IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR WASHING WRINGING AND MANGLING
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT' to Thomas Briggs, of 173, Woodhouse Lané, Leeds,
Yorkshire, and John Starkey, of 12, Parker Street, Liverpool, in the
County of Lancaster, Machinists, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINES FOR WASHING WRINGING AND MANGLING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Briggs and John
Starkey at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 13th May:1857.
We, THOMAS BRIGGS, of 173, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, Yorkshire, and
JOHN STARKEY, of 12, Parker Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
Machinists, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINES FOR WASHING, WRINGING, AND MANGLING," to be as
follows:
Our Invention relates to improvements in machines adapted for washing,
wringing, and mangling all kinds of domestic linen and clothes, and wool
and other fibrous materials, and textile fabrics.
With reference to the washing machine, our improvements refer to machines
in which the dasher has rotary or oscillating motion from a central shaft, and
consists, first, in the application of two rollers or bars at the extremity of the
dash, which are pressed together by springs, and between which some of the
clothes or materials to be washed are placed and held, the remainder of the
clothes being placed loose in the machine.

page_text: A further improvement consists in fluting or grooving the bottom of the box.
or washing vessel in the direction of the length of the dasher and also the
sides of the same.
Our improvement in wringing machines relates to, roller machines, which
squeeze and express the moisture from the materials, and consists in the
application of an endless web or sheet around one of the rollers, it also
encircles a small auxillary roller placed immediately over the tub or washing
vessel. The clothes or materials when washed are placed on this sheet, which
carries them through between the rollers,
With reference to mangling, the same rollers may answer the purpose, or it
may be different rollers; the improvement in which consists the application of
an endless sheet thereto, for the purpose of carrying the clothes through
between the rollers. This endless sheet we extend some distance on each side
of the rollers, causing it to encircle the under roller; it is also carried over
two small rollers at the extremes, which keep it in a state of tension. The
clothes to be mangled are distributed on this endlesss sheet, and by it carried
through between the rollers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Briggs and John Starkey in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 13th November 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
BRIGGS, of 173, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, Yorkshire, and JOHN STARKEY, of
12, Parker Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Machinists, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand. eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her.
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Thomas Briggs and John Starkey, Her special licence that we, the said
Thomas Briggs and John Starkey, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Thomas Briggs and John Starkey, our 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,

page_text: and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR WASHING,
WRINGING, AND MANGLING," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Thomas Briggs and John Starkey, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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 we, the said Thomas Briggs and John Starkey,"
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed; to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the Sheet of Drawings
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to
say):-
Our Invention relates to improvements in machines adapted for washing,
wringing, and mangling all kinds of domestic linen cloths, wool and other
fibrous materials, and all textile fabrics generally.
With reference to the washing machine, our improvements apply to-
machines in which the dasher has rotary or oscillatory motion from a central
shaft, and consists, first, in the application of two rollers or bars at the
extremity of the dash, which are pressed together by springs, and between.
which some of the clothes or materials to be washed. are placed.and held, the
remainder of the clothes being placed loose in the tub or washing box. A
further improvement consists in fluting or grooving the bottom of the box or
washing vessel in the direction of the length of the dasher and also the sides
of the same.
Our improvement in wringing machines relates to roller machines, which'
squeeze and express the moisture from the materials, and consists in the
application of an endless web or sheet around one of the rollers, it also
encircles a small auxiliary roller placed immediately over the tub or washing
vessel. The clothes or materials when washed are placed on this sheet, which
carries them through between the rollers.
With reference to mangling, the same rollers may answer the purpose, or
different rollers may be applied for the purpose; the improvement in which
consists in the application of an endless sheet thereto, for the purpose of
carrying the clothes through between the rollers. This endless sheet we'
extend some distance on each side of the rollers, causing it to encircle the
under roller; it is also carried over two small rollers at the extremes, which
keep it in a state of tension. The clothes to be mangled are distributed on

page_text: this endless web or sheet, and carried through between the rollers, which exert
sufficient pressure to smooth and mangle them as required.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
The annexed Sheet of Drawings represents a washing, wringing, and
mangling machine combined, constructed and furnished with parts constituting
our Invention.
Fig. 1 represents a front elevation; Fig. 2, an end view; Fig. 3, a plan
of the same; while Fig. 4 is a transverse section of the machine on the
line 1, 1, Fig. 1, while Figs. 5, 6, 7, and 8 show parts in detail; herein-after
referred to.
A, A, are the end frames, secured to each other by suitable stays a, a, and
also by a bridge piece B; C, C', are the wringing and mangling rollers; and
D, the washing tub or chamber. The general arrangement and disposition of
the parts, except such as constitute our improvements, is the same as in
similar kinds of washing machines, therefore we will not describe such in
detail or otherwise than is necessary to illustrate our Invention.
We will first refer to our improvements with regard to the washing appa-
ratus. D is the chamber or tub within which the washing is conducted; it is
an oblong box, fixed securely between the end frames, and having the bottom
d, d, curved or rounded, as seen in the cross section and end view, Figs. 2 and
4. E is the dasher, which may be furnished with one or more arms, mounted
on a shaft e, in the ordinary manner. This shaft is fitted in bearings in
either end of tub D, and is driven by the toothed wheels f, g, and may either
have a continuous rotary motion, or it may be reversed, or simply oscillatory.
The rounded bottom d, d, has a series of flutings or grooves formed in it in the
direction of the length of the dasher E, as will be seen in the cross section,
Fig. 4. These flutes may be of other forms than that represented in the cross
section; they are continued the whole length of the tub, the purpose thereof
being simply to present a frictional surface to the clothes or materials being
washed. In addition to the bottom, these flutes may extend partly or entirely
up the sides of the box.
The dasher E is of wood, and is separately represented in side view at
Fig. 5. Fig. 6'is a cross section of the same on the line 2, 2, Fig. 5; Fig. 7
is a similar section on the line 3, 3, while Fig..8 is a partial longitudinal
section on the line 4, 4, Fig. 6. 9, 9, is the barrel or centre piece, through
which the driving shaft passes and is fixed; h, h, are arms, having radial
grooves, which receive the ends of the wooden rollers or bars i, ¹, i, ², which
are mounted in pairs in those grooves; they are pressed from the centre by

