IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR BURRING WOOL, GINNING COTTON, OR OTHER ANALOGOUS PURPOSES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chaucery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR BURRING WOOL, GINNING COTTON,
OR OTHER ANALOGOUS PURPOSES."-A communication from abroad by Robert
J. Clay, James T. Husted, Ebenezer Gilbert Burling, and Cornelius
Corson, all of the City and State of New York, United States of
America.
Sealed the 27th September 1867, and dated the 26th April 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th April 1867.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR BURRING WOOL, GINNING
COTTON, OR OTHER ANALOGOUS PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention is more particularly designed for removing the burs from
wool, especially mestizo burs, which from their convolute and jagged character
require to be removed unbroken, or otherwise there is great difficulty in
detaching the broken particles; it however may also be applied to the
ginning of cotton or other analogous or like purposes, but in the following
description it will suffice to refer to it in its application to burring wool.

page_text: The wool is fed to a horizontally rotating cylinder by an endless belt or
apron and between wire teethed or studded feed rollers, and from thence after
being subjected to the action of a preparatory comb down an inclined bed or
guide under an additional wire studded roll on to or against the horizontally
rotating cylinder, which has its periphery covered with a series of adjacent
longitudinal strips preferably made of steel and of a comb-like character
lying flatwise on the cylinder with their teeth of a sloping or bevilled
character and back edges suitably formed to catch and hold the wool and
carry it round to be stripped off the burrs by contact of the latter with a
clearing strip or knife, while the wool thus cleared is in the further progress
of the cylinder removed by the action of a brush or other suitable device.
The Invention, secondly, consists in detaching the burrs or other obstructions
or foreign matter contained in the fibre by a gang of reciprocating toothed
blades to catch as it is fed thereto the fibre from the burrs, while the latter are
afterwards separately ejected and prevented from commingling with the wool
so cleared. This part of the Invention embraces in the one machine a com-
bination of rotary burr extractors with a gang of reciprocating saw-shaped
blades for detaching the fibre and working through ways or openings that
admit of the passage of the fibre, but exclude the burrs, such part of the
Invention also including a taper form for the reciprocating toothed blades,
likewise a peculiar formation of their teeth whereby while the fibre is with-
drawn from the burr the latter is prevented from being broken.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 25th October 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County.
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Edward Newton, Her special licence that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all

page_text: 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 "IM-
PROVED MACHINERY FOR BURRING WOOL, GINNING COTTON, OR OTHER ANALOGOUS
PURPOSES," being a communication to me from abroad, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, 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 Edwa Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, 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)
:-
This Invention is more particularly designed for removing the burrs from
wool, especially mestizo burrs which from their convolute and jagged character
require to be removed unbroken, or otherwise there is great difficulty in
detaching the broken particles;. it however may also be applied to the
ginning of cotton or other analogous or like purposes, but in the following.
description it will suffice-to refer to it in its application to burring wool.
The first part of the Invention consists in an improved process for burring
wool and other like purposes in which the wool is fed to a horizontally
rotating cylinder by an endless belt or apron and between wire teethed or
studded feed rollers, and from thence after being subjected to the action of a
preparatory comb down an inclined bed or guide under an additional wire
studded roll on to or against the horizontally rotating cylinder, which has its
periphery covered with a series of adjacent longitudinal strips preferably made
of steel and of a comb-like character lying flatwise on the cylinder with their
teeth of a sloping or bevilled character and back edges su.tably formed to
catch and hold the wool and carry it round to be stripped off the burrs by
contact of the latter with a clearing strip or knife, while the wool thus cleared
is in the further progress of the cylinder removed by the action of a brush or
other suitable device.
The Invention secondly consists in detaching the burrs or other obstructions
or foreign matter contained in the fibre by means of a gang of reciprocating
toothed blades to catch as it is fed thereto the fibre from the burrs, while the

page_text: latter are afterwards separately ejected and prevented from commingling with
the wool so cleared. This part of the Invention embraces in the one machine
a combination of rotary burr extractors with a gang of reciprocating saw-
shaped blades for detaching the fibre and working through ways or openings
that admit of the passage of the fibre, but exclude the burrs, such part of the
Invention also including a taper form for the reciprocating toothed blades,
likewise a peculiar formation of their teeth, whereby while the fibre is with-
drawn from the burr the latter is prevented from being broken.
In the Drawing, Fig. 1 represents a rear end view or elevation of a
machine constructed according to the first part of the Invention; Fig. 2 is a
longitudinal sectional elevation of the same, and Figures 3 and 4 are views
drawn on an enlarged scale of detached portions in illustration of the con-
struction and arrangement of the comb-like strips used in the machine for
catching the fibre and aiding in the extraction of the burrs; Fig. 5 represents
a front elevation of a machine constructed according to the second part of the
Invention; Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section of the same taken transversely
through the feeding rollers, and Fig. 7 is a face view drawn on an enlarged
scale of one of the burring blades used in such machine.
Referring in the first instance to Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the Drawings,
A represents a frame of any suitable construction for carrying the working
mechanism; B is an endless belt or apron arranged on rollers a, a, driven in
any desirable manner to travel, as indicated by the arrow x in Fig. 2, the
same serving to convey the wool to wire teethed or studded feeding rollers b, b
after or as the wool issues, from which it is opened or spread or cleared from
knots or bunches by the action of a rocking or other comb C working cross-
wise of the feed. The wool thus combed or opened is passed down or along
a bed or guide D under a laying roll or roller E, having its periphery covered
with wire teeth, or otherwise suitably formed, and receiving a positive motion
in the direction indicated by the arrow . This roller serves to lay the wool
spread out by the action of the comb C as described on to a horizontally
rotating cylinder F hung on a shaft G, and that may have motion communi
cated to it by belt connecting pulleys H and I, a pulley J on the shaft of the
pulley H serving also to drive as represented by the arrow sa rotary brush K,
or these several parts or devices may be otherwise driven. The cylinder F,
which rotates as represented by the arrow y at any desired velocity, is covered
on its periphery with steel plates or strips & having a face or flatwise bearing
on the cylinder, and arranged longitudinally thereof in moderately close
proximity to each other, or so that the forward edge of the one strip slightly
overlaps or nearly so the back edge of the adjoining strip.
These plates or

