Patent GB-190319443-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to Machines for Drying Wool and other Fibrous Materials.
Inventor: MCNAUGHT WILLIAM
Filed: 1903-09-09
Granted: 1904-07-28
Abstract: 19,443. McNaught, W., and Hawkins, T. W. Sept. 9. Drying wool &c.-In an apparatus for drying wool and other fibrous material by hot air, an intermittently-rotating cylinder is provided internally with shelves or rows of prongs, so as to form pockets into which an apron, having a continuous delivering motion and a reciprocating traversing motion, deposits the material alternately in opposite directions. A hollow cylinder shown in Fig. 6, which is formed of perforated plates with unperforated end plates, is provided with a stationary internal shield q, attached to spiders loosely mounted on the shaft of the cylinder. The hot air enters the cylinder through, annular openings in the end plates. The prongs or shelves p also pass through a hot-air chamber, from which a shield 6 having an unperforated upper portion and a perforated lower portion, is continued upwards. A travelling apron y, and the cylinder, are so arranged that the latter remains stationary while one pocket is being filled, but moves on when the apron is at the end of its travel, so as to bring the next pocket into a position to be filled by the apron on its return. One method of actuating the apron is shown in Fig. 3, and consists in mounting it in a travelling frame. The frame is provided with a rack engaging a pinion, which is made to rotate in either direction, or remain stationary, according as the driving belt is on one or other of the pulleys 11, 12, 13. On the shaft of the pulley 11 is fixed a bevbl-wheel 18 engaging a bevel-wheel 16. The pulley 12 is loose. The pulley 13 is keyed on a sleeve carrying a bevel-wheel which engages the bevel-wheel 16. The shaft of the pinion 16 actuates, through spur-wheels, the shaft 21 on which is fixed a pinion engaging a rack attached to the frame. One roller, over which the apron moves, is rotated by means of a bevel-wheel 23 on its shaft, which engages a bevel-wheel 24 adapted to slide along the shaft 25, but prevented from rotating thereon by a feather. The shaft 25 may be rotated either in one direction or the other according as a clutch 26 engages a spur-wheel 28, which gears with a spur-wheel on the sleeve of the pulley 13, or a wheel 29 which gears with a spur-wheel on the shaft of the pulley 11. In another arrangement shown in Fig. 4, the pulley 11 is fixed on a shaft which carries a bevel-wheel 28 engaging a bevelwheel 26. The pulley 12 is loose, and the pulley 13 is keyed on a sleeve which carries a bevel-wheel also engaging the bevel-wheel 26. On the shaft of this wheel is fixed a pinion which engages the rack attached to the travelling frame. The shaft 25, which rotates one of the rollers over which the apron moves, is driven from a shaft 37 which is rotated by means of a two-speed gear. The shaft 37 may be rotated through a bevel-wheel which engages a small bevel-wheel 39 is fixed to the shaft of the pulley 42, or through another bevel-wheel which engages a larger bevel-wheel 45 carried by a sleeve on which is keyed a pulley 44. The pulley 43 is loose. A ratchet-wheel 47, Fig. 2, mounted on the shaft of the cylinder, is adapted to be engaged by a pawl 51, which is carried by a lever loosely mounted on the shaft of the cylinder. This lever is actuated through an arrangement of levers by an arm 57, Fig. 2<a>, attached to a pinion engaging a rack fixed to a rod 62. The rod 62 carries collars 68, Fig. 3, with which a projecting piece 70, carried by the travelling frame, comes into contact, so as to move the cylinder at the end of the travel of the apron. Gaps are provided at the alternate ends of successive shelves or rows of prongs, into which the material falls as the cylinder rotates.