Improvements in Feed Regulators for Cotton Openers and other Engines or Machines for Working Cotton and other Fibrous Materials.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 5th Mar., 1889
Specification Accepted, 6th Apr., 1889
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Feed Regulators for Cotton Openers and other
Engines or Machines for Working Cotton and other Fibrous
Materials.
I, BENJAMIN WILLCOX of 47 Lincolns Inn Fields in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent do hereby declare the nature of this Invention which has been com-
municated to me from Abroad by James Charles Potter a resident of Pawtucket in.
the State of Rhode Island in the United States of America and in what manner the
same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
"mechanism
This Invention has particular relation to that portion of the "evening
of Cotton Openers and like machines known as the "scale lever system" generally
used for the purpose of transmitting the movement of the evener plate or other
evening devices over or under which the fibrous material passes on its way through
the machine to the shipper which controls the cone drum belt.
The characteristic feature of the invention is that the levers (or their equivalents
as hereinafter mentioned) which compose the scale lever system are suspended, those
below from those next above. This suspended system will hang in a vertical or
approximately vertical plane without the aid of any lateral supports. The labour of
fitting together the various parts of the system is materially reduced; there is less
liability of its getting out of order; and it is sensitive and quick to respond to the
slightest movement of the evener plates.
In the accompanying drawings
Figure 1 is a side elevation of so much of a cotton opener as is needed to illustrate
the Invention portions of the frame being broken away in order to more clearly
shew the working parts.
Figure 2 is a sectional view partly in elevation of the feed and evener rolls, plates
and levers together with some parts of the machine immediately adjacent thereto.
Figure 3 is a front elevation of the scale lever system in connection with one form
of mechanism for transmitting the movement of the system to the cone drum belt
shipper.

page_text: The remaining figures represent modifications which will be hereinafter more
particularly referred to.
A is the frame of the machine. B is a combined evener and feed roll supported in
fixed bearings. C is a feed roll which co-operates with roll B for feeding purposes
and is held up against the same with yielding pressure by pivoted weighted levers a
which through sliding pins bear upwards against the vertically movable journal
boxes c of the roll C. D are evener plates which co-operate with the roll B for
evening purposes.
The combination of evener plates and feed roll with a combined evener and feed
roll forms in itself alone no part of the present Invention. Any other construction
and arrangement of the evener devices between which the cotton passes on its way to
the beater can be employed.
E is the knife edge bar on which the evener plates are fulcrumed, F is the feed
trough and G is the feed apron. In order to provide for easy adjustment of the knife
edge bar E its ends may be secured in brackets H swiveled on the axle d of the front
roller of the feed apron G. Each bracket H can be secured in adjusted position by a
clamp screw e which passes through two slots fone of which is in the bracket and the
other of which is in the side of the feed trough and which cross one another as
shewn.
The arms D of the evener plates which connect with the scale lever system can be
attached to the plates at either side of their fulcrum. Preferably these arms should
start from the plates at a point in front of the fulcrum, pass down below the knife
edge bar and thence extend horizontally out beyond the front wall A¹ of the frame as
shewn. This arrangement gives greater compactness without detracting from
efficiency.
The tail of each evener plate backward of the fulcrum is proportioned to bear
against the knife edge bar when the plate itself is adjusted so that it is in contact with
roll B.
The number of evener plates used can vary. In the arrangement illustrated there
are supposed to be sixteen plates or eight pairs of plates.
The arms D of each pair of plates are connected to opposite ends of the small scale
levers I of the top row of the scale lever system (refer now to Figure 3) said con-
nection preferably being made by means of links each of which hooks over its
arm D and under that arm or end of the lever I to which it is to be connected. The
levers I are connected preferably by similar links in pairs to the ends of the larger
scale levers 1 of the next row and so on to the still larger scale lever 12 and the main
scale lever 1. Each lever is formed at its ends with rounded recesses or hook-like
portions under which the connecting links from above engage and at its centre with
à like recess over which the link from below passes.
The scale lever system hangs down under the feed trough and outside of the front
wall A. It is therefore out of the way and in a position where it is shielded from
from dust and dirt, but where at the same time it is open to access so that the work-
man can readily get at it to clean it.
use.
The main scale lever I can impart its movement to the cone-belt-shipper through
the intermediary of any suitable instrumentalities of which a large variety are now in
In the particular mechanism shown for this purpose in Figures 1-3. there is
suspended from an eye i at the centre of the main scale lever a hook or bracket J
which supports the lever K (having a weight n) fulcrumed at to the front wall of
the frame by a stud k which passes through a longitudinal slot in the said lever,
which lever preferably rests upon the end of the set screw m with which the bracket J
is provided and by means of which the initial adjustment of the lever K can be
effected. The screw m is provided with a check nut m². The forked free end of the
lever K straddles the end of an arm o fixed on a shaft o journalled in a cone drum
box A2, and provided at the proper point with a shorter arm P, which, by the link
is connected to the crank arm of one of the pivotted belt shippers L, tliese shippers
being geared together at their abutting ends (see Figure 1). M, N, are the upper
?"

