IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR OPENING AND CLEANING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Olegg, of Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Cotton Dealer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR OPENING AND CLEANING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS."
Sealed the 12th March 1875, and dated the 14th September 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Olegg at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th September 1874.
I, WILLIAM CLEGG, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Cotton Dealer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR OPENING AND CLEANING COTTON AND OTHER
FIBROUS MATERIAIS," to be as follows:-
My Invention refers to those machines for opening and cleaning,
which are known as Edwards and Taft's, or to others in which, after
the same manner, the material is acted on by a revolving beater
situate within a casing, and beneath which there is a grid, through
which the extraneous matters fall.

page_text: I propose to make the above-mentioned casing air-tight or sub-
stantially so, and to form a passage therefrom leading to a fan or other
exhausting apparatus. This causes a partial vacuum beneath the grid,
which draws the dirt through it and prevents it from passing with the
cleaned material.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Clegg in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 13th March 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CLEGG, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton Dealer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Clegg, Her special license that
I, the said William Clegg, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said William Clegg, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
OPENING AND CLEANING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Clegg, 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 be 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 William Clegg, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement and accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
My Invention refers to those machines for opening and cleaning,
which are known as Edwards and Tafts, or to others in which, after
the same manner the material is submitted to the action of a revolving
beater or beaters situate within a cylinder, through which air is drawn,
and beneath which beater or beaters there is a grid, through which
extraneous matters fall; and my said Invention consists in exhausting the
air on the outside of the said grid, whereby a partial vacuum is formed,
which draws forward the dirt and prevents it from passing with the
cleaned material.
In the accompanying Drawing I have shewn a portion of a machine
constructed after the manner of that known as Edwards and Taft's
arrangement, and which will serve to illustrate the application of my
Invention.
At a is a part of the framework; at 6, the feed rollers; and at c, the
first beater, beneath which there is the grid d; at c is the second beater
situate within the cylinder f, g, the latter mentioned part of which is
the grid through which the dirt falls, and these two beaters and their
grids are situate within a casing formed by the frame a, and which
casing I make air-tight or nearly so. Extending from the said casing
is a pipe h, its lower end being open to the casing i, which contains the
fan for exhausting the interior of the cylinder f, g, as usual, the shaft
of the said fan being shewn at k; and at is the shaft of the usual
cage, which receives the cleaned material. The cotton or other fibrous
material being fed to the first beater as usual is conveyed to the second
beater throug an opening in the part of the cylinder, and is operated
upon and carried forward by the conical beater è, and delivered thereby
in any well known manner to the cage on the shaft 7, from which it is
removed by the lattice as usual, all of which are the ordinary operations,
during which, however, the revolution of the fan on the shaft k will
draw air through the pipe 7, and partially exhaust the casing a, thereby
creating a draft, which: draws the dirt away from the grids d, g, and
prevents it from being carried forward with the cleaned material.
The heavier particles fall to the bottom of the casing, and may be
removed when desired, but the lighter particles or dust are drawn through
the pipe h, and may be driven through the outlet of the fan to any

page_text: desired situation. At m is a damper, by means of which the action of
the fan upon the grids d, g, may be regulated, so that the draft may be
sufficient to draw off loosened dirt but not sufficient to overcome the
interior draft and draw off the fibrous material.
The creepers and other parts of the machine are not shewn, as
they have no connexion with the arrangement which constitutes my
Invention.
It will be understood that the pipe h is not necessarily connected to
the usual fan on the shaft k, for it will be obvious that it may lead to
a fan or other exhausting apparatus placed in any desired situation.
In thus describing my Invention I have shewn its application to to a
particular arrangement of opening and cleaning machine, but it may be
adapted to other arrangements in which a beater or beaters, or other
such revolving parts operate upon the material in conjunction with a
grid, as for instance in the case of the ordinary scutcher, or in that
machine known as Crighton's opener and others of a like character in
which a current of air is used to draw forward the cleaned material, and
can be applied to draw the dirt from the exterior of the grid.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be
understood that I claim as secured to me under the above in part recited
Letters Patent, and for the purposes above set forth, the use of a fan or
other exhausting apparatus for establishing a current of air from the
exterior of the grids of such machines as aforesaid.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Clegg, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.