IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CLEANING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
FOR CLEANING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES."-A communication
from abroad by Isaac Hayden, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, United
States of America.
Sealed the 5th July 1861, and dated the 18th April 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th April 1861.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
FOR CLEANING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
The chief object of this Invention is more effectually to open and clean
cotton and other fibrous substances than heretofore, and to prevent the waste
of fibre which occurs with the ordinary opening and picking machines. To
attain these advantages, instead of fitting the trunks into which the opened
fibres are blown with wooden bars or perforated metal plates through which
the dust from the fibres passes a reticulated screen or net of woven wire or
twine is provided, such screen being made with meshes so small that the staple,

page_text: long enough to be of any value in making yarn, will reach across two of said
meshes or openings, and therefore remain above the screen, while that portion
or some of that portion of the fibre which is too short to reach across two of
the meshes or openings will fall through the screen with the fine sand, dirt,
dust, and refuse matter; and in order to break the blast or current of air under
the screen so effectually that it will not carry much of the fine sand, dirt, dust,
and short fibre up back again through the screen (to be thence carried out of
the trunk with the cotton), the vertical partitions heretofore placed across the
trunk under the screen to effect this object are now to be brought so near
together as to retain what refuse passes through the screen, or most of it, in
the small cells formed under the screen. The screens it is preferred to weave
of smooth wire, and to coat the same with varnish or metal to prevent the
fibres of cotton or other substances from catching in the crossings of the warp
and weft. In carding, drawing, roving, and spinning most cotton there is a
great deal of staple so short that it flies off or falls from the longer staple in
the processes mentioned, so that it has to be frequently gathered up or wiped
from the machinery to prevent it from obstructing its proper operation, but by
blowing cotton through the trunk over the woven screen a large portion of
the fibre that is too short to reach across two of the meshes falls through the
screen, and is separated from the useful fibre.
It is further proposed in carrying out the object of this Invention to connect
two or more opening machines or a series of such machines together by means
of trunks (provided with woven wire or twine screens, and with cells below
the screens, as described,) so as to make each machine supply or feed the
next machine to it through the trunk that connects the two machines or any
two machines in the series, and thus clean the cotton more thoroughly, as
herein described. Also, when necessary to economize the room in a manu-
factory, it is proposed to bend or curve the trunk or trunks that connect the
machines for cleaning cotton and other fibrous substances, & thus to carry
one part of the trunk over or under or by the side of the other part of the
trunk, whereby a greater length of trunk and a 'greater area of screening
surface is obtained than could otherwise be secured in a room of a given size.
These trunks at their point of communication with the wire cylinders of their
respective pickers or lappers are enlarged to enable the staple as it deposits
to cover a large area of such cylinders, and thereby to form an even fleece.
In combination with the enlarged trunks and rotating wire cylinders a suction
fan is used to assist in the operation of forming even fleece upon the wire
cylinders.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 18th October 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred Vincent
Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
.use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
:MENTS IN MACHINERY, OR APPARATUS FOR CLEANING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES," being a communication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to bo
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
The cleaning and opening of cotton has long been effected by machines
consisting of an endless band carried by two rotating cylinders, and arranged
to supply the cotton to a pair of fluted rollers, which rollers feed the cotton to
a beater or scutcher, made to turn with a great velocity, to open the cotton,
and blow it into a trunk about three feet wide and one foot deep, and from
twenty to sixty or one hundred feet in length, which trunk was divided near
the middle horizontally by a grate of wooden bars, about three-quarters of an
inch in diameter, placed crosswise, and about one-quarter of an inch apart!

