Washing-machines.

Washing-machines. There are many kinds of domestic washing-machines. One of the simplest is the dolly, a wooden disc with three or more projecting arms placed horizontally on an upright shaft in a tub. The shaft is fixed in a step at the bottom and passes through a cross piece at the top, and is turned either by a cross handle or by simple spur gear. The arms are moved round backwards and forwards amongst the clothes. Nearly all domestic washing-machines consist of a tub or cistern of a form which suits the nature of the moving parts of the apparatus. Some operate by squeezing the clothes between grooved rollers, others by rubbing them between corrugated surfaces by a rocking or up and down motion, others again have a combined squeezing and rubbing action, while some are made on the principle of the old dash-wheel used in bleaching and dye works. Some recent washing-machines, which have been a good deal used, consist of a ribbed drum or cage formed of tubes fixed into the ends of the drum. The clothes are placed inside the cage, which is kept revolving in opposite ways by turns inside a thin metal case, the hot soapy water circulating freely between the tubes. See Frater's patent specification, No. 11,116, 15th September 1885. Machines of this kind can be heated with a Bunsen burner. One of the newest forms of washing-machine is on the principle of Carr's disintegrator. Many illustrations of washing-machines will be found in The Illustrated Official Journal of Abridgments of Patents issued by the Patent Office, and some improved forms of large washing and scouring machines used in factories are illustrated in recent volumes of The Textile Manufacturer. See also the article BLEACHING.