Safety Device For Wringers

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30961, 18 January 1966, Page 8

Safety Device For Wringers

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 17. An Auckland engineer has invented a device which he hopes will prevent people—especially children—from getting their hands caught in washing machine rollers. He has applied for a provisional patent on the device and a washing machine manufacturer is studying the possibility of producing it. The engineer, Mr Arthur Johnson, said he had taken six weeks to perfect his invention, which is designed to automatically spring the rollers apart if a hand is caught in them.

It is also intended to prevent accidents like the one in which an Auckland woman was scalped when her hair was caught on Friday. Mr Johnson estimated it could cost not more than £5 for each installation on a washing machine. He said he had developed the idea while making another device to stop clothes from sticking to the rollers and wrapping around them.

Mr Johnson said he had been struck by the number of accidents caused by people being caught in power wringers. A two-year-old girl died in Auckland on January 7 after both her arms had been caught in a machine.

Mr Johnson’s automatic release is made up of a new type of roller-operating con trol and a pair of safety guards mounted in front of each roller. The operating control, de signed to replace the simple turning lever and mounted on top of the wringer housing, needs a pressure of 221 b to depress. Mr Johnson said this pressure was impossible for a child of up to five or six. When the rollers began turning, the two guards, metal plates covering the length of the roller, came into position to leave a l-Bin gap between them to feed the clothes through.

If anything thicker than this gap tried to pass through, the top guard was drawn in .'gainst the roller, tripping a lock and allowing the roller to spring apart.