page_text: The cotton while being opened was blown over this grating by the blast of
the scutcher, and to check the blast under the grating there were vertical
partitions placed crosswise about four feet apart. This grating was found to
be very defective, for the following reasons (to wit) the spaces between the
bars being about three feet long, and one-quarter inch wide the long staple of
the cotton would pass through them with the short in locks of considerable
size, so that much good cotton left the machine as waste.
A still greater
defect was the imperfection of the draft of air, as sometimes the partitions
under the bars were so far apart that the blast under the grating often became
as strong as it was above the grating, so that much of the fine sand, dirt, dust,
and refuse matter that should have passed down through the grating was
carried forward out of the trunk with the cotton, and although the cotton was
opened, and the fine sand, dirt, dust, and refuse matter released, so as to be
readily separated from the cotton, this grating of wooden bars failed to effect
the separation of the extraneous matters, as they did not remain in the trunk
in any considerable quantity, but were carried out by the blast mixed up with
the cotton. In substitution of the bars a perforated metal plate was tried,
that is, sheet zinc was perforated with holes about one-half an inch wide, and
about two inches long, with partitions placed vertically crosswise under the
perforated zinc, about four feet apart. This proved no better than the grate
of wooden bars, as the area of the surface occupied by the zinc plate (as well
as in the case of the wooden bars,) was three times or more larger than the
perforations or openings in the same. Another cause was that the openings
were too large, that is, they were much longer than the length of the staple of
cotton, and thus allowed much of the valuable staple to fall through. The
third cause of its failure was that the partitions were so far apart that they
did not arrest the current of air under the grate or perforated metal, so as to
retain the refuse matters that passed down, and prevent them from being
carried up back again and out of the trunk with the cotton.
Now the object of the first part of the present improvements is to remedy
the defects above mentioned by using, instead of the wooden bars or perforated
metal plate, a reticulated screen or net of woven wire or twine with meshes
so small that the staple long enough to be of any value in making yarn will
reach across two of such meshes or openings, and therefore remain above the
screen, while that portion, or some of that portion of the fibre which is too
short to reach across two of the meshes or openings will fall through the
screen with the fine sand, dirt, dust, and refuse matter contained in the staple.
And in order to break the blast or current of air under the screen so
effectually that it will not carry much of the fine sand, dirt, dust, and short

page_text: fibre up back again through the screen (to be thence carried out of the trunk
with the cotton) the vertical partitions heretofore placed across the trunk
under the screen to effect this object are now to be brought so near together
as to retain the refuse that passes through the screen, or most of it in the
small cells formed under the screen. One very important advantage gained
by the use of the wire screen is, that the wire occupies less than one-fourth
of the area covered by the screen, therefore leaving more than three-fourths
of the area in open meshes or spaces between the wires. Thus the dirt, dust,
and refuse matter has three times as much area or open space in the screen
of woven wire to fall through and be separated from the cotton as it bad when
blown over the grate of the wooden bars or the perforatod zinc plate, and
consequently there is as much dirt, dust, &c., separated or screened from the
cotton in passing one foot over the screen as there would be in passing over
four or more feet of the grate of bars or perforated zine.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 is a plan or top view of a trunk
constructed according to this Invention, a portion of the top of the trunk
being broken away to show the screen; Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation through
the line A, B, of Fig. 1 with the top shewn in its place; Fig. 3 is an
elevation of a machine like those in common use for picking cotton; Fig. 4
is a cross section of a trunk with the wire screen on a scale of one-and-a-half
inches to the foot; Fig. 5 is a portion of a screen drawn full size.
E
In the above Drawings, a strong frame C is represented provided with a
beater or scutcher arranged to turn in proper boxes mounted on the same,
which beater is covered by a semicircular case D on the top, the ends of
which case may have openings near the centres to admit air to the beater.
is a case under the beater, as shown by the dotted line extending to the end
of the trunk which conveys the cotton away from the machine. To supply
the cotton to the beater the frame F is connected to the frame C, C, as shewn
in Fig. 3, and provided with two cylindrical rollers, one of which is shewn at
G, which rollers carry an endless band or apron on which the cotton is spread,
and as the top of this apron moves forward towards the feed rollers H, these
rollers take it up and deliver it to the beater, which knocks or beats it into
small locks as the beater is turned rapidly in the direction indicated by the
arrow, and blows or delivers the locks of cotton into the trunk attached to the
rear of the machine.
There is an open space between the rollers H and the end of the bottom
case E through which space the heavy seeds are knocked when struck by the
beater and separated from the cotton, and the air also rushes or is drawn in
through this open space, and is blown or forced by the beater through the

