US252583A - Cotton-opener - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet l. R. KITSON.

COTTON OPENER.

NO. 252,588. Patented Jan.17,1882.

M@ N... OW.

(NO Model.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

R. KITSON.

COTTON OPENER.

Patented Jan. 17,1882..

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Wam/Zw FFICE.

PATENT RICHARD KlTSON, OF LOVVELD, MASSACHSETTS.

COTTN-OPENER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 252,583, dated January 1'7, 1882. Application filed May 2l, 1880. (No model.)

To alt whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARD KITSON, of the city of Lowell, county of Middlesex, and State ot' Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Cotton-Opener, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to cotton openers in which the cotton, afer being opened by one opening mechanism, is, before being fed to the beater, permitted to fall in a gage-box in which a constant'supply of cotton is maintained, regardless of any irregularities in the quantity falling at different times into it, and from the bottom of which a regular and constant quantity is supplied to the beater.

The object of my invention is to provide the gage-box, or box into which such a supply of cotton to be fed to the beater is maintained, with a dead-air chamber to receive and hold any sand, dirt, or other foreign substances loosened by the preceding opening mechanism and prevent their passage to the beater with the cotton, and to provide a rotary screen or cylinder uponj which the cotton in the gagebox will be supported, and to which the cotton will cling sufficiently to be carried forward in a regular sheet to the beater, and into which the lighter particles of leaf loosened from the fiber may pass or be drawn by an inrushing current of air created by withdrawing the air from such cylinder by connecting it with au exhaust-fan usual in such machines. Iaccomplish this object by the mechanism shown in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a section of the device embodying my improvements. Fig/2 is a side elevation; and Fig. 3 is a ptrspectivc of the cylinder D, seen in Fig. 1.

Similarletters ofreference indicate like parts throughout the figures.

A is the gage-box, a,a pair of grasping-rolls by which the cotton is taken when brought within their grasp by an attendant moving it forward over a feed-table, or by the action ot'an endless feed-apron upon which it is placed, or by other feeding mechanism, and by which it is held while acted upon by the breaker shaft or cylinder B, which is provided with fingers or pins b. rlhis shaft rotates in the direction indicated by the arrows near it.

C is the deadairv chamber, having an inclined top composed of bars c c placed a small distance from one another on and over which the cotton or ber enteiing the machine between the feed-rolls in the direction indicated by the horizontal arrow (being opened by the action ofthe lingers b upon it) falls. The arrows within the gage-box indicate the general direction of the cotton in passing through it. As the fiber is opened by thengers above, the

dirt, sand, leaf, or other foreign matters which.

areloosened from the fiber are projected against the upper and back portion ofthe gage-box by the rotary motion of the shaft and fingers and slide over and fall upon these bars with the ber. The smaller and heavier particles not closely entangled with the bers fall between the bars into the dead-air space, While tlle cotton slides over the bars and falls to the bottom of the box upon the gauze cylinder D. The bars forming the top of the d-ead-airchamber are preferably placed parallel with the breaker-shaft B, in the arc ot' a circle, beginning behind the shaft and extending downward and under the shaft until the line ofthe perpendicular of the edge ofthe shaft or cylinder is over the bars, so that everything which passes into the machine must fall upon the bars before it can reach the bottom of the gagebox.l These bars may,^however, be disposed in any other convenient position which may be found advantageous to attain ythe end desired.

The. cylinder D may be connected in the ordinary and well-known mannerwith an exhaustfan, which draws into the cylinder such small motes orpieces of leaf or other foreign matter as, heilig very light, do not fall into the deadair chamber above described.

The connecting-flue through which the air is exhausted from thecylinder D is shown at r in Fig. 2, and its end (not shown) opens into the caseoftheordinarywell-knownexhaust-fan, which is placed beneath the collecting-cages upon which the lap is formed of the cotton after it leaves the beater. This dueis a sheetmetal pipe placed outside of the frame ot' the machine, with its ends curved to connect with openings to the cylinder and fan. rlhe cylinder D, revolving toward the feed-rolls ee, carries the liber toward them and presents fresh and uncovered surface for the falling* cotton to be deposited upon. The cotton falling upon this cylinder is carried out between the feedrolls e e to the beater f, which may be of any of the known forms desired.

G is a compression-roll, which is used to gather theloose ber into a sheet-likeforrn, acting, in conjunction with the cylinder D, upon the fiber prior to its reaching the feed-rolls c e.

The several parts may be driven by belts, as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig'. 2, or by belts or gears driven by other convenient shafts, as may desired.

What I claim as new and of my invention is l. The combination of the gage-box A, grasping-rolls a, breaker-shaft B, provided with the fingers b b. and the dead-air chamber C, havin;r a grated inclined top, substantially as described.

2. The combination, with mechanism for opening the cotton, of' gage-box A, provided with the dead-air chamber C, having the grated top upon which the cotton acted upon by said opening mechanism falls, the rolls e e, and beaterf, substantially as described.

3. The combination of gage-box A, gauze cylinder D, feed-rolls e e, and beater f, substantially as described.

4. The combination ot' the grasping-rolls a 3o Witnesses:

S. KI'rsoN, DAVID HALL RICE.

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