US388070A - Dust-trunk for cotton-openers - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

H. O. PERI-1AM.

DUST TRUNK FOR COTTON OPENERS. No. 388,070. Patelrted Aug. 21, 1888.

Inventor.

N. PETERS, Phowum n hnr. wasnm mn. 04 C.

NITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE HAVEN C. PERHAM, OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS.

DUST-TRUNK FOR COTTON-OPENERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 388,070, dated August 21, 1888.

Application filed January 28, 1888. Serial No. 262.194.

.To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, IIAVEN O. PERHAM, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lowell, in the county of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Dust- Trunks for OottoaOpeners, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to dustt-runks for cottoncleaning, and is like the trunks in common use in having a fiber-passage through which the cotton or other fibers are drawn by a current of air from an opener or equivalent mechanism to a lapper, or from a breakeropener to a finisher-opener, the bottom of the fibei passage being a grating of paralleltransverse bars arranged at intervals above dustpockets formed by a series of transverse verti cal division-boards arranged at suitable intervals to receive loose dust, gravel, and other matters heavier than the cotton and shaken from the cotton through the grating. It is common to close the dust-pockets while the trunk is in use by an equal number of separate tightly-fitting removable bottoms to pre vent the air from being drawn up through the pockets and through the grating, and thus hindering the dust from entering the pockets, or carrying the dust already in the pockets through the grating andinto the fiber-passage, the pockets being emptied by removing the bottoms thereof separately, the bottoms, after cleaning, being separately restored to position, operations requiring considerable time and allowing the escape of dust into the room in which the dust-trunk is placed. The trunk is cleaned when not in use, so that the operation of cleaning the trunk or emptying the pockets necessitates the stopping of the opener and lapper for a considerable time.

The object of the improvement, hereinafter described, is to save time lost in emptying the pockets, and thereby to increase the amount of work done by the opening and lapping machines, and to avoid the escape of dust into the room which contains the dust-trunk, and this object is (stated in general terms) accomplished by arranging below all the dust-pock ets an inclined bottom common to all said pockets and adapted to be lowered away from said pockets, and to form with the sides of the dust-trunk an inclined chute .to receive the discharge of said pockets and allow such dis- (No model.)

charge to run down said chute and from the end thereof by its own gravity.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a transverse section an the line or y in Fig. 2, omitting the division boards or partitions between the pockets; Fig. 2, a longitudinalsection of a part of a dust-trunk constructed in accordance with my invention and a side elevation of a part of the wormshaft and the other devices for raising and lowering the bot tom of the trunk to close or open the lower ends of the pockets; Fig. 3, a side elevation of an opener arranged on one floor, a lapper arranged on the floorabove, and a dust-trunk connecting said opener and lapper.

A is an opener of any usual construction; B, a lapper of any usual construction placed in a room above the room which contains said opener; and G, a dust-trunk connecting said opener and lapper in the usual manner, ex cept that the portion of the dust-trunk which contains the dust-pockets 0 named below, is inclined throughout its length.

The dust-trunk G is provided with a cottonspace or fiber-passage, c, and with a grating, a, and with transverse division-boards 0 the spaces 0 between said division-boards, forming the dust-pockets, these parts being of substantially the usual construction, except that, whereas the fiber-passage and the grating are commonly horizontal, they are here shown as inclined. The division-boards c are preferably vertical, as usual. The top 0* of the dusttrunk is parallel with the grating c, and the the sides a c of the dust-trunk Gare vertical, but extend for some distance below the division-boards 0 In this improvement the bottom 0 of the dust-trunk is common to all the dust-pockets and is wide enough to fill the space between the sides of the dusttrunk, and fits in such a manner as to make a substantially air-tight joint between said sides and said bottom and between the lower ends of the divisionboards and said bottom, and the side edges of the bottom 0 are stiffened by ribs 0 secured to under side thereof, which ribs, by increasing the bearing of said bottom against the sides of the trunk, more perfectly prevent the admission of air to the pockets from below.