page_text: trunk carrying the cotton with it. The beater may be turned by a pulley and
band, and the rollers G and H by gearing and float boards may be applied to
the arms of the beater to increase the blast through the trunk if necessary.
As the feeding apron, rollers, and beaters are all well known, and have long
been used, a further description of these parts will be unnecessary.
The improved trunk connected to the rear of the machine consists of two
sides a, a, which may be placed about thirty inches apart, or the width may
be varied at pleasure to suit any beater or scutcher; the sides are connected
together by partitions c, c, placed about five inches apart, and made to extend
from the lower edge of the sides of the trunk up to the middle or to the wire
net. The bottom of this trunk is closed by small doors ff, so that the par-
titions with their bottoms form a series of small cells or compartments d, d, in
the lower half of the trunk, which cells are covered by a screen 6 of woven
wire or twine extending across the trunk from side to side, and supported by
the tops of the partitions c, c. The screen b may be secured to the sides a, a,
by cleats e¹, e¹, (Fig. 4) so as to hold it in place on the tops of the partitions.
The upper edges of the sides a, a, are provided with a rebate j, j, to receive
the edges of the top h, h, which may be made in sections so as to be easily
and readily removed and replaced, and it is held down by the buttons i, i..
These trunks have been found in practice to work well when the height of the
space above the screen was six inches and the cells six inches deep under the
screen, the wire used being about number eighteen or twenty, woven so as to
make from twenty-five or thirty meshes or openings in a square inch of
surface. These screens should be made of smooth wire, and to prevent the
fibres of cotton or other substances from catching in the crossings of the warp
and weft the indents of the wire are filled with a varnish made by dissolving
gum shellae in alcohol, and applied with a brush upon one or both sides of the
woven wire; if only one side of the net is to be varnished then the top side
should be varnished.
The wire should be placed in a horizontal position when it is varnished, and
allowed to remain in that position until it is dry; it should be brushed cross-
wise in applying the first coat of varnish, and when that is dry the second coat
should be applied by brushing it lengthwise so as to fill the scores in each
direction. There are some other kinds of varnish that will answer the purpose
to fill the scores and prevent the cotton or substance blown over the screen
from catching between the crossing wires, but shellac is preferred as the most
convenient. The wire net may be also dipped in any metal or alloy of metals
for the same purpose; the mode is not essential, but in some proper manner
the fibres must be prevented from catching in the crossings of the wire. The

page_text: rear end of the trunk may be arranged to deliver the cotton into a room
provided with sercens to retain it and let the air escape, or it may be so
arranged as to deliver the cotton to a rotary screen, as described more fully in
the second part of the Invention.
In carding, drawing, roving, and spinning most cotton there is a great deal
of staple so short that it flies off or falls from the longer staple in the processes
mentioned, so that it has to be frequently gathered up or wiped from the
machinery to prevent it from obstructing its proper operation, but it has been
found that in blowing cotton through the trunk over the woven screen a largo
portion of the fibre that is too short to reach across two of the meshes falls
through the screen, and remains below with the waste to be removed therewith
while the fibre that is long enough to reach across more than two meshes is
blown through the trunk over the screen. The improvements therefore effect
what has never been done before, nor perhaps ever attempted, viz., the
separation of the short fibres of cotton from the long prior to the carding
operation. This will be readily acknowledged as a great advantage from its
saving a great deal of labor in the subsequent processes. The woven screen
also separates so large a proportion of the fine dust and dirt from the cotton
that there is far less in the carding room than there would be if if wooden rods
or bars or perforated zinc were used. And further, since the wire screen has
been in use it is found that it separates so much more of the dirt and sand
from the cotton than anything previously used, that the cards will run nearly
twice as long without grinding, and that fully one-third of the labor of grinding
the cards is saved with the expense of grinding materials, and also one-third
of the wear and tear of the card clothing. Lastly, goods made from cotton
cleaned with the improved screen and cells present an appearance so much
superior to others as to increase their value from five to eight per cent., and
at the same time the cotton is worked with far less loss in waste than here-
tofore, so that it enables tlie manufacturer to make goods of a given quality
out of a far cheaper and inferior quality of raw material than he could do
without these improvements.
The second part of the Invention consists in an improved arrangement and
succession of machines and trunks for cleaning cotton.
In Fig. 6 seven treating or picking machines numbered from 1 to 7 aro
shewn connected by bent or curved trunks, so that the cotton fed to the first
machine passes through each trunk and machine of the series in succession.
Either a greater or less number of machines may be used in the series, as
desired.
The trunks connecting the machines together are provided with woven wire

