Waste and other Fibrous Materials.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Apr., 1887.
Specification Accepted, 3rd May, 1887.
Waste and other Fibrous Materials.
I, HENRY ALBERT DAVIS, of 291 Wilder Street, in the City of Lowell, in the
County of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the United States
of America, Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of my invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to the application of a revolving shaft near the beater of a
waste-picker in such a manner that pieces of yarn or thread which may be mixed with
unspun fiber will become wound upon the said shaft and thereby be separated from
the fiber which is suitable to pass to the carding process, and relates also to certain
improvements in the construction of beaters for this class of machines, whereby
beaters of greater strength and increased facilities for threads to become wound upon
the shaft of the beater are secured.
Taken together, these improvements constitute an improved machine for separating
unspun fibrous material from pieces of waste yarn or thread which are too hard
twisted to be advantageously carded and respun.
In the drawings figure 1 is a plan or top view of my improved machine; figure 2,
a side elevation of the same; figure 3, an elevation of one end of the machine showing
the driving pulleys; figure 4, a vertical cross section of the machine figure 5, a
plan view of the beaters and the thread-extracting shaft removed from, but lying in
the same relative position as when in the machine; figure 6, an enlarged view of a
piece broken from the middle of the thread-extracting shaft.
A is the hinged covering or bonnet over the beaters having a web or rim a, which
forms a trough to hold a supply of material which is fed to the beaters through the
inlet or feeding opening a¹.
B is the lower portion of the casing of the machine to which the bonnet A is hinged
by the hinges bb, and in which, below the beaters, is placed the grid or screen 62,
below which grid or screen there may be a dust-closet. An opening or spout 6³ is
provided for the exit or delivery of the cleaned fiber; these paris being principally

page_text: old and well known,-1 do not think a detailed description of their operation
necessary.
C is a shaft supported by, and having its bearings in the brackets c c and c¹ and.
driven by the pulley c². The said shaft C is designed to assist in extracting broken
bits of thread, and may be a plain shaft, or roughened by cutting a fine screw-thread
and one or more longitudinal grooves c³, as shown in figure 6.
In the heads of the bonnet A are slots a² to allow the bonnet to be lifted,
and which are covered by the brackets ee when the cover is shut down over the
beater.
It will readily be seen that the thread-extracting shaft U may be employed in com-
bination with any other form of beater, scutcher or toothed cylinder than that shown
in the drawing.
When cotton containing pieces of thread is thrown against the shaft C by the beater,
threads will be caught and wound upon the said shaft; while if bunches of cotton
should adhere with the threads, they will be quickly knocked off by the action of the
beater or toothed cylinder, and, by stopping the machine with which this device is
connected, the threads which have thus been picked from the cotton may be cut and
stripped from the shaft.
In operating the machine represented in the drawings the machine is stopped from
time to time and the cover A turned back, and the yarn which has become entangled
upon the shaft C, and also that which has accumulated on the beater-shafts is removed.
D D¹ designate the beaters, each consisting of a shaft with arms d d projecting from
the shaft, in different radial directions, and cast solid therewith.
I have preferred to arrange the arms d d in spiral lines on opposite sides of the
shaft, as shown in the drawings, thereby rendering the strain on the shafts when in
operation nearly uniform.
Fan-blades d d also project from the beater-shaft and are preferably cast with the
same; it is not so essential, however, that the fan-blades should be of the same entire
piece of metal as the rest of tlie beater.
The beaters run in suitable bearings d³ and are driven by the pulleys d' and d³, the
dotted line e representing the belt which transmits power to the said pulleys and also
to the pulley c².
E represents an angle-piece, in construction, a bar of angle-iron or a triangular
strip which is fastened within the casing for the purpose of deflecting the cotton, as
it is tossed about by the beaters toward the shafts, so that threads may be caught and
wound upon them.
Heretofore cotton waste which contains pieces of yarn or thread has been separated,
or the threads extracted from the unspun fiber, by passing it through a machine
commonly known as the Van Winkle Opener (see United States patents to J. E. Van
Winkle, No. 38, 794, June 2, 1863, reissue No. 3363, and No. 299,297, May 27, 1884)
or similar machine having beaters consisting of shafts upon which a series of radial
arın-castings are fastened each by a hub and set-screw, or by having the beater-shaft
drilled and graduated radial arms inserted, and when operating the same, by
occasionly stopping the machine, and cutting and stripping off from the beater-shafts
the threads which have become wound thereon.
To enable the beater-shaft to catch and retain short threads it must necessarily he
small in diameter, and cannot be drilled for the insertion of radial arms of suitable
strength, without lessening the strength of the shaft. Radial arm-castings with hubs
cover up a large part of the beater-shaft which might otherwise be presented to the
material operated upon.
By making the beater of a single piece of metal, preferably a steel or bronze casting,
I am enabled to make the shaft small in diameter with radial arms projecting therefrom,
which arms do not weaken the shaft or materially obstruct its surface, thereby securing
a shaft better adapted to catch and retain threads than has heretofore been used, and it
will therefore be seen that the beaters cast entire are an important improvement even
when used without the shaft or the deflecting plate E..

page_text: By the use of one or more plain revolving shafts located at a suitable distance from
the beater, I am able to catch and extract from the waste operated upon threads which
would otherwise be liable to pass through without being picked out.
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 a picker or opener for fibrous materials, the combination with a casing
provided with feeding and delivery openings, of a rotary beater having radial arms
cast solid with, and projecting from the opposite sides of the shaft of the said beater,
substantially as herein described.
2. In a picker or opener for fibrous materials, the combination with a rotary beater
and its casing of the shaft C revolving within the said casing near the periphery of
the said beater, for the purpose herein set forth.
Dated this 20th day of January A.D. 1887.
Witnesses,
ALBERT MOURVE MOORE,
GERTRUDE MURILLA DAY.
HENRY ALBERT DAVIS.