IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON GINS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to François Durand, of Paris, France, Mechanical
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON GINS."
Sealed the 22nd April 1864, and dated the 30th October 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the. said François Durand at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th October 1863.
I, FRANÇOIS DURAND, of Paris, France, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby.
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON GINS,'
to be as follows:-
These improvements relate to some of the principal working parts of the
apparatus described in my Patent of 4th November 1862, numbered 2977,
arranged in certain different ways for ginning cotton, viz., depriving the same
of the seeds, and also to certain modifications in the mode of acting on the
cotton and the seeds. In principle, I continue to make use, in respect to the
motion and mode of acting, of what has been described in the Provisional
Specification, and also of the arrangements represented in the Drawings of the
said Patent.

page_text: In Sheet 1 of the Drawings here annexed is represented again Fig. 2 of
the Drawings of the Final Specification of my said Patent of Nov. 4th.
The motions of the working parts remaining the same, I have only to describe
the improvements relating to the cleansing or ginning parts, and their mode
of acting. The feed rollers f and f¹ are covered with india-rubber or any
other suitable elastic yielding material for allowing the raw cotton and the
seeds to pass between them. The ginning rollers i and i¹ are made of metal;
the surface of these rollers i may be smooth, but I prefer having the surface
of the roller provided with fine longitudinal flutings or corrugations either
straight or helicoidel round the surface of the roller i¹. I prefer, also, to
have wound a sheet of parchment fixed thereto with one of its ends, whereas
the opposite end remains free in order that the sheet may constantly apply
itself regularly over the entire surface of the roller. Both rollers and i¹ are
of a comparatively very small diameter, and revolve nearly in close contact to
each other, leaving only sufficient space for the cotton but not for the seeds
to pass between them, and thereby expel these latter from the cotton, and
cause them, by the effect of the revolving to-and-fro motion of the drum K, to
fall on the inclined board o when acted upon by the brush n, whereas the
cotton deprived of its seeds, falls in the open part k¹.
Sheet 2 of the annexed Drawings shows again the arrangement repre-
sented in Fig. 4 of the Final Specification of my said.Patent of November
4th, 1862, certain modifications being made in its mode of working. The
rollers and f¹ and the feeding apron e remain the same; the rollers i
and are arranged similar to those i and ¹ of Sheet 1 here annexed,
and as they follow the motions of the drum k to which they belong, they
cause the entire seeds to be thrown alternately on the inclined board a and on
that a; the cleansed cotton, on leaving the ginning rollers i, i¹, is taken
hold of by the rollers u and u³, both of the same diameter, but turning with
unequal speed and in the same direction, in order thereby to procure a drawing
and stretching of the cotton, and cause the same to fall in the open part k¹
of the drum k.
Sheet 3 of the annexed Drawings represents an arrangement similar to that
of Sheet 2, but the ginning and the drawing or stretching of the cotton takes,
place in a rectilinear manner; f and f¹ are the feed rollers; i and ¹ are the
ginning rollers, viz., those for separating the seeds from the cotton; the
rollers u and u¹ procure the drawing and stretching of the cotton which is
delivered by the effect of the endless cloth u²; u³ acts as a pressing roller and
for clearing the endless cloth u³ of any cotton adhering thereto. This roller u³
is situated above the one u*; the seeds fall on the inclined board A.. All the

page_text: rollers turn in the same direction, and are moved by the driving gear repre-
sented in dotted lines.
Sheet 4 represents some of the above-described working parts combined in
a cotton gin, more particularly intended to be driven by hand. The machine
consists of a frame formed of two cheeks A fixed on a bed plate B with
central opening B. The two cheeks A are kept apart by two partitions C
and C, forming a guide funnel for the ginned or cleansed cotton; i and i¹ are
the ginning rollers for separating the seeds from the cotton in the manner as
has been described above in respect to Sheets 1, 2, and 3; u and u' are the
drawing or stretching rollers for the cleansed cotton. The operative feeds
the machine with his left hand in D, and by means of the handle E with his
right turns the fly wheel E', which by means of the gearing G, G, G³, causes
the roller i¹ to turn the latter, driving the roller i; by means of proper gear
the wheel G in a similar manner drives the roller u¹. H is a regulating screw
for setting the roller u at the required distance apart from the one i; H¹ is a
guide carrying the roller u¹ for regulating the distance between this roller
and the one ¹. The feeding of the machine takes place in D, whilst the
cleansed or ginned cotton falls in J and the seeds in K.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said François Durand in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th April 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANÇOIS
DURAND, of Paris, France, Mechanical Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said François Durand, Her special licence that I, the said François
Durand, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said François Durand, my 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
COTTON GINS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said François

