IMPROVEMENTS IN CLEANING COTTON AND COTTON SEEDS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th October
1867. A communication from abroad by Felix Figon, of Paris, in the
Empire of France.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of No. 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CLEANING COTTON AND COTTON SEEDS, AND IN THE
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," a communication to me from
abroad by Felix Figon, of Paris, in the Empire of France, to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to a mode of and apparatus for treating cotton
in the state in which it is picked or gathered with a view to the removal
therefrom of the pods or husks and other like foreign matters adhering thereto;
also to an apparatus for cleaning or sifting the cotton seeds after they have
been separated from the cotton by any suitable cotton gin.
In carrying out this Invention the cotton in the state in which it has been
picked or gathered, namely, whilst still enclosed in the pod, is thrown into a
receptacle provided with a discharging hopper, which discharges the cotton
pods into a wire gauze or perforated metal cylinder, along the interior of which
there is disposed a rotatory shaft or spindle carrying a number of blades or
arms arranged in a heleodical manner along the surface of the same. On
imparting a rotatory motion to this spindle by means of a strap and driving
pulley or otherwise the cotton will be freed from the pods, which will fall
through. the cylinder on to an inclined spout, and be thereby discharged

page_text: into a basket or other convenient receptacle if desired. The cotton itself
will be urged along the cylinder by the spiral rotatory blades, and will be
discharged at the end thereof on to the inclined floor or surface by a
chamber which is provided with a spiked or pegged roller, such roller
reaching nearly in contact with the inclined floor, which latter at the part
nearest to the roller is also provided with spikes or pegs, between which
those on the roller pass when rotating. The action of the revolving spiked
roller and stationary spiked surface is to disintegrate or open out the cotton
and remove therefrom any remaining portions of pods, husks, or other like
extraneous substances still adhering to the cotton. After passing under the
action of the spiked roller the cotton enters another wire gauze or perforated
metal cylinder provided like the first with a revolving spindle and heleodical
arms or blades which finally act upon the cotton before it is collected in
baskets or other receptacles. At this stage the cotton is freed from the
cotton seeds which are still contained therein by any well-known or suitable
arrangement of cotton gin, after which the cotton is ready for manu-
facturing purposes. The seeds which have been removed by the cotton
gin are sifted or cleansed from foreign matter by introducing them into an
inclined wire screen, by preference of a rectangular section, and a sharp
vibratory motion on its longitudinal axis is imparted to this screen by a lever
and crank eccentric in order that the refuse may be shaken through the
openings in the screen whilst the good seed is discharged at the mouth thereof
ready dressed for the market.