IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS US COMMONLY CALLED 'GINS' FOR CLEANING COTTON FROM SEEDS."
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Platt, of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster,
Mechanical Engineer, and William Richardson, of the same Place,
Mechanical Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
OR APPARATUS
US COMMONLY CALLED 'GINS' FOR CLEANING COTTON FROM SEEDS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Platt and William
Richardson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 17th December 1861.
We, JOHN PLATT, of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster, Mechanical
Engineer, and WILLIAM RICHARDSON, of the same Place, Mechanical Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS COMMONLY CALLED 'GINS,' FOR CLEANING COTTON FROM
SEEDS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates, firstly, to apparatus which acts as a transferring comb
for conveying the material to the rollers in a prepared condition, after the
manner described in the Specification of a Patent granted to us 6th June 1861,
No. 1439, and also to other apparatus used for agitating the material or
pushing it forward towards the rollers, and consists in so forming such appa-
ratus that it shall yield to any undue resistance. Thus, if a connecting rod be
employed, we cause it act through the agency of springs which may be caused
to collapse by such resistance as aforesaid.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Platt and William Richardson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 14th June 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
PLATT, of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster, Mechanical Engineer, and
WILLIAM RICHARDSON, of the same Place, Mechanical Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said John Platt and William Richardson, Her special license that we, the
said John Platt and William Richardson, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said John Platt and William Richardson,
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 MACHINERY
OR APPARATUS COMMONLY CALLED 'GINS,' FOR CLEANING COTTON FROM SEEDS,'
upon the condition, amongst others, that we, the said John Platt and William
Richardson, 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 Platt and William Richardson,
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 (and accompanying Drawings) (that is to
say):-
Our Invention relates, firstly, to apparatus which acts as a transferring
comb for conveying the material to the rollers in a prepared condition after

page_text: the manner described in the Specification of a Patent granted to us Fifth June,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, No. 1439, and also to other appa-
ratus used for agitating the material or pushing it forward towards the rollers,
and consists in so forming such apparatus that it shall yield to any undue
resistance. Thus, if a connecting rod be employed, we cause it to act
through the agency of springs, which may be caused to collapse by such
resistance as aforesaid.
Secondly, our Invention consists in the adaptation of weights to the rollers
of roller gins, for the purpose of causing the one to bear against the other.
The first of these improvements is shewn at Figs. 1, 2, and 3 of the
accompanying Drawing. The first of these represents a portion of the roller
gin described in the Specification of our Patent dated Fifth June, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one aforesaid, and Figs. 2 and 3 are partial
views of the "Macarthey" gin referred to in the said Specification, to both
of which arrangements the first part of our present Invention is applied.
Fig. 4 is a detached view of the elastic connecting rod. The small letters of
reference correspond to those upon the Drawings of our former Specifi-
cation, and the capital letters of reference are used to describe our present
improvement.
In Fig. 1 the transferring comb is at h, vibrating upon a centre at g, and i
is the lever fixed upon the shaft g, and by means of which the vibrations are
communicated to the comb. In our former Specification the lever i received
motion from a rigid connecting rod, but instead of that we now employ an
elastic medium, a convenient method of applying which is as follows:-The
crank pin is connected to a block A, to which are attached two rods B;
these rods pass through a second block C, which is carried by the lever i, and
they are so adapted as to be capable of sliding therein. Around the rods B
are placed coiled springs D, their ends being confined by the two blocks A, C,
and it is through the medium of these springs, therefore, that the vibrating
motion is communicated to the transferring comb h. During the proper
working of the machine the parts above described may act as an ordinary
connecting rod; but should an undue resistance to the comb take place then
the springs D will collapse and allow the rods B to slide in the block C, and
thus neutralize the action of the crank 1.
In Figs. 2 and 3, this arrangement is shewn as applied to a " Macarthey"
gin. The small letters of reference, as in the former instance, being used to
indicate parts pointed out by corresponding letters of reference in our former
Specification aforesaid. The transferring comb is at n, mounted upon a
shaft k, to which a vibrating motion is communicated by a crank carried by

page_text: the axis of the ordinary roller a, which roller, however, has a series of spiral
right-and-left-handed grooves chased thereon. To the crank is connected
the block A, and to the lever on the shaft k the other block C, there being
rods B and springs D between the two, as before described, and the operation
thereof is precisely the same.
In reference to this part of our Invention we would observe that although
we have shewn one method of obtaining an elastic vibratory motion, yet we
do not confine ourselves thereto, as other methods may be adapted whereby
the power is transmitted through parts which will yield to an undue resistance.
In the aforesaid description also we have alluded to a transferring comb as
the part which is to be put in motion; but this part of our Invention is also
applicable to instruments which are used to act upon the material as agitators
only, or to simply push it towards the rollers.
The next part of our Invention is shewn at Fig. 1, before referred to, and
also at Fig. 5, which is a plan view of Fig. 1. At 6, 6, are the ordinary
rollers by which the seeds are removed from the cotton. Above the steps of the
former of these are sliding pieces G pressed downwards by means of levers H
turning upon fulcrums at I, and connected together at their outward ends by
a weight K, and thus the requisite pressure of the one roller upon the other
is obtained. This is the method we adopt for accomplishing this part of our
Invention; but it will be obvious that other arrangements may be used which
will act upon the same principle.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of our said Invention,
and the manner of carrying the same into effect, we desire it be understood
that we claim as secured to us under the above in part recited Letters
Patent,―
Firstly, the use of the elastic connexion of the vibrating comb or other
apparatus, as aforesaid.
Secondly, as applied to roller gins, causing the one roller to bear upon the
other by means of a weight or weights.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Platt and William Richardson,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Thirteenth day of June,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.