US782574A - Washing-machine. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTED FEB. 14, 1905.

H. LINDESTROM.

WASHING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 23, 19-03.

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PATBNTBD FEB. 14, 1905.

H. .LINDBSTROM. WASHING MACHINE APPLIOATIOH FILED SBPTPBB 1903.

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Patented February 14, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

HJALMAR LINDESTROM, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

WASHING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 782,574, dated February 14, 1905.

' Application filed September 23, 1903. Serial No. 174,244.

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, HJALMAR LINDESTROM, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Washing-Machines; and Ido hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to improvements in washing-machines, and refers more specifically to an improved actuating device for the beater or rubbing arms, by which the clothes are rubbed against the interior rubbing-surfaces of the suds box or receptacle.

Among the objects of the invention is to provide an improved actuating device for the beater or stirrer arms of washing-machines which is so constructed as to balance or render uniform the action of the moving parts of such device and to minimize the work required to operate the same; and afurther-object of the invention is to improve the operation of the rubbing or beater arms with respect to the coaction thereofwith the interior rubbing surfaces of the machine or suds-box.

The invention consists in the matters hereinafter set forth, and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal, vertical section of a washing-machine embodying my improvements, showing in dotted lines the lid thrown backwardly or open and the position of the beater-arms and actuating devices therefor when the lid is open. Fig. 2 is atransverse vertical section of said machine.

Fig. 3 is a section similar to Fig. 2, showing First referring to the construction shown in Figs. 1 to 4, inclusive, A designates the clothes or suds box, supported on legs or standards A A and provided on its top with a hinged lid or cover A through which access may be had to the interior of the box for inserting and removing the clothes. Said box comprises a flat top wall a. vertical side walls a a, and a curved wall a constituting the bottom and front and rear walls, the whole having the general form of the segment of a cylinder- The curved bottom and front and rear end wall a of the box is provided interiorly with transverse alternate ribs and depressions, constituting a corrugated surface against which the clothes are rubbed by the beater or stirrer arms, and the side walls a are similarly provided with alternate ribs and depressions which preferably radiate centrally from a point near the upper margin of said side walls. B B designate the rubbing or beater arms, which are nonrotatively fixed to a transverse rock-shaft B, extending across the upper side of the box centrally thereof. Said arms are mounted in sleeves 5, extending through flanges a depending from the lid A and fitting in suitable cut-away places or notches in the upper margins of the side walls a of the box. The beater-arms and their rock-shaft are thus carried by the lid. Preferably" the bottom and rear and front wall of the box is curved on a radius concentric with the axis of said shaft B. The rock-shaftB' is provided at its opposite ends, outside the box, with two angularly-disposed arms B B which latter are provided at their outer ends with weights B B5 Said arms B B extend in opposite directions, so that one of the weights B acts to counterbalance the other weight. One of said arms is provided between the shaft and its weight with a handle B by which the shaft is rocked on its axis and the beater-arms swung from side to side of the box to thereby effect a rubbing of the clothes against the inner walls of the suds-box. Said handle B is affixed to the arm B by means of aset-screw Z), whereby the position of the handle relatively to the outer and innerends of said arm may be varied. As a further and separate improvement, the rock-shaft B is made of somewhat greater length than the width of the machine and is capable of a limited end wise sliding movement, so that the rubbing or beater arms carchine toward and from the side walls of the suds-box. In order to center said stirrer-arms while permitting them to yieldingly shift toward and from said side walls, spiral springs O C are interposed between the flanged sleeves or bushings 6 and the inner ends of the arms B B In the operation of the machine after the clothes have been placed in the suds-box and the lid closed down the rubbing or beater arms are swung backwardl y and forwardly therein to rub the clothes against the interior rubbing-surfaces of the box by grasping the handle B of the arm B of the beaterarm rock-shaft and swinging the outer or free end of said arm to and fro. The weights B B, carried by the outer ends of said arms B B act to balance the movements of the rock shaft and the beater-arms, so as to prevent or minimize the effect of sudden and abrupt movements thereof due to the engagement of the arms with the clothes in the suds-box. In other words, during the swinging of the beater-arms in the suds-box the resistance to their movement in different parts of their swing is varied, owing to the fact that the clothes mass in the box is constantly changing inits form, so that at times the mass presents a greater resistance to swing of the beater-arms than others. Again, the resistance to the swing of the beater-arms at the outer limits of their movement is greater than at the intermediate part of their movement, for the reason that at the outer limit of their movement they act to raise or lift part of the weight of the clothes mass. Such unequal resistance to the swing of the arms, therefore, tends to give a jerking movement to the shaft and to require more power to rock the shaft and swing the arms than if the movements of the parts were uniform. The presence of the balancing-weights B at the outer ends of the arms B B impart asmooth and uniform movement to the shaft and the arms, which partially or wholly overcome the tendency to a jerky or abrupt movement, due to the reasons above set forth. As before stated, owing to such approximate, uniform, and balanced action of the parts, the machine may be operated with the expenditure of less labor and strength than in a machine not provided with such balancing devices.

