The Patent of the Day Has Changed

[Unimatic1140]

In the old Patent of the Day we had only 26 patents loaded and they were just small portions of the text that I thought was interesting <br
In the new system we now have over 250 washing machine patents loaded on the server (a new one will be picked randomly by the system in the middle of each night) and I hope to double that amount to 500 patents loaded real soon. The full texts are there in PDF format <br
Yay for progress. Some of these patents are really cool, be sure to check out today's patent, its date of application and what corporation patented it!

 

[retro-man]

Thank you Robert

I hit that 1st every day. Love reading and reviewing the different machines that were designed back when machines were machines. Sometimes I believe some never made it to the manufacturing stage but still good ideas at the time. Again thanks for this and all you do everyday
Jon

 

[golittlesport]

Yay! Thanks, Robert!

 

[toggleswitch]

YAY <br
Whos is better than you?

 

[Unimatic1140]

What I find really interesting about this patent is it is obviously the Bendix Power Surge machine, but it was submitted by Philco Corporation back in 1953. Since Bendix starting using this design around 1955 that means that Bendix and Philco were already 'in-bed' ***clears throat*** together so to speak somehow. This is earlier than I realized.

 

[Brent-Aucoin]

Sound Fun Robert
Thanks
I always enjoy the Patient of the Day! Cool that you found more
Brent

 

[tlee618]

Thanks so much Robert, it is going to be so fun to see all the new ones!!!

 

[mielabor]

That's a nice improvement. Thank you.

 

[funguy10]

So the last of the old-style of Patent-Of-Day was the wobble plate/Calypso laundry mechanism?

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Robert

I too always do the POD first. The enhancement is great
I'm looking forward to the "extended" offerings
Thanks for the added fun!

 

[peterh770]

Dern! I missed yesterday's patent <br
Thank you Robert for beefing up the patent file. <br
Check out today's Roto-Swirl! 1951?!?!? Wasn't the Roto-Swirl in production before then?

 

[Unimatic1140]

I don't think the Pregnant Roto-Swirl Agitator was used in Kenmore washers before 1951, the original agitator was the Straight-vane. I think it was somewhere around 1951 that the Roto-Swirl was introduced <br
I find it quite interesting to read this text. Expecially where they talk about how much more effect the counter-clockwise stroke was as opposed to the clockwise stroke of this agitator design...

 

[70series]

Rotoswirl patent

They should have included that it just fun to watch <br
Have a good one,
James

 

[gansky1]

I love the change - these are very interesting. It must have taken hours and hours to make this possible!

 

[Unimatic1140]

Exhausted

<i>It must have taken hours and hours to make this possible!</i <br
Ugh, **places back of hand on forehead***

 

[danemodsandy]

Hard Work, But...

...on Robert, it all seems to turn to muscle!

 

[panthera]

Groovy!

Robert, this is great! I love it
Thanks so much - I was always hoping for more patents of the day, but was afraid to ask...didn't want to seem demanding
Great! Thanks for the hard work!

 

[Unimatic1140]

My pleasure guys, I have over 650 automatic washer patents loaded on the server now, from about 1930 thru 2006. I had no idea Whirlpool designed a Horizontal Style Top Loader like the Stabor! I found some pretty amazing stuff, it will take a few years to see all of them, since the system will select them randomly.

 

[Unimatic1140]

I love how the very first randomly picked Patent is a Frigidaire Patent, YAY for the universe! Its interesting and a bit dubious like so many of these patents I've seen. Whirlpool went crazy in the 80's and early 90's making washer patents on every last thing they could dream up. Some of those will show up here from time to time when they are picked by the system <br
What Frigidaire Patented in 1940 was a "Scum Removal system". This was long before detergents were invented and so soap was used in washing machines. Soap had a tendency to form a layer of scum on top of the wash water. This washer shown has an early version of their first washer tub where its a solid tub (#22) with a perforated liner (#27) and both tubs are bolted together so they both spin together. Their patent claims that when the washer first starts to spin the scum (#16 on the picture) will head towards the agitator and ride down the agitator as the water level drops as its being thrown over the top of the tub. In the picture dotted line #14 is the water about 2 seconds into spin, dotted line #15 is the water about 10 seconds into spin. See how the scum supposedly rides down the agitator and goes out in the holes (#17) at the bottom of the tub so it does not redeposit back onto the clothes. They claim that the holes on the side of the tub are smaller than the ones at the bottom so more of the water (and then the scum) are drawn out of the bottom holes away from the clothes. This design was long before an overflow rinse was created which is much better at removing soap scum. I could see this system working only if the wash load was less than a full load of clothes. If the machine was even slightly overloaded the scum would fall back onto the clothes just like in a neutral drain <br
Two interesting things to note as this was done in 1940. 1st there is not outer tub, but a small drain trough to catch the water being thrown out of the tub. I wonder if they were experimenting with a design like this. It would take much longer to empty the tub so if they were then they also must have been working on a clutch style transmission! The other thing I notice is the agitator has two cones at the bottom, sort of like the Deep Action Agitator that was introduced in 1965! These patents sort of give us a look into the engineers minds back in the day which is way cool <br
Oh one thing I forgot to mention is these patents are in hi-res so they will print very nicely if you wish.

 

[gansky1]

Text says a "cone with a rubber fin" - probably where the later versions began, but with adding the soap dispenser and suds-making perforations. I wonder how not allowing air into the center of the agitator column as the later ones did would affect the washing action? Did you also notice that he states a tub capacity of twenty gallons and 400 one and one-half inch strokes per minute? That would be one awesome washer to see in action. And with the shape of that top, provocative too!

 

[funguy10]

What kind of soap was used? Hand Soap?

 

[Unimatic1140]

I wonder how not allowing air into the center of the agitator column as the later ones did would affect the washing action?
I don't know but it would be an interesting experiment. There are other patents with this 1930s agitator so they were probably using this for testing and development.

Did you also notice that he states a tub capacity of twenty gallons and 400 one and one-half inch strokes per minute?
Yeah if you look at the tub you can see that the solid part goes almost all the way up to the top of the inner tub liner, in the production models the solid part of the tub only comes up 2/3rds of the way. So this tub was probably about the same size, yet it could fill all the way up to the near the top. I wonder if that is why they were experimenting with a trough to catch the spun over the top water? With the trough you didn't have to worry about water getting into the transmission from the outer tub! Another thing about that trough since it is at the top of the cabinet if you attached a hose you could let gravity drain the water into a sink or standpipe and without the need for a pump or floor drain!

This is all so very interesting. There are patents that show at least two other pulsating style transmissions before the Unimatic so they probably pulsated and spun at different rates.

What kind of soap was used? Hand Soap?
No laundry soap such as Rinso, Lux or Chipso.