page_text: and lower cone drums. The belt connecting them is omitted to avoid confusing the
parts.
In lieu of scale levers there can be employed the equivalent system of curved
bearing pieces and supporting straps, represented in Figures 4, 5 and 6.
Figure 4 is a side elevation of so much of the machine as is needed for purposes of
explanation.
Figure 5 is a front elevation of the suspended system.
Figure 6 is an edge view of one of the bearing pieces.
Like letters of reference in these Figures and in Figures 1, 2 and 3 indicate
corresponding parts.
In this modification there are supposed to be eight evener plates (four pairs). With
this number of plates the arms D¹ are usually set four inches apart. Each pair of arins is
connected by a flexible or pliable strap s of steel or other suitable material to a curved
bearing piece which conveniently can have the shape of a peripherally grooved
pulley or wheel as shown; the strap passes under the curved bearing piece (the
groove therein serving to retain the strap in place) and has its upper ends connected
by eyes the one to one arm, and the other to the other arm D₁ of each pair.
The upper portions of the wheel are practically not in use and can be cut away (as
for instance is indicated by dotted lines at w¹, Figure 5). Each strap thus forms a loop
in the bight of which its curved bearing piece rests the legs of the loop extending
up and being connected with the two arms D₁ appertaining to them.
The diameter of the wheel or curved bearing pieces is about equal to the distance
separating the two evener arms D' of each pair (which in this instance is four inches ;)
so that the legs of the loop hang vertically and bring no lateral strain upon the
other portions of the system.
There being four pair of arms D1, there are in the topmost row four curved bearing
pieces t. In the row next below there are two curved bearing pieces (marked t¹) and
two supporting straps (marked w). In this second row each strap supports one of the
pieces and each of the ends of the said strap is connected to the centres or axes of
the two pairs of curved bearing pieces above and corresponding thereto. This
connection can be made in any suitable way; in the drawing each wheel or piece is
represented as provided with a pendant yoke w hung on the axial pintle of the
wheels and having below a hook v to engage the corresponding eyes of the straps w.
As the distance between the centre of each pair of curved bearing pieces or wheels t
is in this instance eight inches, the diameter of the curved bearing pieces t¹ should in
this instance also be about eight inches.
Next below the pieces t¹, and supported from the pintles thereof in a similar way
(by the yokes y and strap ) is the single wheel or curved bearing piece t2 (which
corresponds in position and function to the main scale lever 13 of the suspended scale
lever system illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 3). This wheel or piece is in this
instance about sixteen inches in diameter that being the distance between centres of
the pieces t.
In case sixteen evener plates should be used, then the arms D¹ would usually be
but two inches apart. In this event there would be four instead of three series or
rows of curved bearing pieces-eight in the top row, each two inches in diameter;
four in the second row, each four inches in diameter and so on.
These dimensions of course can be varied without departure from the invention.
From the pintle a² of the main curved bearing piece t, hangs a link, which connects
the piece to the instrumentalities for actuating the cone belt shipper. These instru-
mentalities differ somewhat from those shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3. The link is
connected by a strap 6 to a sector 7 on a rock shaft 1, which by the weighted lever 2,
is normally influenced to keep the system of curved bearing pieces and supporting
straps taut, and to hold the evener plates D with yielding pressure against the roll B.
On the rock shaft 1 is fixed a toothed quadrant 3, which engages with a horizontal
rack bar 4 attached to the belt shipper 5.
Through the intermediary of this system of suspended scale levers or their described
equivalents, motion is efficiently transmitted from the evener plates to the belt shipper.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
1. In evener mechanism for cotton openers and the like, a scale lever system, in
which the scale levers (or their described equivalents) are suspended those below from
those next above, substantially in the manner and for the purposes hereinbefore
described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
2. The system of suspended scale levers (Figures 12 and 3) or of curved bearing
pieces and supporting straps (Figures 4, 5 and 6) in combination with the evener
plates and arms, the cone drums, and belt shipper therefor, and mechanism for
transmitting movement from the said system to the belt-shipper, substantially as and
for the purposes herein before set forth.
3. In combination with the evener arms, the system of suspended scale levers or
curved bearing pieces or wheels and supporting straps situated outside of the front
wall of the machine and under the feed trough, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.
Dated this 5th day of March. 1889.