IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON GINS AND IN THE METHOD THE METHOD OF DRIVING THE SAME, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Evan Leigh and Frederick Allen Leigh, of the
City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Mechanical Engineers,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON GINS AND IN THE METHOD
Sealed the 23rd October 1863, and dated the 29th April 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Evan Leigh and Frederick
Allen Leigh at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 29th April 1863.
We, EVAN LEIGH and FREDERICK ALLEN LEIGH, of the City of Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster, Mechanical Engineers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVELIENTS IN COTTON GINS AND IN THE
METHOD OF DRIVING THE SAME, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS APPLICABLE TO
OTHER PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
In that kind of gin called the "Macarthy gin" we place the doctor in a
horizontal position, and cause it to press on the top of the roller instead of
pressing against the side as heretofore employed, the beater acting horizontally
instead of vertically. This position admits of a vertical feed more conveniently
(whether fed by hand or power), and causes the roller to bite or nip the
cotton with greater certainty. We make the rollers in the ordinary manner,
but place under the leather some elastic substance. The beater can either be
actuated by a crank motion or fixed upon springs; in the latter case we cause

page_text: notched wheel to be fixed on each end of the roller. These notched wheels
or wipers have as many teeth as the number of strokes required of the beater
for one of the roller, commonly five or six, so that when motion is given to
the roller the notches acting against steel pins or bowls fixed to tho beater or
to the springs press it back, and allow the stroke to be made by the force or
elasticity of the springs. This arrangement dispenses with the crank shaft.
Our next improvement is the application of a maintaining power for gins
and other machines turned by hand. This we accomplish by a small fly
wheel keyed on a light steel shaft and accurately balanced. This shaft runs
upon friction bowls having small steel gudgeons, and is turned by a strap from
the gin roller or otherwise, so that it can be used or not at pleasure. In
feeding the gin we place a grid in a vertical position over the gin roller,
through which the seeds are pushed by the action of the beater. These gins
may be made with one, two, four, or more rollers. In small churka or cottage
gins we employ six rollers, two covered with wood, and four of small diameter
in pairs made of steel. Each of the larger rollers works between a pair of the
smaller, and is pressed against them by any mechanical means. The larger
rollers may work either on the upper or lower side of the smaller ones.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Evan Leigh and Frederick Allen Leigh in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 29th October 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EVAN
LEIGH and FREDERICK ALLEN LEIGH, of the City of Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Mechanical Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Der heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Evan Leigh and Frederick Allen Leigh, Her special license that we,
the said Evan Leigh and Frederick Allen Leigh, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Evan Leigh and Frederick
Allen Leigh, our 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

page_text: COTTON GINS AND IN THE METHOD OF DRIVING THE SAME, PART OF WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS IS APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Evan Leigh and Frederick Allen Leigh, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing, under our, 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 per-
formed, 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 we, the said Evan Leigh and Frederick Allen
Leigh, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement (that is to say):
-
In that kind of gin called the "Macarthy gin" we place the doctor in a
horizontal position, and cause it to press on the top of the roller instead of
pressing against the side as heretofore employed, the beater acting horizontally
instead of vertically. This position admits of a vertical feed more conveniently
(whether fed by hand or power), and causes the roller to bite or nip the
cotton with greater certainty. We make the rollers in the ordinary manner,
but place under the leather some elastic substance. The beater can either be
actuated by a crank motion or fixed upon springs; in the latter case we causo
a notched wheel to be fixed on each end of the roller. These notched wheels
or wipers have as many teeth as the number of strokes required of the beater
for one of the roller, commonly five or six, so that when motion is given to the
roller the notches acting against steel pins or bowls fixed to the beater or to
the springs press it back, and allow the stroke to be made by the force or
elasticity of the springs. This arrangement dispenses with the crank shaft.
Our next improvement is the application of a maintaining power for gins
and other machines turned by hand. This we accomplish by a small fly wheel
keyed on a light steel shaft and accurately balanced. This shaft runs upon
friction bowls having small steel gudgeons, and is turned by a strap from the
gin roller or otherwise, so that it can be used or not at pleasure. In feeding
the gin we place a grid in a vertical position over the gin roller, through
which the seeds are pushed by the action of the beater. These gins may be
made with one, two, four, or more rollers. In small churka or cottage gins
we employ six rollers, two covered with wood, and four of small diameter in
pairs made of steel. Each of the larger rollers works between a pair of the
smaller, and is pressed against them by any mechanical means. The larger
rollers may work either on the upper or lower side of the smaller ones.

