Abstract: An improved vertical axis clothes washing machine and method having wash, rinse, and spin extraction operations including a tub, an agitator, a first basket within the tub, a second basket disposed within the first basket and positioned on the agitator for movement therewith. There is also a water supply for feeding hot and cold water into the machine, electrically powered drive for operating the agitator to effect washing of the fabrics and for rotating the baskets to centrifugally extract water from the fabrics. Water is allowed to flow from the baskets into the tub and may be recirculated from the tub into the baskets during the wash and rinse operations. The improvement is a separate cycle of a continuous wash and rinse operation followed by a spin extraction operation for washing clothes in only the second basket while fresh water is introduced continuously into the second basket during the combined wash and rinse operation and directed to drain and not recirculated.

Abstract: An endless strand of textile material is initially dyed by transporting it spirally through successive compartments of a vat and simultaneously and separately circulating a homogeneous dye liquor through the compartments individually, and then the textile material is rinsed while continuing to transport it through said successive compartments, by causing a rinsing liquor to flow successively through the compartments in countercurrent to the movement of the textile material.

Abstract: A unit for automatically cleaning items such as laundry or the like comprises a plurality of reciprocating plungers mounted to engage the items within a tank containing the items and a cleaning liquid. Each plunger comprises a piston mounted within a canister. The piston is mounted within the canister in an arrangement which permits a limited relative movement between the piston and canister, thus developing a bi-directional pumping action. With each stroke of the plunger, the piston forces liquid through the items to be cleaned, first in one direction and then the other, by virtue of the limited movement of the piston relative to the canister, the latter serving to assist in holding the items to be cleaned in a position for encountering the liquid being driven by the piston. The combined rotary reciprocating action of the plungers not only serves to clean the items in the tank but also to slowly propel them from the inlet to the outlet end of the tank so that a continuous cleaning process is performed.

Abstract: A drum-equipped apparatus for the wet treatment of batches of material has a horizontally oriented rotatably supported drum including a drum shell bounded by end walls and including a central inlet opening and a central outlet opening provided in the one and the other end wall, respectively. The apparatus further has a drive for selectively rotating the drum in a treating direction and in an opposite, conveying direction. A lifting wall is secured to the drum in the inside thereof for displacing the material batch radially with respect to the rotary axis of the drum during the rotation thereof in the treating direction. Further, a slide is secured to the drum in the inside thereof for displacing the material batch in the axial direction of the drum towards the outlet opening during the rotation thereof in the conveying direction. The drum is supported in an external vessel which receives treating liquid into which the drum is partially submerged.

Abstract: A laundry dryer source of heat for providing warm gas to dry laundry is utilized to heat water for laundry washer use, and is particularly suited for coin operated laundries. In the illustrated embodiment each dryer has a gas burner and a water coil is in the flame area of the burner, the coils being connected in circuit between a cool water outlet and a heated water inlet of a typical automatic water heater tank. A water circulating system includes a pump or pumps for circulating cool water from the tank through coils and returning heated water from the coils to the tank whenever any of the dryers are in operation. One embodiment of the circulating system assures continuous water flow through the plurality of dryer water coils during heating operation by providing a substantially equal pressure differential between the cold water inlet and the hot water outlet of each of the coils.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for washing running length textile fabric in open width, in which fabric advances generally upwardly through a washing chamber and along a sinuous path having a plurality of substantially planar runs inclined at an angle to the horizontal while wash water cascades downwardly on the fabric. The wash water cascades from one to another of a plurality of trays in such a manner as to bring fabric being washed into contact with progressively cleaner water as the fabric is being progressively cleaned.

Abstract: A drum-type machine for the treatment of batchwise textile material, especially a washing machine, with at least one drive drum rotatably supported in an approximately horizontal position having a central opening in one end wall for loading purposes and a central opening in the other wall for unloading purposes, as well as a conveying paddle in the interior for moving the batch of material about within the drum during rotation of the drum in a first direction and for the axial transporting of the batch of material through the unloading aperture in the other direction of rotation of the drum is provided with a sensor having a feeler oriented into the loading and/or unloading aperture, wherein the feeler is effected by the batch of material moving through the loading and/or unloading opening and acts to generate a signal if a part of the batch of material remains in the zone of the aperture after unloading.

