1 and 2; R is the receptacle con-

page_text: receptacle is mounted upon two pairs of flanged rollers S, S, (running
rupon rails T projecting from the inside of the framework A), so that
by means of the handle U such receptacle is caused to travel back-
·wards and forwards along such rails. In this receptacle the clothes and
other articles to be washed are placed and thereby carried to and fro
beneath a wooden roller V (seen in Fig. 2), which is mounted in grooves
formed in the brackets W affixed to the framework A, so that such
roller is at liberty to revolve and rise and fall as the clothes and recep-
tacle pass beneath it, but is prevented travelling to and fro with such
receptacle. The friction squeezing and rubbing action thus obtained
-between the roller V and the bottom of the receptacle serves to cleanse
the clothes, and this rubbing action may be increased by corrugating the
-bottom of the receptacle, and by the use of an hexagonal, octagonal,
Cor other suitably shaped roller in place of the cylindrical roller W.
f It will be noticed that the two pairs of flanged rollers S, S, are not
'mounted in fixed bearings in the brackets X affixed to the bottom of
the receptacle R, but arranged to travel in slots Y formed in such
brackets, by which means a rolling action requiring no lubrication is
obtained, and which method of mounting permits the size of the axle
of the flanged roller S to be increased with advantage, in fact the
receptacle may roll upon the periphery of the flanges of the roller
itself, but in this latter case it is necessary to prevent each pair of
flanged rollers varying their distance from each other and to preserve
their proper relative positions between the rails and the receptacle;
'this is accomplished by fitting a toothed rack to the under side of the s
receptacle, and a similar rack on the rail, and gearing the wheels with
such racks, taking care that the receptacle does not travel upon the teeth
of the racks and wheels but upon the periphery of the flanged rollers.
This method of mounting the flanged rollers has advantages over single
wheels in reducing friction, ensuring greater steadiness and in propor- 3
⚫tionately decreasing the traverse of the wheels upon the rails.
It will be obvious that there are many methods of mounting the
travelling receptacle, for instance, upon wheels revolving upon fixed
studs, and therefore I do not confine myself to the precise methods of
mounting the receptacle herein-before described.
I claim,―
3

page_text: as hercin-before described and illustrated on the accompanying
Drawing.
2nd. The travelling receptacle when mounted and arranged in com-
bination with a roller capable of revolving and rising and falling, as and
for the purposes herein-before described and illustrated on the accom-
panying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Harlow, bave hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Twenty-fourth day of September,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.
Witness,
JOHN G. WILSON,
Patent Office,
71, Market Street,
Manchester.
BENJAMIN HARLOW. (L.S.)