page_text: Durand, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 I, the said François Durand, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
These improvements relate to some of the main working parts of the
apparatus described in my Patent of 4 November, 1862, No. 2977, the said
parts being combined together in certain different manners from that described
in the said Patent for cleansing or depriving raw cotton of its seeds; and
also to certain modifications in the mode of acting on the cotton and the seeds
adhering thereto. In principle I retain, in respect to the motion and mode
of acting, what has been described in the Provisional Specification, and illus-
trated in the Drawings relating thereto, of the said Patent of 4 Nov. 1862,
and illustrated also in the Drawings belonging to the Final Specification of
the said Patent.
In the Drawings here annexed are represented various arrangements of
cotton gins; the same main working parts are made use of in all of them.
The difference between these arrangements consist merely in the different
manners in which the said parts are combined together and work; the said
arrangements being provided with a pair of ginning or cleansing rollers, the
surface of one of which may be smooth, but preferably provided with fine
helicoidal nearly straight flutings or channels, whereas the other roller is
covered over its entire surface with a sheet of parchment, one end of which is
fixed to the roller according to the generatrix of the latter; whereas the other
end is left free so as to allow of being stretched over the surface of the roller
by the revolving motion of this latter in the required direction. By the effect,
of the revolving motion of the said ginning, rollers i and i¹, and their being
nearly in close contact with each other, they will act in drawing the cotton
fibres between them, and allow the said fibres to pass, whereas the seeds will
be prevented from passing between them, and consequently the said seeds
will forcibly be separated and fully expelled from the fibres without in the
least becoming crushed. For feeding the apparatus with raw cotton to be
ginned, I continue also using the feed rollers f, f¹, covered with india-rubber
or other suitable elastic material, so that the said rollers are sufficiently

page_text: yielding for allowing the raw cotton and seeds, in proceeding towards the
ginning rollers, to pass between the said feeding rollers f, f¹. For drawing
the cleansed cotton from between or off the ginning rollers i, i¹, I also continue
to make use of the drawing rollers u, u¹, which, taking hold of the cleansed or
ginned cotton at the same time, exercise a suitable stretching or drawing
action for laying the fibres as much as possible parallel to each other, the said
drawing rollers revolving with unequal speed, whilst a discharging endless belt
is laid over the lower roller for carrying the cleansed cotton at the required
distance out of the gin.
In Sheet 1 of the Drawings of the Provisional Protection of the present
Patent is represented again, in order to remember the arrangement shown in
the Drawing of the Provisional Protection of my Patent of 4 Nov. 1862,
and of Fig. 2 of the Drawings of the Final Specification of the said Patent
of 4 Nov. 1862.
The motions of the main parts remaining the same, I have only to describe
the improvements relating to the said parts by which the ginning or cleansing
of the raw cotton is more especially performed, and the mode of acting of
the said parts, which are entirely similar to those above mentioned, viz., the
feed rollers f, f, the ginning or cleansing rollers i, ¹, and the drawing
rollers u, u¹.
Fig. 1 of the annexed Drawings represents the arrangement already
described in my said Patent of 4 Nov. 1862, but in which arrangement I
cause the ginning rollers i, i¹, to act so as to expell the seeds from the raw
cotton without crushing or in the least altering the said seeds; in this Fig.
the feed rollers f, f¹, are allowed to revolve in a fixed position. The ginning
rollers i, i¹, revolve in opposite directions to each other, and so close to each
other that by simply pressing the raw cotton the seeds are expelled therefrom-
without crushing them, whereas the thus cleansed cotton passes between the
said rollers, whilst the seeds are thrown on the inclines a and a', the cleansed:
cotton being further taken hold of by the drawing rollers u, u³, the surface of
which latter is smooth, and serves at the same time for stripping the cleansed
cotton from the ginning rollers, the said cleansed cotton being carried out of
the engine by means of the endless belt d.
Fig. 2 represents a transverse sectional view on a larger scale than the
remainder of the Figures of the lower ginning roller ', which, as has been
mentioned before, is provided with a sheet of parchment, indicated by red
lines, fixed to the said roller either by means of a ledge or by inserting one of
its sides in a longitudinal slit of the roller, and fixing this side by screws or