Abstract: A drum-type machine for thermal dry or wet treatment of textile material including a rotatable, approximately horizontal drum surrounded by a fixed housing and connected with a drive mechanism via a traction device, the drum being charged and unloaded axially. Two radially externally disposed bearings are provided at an axial spacing at the drum with the traction device being placed about the drum between the bearings in order to transmit driving force to the drum. The traction device contacts the drum along the outside surface thereof.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for the high speed, multicolor dyeing of yarns to obtain uniformly dyed lengths of different color along the length of the yarns, wherein a moving strand is collected in a plurality of layers on the surface of a winding drum while a plurality of streams of dye of different color are continuously applied in metered amounts onto the outer surface of the yarn on the drum to form radial bands of color in the collected yarn. The drum is rotated at high speed to cause radial outward flow of dye from inner yarn windings into the outer yarn windings on the drum, thereby providing uniform penetration and coloration of the yarn by the dyes. Dye centrifugally expelled from the outer surface of the yarn is collected and removed by an outer housing peripherally surrounding the drum. The traverse speed of the yarn traverse mechanism of the drum is independently variable to permit the dyeing of yarn sections of selectively variable lengths.

Abstract: A tunnel-type commercial-duty washing machine has a horizontally elongated housing subdivided by a succession of partitions into a succession of compartments each provided with a generally cylindrical foraminous drum. Each drum is provided with a respective foraminous scoop formed from a first generally cylindrical section having an edge attached to the outer wall and extending between the end walls of the drum and a second generally frustoconical section forming a continuation of the cylindrical section and having a side edge joined to one of the end walls over a major arc of the periphery of an aperture in one of the end walls. Thus the drums may be oscillated back and forth to agitate clothing, but when rotated through greater than a predetermined angle the scoop will pick up the articles of clothing in the drum and displace them axially out of the drum.

Abstract: An apparatus for wet-treating, particularly for dyeing, a fabric in the form of a continuous circulating rope of cloth, wherein the rope of cloth is fed into a kier by introducing it by means of a treating liquid and is moved farther within the kier. The treating liquid is circulated through outlets out of the kier and through inlets into the kier when feeding-in the rope of cloth by means of said liquid. The rope of cloth is fed-in into a drum pivoted in the kier, is moved together with this drum along a part of the circumference of said kier and is removed from the drum in order to be repeatedly fed-in. The treating liquid is removed from the drum after the feeding-in of the rope of cloth, and that part of the rope of cloth which is actually within the drum is deposited therein in a non-floating state.

Abstract: An apparatus for washing elongate material including means for passing the material sequentially through a plurality of washing and soaking sections by means of a plurality of driving and driven rollers arranged to squeeze the material, as well as to control the feeding of the material through the apparatus.

Abstract: Two dye baths each have hangers and orificed spindles, about which may be mounted yarn hanks. A dye supply alternatey simultaneously supplies dye through the spindle orifices of one bath to spray dye the yarn hanks therein, and supplies dye into the other bath to dip dye the yarn hanks therein.

Abstract: Laundering apparatus for washing, rinsing, etc., in which the water, with the laundry goods, is flowed through in a continuous operation. There may be a single unit, or a plurality of units in series. Means is provided for recirculating water from the exit end of a unit to the entrance end or from one unit to another unit in front of it.

Abstract: A washing machine comprises two frames each mounting a plurality of tubular wash receptacles and arranged to oscillate on a support in opposite directions. Connecting rods resiliently affixed to each frame interconnect the two frames and constitute an oscillating system with the frame and receptacles mounted thereon. A crank drive oscillates the system in the range of the natural frequency thereof. Wash and wash liquid is preferably continuously delivered to each receptacle.