IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING GARMENTS AND FABRICS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Moses Poole, of the Avenue Road, Regent's Park,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
2
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Mosès Poolė at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
April 1854.
I, MOSES POOLE, of the Avenue Road, Regent's Park, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN WASHING GARMENTS AND FABRICS" to be as follows:-
The essential characteristic of this Invention consists in the employment of
floating balls, in the process of washing, the clothes whilst being moved
amongst the balls (as these float in the water, suds, &c.,) undergoing from them
the threefold action of pounding, rubbing, and squeezing. This action, as it
can never exceed the resistance offered by the floating balls, is thereby kept
within bounds, which are perfectly safe for the most delicate fabrics, the wear
and tear being indeed less than in ordinary washing by hand. The balls are
made of wood or of any other substance; provided they possess the requisite
buoyancy, and present the necessary resistance for the desired effect, the greater
the buoyancy the better. The motion given to the clothes amongst the balls
may be rectilinear (up and down, or to and fro,) or rotary.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Moses Poole in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 26th
September 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MOSES
POOLE, of the Avenue Road, Regent's Park, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Moses Poole, Her special licence that I, the said Moses Poole, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Moses
Poole, 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, excrcise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING
GARMENTS AND FABRICS," communicated to me from abroad, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Moses Poole, 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 Moses Poole, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thereof (that is to say):-
The essential characteristic of this Invention consists in the employment of
floating balls in the process of washing the clothes whilst being moved amongst
the balls (as these float in the water, suds, &c.,) undergoing from them the
threefold action of pounding, rubbing, and squeezing. This action, as it can
never exceed the resistance offered by the floating balls, is thereby kept within
bounds, which are perfectly safe for the most delicate fabrics, the wear and
tear being indeed less than in ordinary washing by hand. The balls are made
of wood or of any other substance; provided they possess the requisite buoy-
ancy, and present the necessary resistance for the desired effect, the greater
the buoyancy the better. The motion given to the clothes amongst the balls
may be rectilinear (up and down, or to and fro,) or rotary.

page_text: The annexed Drawing represents by a vertical section a machine embodying
the Invention, together with arrangements for applying it, the motion given to
the clothes among the balls being in this instance an up and down one. (A),
the wash tub, is a rectangular box or trough; (B) the sash, a frame for
holding the clothes whilst being washed. For the more convenient working of
it up and down, it is pivoted to a beam or lever (E) with its fulcrum at (F).
The sash has a bottom rail (C), upon which the clothes are placed, and a
shifting rail (D), which keeps the clothes in place by being pressed down upon
them, and then made fast, this being done by means of an excentric, a
ratchet, or otherwise. (G) a weight (in this instance a box filled with sand)
to serve as a counterpoise, the hand being applied to the other end of the
lever.
The operation is as follows:-The clothes or articles to be washed being
secured in the sash, and the box being supplied with water, suds, &c., (or
whatever fluid or mixture is preferred,) so as to make the balls float up at a
convenient height, the sash is moved up and down among the balls, in which
action the clothes undergo the compound operation above stated, whereby they
are made clean.
Having thus described the application in one of its many possible forms, I
will state that the Invention which I desire to secure by Letters Patent,
consists in the employment of floating balls in the process of washing, by forcing
the clothes through the mass of balls, as these float in the water, suds, or what-
ever fluid is employed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Moses Poole, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
B. GOBEY,
12, Cursitor Street,
Chancery Lane.
MOSES POOLE. (L.S.)