WASHING-3IACIIINES were originally employed in connection with textile manufactures; but the Americans have effected much towards rendering them also applicable to domestic use.
In the bobbin-net district around Nottingham, washing-machines arc employed in great variety ; for the delicacy of the fabric renders much more care necessary than in the washing of the woven goods made in Lancashire and the neighbouring counties. The dash-wheel, in which centrifugal force is employed to wash and then to dry the goods, is much used, requiring steam power to work it. A kind of thumping machine called a dolly is sometimes employed ; but it in almost too coarse in its action for delicate fabrics; and so likewise are those machines in which fluted rollers work in contact. One mode adopted is that of forcing a current of air through the ley or washing liquid, and thus blowing out tho dirt from the cloth without any rubbing. To effect this, a vessel is provided to contain the goods; a pipe connects it with a blowing apparatus, which may consist of any kind of fan or wind-producer. The goods, slightly soaped, are steeped in soft water at a temperature of about 90' Fehr. ; the vessel is covered over, and a current of air sent in from the blowing apparatus.
Mr. Cottriil's patent relates to a sort of triangular prism, two of which rotate on horizontal axes in a direction opposite to that in which yarns or woven goods are drawn through a tank ; the angles of the prisms strike the goods as they pass, and thus wash them. In another machine by the same inventor, instead of prisms, two arms or cranks are employed, vibrating about an axis. Many washing-machines are modifications of the cylindrical dash-wheels described under BLEACII1NO, and call for no detailed notice here. Some of the dash-wheels now used in the dye works, bleach works, and print works of Lancashire and Glasgow will wash 4000 pieces in a day. At the St. Nicholas Hotel in New York, washing is conducted for the visitors on a scale of surpri sing magnitude and completeness. A cylinder is half filled with soap and
water; three or four hundred garments of linen and cotton aro thrown in • the cylinder is made to revolve by a steain-engine ; steam is admitted to the bottom of the cylinder, rises through tho water, and escapes at the top. In doing so, the garments iu tho cylinder aro forcibly driven up, and then a current of steam in the opposite direc tion forces them down again. By this process, repeated several times, and combined with the rotatory movement of the cylinder, the garments are very quickly washed. They are then gently dried in a centrifugal machine [Dnetso-3icneses], and finally exposed to a current of hot air. The linen is said in this way to be washed in ten minutes and dried in seven, very cheaply, and without injury to the material. The Hampstead Board of Guardians adopted, in 1860,a new washing-machine, consisting chiefly of two ridged boards; the linen is pressed between the boards, slightly rubbed, turned over, slightly rubbed again, and so on alsaut fifty times, the soapy water passing through the pores every time; no hand-rubbing is needed. After several weeks' trial, it was found that five shillings' worth of fuel, soap, and soda sufficed for the washing of one thousand articles.
Among the many curious American waahingenachince recently introduced, one is the ball machine, in which a number of wooden balls are set in motion by a handle worked by a lever. The linen is so placed that the balls rub against it and against each other, and it is thus washed without the hand being applied to it. The credit claimed for this machine is, that the pressure being slight and temporary, fine fabrics are not injured; moreover, " it tears off no Another American machine has wooden contrivances intended to represent, in actiou if not in appearance, the knuckles of a laundress; the theory of the machine is, that the proper result can be obtained without wearing away human fingers.