USRE262E - Improvement in cotton-gins - Google Patents

Description

.; UNITED STATES PATENT OFF CE.

FONES MCCARTHY, OF'PUTNAM C UN Y, FLORIDA.

IMPROVEMENT IN COTTON-G-INS.

- Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 1,675, dated July 3, 1846; Reissue No. 26), dated April 18, 185-1.

To all whom itmay concern: and'other impurities to drop through. The Be it known that I, FONES MCCARTHY, forback of the hopper is formed by a breast, merly of Demopolis, in the county of Marenplate, M, and the ends B by boards, plates, 01' go and State of Alabama, now residing in Putthe projecting ends of two of the upper pieces 11am county, near Orange Springs, in the, of the frame. The breast-plate M, which, as .county of Marion and State of Florida, have before stated, forms the back of the hopper, invented certain new and useful Improvements is attached by screws 11. and clamp-plates 'v to in Cotton-Grins, of which the following is a across-bar, m, of the frame. The screws'pass' full, clear, and exact description, reference through vertical slots in the plate, which 21- being had to the accompanying drawings of low it to be adjustednp or down to set its the same, which make part of this specifica-. lower edge at a greater or less distance from .tion, and in whichthe surface .of a drawing-roll, for a purpose Figure '1 represents aview in perspective which will be hereinafter'described.- Parallel 'of a cotton gin embracing my improve ments. with the breast-plate M, but in alower posi- Fig. 2 repesents a vertical section of the same. tio'n, another plate, which I call the strip- Fig. 3 represents a view of the drawing-cylping-plate O, is secured to a stock having a inder detached. .Fig. trepresen'ts' a view. of reciprocating motion in a plane parallel to g the dofling-comb detached ,2 and Fig. 5 reprethe front side of the breast-plate. The stripsents a sectional view, upon an enlarged scale, ping-plate is attached to its stock by screws of those parts ,pf the machine which efl'ect the or otherwise at the' height required for ginseparation of the fiber and seeds. ning cotton of the length and strength of sta- By means of my improved gin cotton with ple it is intended to operate "on, so that the astapleof considerablygreateraveragelength upper edge of the stripping-plate will overand value is produced from any given quanlap the lower'edge of the breast-plate,swhen -tity of cotton than can be produced by any it is at the upper extremity of its stroke, .a other gin before known. In my gin the fibers distance corresponding to the length and 'teare separated from the seed by drawing them nacity of the fiber. The stripping-plate is .by friction against a rough moving surface also adjustable transversely by moving that through aslot which rapidly-expands and portion of the stock to which it is attached, contracts in width; When opened tothewhich for this purpose. is connected to the greatest width the 'slot is wide enough to perlower or main part'of the stock by screwmit the free entrance ofi both fiber and seeds; bolts 8, the adjustable piece having transverse 1 but preparatory toopening wide, one side ofslots, which are of a. length equal to. the 'greatthe slot is caused to overlap the other tostrip est lateral movement it is ever required to the seeds from the fiber and thrust them away, give to thestripping-plate for the purpose of so that they may not enter the slot while itadjustment. The stripping-plate should not expands to admit the fiber, and before it again beset so near the breast-plate that their edges contracts-to strip and push off the seeds. In in passing would cut the fiber like shears, and, this way the fiber .is. rapidly and completely on the other hand, care must be taken not to separated from the seeds and deposited by itset the stripping-plate so that it will passthe self onthe opposite side of the slot, whence. breastplate attoo great a distance, lest cotit was taken. ton-seeds'should pass between them without The machine consists of a strong frame, A, being detached from thefiber and pushed back, to support the working parts. These consist, the object being to draw the fiber through a principally; of a hopper to receive the seed or narrow slot or space between these plates, unginned cotton and feed it as required to from which the seeds are excluded, and thus that part of the mechanism which separates separate the two. The upper edge of the the seeds from the fibers. The 'bottom B of stripping-plate works best when straight, althis hopper resembles a comb, with the teeth though during some-of my early experiments a slightly declining from the horizontal toward on specimens of partially-cleaned cotton for the points. The spaces between the teeth are warehouses, I was led to replace the straight. wide enough for the seeds of the cotton, motes, by a serrated edge, which works remarkably suitable prime mover,

' sufficient to carry the ends well, but not quite-as well as the straight edge. When astripping-plate with a serrated edge is used, it works much the best by combining it with another plate having a straight edge,

the two being clamped together in suchmanner that the serrated edge will be at the same height with the smooth edge. Thereciproeating movement is given to the stripping-' plate by connecting the stock D, which runs in suitable guides in the frame, or is governed in its motion by radius-bars by means of linkrodsJi with cranks K on a shaft, I, beneath which is turned by motion derived from any and being in this instance made the main driving-shaft of the gin it transmits motion to the other parts of the machine'fromsuitable pulleys which it carries.

