USRE4312E - Improvement in machines for opening cotton - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES WILLIAM C. .IILLSON AND AMOS PATENT OFFICE.

PALMER, oF wILLIMANfrIo, ooNN.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR OPENING COTTON.

Specification .forming part of Letters Patent No. 110,368, dated December 20, 1870; Reissue yNo. 1,3 l2, dated March 28, 1871.

.had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification.

The object ofthe invention is to open or loosen up and clean the cotton without injury to the staple, and leave it in a condition to be easier worked by the aid of other subsequent machinery; and it consists in two or Inore reels or spiders provided with loose or movable whippers, and combined with two or more shells or conca-Ves, as will be fully described hereafter. These loose whippers or pivoted arms are attached on the fou-r opposite sides of the circumference of the skeleton drums or pulleys alternately, and when the skeleton drums or spiders are in rapid revolution are thrown out in radial lines by centrifugal force.

In the drawings, Figure l is a longitudinal sectional View ofthe machine; Fig. 2, an'upper plan View, with the covering hoods or bonnets removed. i

A B are sections of the skeleton drums.

a a are the cross-bars connecting the drumheads, and upon which the whippers are hung.

b b are the whippers bent at one end to form an eye, which eye is slipped over the cross-bars before the drum is pnt together.

'The dotted lines show the whippers in motion.

C C are coils of wire or washers, also slipped over the cross-bars, and which serve to rcgu' late the distance at which the whippers are to be set from each other.

F is a slot in the machine-frame through which the cotton may pass, and this may or may not be furnished with feed-rolls, as de- Sired. y

G G are the central shafts of the skeleton drums, and are journaled properly in the side of the machine frame or casing. f

E E are open screens beneath the drum.

H H are the bonnets or hood, which form the upper portion of the cylinder inclosing the whippers. 4

The operation of this machine will be readily understood. The cotton is passed in at F, and the whippers loosen or lighten it up, and in turn pass it out at D; or, if desired, it can be passed out between two rollers and over an apron. Each one of these arms being independently attached, if either of them -is clogged or filled up it does not affect the working of the others, thns,the fiber of the cotton cannot cannot possibly be torn or injured. i

XVe are aware that revolving shafts with .radial projecting arms are oldin cotton-openers; but their operation was Very imperfect for two reasons, first, because from their being rigid and unyielding they injured the staple by breaking it, and thus shortened it to such an vextent as to-largely diminish its value; and, secondly, on account of their rigidity, they -would sometimes, when they come in contact with stones or bits of iron, which are frequently found in raw cotton, set the machine on fire. These two defects, which so seriously impaired the usefulness of this class of machines, -are entirely obviated by pivoting the whippers, as the whippers will readily 'yield when they meet with an obstruction, and the strength of the blow which' is struck by the arms will be regulated by the weight and'velocity of the whippers `independently of the weight or velocity of the drum.

We are also aware that a long thin piece of metal has been loosely hung on a drum for opening cotton; but these latter are very objectionable for the reason that cotton clogging bar, and thus the staple is torn and injured; but weare not aware of any cotton-opener in which drums with loosely-pivoted whipping rods or arms are used.

Having now described the invention, what Letters Patent, is

1. In a machine for opening cotton, the combination of revolving pivoted whipper rods or arms and an inclosing shell or ease for conning the cotton while being acted upon by the whippers, all substantially as described.

2. In a'machine for opening cotton, two or pivoted whipping-rods, in combination with two or more shells or conca-ves, these parts being constructed and arranged substantially at any one point on the bar affects the entirek is claimed as new, and songhtto be secured by more reels or pulleys providedwith hinged or I as shown and described, whereby the cotton and allowing them to yield lterally, substanafter being partiallyopened by the first set of tially as set forth.

Whippers shall be fed to the second set of Whip- ,v

pers by the action of the first, substantially as A 'BJIR set forth.

3. In combination with the whpperI yrods Vitncsses:

and reel bars, constructed as shown, the elas-y ALLEN LINCOLN,

tio sleeves for separating the whipper-rods L. W. SPENCER.

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