IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR WASHING, WRINGING, AND MANGLING CLOTHES OR FABRICS
Year: 1857

page_text: application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescrivea
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Fowler Swift, and Richard
Swift, and John Cornes at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 24th April 1857.
We, ROBERT FOWLER SWIFT and RICHARD SWIFT, of No. 7 Wharf, Wenlock
Road, City Road, in the County of Middlesex, Engineers, and JOHN CORNES,
of Balmes Road, Hackney, in the same County, Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR WASHING,
WRINGING, AND MANGLING CLOTHES OR FABRICS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention of improved machinery for washing, wringing, and mangling
clothes or fabrics relates, first, to an improved arrangement or construction of
parts where the dirt is loosened, washed out, and removed from the clothes or
fabrics.
And, secondly, to the combination with the washing apparatus of suitable
contrivances for wringing the clothes or fabrics, or pressing out therefrom a
considerable portion of the water that they take up during the washing opera-.
tion. The wringing apparatus is also so constructed and arranged that it
may be subsequently employed for mangling such of the clothes or fabrics as
require that operation.
The most complete form of apparatus which we propose to employ consists
of an oblong tank or vessel, divided by vertical partitions into three chambers

page_text: or compartments, the two end chambers being used as washing chambers, and
the central one, which is to be supplied with clean cold water, may be employed
as a rinsing chamber.
The two end or washing chambers are provided with any suitable number of
cross bars or rollers, which may be either fixed or moveable, according to the
nature and quality of the material to be operated upon. These bars or rollers
must be so arranged in the washing chambers as to be always kept parallel to
each other, or nearly so, and at suitable distances apart. If the bars are to
be fixtures, they may be secured by their ends, either by nails or screws or in
any other convenient manner, to the sides of the vessel, and at a suitable
height above the bottom of the vessel. If moveable bars or rollers are used,
their ends must be placed in vertical grooves or guides, which will always keep
them parallel with each other, but will still admit of their rising vertical when
lifted or floated by the water.
The clothes or fabrics intended to be washed are placed upon these cross
bars or rollers, and hot water and suds or soap having been poured into the
chambers, the washing operation is effected by means of moveable dashers,
which are jointed to the lower ends of pendent rods attached to the extremities
of a vibrating lever or beam, the shaft of which is mounted in bearings in the
framing. This vibrating beam may be actuated by means of a lever or arm on
one end of its shaft, or in any other convenient manner, and by so doing an up-
and-down or vertical movement will be communicated to, the dashers in the
washing vessels or chambers. These dashers are composed of a number of
cross bars mounted in a frame or end pieces, so as to form a kind of grille or
grid. The dashers are jointed to the pendent rods so that they may be turned
up when required, but in order to cause them to work vertically, and to
maintain them in their proper and relative position as regards the bars or
rollers of the washing chambers, a stud or projecting piece extending out from
each side of the dasher is made to work up and down in vertical guides made
in or attached to the sides of the chamber. It will now be understood that
upon placing the clothes or fabrics upon the cross bars in the washing chamber
and supplying the latter with water the clothes or fabrics will be floated
by the water, then upon the dashers being brought down alternately on to the
floating clothes or fabrics the latter will be forced down on to and squeezed
between the cross bars, thereby pressing out the water and with it the dirt.
Upon moving the dashers up and down in this way for a few minutes the
dirt will be loosened and washed out. As there are two washing chambers it
will be found convenient for the clothes or fabrics to be first washed in ono
for the purpose of loosening and removing the worst of the dirt, after which

page_text: they may be taken out and placed in the other compartment with clear water
to be finished. When sufficiently washed, the clothes or fabrics may be removed
to the central chamber and rinsed in cold water, after which they must be passed
through the wringing machine for the purpose of pressing out the superfluous
water; they are then dried in the usual way, and may be either mangled in
the mangling machine attached to the apparatus, or ironed in the ordinary
manner. The wringing
The wringing and mangling machine consists simply of two or
more rollers or cylinders mounted in bearings in the framework, their surfaces
being made to press against each other by means of strong springs or weights,
or other equivalent contrivances.. One of these rollers is actuated by means of
a winch handle, and the other is made to rotate by friction of contact.