US1979A - Improvement in the manner of constructing presses for cotton, hay - Google Patents

Description

l UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

l LEMUELBOLLES, JEDEDIAH PRESCOTT, AED VILLTAM A. BICKFORD, OF

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE NIANNER OF CONSTRUCTING PRESSES FOR COTTON, HAY, &c.

Spccilication forming part of Letters Patent No. 1,979, dated February l2?, 1841.

To all whom, it may concern,.-

Beitknown that we, LEMUEL BoLLns,JEDE

' DIAH Pianscorrr, and WILLIAM A. BIcKFoRD,

- scription.

Our invention consists in the combination of joint-levers with press-blocks, abutments, racks and pinion, &c., as herein described, in such aform as to adapt them to the use of compressing cotton and other substances. We use any length of lever we choose, which may be longer or shorter, as we may wish to in crease or decrease the power. The power is obtained from the joint-levers we use on the same principle of ethe hand printing -press, only operating differently, as our levers are fixed at their extreme ends, (moving only in their joints or sockets,) and giving the impression between the contiguous ends of the levers; but the printing-press levers are united by a knuckle-joint, and only one extreme end (the upper end) fixed and the other movable. Our levers do not, like those of the printingpress, operate perpendicularly, but are horizontally arranged and move back and forth on a level plane, and to describe their operation more clearly we will conceive two doors hung on their opposite jambs, both swinging toward the center of the door. Now, when nearly closed, if we throw between them an elastic substance and closethem up in a right line, they would gear, in proportion to their solidity, a powerful impression. This is the principle on which our levers operate; but as a cotton bale is about five feet long, two feet thick, and three and one-half feet wide, it is necessary to have at least four levers to each press, with a pair of j aws or press-blocks xed with socket-j oints to their ends, and with these press-blocks we can press the whole surface of the bale of' cotton. Now, to illustrate this, we will conceive -four doors-two, on either side-and when all are closed (hung as before described) there will be a space of one foot between them. Now, suppose we take three inches off the meeting stiles of all the doors, we shall have a space of six inches, where we will conceive a bale of cotton compressed, provided there ybe a piece of plank (press-block B) between the bale on either side=- and the two doors, (levers A A,) by which the whole 4 the doors represent the press-blocks B B. Now,

as we swing the doors open to receive the bale, those pieces of plank or press-blocks, being confined by joints to the doors, will keep parallel and operate similar to a parallel rule, used'in drawing. The press-blocks B B are made of durable wood, live feet long, two feet deep, and eighteen inches thick, and are connected to the levers A A by socket-joints and confined to the abutments by a chain, W, similar to the hog-chain used in steamboats, the chain being fastened by an eyebolt atone end to the press-block B (between the levers) and the other end tothe center of abutment T, and

may be tightened by turning the screw.

The abutments T T must be permanent, and

may be constructed in various ways. Strong massive walls of brick or stone might be used where a permanent building is desired, and this is in accordance with the model, (received June 11, 1838.) But the cheaper mode of con struction is to make a frame-work of timbers, and they may be made to accommodate four presses in a space of forty feet square, (or, if more power be required, say sixty feet square.)

To construct this frame, we take four pieces of timber, X, eighteen inches square and forty feet long, and frame them intoisills, forming a perfect square, the ends being locked and bolted together. Secondly, we frame four other pieces, x, of timber of the same size into in side sills, which are in the same form of the outside sills, (being a square within a square;) but the inside sills being as long as the outside, they are locked across the outside, and

also each otherabout` three feet, from their.

ends 5 hence we have a foundation of forty feet square, with two parallel sills, X x, on either side, two feet apart, and all locked together and bolted, and all on a horizontal plane with work, forming a hollow square.

' foot of the posts M. The frame herein described will accommodate four presses. The abutments are fixed in every corner, and the press-blocks B B work back and forth horizontallytabout five feet, moving on smooth ways let into the sills near the center of each side of the square. Now, weA have the abutlnents, the levers, and the press-blocks all combined, two presses on either side of the frame- To give all these presses motion we frame two large timbers, eighteen inches square, into the inside sills, before described, in such a form as to cross each other at right angles in the center of the hollow square, and of course their ends will intersect the inside sills near the location of the npress-block B B, and braces are formed into the inside and these last cross-sills in any manner to strengthen the frame-work. The braces, outside, inside, and center sills are all exactly horizontal with each other. lWe next place a cast-iron pinion-wheel (two-inch cog and four-inch pitch) in the center of the building, where those intermediate sills cross each other at right angles. This pinion E is fastened on the top of a cast-iron shaft, (with an eight-inch journal,) which descends to the basement-story, where it maybe propelled by any applicable power whatever. This pinionwheel E works into racks D D, and in order to make one pinion work four presses we make the cog of pinion eighteen inches long` and that of the racks nine inches, so that two racks can work across the other two at right angles, being so arranged that the two under racks may work into the lower half and the two upper racks may work into the upper half of the pinion-wheel. The rack D is bolted onto a piece of wood nine inches square, C, which extends to within ve feet of the pressblocks B B, and is connected to them by iron rods F, two inches square, fastened by eyebolts to the ends of the press-blocks B, and united to tiller C with a joint and iron bolt. The tillers are thrown in and out of l gear at pleasure by means of small joint-levers L (similar to those used in the hand printingpress) and the use of friction-pulleys.

The jaws of the presses or press-blocks B B may be thrown open to receive the bale to be compressed by means of pulleys and weights or other suitable means. The presses may operate singly or all together. The space between the 'press-blocks, when drawn together, should be exactly what the bale of cotton should occupy when compressed, K, and they should be thrown open sufficient to receive the largest bale H. Our pinion-wheel shaft may be geared, should more power and less speed be required.

What we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The mode herein described of compressing` cotton and other substances by means of the joint-levers A A, connected with the abutments T T and the press-blocksB B, and the combination of the rack and pinion D and E with tiller C and connecting-rods F, operating substantially in the manner herein described and set forth. y

LEMUEL BOLLES. JEDEDIAI-I PRESCOTT. XV. A. BIGKFORD.

Vitnesses:

J osnrrr WILLIAMs, M. W. NELsoN.

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