page_text: strips have a comb-like formation on their front edges with teeth c sloped or
bevilled on their under sides next to the cylinder, and it may be also slightly
so on their outer faces. It is advisable also that the back edges of the
strips should be sloped or bevilled off. The cylinder F thus constructed or
provided catches the wool as it is fed or delivered by the laying roll E and
carries it round to and past a clearing knife or plate L affixed to the frame
A on the opposite side of the cylinder F to that of the laying roll, and with
its upper edge in close proximity to the cylinder or sufficiently so for the
toothed strips d to clear the same. This clearing knife or plate L may either
be straight on its upper or clearing edge, or have an inclined or spiral
direction, or as represented in Fig. 1 it may be of a double or reverse inclined
construction.
In the operation of the machine the wool is stripped from the burrs
contained in it by the action of the toothed strips d as they pass the edge of"
the knife or plate L, the burrs being detached whole and delivered separately
down or outside of the plate over (say) an incline n while the cleared wool
is carried below by the hold on it of the toothed strips d in the continued
rotation of the cylinder, and removed therefrom free from commingling
with the burrs by the action of the rotary brush K or other suitable device
being delivered (say) down an incline ?".
Referring to Figures 5, 6, and 7 of the Drawing, A' represents the frame
of a differently constructed machine for the like purpose or purposes, and
forming the second part or division of this Invention; B is or may be a
driving pulley, giving motion by a belt C' to a wheel D¹ that carries or drives
a roller E¹ running across the front of the machine, and that by pinion gear
a, b, c, on the one side of the frame fitting into corresponding gear serves to
rotate an upper front roller F', soft roller G¹, and by the roilers H, H', to
give motion to an endless apron l¹ for the purpose of feeding up the wool and
delivering it in a proper form to a gang of reciprocating blades J' arranged at
a suitable distance apart; these blades are formed with teeth on both edges
which project transversely to the feed for the purpose of, in one stroke of the
blades, detaching the wool as it is fed from the burrs, and in their opposite
stroke clearing themselves of the fibre by working the wool in their down
stroke through or between ways or passages formed by plates d' arranged
sufficiently close to exclude the burrs and to scrape off or detach any adhering
fibre in the up stroke of the blades. Brushes, slides, or other suitable devices
if necessary may be arranged below the
of its not dropping from the blades.
in a straight or curvilinear direction.
passages to sweep off the wool in case
The blades J' may either reciprocate
The burrs are delivered in between the

page_text: gangs of toothed blades J¹ above the plates d', and may be ejected or drawn
out down a delivery board K' by ratchet-shaped toothed rollers L' or by any
other appropriate devices. The blades J¹ may be guided on their front faces
to prevent them from springing or buckling by strips f', which if desired may
be attached to the blades that are held in a frame S', to which a reciprocating
motion may be given by a crank g' on the driving shaft and connecting rod h¹.
The rotary burr extractors or wheels L' may be driven by a belt and pulleys
M³, N¹. For the more effectual performance of the work the blades J' should
be made of a tapering character, being wider above and narrower below,
whereby crowding of the burrs between the blades is avoided and their
clearance down or on the edge of the delivery board for a free and proper
action of the burr extractors is secured. It is all important in working wool
containing mestizo burrs that the latter should not be broken in the wool, the
teeth of the blades J' are not therefore simply formed sharp pointed and to
project downwards, but are straightened or shelved off on their outer edges m¹
so as to avoid catching or cutting the burrs, as represented in Fig. 7, and
which the taper character of the blades, especially in the up stroke, largely con-
tributes towards. It is also desirable that the teeth of the blades should be
sharpened or shelved off from their roots to their points on the faces of the
blades which lie in front or are next adjacent to the burr extractors to still
further prevent all liability of the burrs being cut, caught, or broken.
Having now described the improved machinery for burring wool, ginning
cotton, or for other analogous purposes, constituting the Invention that bas
been communicated to me from abroad, I claim as the Invention secured to
me by Letters Patent as aforesaid,―
First, the machinery herein described for burring wool, ginning cotton, or
performing other like or analogous operations, and which consists of the rotating
cylinder F, with its comb-like strips d constructed and arranged essentially as
specified for operation in connection with a clearing knife or plate L, as
described.
Second, the combination with the rotating cylinder F having toothed
strips d and suitable feeding mechanism thereto of a comb C for operation
together as described.
Third, in machinery for burring wool, ginning cotton, or other analogous
purposes I claim in combination with a suitable fied and burr or seed ex-
tractors or delivery device of a gang of reciprocating blades having saw-
shaped teeth at their edges for operation relatively to the feed, as described.
Fourth, the combination in connection with a suitable feed of a series of
reciprocating blades having teeth on their edges, and working through ways

page_text: or passages which pass the fibre, but exclude the burrs, with a series of
intermediately arranged rotating burr extractors for operation together, as
herein set forth.
Fifth, the tooth-shaped blades J' made of taper form in direction of their
length, as described, in combination with a suitable feed and series of burr
extractors, as and for the purposes herein specified.
Sixth, in reference to the gang of saw-shaped blades operating as described
for the purposes set forth, I claim constructing the teeth of the blades straight
or shelving on their outer edges, and sharpened from their roots to their
points on their outer or front faces.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
5 Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)