page_text: or twine screens, and with cells below the screens, and the feed to the several
machines is obtained from the machine preceding it, the first machine in the
series being supplied from an opener.
Also, when necessary to economize the room in a manufactory it is proposed
to bend or curve the trunk or trunks that connect the machines for cleaning
cotton and other fibrous substances so as to carry one part of the trunk over
or under or by the side of the other part of the trunk, whereby a greater
length of trunk and a greater area of screening surface will be obtained
than could otherwise be secured in a room of a given size.
a, a, (Fig. 6) are the two end walls of the picker house, including the dust
room, of any desired dimensions; c, c, are floors of the first, second, and third
stories; b, b, are brick walls extending across the building for partitioning off
the dust rooms.
In these dust rooms are wire gauze rooms a, a, of wire
about number twenty or twenty-two and twenty-four or thirty squares or
openings per square inch, for retaining the particles of cotton which escape
from the revolving wire cylinders through the fan dust boxes, as herein after
described, while the wind and dust only pass off through the exit passage y, y.
The cotton is taken from the bales, and enough is put on the scales situate in
rear of the opener on the third floor of the building to balance a certain
number of ounces. The cotton thus weighed is taken out of the scales and
spread on a certain number of square feet of surface; on this endless revolving
apron d of the opener, which surface is moved forward towards the feed rolls e,
the cotton is passed by the feed rolls to the thirty-inch beater f, which
revolving about six hundred and forty times per minute, or more, beats and
throws the cotton on to the revolving iron cylinder G, which forms a fleece
and passes it under the fluted iron roller m to the fluted feed rolls h, the
surfaces of which revolve together taking the fleece between them, delivers it
to a fan beater i, which opens it into fine flakes, and blows it in and through
the trunk j,j, over the iron netting k, k, and air chambers or dust boxes t, t,
down to the floor or to the next revolving iron cylinder in the picker Number 1,
whero the area of the trunk j, j, is enlarged, so that the cotton may fall upon
a large area of the revolving wire cylinder 7, 1, or metal cylinder perforated
with holes. The cotton is then subjected to precisely similar operations by
passing it through a series of any desired number of trunks and pickers
precisely like those already described until it arrives at the lapper. In
Fig. 6 a series of six pickers is represented, but the number may be either
increased or diminished, as may be desired. The cotton, also, instead of being
passed to a lapper may be delivered directly into a gauze room. Under the
wire cylinder is placed a suction fan v in picker Number 1, which takes the