It is obvious that lowering the bottom a away from the lower edges of the stationary division-boards will draw the contents of the pockets from said pockets, or at least will allow said contents to fall, and that said contents may then be moved below the division-boards along on said bottom to the end of the same and discharge from the end thereofas, for instance, by a current of air from the exhaustfan. In order to avoid the use of such a fan or other positive mechanism designed to act directly upon the contents of the pockets, I prefer to incline the dust-trunk at a suitable anglesay of about forty degrees or moreso that when the bottom is lowered away from the division-boards the contents of the dusttrunk will be caused by their own gravity to slide to the lower end of the trunk and to be discharged therefrom into a suitable receptacle, as D, of ordinary construction, or into a passage communicating with the outer air, or with a dustroom, in a well-known manner. Obviously there are many ways of lowering the bottom c but I prefer the means shown in the drawings, consisting of a number (depending on the length of the trunk and stillness of the bottom a) of transverse shafts E, each supported and turning in a pair of hangers,e e, rigidly secured to the sides of the trunk and extending below said sides, parallel arms 6 e rigidly secured in pairs to said shafts E and pivoted at their outer ends at e e to the inner faces of the ribs 0 a worm-gear, e", secured to each of said shafts E, and a single longitudinal shaft, F, supported and turning in the hangers e and provided with worms f, which engage the worm-gears e", whereby rotating the shaft F in one direction by means of the hand-wheelf, secured thereto, or by other convenient means, will rotate all the shafts E and swing the bottom 0 endwise and downward away from the division-boards and away from the lower side 0 of the lower dustpocket, and so that turning said shaft F in the other direction will carrysaid bottom upward against all the division-boards and close the lower ends of all the dust-pockets.

The bottom 0 never falls below the lower edges of the vertical sides 0 c of the dusttrunk, and when lowered forms with said sides an inclined chute or dust-passage. It will be seen that every point of the bottom 0 in the movement above described travels in the arc of a circle, and that the arms e e are, when the dust-pockets are closed, nearly at right angles to the upper surface of the bottom 0 so that in the act of opening the pockets the contents of the pockets, consisting partly of fibers matted together, are sufficiently disturbed by the motion of said bottom (which motion is at first almost in the direction of its length) past the division-boards, to fall apart and slide down said bottom.

The time required to empty all the pockets is by the improvement above described greatly reduced, so as to be not very much more than is usually required to empty three or four pockets of the large number commonly employed in a single trunk.

I claim as my invention 1. A dust-trunk for cleaning fibers, provided with a grating and with a fiber-passage above said grating, and with dust-pockets arranged below said grating, and with a bottom common to all said pockets, normally closing the bottoms of said pockets and arranged between the sides of said dust-trunk and above the lower edges of said sides, and adapted to be lowered away from the lower ends of said pockets and to form with the sides of said trunk a dust-passage for the contents of all said pockets, as and for the purpose specified.

2. An inclined dust-trunk for cleaning fibers, provided with a grating and with a fiber-passage above said grating, and with dust-pockets arranged below said grating, and with a bottom common to all said pockets, normally closing the bottoms of said pockets and arranged between the sides of said dust-trunk above thelower edges of said sides, and adapted to be lowered away from the lower ends of said pockets to empty said pockets, and to form with said sides an inclined dust passage or chute down which the contents of said pockets may be forced by their own gravity and discharged at the lower end of said chute, as and for the purpose specified.

3. A dust-trunk for cleaning fibers, pro vided with a grating and with a fiber-passage above said grating,with dust-pockets arranged below said grating, and with a bottom common to all said pockets arranged between the sides of said trunk,i n combination-with means, substantially as described, of holding said bottom against the lower ends of said pockets, or, at will, of drawing said bottom away from the lower ends of said pockets to empty said pockets and to cause said bottom to form with the sides of said trunk a dust-passage for the contents of said pockets, as and for the purpose specified.

4. A dust-trunk for cleaning fibers, provided with a grating, with a fiber-passage above said grating, with dust-pockets arranged below said grating, and with a bottom common to all said pockets and arranged between the sides of said trunk above the lower edges of said sides, transverse shafts supported below said trunk and provided with .arms pivoted to said bottom, a worm-gear secured on each of said shafts, and a longitudinal shaft provided with worms engaging said wormgears,whereby the turning of said worm-shaft will cause said bottom to close all of said pockets, or, at will, will move said bottom away from the lower ends of said pockets, as and for the purpose specified.

In witness whereof I have this day signed this specification, in the presence of two attest ing witnesses, January 23, A. D. 1888.

HAVEN G. PERHAM.

Witnesses:

HENRY A. DAVIS, ALBERT M. MOORE.

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