AN IMPROVED MACHINE. OR APPARATUS FOR WASHING POTATOES AND OTHER LIKE VEGETABLE. SUBSTANCES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Derham, of Neckinger, Bermondsey, in
the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MACHINE.
OR APPARATUS FOR WASHING POTATOES AND OTHER LIKE VEGETABLE.
SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 12th April 1870, and dated the 30th December 1869..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Derham at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th December 1869.
I, RICHARD DERHAM, of Neckinger, Bermondsey, in the County of
5 Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Ar
IMPROVED MACHINE OR APPARATUS FOR WASHING POTATOES AND OTHER LIKE.
VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of a machine or apparatus of the following.
construction :-A circular tub or vessel mounted horizontally by its

page_text: standards.
or pivots working in bearings at the top of suitable
Within the aforesaid tub or vessel and around the inside or
to the centre thereof, or both, I fix to the ends of the said tub or vessel
and to the inside thereof a circular brush formed of bass or other suitable
material, the diameter of the said brush being about one-third of the
diameter of the inside of the aforesaid tub or vessel. There is a hole of
about three inches or more in diameter formed in one of the staves of
the aforesaid tub or vessel fitted with a bung; a hopper or funnel shaped
piece is also fitted around the said opening for charging the tub or
vessel with potatoes to be washed, the aforesaid bung being removed for
that purpose. There is a handle fixed on to one of the axes of the tub
for imparting rotatory motion thereto, so that supposing the said tub to
be charged with potatoes and water and the bung fixed water-tight
therein the effect will be as follows:-As the potatoes or other vegetables
are carried round by the rotation of the tub and the potatoes or other
vegetables come over the brush they will fall thereonto, and so on
throughout the rotations of the tub by which the dirt will be thoroughly
removed from the eyes and other parts of the skins of the potatoes, after
which the potatoes and water may be discharged by removing the bung
and turning the opening in the barrel downwards.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Richard Derham in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th June 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
DERHAM, of Neckinger, Bermondsey, in the County of Surrey, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Richard Derham, Her special licence,
that I, the said Richard Derham, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Richard Derham, my, executors, adminis-

page_text: trators, 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 for "AN IMPROVED MACHINE OR APPARATUS
FOR WASHING POTATOES AND OTHER LIKE VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Derham, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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 I, the said Richard Derham, 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 statement, that is to say :-
This Invention consists of a machine or apparatus of the following
construction:-A circular tub or vessel mounted horizontally by its ends
on axes or pivots working in bearings at the top of suitable standards.
Within the aforesaid tub or vessel and around the inside or to the
centre thereof, or both, I fix to the ends of the said tub or vessel and
to the inside thereof a brush formed of bass or other suitable material,
the diameter of the said brush being about one-third of the diameter of
the inside of the aforesaid tub or vessel. There is a hole of about three
inches or more in diameter formed in one of the staves of the aforesaid
tub or vessel fitted with a bung; a hopper or funnel shaped piece is also
fitted around the said opening for charging the tub or vessel with
potatoes to be washed, the aforesaid bung being removed for that
purpose. There is a handle fixed on to one of the axes of the tub for
imparting rotatory motion thereto, so that supposing the said tub to be
charged with potatoes and water and the bung fixed water-tight therein
the effect will be as follows:-As the potatoes or other vegetables are
carried round by the rotation of the tub and the potatoes or other
vegetables come over the brush they will fall thereonto, and so on
throughout the rotations of the tub, by which the dirt will be thoroughly
removed from the eyes and other parts of the skins of the potatoes, after:

page_text: which the potatoes and water may be discharged by removing the bung
and turning the opening in the barrel downwards.
And in order to explain this Invention more fully I now proceed to
describe the means by which it may be effected, reference being had to
the illustrative accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and to the numeral
figures and letters of reference marked thereon, as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
, Figure 1 represents an outside elevation of a machine constructed
according to this Invention; Figure 2, a longitudinal and vertical section
of the said machine through the centre thereof; Figure 3, a transverse
and vertical section through the lines A, B, at Figures 1 and 2. At
each of the above Figures, which are drawn to a scale of one-fourth of
the full size of a small machine, similar letters of reference are placed
upon corresponding parts wherever they appear at each of such said
Figures.
A marks a tub fitted with a water-tight lid B; C, a square wooden axle
fixed by its ends into the ends of the tub A.; D, D, bundles of bass,
cocoa-nut fibre, or other suitable rigid substance forming brushes,
which are each passed through and fixed in holes in the axle O, one
row of the said brushes being at right angles to the other row; E, E', are
metal axles or pivots fixed to the ends of the tub A for the tub to rotate
upon, the said pivots being mounted in bearings in the standards G;
His a winch handle fixed on the pivot E' for imparting rotatory motion
to the tub A, so that supposing potatoes or other similar substances and
water to be placed in the tub and rotatory motion imparted thereto
the effect will be to cause the potatoes to fall on to the ends of the
brushes, and thereby remove dirt from the potatoes or other vegetable
substances and thoroughly cleanse them. The inside of the tub may
have brushes fixed thereto if necessary, as at I, Figure 3.
Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of my
said Invention for "An Improved Machine or Apparatus for Washing
Potatoes and other like Vegetable Substances," together with the best
means I am acquainted with for carrying the same into practical effect, I
would remark in conclusion that I hereby declare my Invention to consist
in and I claim, fixing a series of brushes within a tub or other vessel to
which rotatory motion is to be imparted for washing potatoes and other

page_text: vegetables, substantially as above described with reference to the
accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Derham, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
RICHP. DERHAM. (L.S.)