page_text: other means, whereas the remainder of the sheet remaining free may apply
itself evenly over the entire surface of the roller.
Fig. 3 represents in side elevation view my system of ginning apparatus
working in a rectilinear manner; the feed ginning and drawing rollers revolve
in fixed positions, as represented separately in longitudinal sectional view in
Fig. 4 for these parts. The feed rollers f, f¹, carry the raw cotton towards
the ginning rollers i, i¹, which latter expell the seeds therefrom, and cause
these latter to fall on the inclined board o, whereas the rollers u, u¹, draw
forward the cleansed cotton. 2, 21, are the rollers for moving the endless
belts e and e¹, the first one e being the feeding, and the other e¹ the discharging
belt is a friction roller, the trunnions of which revolve freely in a slot
hole 23, so as to allow the said roller to press by its own weight on the cleansed
cotton on the belt e', and thus prevent the said cotton from being carried again
towards the rollers u, u¹.
The apparatus consists of a cast-iron or other suitable frame, composed of
two standards B, connected by cross stays, in which standards the trunnions
of the above-mentioned sets or pairs of rollers revolve in suitable bearings;
the rollers of each pair are connected and work together by suitable gearing,
and motion is communicated to them from any suitable prime mover by any
suitable mechanical means; thus, for instance, the fast and loose pulleys D
are situated on the main arbor E; this latter carries a pinion E¹, driving the
wheel E, the arbor E3 of which has a pinion E* driving the wheel E³, the
arbor E of which is provided with a pinion E', driving the wheel E³ fixed on
the arbor E, this latter provided with pinion E, driving the wheel Eu fixed
on the arbor E of the lower feed roller f¹, whereas the trunnions of the
upper feed roller f work in an upper bearing depressed by the cap H. Both
rollers work together either by simple friction or by being connected by
pinions. On the main arbor E is fixed a wheel G driving the pinion G¹
situated on the arbor G³, this latter provided with a wheel G³, driving the
lower ginning roller ¹, viz., the one provided with the sheet of parchment,
above which roller i¹ the upper ginning roller i has its trunnions pressed down
in the slot by the cap H' acted upon by a spring H³, whilst both rollers
work together by means of suitable gearing pinions. The drawing rollers u, u¹,
revolve with different speed by means of the pinions J, J, the latter driven
by the wheel G¹; the said rollers u, u², may be set more or less far apart from
those i, ¹, by means of the slotted brackets K. and the bearing K¹ worked by
the set screw K².
The Figures 5 and 6 respectively represent a side and front elevation view,

page_text: and Fig. 7 in transverse sectional view of a cotton gin, more particularly
intended for being worked by manual power; in these three Figures cor-
responding parts are marked by the same letters of reference.
a is a horizontal bed plate fixed on a suitable foot or table, and in which two
standards b, b', are fixed parallel to each other, between which standards
revolve the ginning rollers i, i¹, and the drawing rollers u, u¹; e, e¹, are par-
titions for carrying the cleansed cotton underneath the machine by falling
through an opening F in the centre of the bed plate a; g is a fly wheel worked
by a handle g; this fly wheel turns loose on a short arbor h, and drives the
wheelt in gear with a similar wheel j, turning also on a short arbor k. The
wheel j, by means of the pinions 1, 11, 13, drives the ginning rollers i, ¹, and.
by means of the pinion m, also the lower drawing roller u¹, to the arbor of
which latter is fixed the pinion % in gear with the pinion n', driving the
upper drawing roller u. The rollers u¹, u, are made of iron, and highly
polished, so as to have a very smooth surface, and as their diameter exceeds
that of the ginning rollers they will procure the proper drawing forward of
the cleansed cotton. Over the roller u is laid an endless belt v, passing over
the roller for carrying off the cleansed cotton; the rollers u, u', may be set
more or less far apart from those i, i¹, by means of the slotted bearings z, z¹.
The upper ginning roller i is provided, as has been mentioned above, with
helicoidal flutings or channels. To the lower ginning roller i¹ is fixed the
sheet of parchment spoken of above, and shown by red lines; the trunnions
of the upper rollers i and u revolve in bearings which are allowed to move up
and down in the vertical slots w, w', which bearings are pressed by caps y
acted upon by springs y¹. For working the apparatus, the operative with his
right hand causes the fly wheel to revolve, and with his left presents the cotton
to be cleaned to the ginning rollers i, i¹; the cleansed cotton falls through
the opening F, whereas the seeds fall at F¹.
Having thus described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
Invention, and the manner in which the same is put into effect, I wish it to
be understood that I do not intend to restrict or restrain myself to the precise
details here-above described and illustrated in the Drawings, as many
variations may be made therefrom without deviating from the main features
or principles of acting on which my arrangements or the main working parts
5 of the same are based; but what I consider to be novel and original, and
therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent, is,
1ly, the general arrangement of the various apparatuses.
2ly, the combining in cotton gins of the ginning rollers i and ¹, one of

page_text: which provided with suitable longitudinal flutings or channels and the other
with a sheet of parchment, in the manner as described, and by means of which
rollers i, i¹, thus combined, the cotton is deprived of its seeds without these
latter becoming crushed.
In witness whereof, I, the said François Durand, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eigth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
DREYFOUS,
Eng. Civil.
FOIS DURAND. (L.S.)