IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TREATING COTTON SEEDS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to François Autoine Edmond Guironnet de Massas, of
Hoxton in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TREATING COTTON SEEDS."
Sealed the 4th November 1864, and dated the 15th June 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said François Antoine
Edmond Guironnet de Massas at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th June 1864.
I, FRANÇOIS ANTOINE EDMOND GUIRONNET DE MASSAS, of Hoxton, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TREATING COTTON SEEDS,"
to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to treat cotton seeds, in order to separate
them from each other when compressed in bales or otherwise, also to separate
the cotton or fibrous material from the seed, and to cleanse the seed from the
cotton fibre and down adhering thereto which is prejudicial to the obtaining of
the oil and oil cakes.
I separate the seeds from each other by beaters working in a cylinder lined
with wire gauze or punched iron. I separate the cotton and cleanse the seed
by a stationary inclined cylinder fitted with sheets or plates of steel or other
metal, formed with a very rough rasping or grating surface, or with strong or
coarse projections, asperities, or corrugations, beyond this surface are strong
Price 8d1

page_text: cards like those of carding engines, a drum revolves within the casing to
conduct the seed along it. Beyond it on the same or on another axis revolve
brushes which may be of a single hard substance, or partly of metallic and
partly of vegetable material. On the drum are projections or flanges of a
comb form to detach the cotton from the casing. The seed is projected by
the revolving appliances against the steel plates and subjected to friction, and
it is pressed by the brushes against the steel plates and against the cards. The
cards and their brushes may be in a separate machine.
The revolving drum may sometimes be dispensed with; a fan may be com
bined with the machinery.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said François Antoine Edmond Guironnet de Massas in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th December 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANCOIS
ANTOINE EDMOND GUIRONNET DE MASSAS, of Hoxton, in the County of Middle-
sex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Francois Antoine Edmond Guironnet de Massas, Her special licence
that I, the said Francois Antoine Edmond Guironnet de Massas, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Francois
Antoine Edmond Guironnet de Massas, 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 TREATING COTTON SEEDS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Francois Antoine Edmond Gui-
ronnet de Massas, my executors, or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Francois Antoine Edmond Guironnet
de Massas do hereby declare the nature of iny said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say :--
The object of my Invention is to treat cotton seeds, in order to separate
them from each other after having been compressed in bales or otherwise, and
to separate the cotton or fibrous material from the seeds and to cleanse the
seeds.
My Invention consists in the combination of machinery hereafter described
and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
Figure is a longitudinal section, and Figure 2 a transverse section of
the machine I employ to separate the seeds from each other.
A, A, is a cylinder of iron punched with numerous holes from the outside
so that the jagged edges of the holes may be on the inner surface of the
cylinder. This cylinder is set at an incline to facilitate the passage of the
seed through it; B, B, is a beater composed of longitudinal metal plates fixed
to arms which connect them to a central shaft; this beater receives rapid
rotary motion within the cylinder A; C is a hopper by which the seeds to be
separated are supplied to the cylinder A; on entering the cylinder they are
immediately dashed by the revolving beater B against the rough inner surface
of the cylinder A, and by the time they reach the opposite end of the cylinder
they have been completely separated from each other and.fall down a channel
1 into any convenient receptacle.
Figure 3 is a longitudinal section, and Figure 4 a transverse section of a
machine for separating or partially separating the cotton from the seeds. A
is a cylinder or casing set at a slight inclination and composed partly of
metallic cards a similar to those used in carding engines, and partly of
per-
forated metal plates b; B is a hollow perforated cylinder carrying on its outer
circumference combs c arranged spirally. The cylinder Bis caused to revolve
rapidly within the cylinder A, and cotton seeds from a hopper Center between
the cylinders, and by being rubbed between them the fibre is torn from the
seeds proper; the fibre and seeds issue from the other end of the cylinders,
and may be allowed to fall down a channel D into any convenient receptacle.
Figure 5 is a longitudinal section, and Figure 6 is a transverse section of a
machine for separating the cotton from the seeds at one operation. A is a
cylinder, set at a slight inclination and formed partly of or lined partly
with metallic cards a, and partly of perforated metal plates b, the holes of
which have been punched from the outside, so as to leave the jagged or

page_text: rough edges on the inner circumference of the cylinder; B, B, are brushes
connected by bolts or otherwise to metal holders c on the ends of arms d
radiating from a central shafte; the outer ends of the arms d are slotted as
shewn, in order that the distance of the holders and consequently of the
brushes from the shaft c may be regulated as required. I form the brushes of
a mixture of metal wires and vegetable fibres, by preference, the roots of the
rice plant or of couch grass. The cotton seeds are fed into the cylinder A
from a hopper C; the cotton fibre becomes completely separated from the
seeds by the action of the brushes, and the rough inner circumference of the
cylinder; they travel gradually to the further end of the cylinder where the
seeds fall into a shoot placed below, while the fibre is forced by the action of
a fan D into a convenient receptacle above or at the side of the machine.
And having now described the nature of my said Inventien, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not claim any of the
parts of machinery herein-before described when taken separately, nor do I
claim the machinery shewn at Figures 1 and 2, but I claim,-
First, the improved machinery for treating cotton seeds consisting of a
cylinder with combs arranged spirally thereon made to revolve within an outer
cylinder as herein-before described with reference to Figures 3 and 4 of the
accompanying Drawings.
And, second, the improved machinery for treating cotton seeds consisting
of the combination of brushes revolving within a cylinder, the inner surface of
which is composed partly of or lined with cards, and partly of or lined with
plates jagged on the inside, all substantially in manner herein-before described
and represented at Figures 5 and 6 of the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Francois Antoine Edmond Guironnet de
Massas, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of
December, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
F. A. E. G. DE MASSAS. (L.S.)