Improvements in Cotton-Gins.
Year: 1890

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by FRANK H. CHASE, of Haverhill, in the County of
Essex, and State of Massachusetts, United States of America.]
Improvements in Cotton-Gins.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine Lake & Co. Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex do hereby declare the nature of
this 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 that class of cotton-gins known as roller gins, in
which ordinarily a vertically reciprocating motion of the clearer or stripper is
found.
According to this invention a revolving stripper, is utilized and the said
invention consists in a novel means and construction for feeding in the cotton,
which is hereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in
which
Figure 1 is a central vertical section of a cotton-gin to which my feeding device
is applied.
'
Figure 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a portion of the drawing roller, with
my feed mechanism applied thereto.
Figure 3 is a front elevation of one of the fingers of my feed removed.
Figure 4 is a section on line a Figure 3.
Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in the several figures.
A represents the frame of a cotton-gin of the character mentioned above. .B is
the table from which the seed cotton is fed into the machine. C is the drawing
roller. D is the clearer or stripper. E is the upper doffer for throwing back
the unginned cotton, F is the lower doffer for taking down the ginned cotton to the
board H, and I is the pressure-bar adjusted by the mechanism J.
None of the
above parts are new in this invention, and as their operations are well known
in the art to which this device appertains, no further detailed description is
deemed necessary. The directions of the rotations of the rollers and doffers are
indicated by arrows.
K is a bar, preferably triangular in cross section, situated in front of and slightly
below the centre of the drawing roller C. This bar is adjustably supported by the
frame of the machine, preferably by means of squared ends K₁ thereof lying in boxes L
provided with set-screws L' whereby the bar may be raised, lowered or moved hori-
zontally with relation to the drawing roller. The object of this bar is to support the
fingers P which constitute my friction feed. These fingers extend from plates or
shanks P' which are screwed to the bar K, each finger preferably (but not necessarily)
having its independent plate, so that a broken or damaged finger may be easily
replaced. Each finger lies close to the drawing roller, being curved so as to conform
to the surface of said roller C, and extends spirally with relation to the roller, i.e.
a front elevation of the finger and plate (see Figure 3) shows the finger P, or at
least the edge P thereof, to be not perpendicular to or at right angles with the
plate P¹ and bar K, but at an angle of less than ninety degrees with them. The effect
is that as the roller C rotates, its surface is constantly approaching the edges P" of
the fingers, and as the cotton is fed up it is quickly drawn under the said edges P
of the fingers and instantly and surely carried to the pressure bar I. By this means
the seed cotton is fed in without uncertainty and with great rapidity, as the slightest
particle catching under a finger edge takes in the whole connecting shred or wad
with it. The shape of the fingers is not material so long as the edge P is at an
angle as described, nor the exact degree of the slant, the shape and slant shown
being perhaps the best as far as is known at present.
[Prins 62

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
First. In a roller cotton-gin, the combination with the drawing roller, of a series
of stationary fingers P held up to said drawing roller by a suitable support, said
fingers conforming on their under sides substantially to the surface of said roller,
and one edge at least of each finger extending spirally over the surface of the roller
or at an angle of less than ninety degrees with the axis of the roller, whereby the
cotton being fed in is caught and drawn under said finger edge as the roller rotates,
substantially as set forth.
Second. In a roller cotton-gin, the combination with the drawing roller, of a
finger as P held mechanically close to or against the surface of said roller with at
least one edge conforming substantially to the shape of the roller surface and at such
an angle that the path of rotation of the portion of the surface of the roller next the
finger is under and across said edge of the finger, substantially as set forth.
Third. In a roller cotton-gin, the combination with the drawing roller C, clearer or
stripper D, and frame, of the fingers P P P and bar K constructed and arranged
substantially as described.
Dated this 7th day of January 1800
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.