page_text: These improvements will be clearly understood by referring to the figures
and letters on the accompanying five Sheets of Drawings, in which Fig. 1
represents a Macarthy gin of one roller only covered with leather, having
spiral grooves in the ordinary manner, with a layer of flannel or other elastic
substance under the leather, or covered in a manner hereafter to be more
particularly described. In this gin, whether it be adapted to work by hand or
power, the beater acts horizontally instead of vertically as heretofore employed,
and the doctor plate is made to press on the top of the roller, having a slight
inclination only to allow the seeds to fall after being extracted. This position
admits more readily of a vertical feed, and the seed cotton presses on the gin
roller by its own gravity, and is more rapidly seized and drawn under the
doctor than when fed at the side, as will be easily understood on reference to
the Drawing, in which a represents the framework; b, the beater; c, the
roller; d, the doctor, which is pressed down by the grid e, with the set screw f.
The crank shaft 9 which (when driven by power) gives motion to the beater b
through the connecting rods h, and to the gin roller c by the pinion i working
in the spur wheel j, has on it a pair of driving pullies k, one fast and the other
loose. When this gin is to be driven by hand wo place a handle II on each
end of the gin roller c, and a fly wheel on the crank shaft 9 in lieu of the
driving pullies k. From the periphery of this fly wheel we work by means of
a strap or band another fly wheel that is keyed on a small steel shaft which
works between friction bowls, as shewn in dotted lines. This second fly wheel
is accurately balanced and runs at a great speed. It may be placed in any
convenient part of the framing, and used or not at pleasure as an additional
maintaining power. It may also be driven by friction direct from the
periphery of the first fly wheel.
Fig. 1 shews in section the gin roller at c; the doctor at d", and the grid
which presses it down at ; the beater is shewn at 6. Fig 1b shews a front
view of the gin roller c with the spiral grooves, the grid e, the set screws f, f,
for pressing down the doctor, the frame a, and the sced box s.
Fig. 2, Sheet 4, shews another modification of this single roller gin in
which the beater is operated by the notched wheels 2 and the pendant levers m
one on each side. These levers have a steel case hardened stud or friction
bowl n which works in the notches and actuates the beater 6 through the
connecting wires o, the return stroke of the beater being accomplished by the
spring p.
Fig. 3 shews a double roller gin, in which a is the framework; b, tho
beater; c, c, the rollers; d, d, the doctors; e, e, the grids. This beater works in
the curved slider, which is adjustable, and is operated by the connecting rods

page_text: h and crank shaft g. When in work the seeds are driven through the grids
and fall into the boxes s, s, hung on each side, and the clean cotton under
the gin.
Fig. 4 is another modification of our double roller gin in which the beaters
are mounted on compound levers, but working loose on the shaft s or on studs,
and are operated by the two eccentric shafts 9, 9, to which the power is
applied by fast and loose pulleys. These beaters strike simultaneously as the
two crank shafts are connected together by spur wheels, and the beaters are
brought back by springs, thereby producing equilibrium of motion and
preventing the vibration or shaking of the frame otherwise produced in doublo
gins, being in fact like two single gins constructed and set back to back.
Figs. 4 and 5 shew a quadruple gin on the same principle or like two of
Fig. 4 coupled together, only that we prefer it in one frame. On this plan wo
can construct a gin with six or more rollers, by driving all the crank shafts by
a transverse shaft running along the centre of the crank shafts and connecting
them together with bevils. We can also run the rollers on each side of the
quadruple or larger gins in one direction and on the opposite side in the other
direction when we find it desirable to do so, and make the beaters act without
springs by having sliding steps in the bottom end of the levers through which
the cranks pass, as at 9, 9, or by using connecting rods and coupling all the
beaters on one side together and all on the other together; indeed this
principle of vertical feed admits of various ways of construction other than
those shown.
Fig. 6 shews our method of making rollers for Macarthy gins, seen in
section at t, which is a hollow tube or gas pipe of about three inches diameter,
having ends or gudgeons welded in with a fast flanch at one end, and a looso
flanch to be fixed with set screws or a nut at the other. Leather washers (by
preference sea-horse or walrus leather) are pressed upon it and held by
screwing up the loose flanch. By this construction the timber lags usually
employed are dispensed with, and the inner part of the leather comes in for
cottage gins. These are put on a square shaft, as shewn at Fig. 7, screwed
up by a nut and washer.
Our improvements in roller gins consist in supporting the smaller roller v
between two friction rollers w, w, Fig. 8, and pressing the larger roller
against it by weights, springs, or screws, in the ordinary manner, but what we
prefer is by lovers and weights. By this construction only one bearing is
required for the small roller. These rollers may be worked in the usual
horizontal position, but we prefer to work them at an incline, so that the
seed rolls down and away as it gets detached. They may be driven by applying

page_text: power to the small roller or to the double carrier wheel y that works in
the pinions 2, .
Fig. 9 shews another modification of our roller gin, in which wo uso six
rollers, the two larger ones are placed below and the four smaller ones on the
top, as shewn; we prefer to work theso also on tho incline.
Daving now described the nature and particulars of our said Invention
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, we desire it to bo
distinctly understood that we claim,-
First, the construction of Macarthy cotton gins having the doctor pressing
on the top of the roller, and the beater acting horizontally, as described.
Secondly, the use of four or more rollers, as shewn.
Thirdly, the elastic beat by which the advance or return stroke of the
beater, is effected by a spring or weight moving through a small space.
Fourthly, the use of a detached maintaining power for hand gins, to be
used or not, at pleasure, attached to the gin and working on friction bowls or
otherwise,
Fifthly, the method shown of manufacturing the gin rollers both for power
and hand gins.
And, sixthly, in roller gins wo claim the use of four or six rollers, as
shewn,
In witness whereof, we, the said Evan Leigh and Frederick Allen
Leigh, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-eighth day
of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three.
EVAN LEIGH.
(L.S)
FREDERICK ALLEN LEIGH. (L.S.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
within-named Evan Leigh and
Frederick Allen Leigh in the
presence of
E. J. HUGHES,
Patent Agent,
Manchester.