page_text: In
dust and smut from the cotton through the revolving wire cylinder 1, 1, and
blows it into the wire ganze rooms x, x, through troughs w,, w', leading
from the several storeys, from which it passes to the open air. The fan also
assists the fan beater i in the opener in making a uniform current of air to
and through the trunks, j, and over the screen and through the revolving
wire cylinder or screen 7, and aids in forming a uniform fleece of cotton.
each picker the cotton passes under an iron roller m, which compresses it on
the cylinder 1, which passes it to the rotating weighted wood rolls O, O; these
take up the fleece and deliver it to the fluted feed rolls p, p, which in their
turn deliver the cotton to the fan beater i, i; by this beater the cotton is
opened into finer flakes, so that more leaf, sand, dirt, liut, and other refuse
matter can escape through the wire netting k, k, into the dust boxes or air
chambers t, t. The current of air passes over the netting k, k, and leaves tho
collected refuse undisturbed. To remove this refuse doors on the lower side
of the trunk are opened. The fan beater i and suction fan v cause the forward
traverse of these fibres of cotton which are long enough to reach over two
meshes of the iron screen k through the trunks and revolving screen in the
picker. As the cotton turns over as it falls from the upper to the lower
trunks by this arrangement it is cleaned more perfectly before reaching the
revolving wire cylinder 1, 1, and so on through the whole series until it arrives
at the condensing rolls r, r, on the lapper, which rolls revolving together
condense the cotton and deliver it to the lap head s, where it is wound on to a
roll in the usual manner.
The foregoing description applies to an arrangement of pickers and trunks
adapted for a building of three storeys in which the cotton is taken in at the
upper story and passed through a continuous succession of pickers and trunks
down to the first story where it is formed into a lap ready for the carding
engine, but it will be evident that an arrangement of a succesion of pickers and
trunks in a straight line can easily be made, as shewn in Fig. 7, where the
trunks are represented as straight instead of curved. From these examples it
will be obvious that the arrangement of the pickers, and the form of the trunks,
can be varied to suit the shape and size of any manufactory, and the practical
convenience of working and cleaning the cotton, and they may be placed
in one or more rooms or in one or more storeys of the same building as is
most convenient.
The woven screen should be made of smooth wire about number twenty, so
woven as to make about twenty-five or thirty openings to the square inch, and
varnished as before described, to prevent the fibres of cotton from catching and
banging between the warp and weft wires.

page_text: It will be evident that spiked cylinders may be used instead of beaters or
scutchers, and that the speed at which either of them are turned may be varied
from that heretofore stated; also that perforated sheet metal may be used to
form the rotating screens or cylinders instead of the woven wire.
The widths of these machines may be varied to suit the width of the cards
which are to card the cotton.
One important feature of the second part of this Invention is that by it the
cotton is thoroughly cleaned with a diminished amount of beating. For when
only a single picker machine is used to open and beat the cotton, and it
is driven through one long trunk, the tendency of the fibres as they pass through
the trunk is to become aggregated into small flakes or irregular masses, which
of themselves prevent the dirt from sifting out; to obviate this the Inventor
shortens the trunks and by passing the cotton through a second picker opens
it again and again blows it in an open and loose state through the next trunk,
and so on through the entire series. In this way the cotton is kept loose and
open, and is all the while exposed to the shaking and sifting process in the
trunks, which effectually shakes out the dirt and short fibres of the cotton, and
dispenses with the injurious effect of the powerful beating to which it is
usually subjected by substituting several beaters or scutchers which act
with less violence on the cotton. It will be noticed also that this arrange-
ment when desired di-penses with the gauze room as it is caller', into which
the cotton was formerly blown from the trunk, condensing and lap rolls
being used on the last machine whereby the cotton is delivered in a lap
ready for the carding engine.
It will be noticed in the accompanying Drawing that as each section of
the trunks connects with the next rotating screen in the series its width is
enlarged to about four times to make it conform to the surface of the rota-
ting cylinder. The object of this enlargement is as follows:-The current of
the air passing through the trunk is partially diminished while the fan v,
below the rotating screen sucks the air through the screen and deposits the
cotton in an even fleece on the surface of the screen, which in its revolution
passes it to the fluted rolls above described, whereby it is conveyed to the next
beater or scutcher in the series.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "Improvements in
Machinery or Apparatus for Cleaning Cotton and other Fibrous Materials," as
communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, and explained the manner
of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the
above in part recited Letters Patent I do not claim the machines called
beaters or sentchers, as they are old, but what I do claim is,-

page_text: First, constructing the trunks or dust separators of cotton-cleaning machi-
nery in the manner above described.
Secondly, arranging opening and picking machines in a series connected
together by trunks constructed and operating substantially as described, where-
by the cotton or other fibre brought under operation is more thoroughly
cleaned and subjected to less violence and injury than by the means bere-
tofore employed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Eighteenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFatt,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)