Improvements in Wool Washing or Scouring Machines.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Feb., 1895
Complete Specification Left, 21st Nov., 1895-Accepted, 4th Jan., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Wool Washing or Scouring Machines.
We, MARK MUSGREAVE, Machinist, of 1326 Chestnut Street, and JOHN
HEWETSON LORIMER, Manufacturer, of 201 East Cheltan Avenue, Germantown,
both of Philadelphia, in the County of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania,
United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to wool washing or scouring machines in which the wool
is carried through the liquor in the tank by means of a travelling conveyor provided
with depending rakes.
It is the object of the invention to produce a machine of this character of
compact, simple and economical construction and to enable the wool to be moved
positively, and to be easily carried through the liquor and delivered to the squeeze
rolls.
For this purpose a series of rakes are employed which are loosely connected with
a travelling conveyor so as to be free normally to depend by gravity, in combination
with guides or ways arranged along the tank and extending to a point adjacent to
the squeeze rolls. This guide way is adapted to act upon the rakes and lock them
with reference to the conveyor while they are travelling through the tanks and
until they reach the squeeze rolls.
When the rakes pass from the guide they become unlocked and are free to swing
with a more or less vertical position by gravity. The rakes remain rigid with
reference to the travelling conveyor, until they deliver the wool to the squeeze
rollers, and are then released and permitted to swing back into a more or less
vertical position. By this means the rakes may be caused to carry the wool
directly to the squeeze rolls so that a much more positive and certain action is
obtained.
The preferred manner in which this invention is carried out is as follows:
A perforated diaphragm is arranged within the tank at a suitable distance below
the liquor level and the diaphragm is extended up at its delivery end to the squeeze
rolls, so that the wool may rest upon the diaphragm as it is carried by the travelling
rakes until it is delivered by them to the rolls.
The conveyor preferably consists of two endless chains passing over suitable
sprocket wheels arranged above the tank and driven in any convenient manner.
Suspended from these chains are the rakes, which normally hang by gravity in a
more or less vertical position.
Arranged along the sides of the tank and extending up over the upward extension
of the diaphragm to the squeeze rolls, are suitable guides which act upon the rakes,
and lock them against movement upon their point of support while they are
travelling through the tank and up to the squeeze rolls. As soon as the rakes
pass from the guides they awing back into a vertical or substantially vertical
position and are carried on by the chains, hanging loosely until they again exter
the guides at the other end.
As the rakes pass through the upwardly inclined portions of the ways or guides
over the upward extension of the diaphragm to the squeeze rolls, they are thrown
from a vertical to an inclined position, and their end may thus travel substantially
up to the bite of the feed rolls. This is possible, because the rakes are released
from the guides or ways and are permitted to swing back into a vertical position as

page_text: soon as they have delivered to the squeeze rolls, so that they are not obstructed by
the squeeze rolls when they are carried back by the conveyor.
When the rakes thus swing back any particle of wool, that might tend to adhere
to the rake fingers, will slip off and fall back into the tank. To more effectively
accomplish this it is preferable to so support or balance the rakes that they will
swing into a position slightly to the rear of the vertical.
For guiding and locking the rakes in their passage through the guide ways, they
are preferably provided with heads or blocks on their ends adapted to enter the
guides, and these heads or blocks may have curved or inclined end faces to permit
the heads to more easily enter and leave the guides and also to turn in passing into
the upwardly inclined portion of the ways which leads to the squeeze rolls.
The wool may be submerged in the tank by means of a submerging roller located
at the rear end behind the endless conveyor and this submerging roller is preferably
provided with curved radial wings or fingers adapted to act upon the wool and force
it below the surface of the liquor.
Dated this Twelfth day of November A.D. 1894.
· Improvements in wool washing or scouring machines.
We, MARK MUSGREAVE, Machinist, of 1336 Chestnut Street, and JOHN
HEWETSON LORIMER, Manufacturer, of 201 East Cheltau Avenue, Germantown,
both of Philadelphia, in the County of Philadelphia, State of Peunsylvania,
United States of America, 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 :-
The invention relates to a wool washing machine in which the wool is carried
through the liquor in a suitable tank by means of a travelling conveyor providei
with depending rakes or frames which act upon the wool.
It is the object of the invention to produce a machine of this character of
compact simple and economical construction, and to enable the wool to be more
positively and easily carried through the liquor and delivered to the squeeze
rolls.
For this purpose we employ a series of rakes loosely connected or hinged to a
travelling conveyor so as to be normally free to depend by gravity, in combination
with a guide arranged along the tank and extending to a point adjacent to the
squeeze rolls, adapted to act upon the rakes and lock them with reference to the
conveyor while they are travelling through the tank and until they reach
the squeeze rolls so that they will act positively upon the wool to move it along.
When the rakes pass from the guide they are free to swing into a vertical position
by gravity and to remain in that position as the conveyor travels. The rakes remain
rigid until they deliver the wool to the squeeze rollers and then are released and swing
back into a vertical position, or beyond a vertical position. The rakes thus remain
rigid until they deliver the wool directly to the squeeze rollers, and as they are
released and allowed to hang vertically or substantially so after they have delivered
the wool to the rolls they may move more close to them and will not carry the wool
beyond the rolls.
As the rakes bang vertically as the conveyor passes about the guides instead of
projecting radially as would be the case if they were rigidly connected with the

