IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR OPENING, CLEANING, AND PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Taft and John Charles Edwards, both
of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Machinists,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR OPENING,
CLEANING, AND PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS."
Sealed the 14th December 1869, and dated the 14th October 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Taft and John
Charles Edwards at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 14th October 1869.
We, JOHN TAFT and JOHN CHARLES EDWARDS, both of the City of
Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Machinists, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
OPENING, CLEANING, AND PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS,”
to be as follows:-
Our improvements relate, firstly, to certain mechanism or arrange-
ments, and to the combination and arrangement of this mechanism with
opening machines, or with lap machines, or with combined opening and
lap machines, and the said mechanism consists in a feeding lattice,
spiked, feeding, or other rollers, and a shaft having a series of discs upon
it armed with teeth. The fibrous material is spread upon the lattice,
and is carried to the feed rollers, which present it to be acted upon by

page_text: the teeth of the discs upon the shaft forming a beater, which rotates
close to a series of grid bars arranged upon the lower half of the path of
the teeth. The fibrous material after passing through this mechanism
is conducted along a suitable channel or pipe to the opener or lap
machine, or to the combined opener and lap machine.
This part of our improvements also consists in arranging so that the
mechanism above described will feed and supply fibrous material to two
or more of the machines or combined machines machines above referred
to by causing one or more of the rotating discs or a knife or partition to
divide the fibrous material, so that it may be conveyed in proper channels
to the several machines or combined machines.
Secondly. Our improvements relate to opening machines, and consist
in arranging them so that the material may be fed in at and taken
away from the upper side of the beaters, passing along the beater from
one end in the direction of the axis of the shaft to the other end, and
one peculiar feature of this part of our Invention consists in arranging
so that the fibrous material may pass in to the beaters nearer to or
further from the outlet end of the opener, so as to be more or less worked
according to the nature and quality of the material. This is accom-
plished by suitable slides, which can be regulated to admit the fibrous
material at the required distance from its outlet from the beater cage.
The improvements under this head of our Invention may be used in
openers or in combined openers and lap machines according to the first
part of our Invention, and the beaters used in the machines may be
either cylindrical or conical as desired.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Taft and John Charles Edwards in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th April 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
TAFT and JOHN CHARLES EDWARDS, both of the City of Manchester, in 3
the County of Lancaster, Machinists, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-

page_text: third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said John Taft and John Charles Edwards,
Her special license that we, the said John Taft and John Charles
Edwards, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said John Taft and John Charles Edwards, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 MACHINERY
POR OPENING, CLEANING, AND PREPARING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MA-
TERIALS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John
Taft and John Charles Edwards, by an instrument in writing under
our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 we, the said John Taft and John Charles
Edwards, 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 statements and accompanying
Drawings (that is to say) :-
Our improvements relate, firstly, to certain mechanism or arrange-
ments, and to the combination or arrangement of such mechanism with
opening machines or combined opening and lap machines in which the
material operated upon traverses in the direction of the axis of the beater
of the opening machine. The said mechanism consists of a feeding lattice,
spiked, or other feeding rollers, and a series of discs armed with teeth
upon a shaft which acts as a beater, or any other construction of a beater
may be used, but we prefer a beater formed by a series of discs armed
with teeth, such teeth being bent or cranked and secured on each side of
each disc so that when acting upon the fibrous material fed to it by rollers
every portion of the surface in front of the rollers will be acted upon by
the teeth at each revolution of the shaft, and this peculiar arrangement of
the spikes or teeth on discs in combination with rollers may be used
with advantage in other opening and cleaning machines and forms a
part of our Invention. The fibrous material to be operated upon is

page_text: spread upon the lattice of the mechanism above referred to, and it is
carried to the feed rollers which present it to be acted upon by the teeth
of the beater, which rotates close to a series of grid bars arranged upon
the lower half of the path of the teeth. The fibrous material after
passing through the mechanism is conducted along any suitable pipe or
channel to the opener, or the combined opener and lap machine.
This part of our Invention also consists in feeding two or more opening
machines above referred to, or other class of opening machines, or two or
more combined openers and lap machines by causing one or more of the
rotating discs of the beater or discs formed on any other ordinary beater
to act as a knife or partition to divide the fibrous material, so that it may
be conveyed in proper channels to the several machines or combined
machines.
Secondly. Our improvements relate to opening machines, and consists
in arranging them so that the material may be fed in at and taken
away from the upper side of the beaters when the beater shaft rotates
horizontally, the material passing from one end in the direction of the
axis of the beater to the other end, and another peculiar feature of this
part of our Invention consists in arranging so that the fibrous material
may pass into the beaters nearer to or further from the outlet end of the
opener so as to be more or less worked according to the nature or quality
of the material. This is accomplished by suitable slides, doors, or covers
which can be regulated or opened and closed to admit the fibrous
material at the required distance from its outlet from the beater cage.
We use with our improved opener either wholly or partly, and in place
of the ordinary grid bars, a surface of metal having a series of lips or
mouths which may be formed of cast metal or may be made by
punching and bending metal plates, and these improved substitutes for
the ordinary grid bars may be used in ordinary opening machines as
well as in our improved machines, and they form another part of our
Invention. We also use the ordinary grid bars with notches cut in them
arranged so that the notch in one bar will come opposite the tooth in
the adjoining bar, and this forms another feature of our Invention.
The improvements described above under the second head of our
Invention may be used in openers or in combined openers and lap
machines according to the first part of our Invention, and the beaters
used in the machines may be either cylindrical or conical in form as
desired.

