IMPROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING THE FIBRES FROM COCOA NUT HUSKS
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN BARSHAM, of Chelmsford, in the County of Essex, Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria,
by Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twenty-sixth day of April, One thousand eight hundred and forty-
nine, in the twelfth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Barsham, my
exers, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, solc
privilege and authority, that I, the said John Barsham, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Barsham, my
exors, adññiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed,
my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING THE FIBRES FROM COCOA
NUT HUSKS," in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that

page_text: I, the said John Barsham, should cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and scal, to
be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in
part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said John Barsham, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and
to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:
My Invention consists, first, of the employment of crushing rollers
for partially separating and for facilitating the complete separation of
the fibres of cocoa nut husks:
And, secondly, my Invention consists of employing apparatus having
revolving surfaces with spikes or teeth, as hereafter explained, for
separating the fibres of cocoa nut husks.
And in order that my Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued
by me.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1, is a section of a series of rollers used by me; Figure 2, is
a front elevation of the same. The rollers are by preference grooved
on their surfaces, and they are caused to be driven with different
surface speed, they being geared with cog-wheels of cqual diameter,
the rollers themselves being of different diameters, such arrange-
ment producing very beneficial effects in working on cocoa nut.
lusks, the rollers acting to. crush and drag the husks, and thus
partially to separate the fibres. The machine shewn has two. pairs
of rollers, but this may be varied, and other numbers used, though I.
believe the arrangement shewn to be the best for carrying out this
part of my Invention. And I employ such rollers first in crushing the

page_text: parts of the husks of cocoa muts when in a dry state, and then when in
a wet or moist state. The pieces of the husks, as they are removed
from the nuts, are each first to have the hard point or end which grows
at the end of the husk cut off, which I do by chopping; and in this
state I pass the pieces of the husks through between the rollers by
placing them on the fixed table a, and pressing them up to the rollers,
which in their revolution take the pieces of husk, and press or crush
them, and at the same time drag the fibres by reason of the different
surface speed of the two rollers; then the second pair of rollers take
the pieces of husk, and repeat a similar process thereon. I would
remark that with hard husks this process requires to be repeated once
or even twice. The picces of husk are then put into water, and allowed
to remain therein for about two hours, or until they are thoroughly
soaked, and they are then again passed between the rollers, they being
set rather closer together; such passing of the pieces of husk in a
moist state between the rollers being repeated several times in cases of
hard husks. I would state, in respect to this part of my Invention,
that I am aware that it has before been proposed to employ rollers
with rough surfaces, but revolving in opposite directions, or so as to
cause the pieces of husk to revolve on their own axes, for the purpose
of rubbing out the matter connecting the fibres in the form of dust.
I do not therefore claim rollers when so revolving in opposite directions.
The next operation to which the pieces of husk are subjected con-
sists of causing the fibres to be submitted to a combing' process by
acting with revolving combs or surfaces set with teeth. Figure 3,
shows a plan of the machine I employ for this porpose, and Figure 4.
a transverse section of the machine; the two rollers or cylinders b, c,
are set with teeth, by preference such as is shown separately at Figure
5, but I do not confine myself to this form of tooth; and the teeth are
set to about the inclination shewn, and the rollers or cylinders move as
indicated by the arrow in Figure 4. In the front of each of the rollers
b, and c, there is placed a rest d, which is made capable of sliding to
and from their rollers or cylinders b, c. The workman holding a piece
of a cocoa nut husk places one end on the top of the rest d, and so
that it will project over the same and incline downwards, and by his

page_text: body or otherwise he will gradually press forward the rest d, and thus
bring the end of the piece of cocoa nut husk more and more in towards
the cylinder b, so as to remove the fine tuft of fibre which is on the
interior of the stalk end of the piece of cocoa nut husk. The piece
of husk is then to be operated on by the next boy or workınan by "
means of the cylinder c, for which purpose he will hold it at one end
till the fibres at that end are well combed out, and then he will turn
the other end and cause the fibres to be well combed out, the middle
portion being left partially uncombed, the piece of husk so hell being
caused to press on the rest d, which is, as before stated, to be advanced
as the process goes on. Then the piece of husk is to be passeil on to
the next boy or workman, to be operated on by the cylinder e, which
is covered with strong wire card as shewn separately, full size, at
Figure 6, by which the middle portion of the fibres will be completely
separated; the boy or workman at this cylinder holding the ends of the
fibres so that the teeth of this cylinder may penetrate and comb out
the middle portion of the fibres; and thus will the fibres be separateil
in a most complete and useful manner, the fibres remaining moist or
wet through these combing out processes.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I wonld have it understood that
I do not confine myself to the details as herein described, so long as
the peculiar character of either part of my Invention be retained. But
what I claim is,―
First, the partially separating the fibres of the husks of cocoa nuts
by passing pieces of the husks through rollers both in the dry and wet
state, as explained:
And, secondly, I claim the combing out the fibres of the husks of
cocoa nuts by causing them to be acted on by rotatory combs when
held.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Barsham, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of
October, in the year of our Lord 1849, the aforesaid John Barsham
came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written; and also the Specifi-
cation aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statuto
made for that purpose.