US140238A - Improvement in wash-boilers - Google Patents

Description

S. W. BARTHULUMEW.

Wash-Builers.

Patented June 24,1873.

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SIDNEY W. BARTHOLOMEW, OF LOUISBURG, NORTH CAROLINA.

IMPROVEMENT IN WASH-BOILERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 140,238, dated June 24,1873; application filed April 28, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SIDNEY W. BARTHOL- oMEw, of Louisburg, in the county of Franklin and State of North Carolina, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Wash-Boilers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of the same, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a sectional elevation; Fig.2, a

' bottom view of the false bottom; Fig. 3, a top view of the false bottom; Figs. 4 and 5, sections through lines y y and w 00, Fig. 2.

Similar letters of reference in the accompanying drawings denote the same parts.

This invention has for its object to effect the cleansing of clothes by the action of a current of hot water circulating under steam pressure within a boiler, without the use of a wash-tub, washing-machine, or any mechanical means, save the automatic action of water and steam. -To this end the invention consists in the combination with a boiler of a false bottom, having a series of flanges forming labyrinthine passages on its under side, which present no obstacle to the flow of water from the space beneath the false bottom upward to the clothes, but do prevent any flow of the water backward away from the clothes, all which I will now proceed to describe.

In the accompanying drawing, A is an ordinary boiler, having 'a closely-fitting cover, B, which has escape-pipesG, for steam, so that the cover may not be blown off. D is the falsev bottom, the same having a flange, E, projectin g downward from its under side, and extending entirely around the bottom at the same distance from its edge. F is a diaphragm extending across the under side of the bottom D, at the middle of the same, and dividing the space inclosed by the flange E into two equal parts, each of which parts is formed into a labyrinthine passage by means of a flange, F, proceeding in straight lines and at right angles 00. The flanges E andF are of the same depth, so as to fit snugly on the bottom of the boiler, and make water-tight passages. Holes G are made in the false bottom at the center of each of the chambers formed by the diaphragm F to which holesthe labyrinthine passages lead; These holes open into trunks I, fastened to to the top of the bottom D, from which trunks pipes J extend upward, and receive on their tops pipes K, which are connected by a cylindrical perforated tube, L. At the middle of the bottom D two oblong orifices, M, are made, which open one into each of the labyrinthine passages aforesaid, above which holes is a cover, N, elevated above bottom D on lugs 0. The bottom D is placed inside the boiler, and the latter filled at least one-third full. Bolts P are fitted to slide in the bottom D, and when thrust into holes in the inside of the boiler serve to hold the false bottom down. R are valves hung both on the same pivot, one at each side of the diaphragm F, and at the middle of the bottom D. These valves swing in opposite directions, each one away from the adjacent orifice M. These valves are provided with stops r, which arrest them when they assume a vertical position.

A fire having been kindled under the boiler after it has been supplied with water, and the space above the bottom D having been filled with clothes, as soon as the water becomes expanded by the heat such expansion closes the valves R and causes the water to proceed along the labyrinthine passages. The steam generated by the heat, being prevented from ascending by the superincumbent mass of clothes, by its pressure forces the water away from the valves R in two opposite directions.

These currents ascend through the'holes G into the trunks I, and flow thence through the pipes J K into the perforated tube L, whence the hot water escapes in streams upon the mass of clothes at each side and beneath, and cleanses them as it percolates through them. This water flows back into the space beneath the bottom D through the orifices M, and resumes its place in the circulation pass ing the valves It in order to do so. It takes from thirty to forty minutes for the water, circulating in this way, to cleanse the clothes.

I claim as my invention- 1. The combination, with the false bottom D, of flanges disposed on the under side of the same so as to form passages, having each an 3. The false bottom D, in combination with ingress, M, and an egress, G, and a valve, R, orifices GM, cover N, valves R, trunks I, pipes arranged substantially as described. J K, tube L, and boiler A, substantially as 2. The false bottom D, in combination with and for the purpose explained. the valves R, flanges E F, forming labyrin thine passages, trunks I, pipes ,J K, and con- Witnesses: necting-tube L, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

S. BARTHOLOME'W.

MELVILLE CHURCH, (J. F. BROWN.

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