The means employed for drawing the fiber I through the contracting and expanding slot or opening between the breast and stripping .plates is the surface of a revolving roll or cylinder, roughened by aicovering of strips of leather wound round it spirally in such manner that the joint between the adjacent turns -of the spiral strips shall form a groove to receive small particles of hard substances that occasionally pass with the fiber of the cotton. throughjthe slot. The periphery of the roll is arranged in such a position that the plane in which the breast-plate stands shall coincide with the tangent of its front side, so that by moving the breast-plate downward its lower edge may be made to bear upon the roll, and by moving it up again the edge of the platemay be adjusted at any required distance from the roll. The rough leather surface of the roll as it turns in. the direction indicated by the arrow seizes the fibers of the cotton that come in contact with it',when the stripper descends to expandthe lot, and the friction is of the fiber beneath the edge of the breast-plate, which, pressing the fiber firmly against the roll, the former adheres to the latter so firmly that it is carried forward with force sufficient to resist the action of the stripper in pushing off the seed. The velocity with which the drawing-roll revolves should be such that while the stripping-plate moves up and down once the surface of the roll will move a distance rather less than that which the upper edge of thestripping-plate overlaps the lower edge of the breast-plate, in order that there may at all times be rather more fiber stripped of its seed than can be drawn through the opening by the roll whilethe slot is expanded. This prevents the seeds from being drawn into the 'opening'and crushed, or otherwise obstructing the work. In case the fiber is very long and strong,the speed of the drawing-roll may be increased beyond the 'rate I have mentioned relative to the overlapping of the stripper. The drawing-roll N derives its motion from the crank-shaft I by the belt I, which encircles pulleys on the crank and drawingroll shafts, as represented in the drawings. After the fiber has been drawn out from the seed by the roll it may be brushed off anddischarged in a flocculentinass into a proper re= ceptacle; or it may be taken up by asupplementary pair of suitable rolls, and doffed in rovings like wool from a carding-machine. By delivering the fiber in thelast-named form its appearance is much improved without, however, enhancing its intrinsic valve. There fore, although "I have constructed this supple-t mentary apparatus, and represented it in the drawings, 1 do not propose to use it, as'the gin, assuch, is complete without it. Ihave sometimes used a small roll, B, arranged to run upon the drawing-roll, and pressing by its own weight upon the fiber to increase its adhesion to the leather; but as this roll is not found necessary Ishall omit any detailed -de scription of it.

I do not deem it necessary to describe the supplementary apparatus for delivering the cotton iri" rovings, further than to say that at consists of a receivingroll, '8, round which the cotton winds pressing roll, w,- adofling comb, w, 'todetach "the cotton in rovings from the receivingaoll s,which derives averticalreciprocating'motion from a crank-shaft, a, through link-rods -b, and simultaneously therewith ahorizontal reciprocating motion, to bring the comb at proper intervals into. contact with the receivingqoll s, to dofl' thefi-ber therefrom by means-ofla cam,

h, to hold the comb for a-certainperiodoffthe roll, and-then permit it at the proper time to approach the same; a spring, a, to :force the comb toward the roll the instant the 0am releases it, the stock a of the comb being eonnected to the cam-and spring by the -link-rods c and sliding'stook f'g. This cam is revolved by motion derived, through the rpulleyfl and belt g, from a' pulley on the shaft of 'the'draw-. ing-roll N. The'crank-shaft c derives motion from the main crank-shaft T through the belt d, which encircles suitable pulleys mounted 'on the two shafts; D

The operation of this machine without the apparatus for forming thecotton into'rovings is as follows: Motion beinggiven to t-hecrankshaft, and a quantity of cotton in the seed 'being placed in the hopper, the declination of the bottom of which tends to cause the cotton to bear against the breast-plate, so that when the stripping-plate descends the fibers lie against the surface of the roll, and are drawn beneath the edge of the breast-plate. As the strippingplate rises again it meets the fiber crossing through to the drawingroll, and, raising it up, bends it over the edge andagainst the side of the breast-plate, strippingofi' and pushing back the seeds adistanceequal to that which the stripper overlaps=the breast-plate. When the plate descends, the portion of the fiber that has just been freed from seeds is drawn by the roll through the opening and under the breastplate, presenting another length ready to be cleaned of seeds 'by the stripping-plate, as before. As the friction between the fibers and the leather surface of the drawing-'rollis suffion leaving the drawing-roll; a I

cient to resist the force required for detaching the seed from the fiber, the seed is stripped off with great rapidity and certainty. \Vhen the seeds are stripped off they fall down between the bars of the bottom of the hopper, or through the space between the stripping-plate and the ends of the bars of the bottom. The cotton drawn out of the hopper by the roll N is discharged behind in a continuous sheet upon an inclined apron, Y, which conducts it to any convenient receptacle. Sometimes a brush is placed behind the drawing-roll to scrape off or detach from-the leatherany adherent fiber; but this or any other of the devices in common use for detaching fiber from a roller may be employed at the option of the constructor of the machine.

In case gravel or a piece of hard wood or metal should chance to get between. the lower edge of the breast-plate and the drawing-roll,

it is prevented from forming a crease round the leather that might permanently injure it,

and is itself discharged by dropping into one of the spiral channels between the strips of leather with which the roll is wound. When the roll turns over, the piece thus caught in the channel is discharged into the space heneath the roll among the motes and other impurities detached from the cotton during the operation.

Having thus described my improved cottongin, what I claim, therein as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination of a stripping-plate, breastplate, and drawing-r011, substantially as herein set forth. I

FONES MCCARTHY. Witnesses:

P. H. W'AtrsoN P. HANNAY.

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