page_text: springs k, k, which exert a sufficient amount of force to hold the clothes or
materials placed between them, and also to produce the friction on the clothes.
or materials under operation requisite for cleansing or washing. At the one end
of the dasher the rollers i, i¹, are confined by a permanent end in the slots, but.
at the opposite end the outer roller may be removed, being held in position
by a spring catch 1, which may be thrown back to release the end of the roller
2¹, which may then be removed. These rollers are removed for the purpose of
introducing some portion of the clothes or materials to be washed between
them; the roller, being again placed in position, the springs / recede a little.
by reason of the thickness of clothes so introduced; these springs cause suf-
ficient grip of the clothes or materials, and at the same time exert a radial
pressure to induce the frictional and at the same time resilient contact against.
the fluted bottom, so as to produce the washing effect desired. Some portion
of the clothes or materials only are held between rollers i and i, another
portion being placed loose in the tub D.
With reference to the second part of our improvements, which refers to
wringing, C, C¹, are the squeezing rollers, mounted in bearings, and receiving
pressure of contact by the force of a spring F, regulated by a screw G, all in
the ordinary manner. Around the lower roller C¹ we place a short endless web
or sheet, which also encircles a small roller placed across the top of the tub D,.
and mounted in bearings m (see Fig. 4), which are jointed to A, A; when the
wringing machine is to be used, these bearings are raised against the stops n;
and the roller H placed in position. (The endless web is usually kept rolled
round the roller C¹ in readiness for use. Fig. 4 represents the wringing web
I in position. The cover of the tub D is removed, and the wet clothes or
materials lifted therefrom and distributed along the endless web or cloth I while
the rollers C, C³, are being turned, which carries the wet clothes or materials
through between the rollers; the wet is expressed as usual by the pressure of
the rollers, and runs back on the cloth I into the tub. The wet clothes or
materials may thus be easily distributed and introduced between the rollers
C, C',.without liability of injuring the fingers of the operator.
The third part of our improvements, which refers to the operation of
mangling, is best seen in Figs. 2 and 3. It consists in the application of the
endless web or cloth K, encircling the lower roller C', and extended over suit--
able rollers L, L, which distend the web, and present an extent of surface.
suitable for the purpose of mangling. p, p, are four supports, hinged to the
frames A, A, so as to fold out of the way when not in use; they form the sup-
ports for the rollers L, L, the axes of which are received in suitable bearings
formed therein. These rollers are encircled by the endless web K, passing

page_text: between the rollers C and C¹ on a level, while the lower surface of the web
passes below the roller C. The upper surface of K is nipped between the
rollers C and C¹, and when motion is communicated to the rollers C,.C', they
give motion to the web or sheet K. The clothes or articles to be mangled are
distributed uniformly and as smoothly as possible on the upper surface of K,
approaching the rollers. The articles thus distributed are carried by the web
K, through between the rollers C, C¹, and are mangled by the pressure thereof,
as well understood in similar mangling machines. Having passed through the
rollers C, C¹, the mangled articles may be removed from the web on the oppo-
site side of the rollers, or the motion of the machine may be reversed, whereby
they are again passed between the rollers C, C¹, which may be repeated
again and again if necessary before removing the articles from the web K.
'
When the wringing and mangling are combined in one machine, one or
other of the endless cloths or sheets should be removed, which may be readily
done by a lacing across the breadth of the sheet. The gear for driving the
machine may perhaps be described with advantage: for the washing part, it is
simply a toothed wheel f fixed on the axis of the dasher, gearing with a pinion
g: fixed. to the boss of the driving rigger or hand wheel 1. More power
required for wringing and mangling; we therefore employ a pinion r fixed on
the boss of q, taking into a stud wheel s, the boss of which stud wheel carries
a pinion t, taking into a wheel. u, fixed on the axis of roller C.
and Care geared together at the opposite end by wheels v, v¹.
is
The rollers C
Fig. 1 shows the wheels f and g in gear as for washing. By pushing the
wheel and boss of 9 on its stud spindle towards the machine, it throws the wheel
g.beyond f, and consequently out of gear, at the same time throwing pinion?
into gear with s, which is out of gear, as shown in Fig. 1, but in gear, as at
Fig. 3. w is a clutch lever, which is brought down on either side of pinion g,
according as the gearing is required for washing or wringing, and mangling,
to keep such gear in connection.
Instead of the washing, wringing, and mangling machines being combined
in one machine, as represented in the Drawings, they may each be separate
machines.
Having described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, we declare that what we claim as of our Invention,
intended to be protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is a
as follows:-
First, we claim fluting or grooving the bottom and sides of the tub or
washing chamber, for the purposes and as herein before described.
.
Secondly, the application of the springs to the dasher exerting a pressure

page_text: outwards from the rotating or oscillating shaft, for the purposes and as herein-
before described.
Thirdly, the application of the endless web or surface I to wringing
machines, as herein-before described.
And, fourthly, we claim the application of the endless web or surface K to
mangling machines, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, Thomas Briggs and John Starkey, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Tenth day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
172, Woodhouse Lane,
THOMAS BRIGGS. (L.S.)
GEORGE MORTON,
Witness,
140, Mount Pleasant,
Liverpool.J
Leeds, Yorks.J
};
JOHN
JOHN STARKEY. (L.S.)