page_text: conveyor, I
employed.
Is apparent that a shorter anu more compact OVERS
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Our invention also embraces novel constructions and combinations which are
hereinafter more fully described and claimed.
We shall now refer to the accompanying drawings for the purpose of more
particularly describing our improvements in which:
Fig. 1 is a side elevation, with part in vertical section of a wool washing or
Scouring machine embodying the invention ;
Fig. 2 is a perspective view of part of the conveyor and guides;
Fig. 3 is a similar view of the wool submerging roller or drum; and
Fig. 4 is a detail perspective view of part of the chain and rake of the
conveyor.
A is any suitable tank to contain the liquor.
B is a perforated diaphragm therein, through which the liquor may permeate.
C, C are the squeeze rollers at the delivery end of the tank. In the drawings
we have shown the rear end of the diaphragm B inclining upward to the squeeze
rollers.
D are a pair of endless chains which carry the rakes E and travel about suitable
pairs of sprocket wheels F, F, F, F, of which preferably one pair, as F, is
operated to drive the chain. The chains travel for a portion of their length over
the tank A so as to submerge the rakes E in the liquor.
The rakes E are pivotally connected with the chains D, as by the lateral
studs d carried by links of the chains and engaging holes g in elongated heads or
blocks G on the ends of the upper portion of the rakes, or vice versa.
These blocks
or heads G are adapted to enter ways or guides H, arranged along the top of the
tank A and adapted to lock the rakes against movement on their pivots d while
the blocks are travelling through ways H. We prefer to make the ends of the
blocks or heads with curved or inclined faces h so as to reduce friction and permit
the blocks to easily enter the ways and turn through the bend therein, where the
ways incline up to correspond with the inclination of the diaphragm B to the
rollers C, C.
The front entrance to the ways H, H, is preferably enlarged as at f to receive
the heads G.
The rakes E are provided with the depending portions or fingers I which extend
down close to or in contact with the face of the diaphragm B. As the blocks or
heads G enter the ways H and become locked against movement on their pivots
the rakes are held fixed and remain so until the blocks G pass out of the ways H
at the rear end of the machine. The rakes are thus locked while they travel over
the diaphragm B, and they will carry the wool over the diaphragm and deliver it
to the squeeze rollers C, C. When the blocks G pass from the ways H the rakes
become unlocked and are permitted to swing upon their pivots and to hang freely
until they again enter the forward ends of the ways. When released the rakes
may assume a position slightly to the rear of a vertical line. The rakes may pass
freely between the pairs of sprocket wheels F, F1, F2, F3, which are preferably
supported on independent brackets on each side of the machine. It will be
observed that as the rakes pass through the inclined portion of the ways they
are thrown from a vertical position so that their ends travel in an upwardly
inclining position to the squeeze rolls, thus carrying the wool out of the liquor
and delivering it directly to the rolls. This movement of the rakes directly to
the bite of the rolls C, C, is possible because the rakes are released and permitted
to assume a more or less vertical position immediately after they have reached
the rolls C, C. The release of the rakes E, E, so that they assume a more
or less vertical position prevents them from carrying the wool beyond the squeeze
rolls, as the wool will slip off the fingers I, I, by gravity. By supporting the
rakes so that they will swing back slightly beyond the vertical line the freeing of
the rake fingers from such portions of wool as may tend to adhere may be more
effectively accomplished.

page_text: We have shown the upper squeeze roller C carried in spring pressed bearings c
depressed by a lever or levers J resting upon the bearings c and having its free
end connected by an adjustable rod K with a leaf spring L on the frame of the
tank A. The upper end of the rod K passes through the lever J and a spring M
is interposed between the upper end of the rod and the lever. The tension of the
spring M may be regulated by a nut H on the rod.
The sprocket wheels F may be driven in any suitable manner. We have
shown them operated from a shaft O through sprocket wheels P, P¹, chain F³ and
pairs of gears P³, P₁. The gears P³ may be carried on a common shaft P and
may each gear with a gear P connected with one of the sprocket wheels F.
Qis a subinerging roller journalled over the diaphragm B in the front of the
tank, which is extended beyond the line of travel of the chains D. This
submerging roller is provided with radial wings or fingers R curved in the opposite
direction to the direction of rotation of the roller. The roller Q is journalled so
that the wings or fingers will pass into the liquor in the tank. The wool which is
thrown into the front end of the tank is depressed by the wings or fingers Raud is
submerged in the liquor. Thus the convex face of face of the wings or fingers
acts upon the wool and the wool will not adhere to the wing and be lifted from the
liquor as the fingers rise, but will freely slip from the convex face.
The wings R are shown continuous across the length of the roller. The
construction and use of the submerging roller is not material to our invention.
The wool which is submerged by the roller Q falls upon the diaphragm and rests
there until it is taken by the rakes E. It is then carried forward upon the
diaphragm through the squeeze rolls C, C, as has been described. The roller Q
may be rotated in any suitable manner, as by a sprocket chain S driven by a
sprocket wheel T on the journal of the sprocket wheel F' and passing about a
sprocket wheel T₁ on the shaft of the roller Q.
The details of construction may be varied without departing from the
invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :
The wool washing machine having the travelling conveyor carrying loosely
supported depending rakes, and provided with a rake locking guide arranged
along the tank and extending up to a point adjacent to the squeeze rolls operating
substantially in the manner and for the purposes described.
Dated this 21st day of November 1895
MARK MUSGREAVE.
JOHN H. LORIMER.
Haseltine, Lake & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, W.C., Agents for the Applicants.