US802502A - Washing-machine. - Google Patents

Description

No. 802,502. PATENTED OCT. 24, 1905. J. M. GAGAN.

WASHING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 8. 1904.

UNITED STATES- EAITENT orrron.

JAMES M. GAG-AN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO J. M. GAGAN & CO., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

WASHING-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 24:, 1905.

Application filed August 8, 1904, Serial No. 219,835.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J AMns M. GAGAN, 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 W ashing-Machines, of which the following is a complete specification.

This invention relates to washing-machines, and relates particularly to washing-machines of the type comprising a casing and a hollow perforated cylinder for receiving the clothes revolubly mounted therein, said casing and cylinder being made wholly or in part of wood, and means for rotating said cylinder comprising a gear secured to rotate with said cylinder and a pinion revolubly mounted in said casing which meshes with said gear. Heretofore the practice has been to support said cylinder and pinion in separate bearings formed on an end wall of the casing. This construction is found to be objectionable, however, for the reason that when subjected to the action of the water in use the Wood portions of the casing and cylinder swell and become distorted, which operates either to cause the cylinder and pinion to bind in their bearings, thereby causing the machine to work hard, or to spread said bearings, causing a partial or complete disengagement of the teeth of the driving-pinion from those of the gear, thus seriously interfering with or entirely preventing the designed operation of the machine.

A primary object of the invention is to overcome the foregoing objectionable features by providing rigidly-connected bearings for said cylinder and pinion, which will be unaffected by the warping or swelling of the casing and cylinder.

A further object of the invention is to provide a hearing for the driving-pinion of such construction that said pinion may be withdrawn laterally from engagement with the gear on the cylinder, so as to permit the removal of said cylinder from the casing.

My invention consists of the various features, combinations of features, and details of construction hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, in which my invention is fully illustrated, Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view of a washing-machine embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a sectional view on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1, the cylinder being indicated in dotted lines; and Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional View on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1.

Referring now to the drawings, A designates as a whole the casing of the machine, comprising an upper wooden portion 1 and a lower sheet-metal portion 2, and B as a whole the cylinder of the machine, comprising wooden end walls 3 and perforated sheet-metal side walls 4. The cylinder B is provided with a suitable door, through which the interior thereof is accessible, hinged to the side wall 4 at one edge of an opening therein and adapt ed to be secured in closed position bysuitable means. As shown, said .door consists of articulated sections 5 and 6 and is adapted to be secured in closed position in the following manner: Formed on the side wall 4 of the easing at the opposite side of the opening therein from that to which said door is hinged are lips 7 under which the free edge of the doorsection 6 is adapted to be be inserted. Pivoted to the door-section 5 at points remote from its hinged edge are levers 8, which are adapted to take under lips or clips 9 on the body of said cylinder or to be disengaged therefrom by turning said levers pivotally. Obviously when the free edge of the doorsection 6 is in engagement with the lips 7 and the levers 8 are turned into engagement with the clips 9 said door will be secured in closed position, while when the levers 8 are disengaged from the clips 9the door-sections 5 and 6 may be folded together to withdraw the free edge of the door-section 6 from under the lips 7, thus permitting the door to be turned on its hinges to open the same.

The top of the casing A is adapted to be closed by a cover hinged thereto at one side.

The cylinder B is supported by trunnions 10 and 11, formed on plates secured to the end walls 4 of said cylinder, which engage suitable bearings formed in the lower ends of hangers 12, secured to the upper wooden portions 1 of the casing A and which depend therefrom in proper position. As shown, said trunnions 10 and 11 rest in the lower ends of slots or grooves 13 in said hangers formed by inwardly-projecting flanges 14 thereon, and said casing is secured against longitudinal movement by shoulders 15 at the inner ends of said. trunnions, which project outwardly, so as to engage the edges of said flanges 14. As shown also, said flanges 14: are continuous to the tops of said hangers and the upper ends thereof diverge slightly from each other. Said flanges thus form guides for quickly and conveniently placing the cylinder B within the casingA in proper position with the trunnions 10 and 11 in engagement with their bearings in the hangers 12.

The cylinder B is adapted to be rotated by means of a pinion 16, which engages a gear 17, secured to rotate with said cylinder. As shown, the gear 17 is secured directly to one of the wooden end walls 3 of said cylinder, the trunnion 11 being formed integral with the hub of said gear. The pinion 16 is secured to a stub-shaft l8, revolubly mounted in a suitable bearing in a boss 19, formed on a plate 20, rigidly secured to and preferably formed integral with a hanger 12 of the machine. To provide for Withdrawing the pinion laterally out of engagement with the gear 17 to permit the removal of the cylinder B from the casing A, a recess 21 is formed in the plate 20, adapted to receive said pinion, and the stub-shaft 18, to which the pinion 16 is secured, is longer than its bearing and is movable lengthwise therein to provide for necessary movement of said pinion to effect engagement thereof with the gear 17 and to Withdraw the same into the recess 21 to disengage it from said gear. The pinion 16 is adapted to be secured in engagement with the gear 17 by means of a pin 22, fitted to a suitable bearing in the boss 19, the inner end of which is adapted to engage a groove 23, formed in said stub-shaft, the relation being such that said pin 22 will engage said groove 23 and secure said stub-shaft against longitudinal movement when said pinion 16 is in engagement with said gear 17. As shown, movement of the pin 22 is limited by means of a headed guide stud or screw 24:, which extends through a slot 25, formed in the upper end of said pin. Rotation is adapted to be imparted to the stub-shaft 22 by a crank or handle 26, removably secured to the outer end thereof, as by means of a wing-screw 27, threaded into the end of said stub-shaft, a shoulder on which extends outwardly, so as to bear against the outer end of the hub of said crank or handle.

By making the bearing for the stub-shaft 22 integral with the hanger 12 and the trunnion 11, which engages the bearing in said hanger, integral with the hub of the gear 17, it is obvious that the several bearings and the relative positions of the parts defined thereby will be unaffected by swelling or warping the designed operation of the machine at all times and under all conditions in the manner desired.

I claim as my invention- In a washing-machine, the combination of a casing, a cylinder mounted therein, a driving-gear and a supporting-trunnion on said cylinder, a driving-pinion and a shaft to which said pinion is secured and a hanger secured to the inside of said casing provided with bearings for said trunnion and for the shaft of the driving-pinion and provided, also, with a recess to receive said driving-pinion to provide for retracting said pinion to permit the removal of the cylinder from the casing.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention 1 aflix my signature, in presence of two subscribing Witnesses, this 6th day of August, A. D. 1904.

JAMES M. GAGAN.

Witnesses:

K. A. COSTELLO, CHAS. B. GILLSON.

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