The purpose of the springs C is to permit the rubbing or beater arms to yieldingly shift transversely in the suds-box to allow said arms to pass an unusually large bundle of clothes which may at any time accumulate at one side of the box without unduly increasing the resistance to the swing of said arms or the power necessary to swing the same or the tendency of the stirrer-arms to carry such accumulated bundle of clothes bodily from one side of themachine to the other. This feature of my invention in combination with the corrugated inner surfaces of the side Walls a of the box is of considerable importance, as it enables said beater-arms to yieldingly press a bundle of clothes against said corrugated surfaces and in a manner to most effectual] y cleanse or wash the same and at the same time not greatly increase the required power to operate the machine. This feature of my invention may be applied to forms of actuating devices differing in the other features of its construction from that herein shown.

The mounting of the beater-arm shaft on the swinging lid is advantageous, for the reason that thereby said beater-arms, the shaft, and the actuating-arms therefor when the door or lid is opened are taken entirely away from the opening through which the clothes are inserted into and removed from the suds-box.

Instead of applying the balance or governing weights to arms attached to or made integral with the opposite ends of the beaterarm shaft I may apply said weights to oppositely-directed arms connected with the same end of the shaft, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6. As therein shown, D D designate the beaterarms, and D the beater-arm shaft, which is provided at one end with an operating-arm D having a handle D such as is provided in the construction before described. The other end of the shaft is provided at its outer end with a weight D The said shaft D, its beater-arms attached thereto, and the manner of mounting the shaft in the machine is the same as that described in connection with Figs. 1 to I, inclusive. In this form of the device the beater-arms are disposed in a plane transverse to the plane of the arms D", being located at a right-angle relation. The arrangement of the parts shown-in Figs. 5 and 6 is preferable, as a smoother and more uniform action of the parts is attainable thereby.

The suds-box is made relatively narrow and deep rather than wide and shallow, and in some instances one instead of two or more rubbing or beater arms may be employed. The narrow deep form of the box is advantageous, as it insures not only more extended vertical rubbing-surfaces, but also it insures that more surface area of the clothes will be exposed to said rubbing-surfaces. The radial arrangement of the ribs on the inner faces of the side walls, when considered in connection with the swinging rubbing-arms, which swing on an axis coincident with the axis or point of convergence of said ribs, is an advantage, as it insures that the coaction of said arms with the ribs is always in directions transverse to the ribs and also prevents the clothes rising in the box away from the bottom thereof. The clothes are held from rising for the reason that the side ribs are disposed at an angle to the vertical and tendency thereof to rise when moved outwardly by the rubbing areas is resisted by the transverse relation of said ribs to the path of the clothes. The curved form of the bottom and front and ICC rear wall of the box, disposed concentrically with respect to the axis of oscillation of the rubbing or beater arms, is advantageous forthe reason that a uniform pressure is exerted by said arms through the clothes on the rubbing-surface of said wall in all parts of the swing of the arms.

Changes in the structural details may be made without departing from the spirit of my invention, and I do -.not wish to be limited thereto except as hereinafter made the subject of specific claims.

I claim as my invention 1. 'In a Washing-machine the combination with the suds-box, of a straight horizontal shaft extending across the suds-box and having bearing at the upper parts of the side walls of said box, an elongated narrow rubbing or beating arm attached at its upper end to the shaft near its center and adapted to extend into the suds-box, means for rocking said shaft to swing said rubbing device, and arms rigid with and extending in opposite directions from said shaft and provided with balanced Weights.

2. In a washing-machine the combination with a suds-box and a swinging elongated rubbing-arm therein, of a straight horizontal shaft extending across the suds-box beneath the top of the box to which the rubbing device is attached, arms rigid with and extending in opposite directions from said shaft and provided with balanced weights, and manuallyengageable means for rocking said shaft to swing said rubbing device.

3. In a washing-machine the combination with the suds-box, a'single swinging rubbing device, a rock-shaft extending across the sudsbox to which said rubbing device is immovably attached, and means for rocking said shaft to swing said rubbing device, of springs applied to said shaft on both sides of the rubbing device and acting to hold the rubbing device centrally of the box while permitting the shaft to yield endwise in both directions to allow the rubbing device to yieldingly shift toward and from both side walls of the box.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as HJALMAR LINDESTROM.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM L. HALL, GERTRUDE BRYCE.

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