IMPROVEMENTS IN CARPET CLEANING MACHINERY
Year: 1885

page_text: We, JOHN PEARSON DIGGLES, of 79 Thorncliffe Road, and ALFRED DIGGLES,
of 68 Arcadia Street, both of Bradford, in the County of York, Carpet Cleaners,
do hereby declare the nature of our invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN CARPET
CLEANING MACHINERY to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to clean carpets by machinery quite as efficiently
as hitherto but in less time.
We accomplish our object in the following manner: we form of lattice work a
rectangular cage having fluted rollers passing from side to side of same and just
clear of the bottom: each end of this cage is fitted with a false end supported upon
spiral springs.
The
The rectangular cage is centred in the middle by suitable necks on each side,
carried in journals and when working it resembles the action of a see-saw.
carpet is put into one end of the cage through a door for the purpose. When the
cage is in motion as explained hereafter, the carpet drops from one false end against
the other false end, the rollers reducing the friction of the same along the bottom
of the cage and the spiral springs supporting the false ends give way and the dust
from the carpet is thereby loosened.
Keyed on to the bearing on one side of the machine is a cog wheel gearing into
small pinion fixed upon the driving shaft: on this latter is secured a loose pulley
and on each side of the same is a fast pulley. The oscillation of the rectangular
cage is made by a suitable projection, capable of regulation, to traverse the fork of
the driving strap on to the fast pullies right or left of the loose pulley, thus giving
the reciprocating motion to the cage.
This reciprocating cage is worked within a chamber all boxed in, and by means
of an exhaust fan or other means, the loosened dust is drawn out of the cage and
carried away.
When the carpet is supposed to be clear of dust by the reciprocations in the cage
and exhaustion, it is taken to another machine consisting of a revolving brush
sufficiently large to take any sized carpet and by means of roller under same,
capable of adjustment to any required distance between the roller and the brush
according to the thickness of the carpet, any remaining dust is removed by the
brusb, the colours of the carpet revivified and the nap raised, thus giving a finish
to the carpet.

page_text: We, JOHN PEARSON DIGGLES, of 79 Thorncliffe Road, and ALFRED DIGGLES,
of 68 Arcadia Street, both of Bradford, in the County of York, Carpet Cleaners,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The object of this invention is to clean carpets by machinery, quite as effectually
as hitherto, but in less time.
We accomplish our object by forming of lattice work, a rectangular cage having
a number of rollers at the bottom, and fitted with false ends with which spiral
springs are combined. The cage is supported at its centre by a shaft or trunnion
on each side thereof carried by journals, and attached to one of the shafts or
trunnions is a disc plate having a slot hole therein, through which a pin projects
carrying a rod connected in a similar way at its other end, to another disc plate;
the latter being driven by gearing from a pulley. Owing to the relative positions
of the disc pins, the cage is made to oscillate on its trunnions after the manner of a
see-saw; the carpets therein falling first against one false end and then the other,
their motion backwards and forwards being facilitated by rollers. Thus by the
continued knocking about, the carpets are cleaned, the dust being drawn away from
the interior of the chamber by means of an exhauster or fan.
In order that our invention may be more fully understood, we append herewith
a sheet of drawings in which Fig. 1 represents a side elevation of our improved
machine, Fig. 2, a plan, Fig. 3 an end view of the same, and Fig. 4 a longitudinal
section through the lattice cage shewing the false ends, springs and rollers; the
exterior covering being removed in order to more clearly shew the apparatus.
The letter A indicates the framework of our improved machine, and B the lattice
cage supported by shafts or trunnions C and C¹, resting in journals supported by
the frame A. In working out the invention, we find in lieu of having three pullies,
the necessary motion can be obtained by securing to one of the shafts or
trunnions C, a disc plate D, having a slot hole therein in which is fixed a pin D¹,
carrying a rod E, which is, at the other end, attached to and carried in precisely
the same manner by the pin F¹ secured to the revolving disc plate F, the latter
being connected by gearing G, to the driving shaft H, and driven by a belt on the
driving pulley Hr.
The carpets to be cleaned are put into the cage B, through the door J, and the
machine set in motion by moving the driving belt from the loose on to the fast
pulley H, which operation causes the disc plate F to rotate, and in consequence of
the relative positions of the disc pins D¹ and F¹, the pin in the disc plate D, only
moves backwards and forwards the distance of about half the circumference of the
disc plate, while the disc plate F makes a complete revolution.
Each end of the rectangular cage B is prepared with false ends R inside the cage,
to which spindles are attached that pass through bushes fixed in the cross rails L
of the exterior ends. Between each false and exterior end upon the spindles, we

page_text: place spiral springs S, which act as a cushion to the fall of the carpet against the
respective ends; thereby checking the force of the falling carpet upon the end
of the cage.
We enclose the oscillating cage within a casing of wood or other material, and
connect the interior to an exhauster or fan of the ordinary construction, which
removes the dust and other foreign matter from the interior.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is,
The oscillating cage B fitted with rollers M and false ends R all arranged
substantially in the manner and for the purpose as described.