Spray Rinse Patents

[Chetlaham]

Obviously there are plenty of patents where recirculated water is sprayed back into a spinning tub of clothes. But are there any patents on just the concept of spraying fresh water on spinning clothes? If not, can such a concept even be technically patented considering it is just so common?  

 

[Unimatic1140]

In the early 1930's The Apex Electrical Manufacturing Company of Cleveland (makers of the famous and totally cool Bouncing Basket Wash-a-Matic later on) invented the top loading agitator automatic washer as we all know and love. They received a patent for this machine in 1934.

The very first top-loading automatic washer patent filed in 1934 by Apex:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US1969176A

This patent which expired in 1951 had caused all other manufactures of top loading automatic washers to have to pay Apex residuals of .25 cents for every automatic washer manufactured. Easy and ABC had litigated these two patents (US1969176A and US2105218) aggressively and had some court wins.

The 1st Spray Rinsing Patent filed in 1932 is actually for a Apex Twin Tub washer but the patent mentions spray rinsing in:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US2105218

The clothes are next rinsed either by adding clean Water to the extractor while stationary or rotating or by transferring them to a tub full of rinsing water after which operation the clothes are returned to the extractor for the final drying Operation. During the initial extracting operation the soapy water can be returned to the tub by connecting the gooseneck 36 to the hole 62 and during the second extracting operation the rinse water can be conveyed to a drain by connecting the gooseneck to the hole 6. When the Washing is finished the valve member 60 is shifted to Open valve position and contents of the tub are pumped to a drain.

 

[agiflow]

I thought it was Maytag with their "Gyrator" agitator that was the first ? How cool it was Apex.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Maytag did invent the back and forth agitator but that was in wringer washers in the early 1920's, however Apex was the first to invent the top-loading automatic washer which included a back and forth agitator. Apex never actually manufactured/sold this design so by the time the Blackstone came out with their automatic agitator washer in 1940 Maytag's agitator patent had expired. I suspect Apex did build a prototype of this early 1930's automatic and how super cool would it be to find that!

 

[DADoES]

 
<blockquote>The very first top-loading automatic washer patent filed in 1934 by Apex</blockquote> My understanding is that the first automatic washer of any type was a Bendix frontloader in 1937.  Is that wrong?  I don't see a timer in the diagrams on US1969176.  It's tedious to closely read the description details but a scan finds references to changing between wash and spin modes via a manual lever.  Search finds "lever" but not "timer."

How do the various dates referenced on a patent reconcile to the process?  1,969,176 says "Filed Feb. 25, 1924" and also "Application February 25, 1934" with "Patented Aug. 7, 1934."

 

[Chetlaham]

Robert, I can't thank you enough! Looks like I've got serious competition to deal with lol. Apex might have actually beaten me to it.

 

[Unimatic1140]

My understanding is that the first automatic washer of any type was a Bendix frontloader in 1937

You're right Glenn, but being designed/patented vs. actually manufactured and sold Bendix wins that race. I was only referring to the earliest design of agitator top loaders as well, not front loaders. This specific early patent does show manual shifting but it is the earliest washing and spinning design of top-loaders today. If you research the law suits filed by the appliance industry against Apex the majority of them were all based on this patent as this design lends itself to being a fully automatic with the addition of a timer and shifting solenoid mechanism.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Bendix/AVCO did patent the "assured rinse" after the wash drain and before the first spin to knock down suds. When Westinghouse wanted to use it in their Laundromat, they had to pay AVCO for the right to use it, although it seems that they could have modified it to be like the spray rinse in the last version of the Westinghouse machine made by Electrolux. I have one of the Kenmore versions called the Kenmore Dual Tumble and sold by Sears. It began a spray rinse after the wash drain and then shut off the pump and filled for the first deep rinse which was not the Bendix sequence, or Westinghouse's, for decades.