page_text: Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4 illustrate the improvements coming under the first
head of our Invention. Fig. 1 is a side elevation showing our improved
feeder and its combination with our improved opener and lap machine,
and Fig. 1 as well as Fig. 2 (which is a plan) illustrates our improved
feeder as combined with two openers or combined openers and lap
machines. Fig. 3 is a detached end view of a part of our improved
beater for operating upon material presented by rollers, and Fig. 4 is a
plan view of the same.
Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 illustrate the improvements coming
under the second head of our Invention. Fig. 5 is a cross section of our
improved opener, and Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section thereof; Fig. 7
is a face view of our improved surface to be used as a substitute for the
ordinary grid bars; Fig. 8 is a section thereof on the line A, B, Fig. 7;
and Fig. 9 an edged view; Fig. 10 is a side view, and Fig. 11 an edge
view of our improved construction and arrangement of grid bars.
In carrying out the first part of our Invention when an opener in
which the material operated upon traverses in the direction of the axis
of the beater is to be combined with the feeding mechanism, the latter
is arranged in any convenient position in relation to the opener, and the
outlet from the feeding beater is connected by a pipe or channel with
the feeding end of the opener, and such openers in all cases are provided
with the well-known rotating perforated or wire cylinder or cago which
is connected with an exhausting fan, the fibre passing under or over
this cage or cylinder after leaving the opener, the draught produced by
the fan drawing the material from the feeder and through the opener, as
a little air is admitted through perforations at the under side of the pipes
or channels as close as possible to the outlet from the feeding beater.
Figs. 3 and 4 illustrates more fully the beater we prefer to use for
feeding and as a substitute for the ordinary bar beater. a represents
the feed rollers; b, the beater shaft; 6', the discs; b², the spikes or
teeth, each spike or tooth being bent or cranked as shown so as to
strike opposite one part in front of the rollers, so that at every rc-
volution of the shaft (b) every part in the whole width of the feed
rollers will have received one blow at least.
Figs. 1 and 2 illustrates more particularly our improvements for
feeding two or more openers, or two or more combined openers and lap
machines. c is the feeding lattice; b is our improved beater or any
other ordinary beater. It is provided with a disc or partition (6%), which

page_text: works as close as possible to a partition in the grid bars, and one (6)
forming a division of the outlet channel from the beater, which is thus
formed into two branches or pipes d, one conveying the material to one
opener (e), the other to the other opener or combined opener and lap
machine (f), the outline of which is only represented in Fig. 2.
In carrying out the second part of our Invention we arrange the
beaters on a horizontal shaft (e), which beaters may be either conical
and adapted to a conical cage or grating, or the beaters may be cylin-
drical in form, or the discs (e¹) (if the beater is formed of discs) may be
made of large diameter at the entrance end of the shaft and of smaller
diameter at the outlet end, as shown in the Drawings in Fig. 2. We
prefer to make the lower part of the first half of the cage for the beaters
of the ordinary grid bars (e) or our improved grid bars herein-after
described, and the remainder of the cage (e³) of our improved substitute
for grid bars, as shown in Fig. 5. But the outlet part of the cage
for about six inches in length all round is made plain and without
grid bars or perforations of any kind, as shown at e', Fig. 6. The surface
used as a substitute for grid bars is illustrated (full size) by Figs. 7, 8,
and 9. It may be described as a plate (e) having a series of holes (e*)
each with a projecting lip as shown, and may be made by casting or
punching and shaping. Our improved construction and arrangement of
grid bars is shown by Figs. 10 and 11, the edges of the bars are formed
with notches or teeth (es) arranged as shewn.
In our improved opener the material is fed in at the top, and it is
acted upon by the beaters, and then passes in the lengthway of the
beaters, and out at the top side at the end of the beater through the orifice
which is in communication with a chamber (9) in which a cylindrical
cage (g) is working that is in connection with an exhaust fan, all of the
ordinary construction and arrangement, and as illustrated in Figs. 1
and 2. In the channels (e) passing along the upper side of the opener
(see Figs. 5 and 6) there are several openings all covered by lids (e)
except one, through which the materials enters to be worked, and the
degree of working to which it is to be subjected can be regulated by
admitting it nearer to or further from the outlet by uncovering the
required opening and covering that previously open. This may be
done most conveniently by making the channel (e) with a hinged
lid (e), which can be readily opened to get access to the covers (e),
or slides may be used to regulate the admission.

page_text: We have now particularly described the nature of our Invention,
and the mode of carrying it into effect, and claim as our Invention,-
Firstly. The combination of a feeding lattice and beater with an
opener in which the material passes in the direction of the axis of the
beater or with such openers when combined with lap machines, sub-
stantially as herein-before described and illustrated by the Drawings.
Secondly. The combination of a feeding lattice and beater so arranged
as to feed two or more opening machines or lap machines or combined
opening and lap machines, substantially as herein-before described and
illustrated by the Drawings.
Thirdly. The arrangement of the spikes or teeth on discs of beaters
when combined with feed rollers, substantially in the manner and for the
purpose herein-before described and illustrated by the Drawings.
Fourthly. The arrangement of openers so that the material is fed into
and delivered from the upper side of the beater, substantially as herein-
before described and illustrated by the Drawings.
Fifthly. The arrangement of the openers so as to admit the material
nearer to or further from the outlet, substantially as herein-before
described and illustrated by the Drawings.
Sixthly. The use and application of the plates with perforations and
projecting lips as an entire or partial substitute for the ordinary grid
bars in opening machines, and the construction and arrangement of bars
with teeth and spaces for opening and cleaning machines, substantially
as herein-before described and illustrated by the Drawings.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Taft and John Charles
Edwards, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twelfth
day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy.
30 Witness,
PETER J. LIVSEY,
Patent Agent,
Manchester.
JOHN TAFT.
(L.S.)
JOHN CHARLES EDWARDS. (L.S.)