IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON PICKING AND CLEANING MACHINERY
Year: 1887

page_text: Now know ye that I, William HENRY GOLDSMITH, of Fall River, in the County of
Bristol, and State of Massachusetts, United States of America, Cotton Spinner, do
hereby declare the nature of my invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON PICKING AND
CLEANING MACHINERY, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be parti-
cularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being
had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this Specification :-
:―
My invention relates to cotton-working machinery, generally employed in the
preliminary working of bale cotton, to open out, clean and form the same into a clean,
light and soft fleece called lap. My invention is here illustrated, as embodied in a
particular kind of machine, known as a combined opener and lapper, in which the former
consists. essentially, in a picker or scutcher for opening out the tufted and matted
bale-cotton and extracting the dirt and foreign matter therefrom, and the latter
consists in gauze drums or catching and lapping devices for forming the cleaned cotton
into lap. As is well known, this class of machinery exists in variously combined
forms. My invention relates, particularly, to the devices in such combinations, wherein
suction draughts are employed for blowing the cotton, as it is beaten or whipped, as
hereinafter fully explained.
The objects of my invention are to provide a machine for working cotton, whereby
the bale-cotton is opened out, cleaned and formed into an even lap, in a rapid and
efficient manner, and whereby the cotton is rendered very clean and lapped with
comparatively little manipulation.
To the above ends my invention consists, essentially, in the provision of a casing or
housing of a picking or cleaning device, with peculiar air-ways or inlets, and further
in the combinations and constructions of said air-ways, all as hereinafter fully described
and claimed.
In the accompanying drawings illustrating my invention ;-
Figure 1 represents a side view of a portion of a combined opener-lapper, illustrating
the employment of both the primary and modified forms of my invention. The view
is shown partly in broken and full lines and with some parts as broken away and in
secton.

page_text: Figure 2 represents a perspective view of a portion of a single air-tube of my
construction.
Figure 3 represents a perspective view of portions of a series of air-tubes, as
constructed and combined in my invention.
In the said drawings like numbers of reference designate corresponding parts
throughout.
Referring to the drawings 6 designates a portion of the side-frame of part of an
ordinary form of a combined cotton opener and lapper machine. The casing or
housing 7 of the opening or picking devices consists of an approximately cylindrical
shaped drum having suitable closed or solid ends in order to form a suitable imper-
forate or closed housing for the pickers or openers. At one side of casing 7 is formed
a longitudinally disposed feed-opening 10 near to which are arranged a pair of feed-
rolls 8 which in case of the initial picker at the right hand are fed by the endless
feed-apron 9, running on suitable revolving rollers, and shown in portion. Nearly
opposite the feed-opening 10 the delivery-chute 11 is set into the casing 7, longitu-
dinally thereof. The rotary shaft 12 lies in the axial line of the cleaning device and
is suitably provided with beaters or whippers 13. The heaters are suitably actuated
and cooperate with the feed-rolls and perform their functions in a manner well known.
The general and ordinary construction of the picking or cleaning devices shown are
similar.
The sifting gratings or grids 15 are a series of bars or equivalents, placed as shown,
in the bottom of the delivery-chute 11, and are provided with the dead-air chambers 16
beneath them. The delivery-chutes 11 lead directly into the trunks or passages 17,
which open widely onto the wire-gauze drums 18 and 19, placed as shown and
suitably mounted and actuated to revolve on their respective axes.
The feed-rolls 21
are arranged and operate at the mouth of the passage way 20, which leads to the feed-
opening 10 of the left hand cleaning device. The gratings or grids 23 are set in
the casing 7 longitudinally thereof and near the bottom of the same. The suction
or exhaust fans 24 are placed at points intermediate of the cleaning devices and
the gauze drums or catchers and are arranged so as to effect a suction draught for said
drums by means of the ordinary suction flues 14 constructed in a well known
manner, and to in nowise affect the parts above thein or to the sides opposite the
drums, as these points are securely closed or air-tight. So far this description is of
an old form of machine, which in addition to what is shown has the bottom of the
casings of the cleaners quite completely supplied with grids, like the grids 23, and
these grids in the old form alluded to are well supplied with air-currents from
below which pass up through the same. In the old form of machine the air being
freely admitted to the grids, at the bottom of the cleaning devices, the air-currents
were forced up from beneath said grids, as the dirt and foreign matter were supposed
to fall down through the grids, when the cotton was whipped or beaten over the
grids. By this construction, the exhaust-fans, which cooperate with the gauze drums,
were supplied with air coming up through the grids, through the chute and trunk and
through the gauze drums. Such a construction is manifestly inefficient for the
purpose of the machine, and requires frequent handling of the cotton in order to
thoroughly clean it, for the reason that the grids at the bottom of the cleaners or
pickers, where they are most necessary, were supplied solely with live air, thereby
defeating the purpose of the same to a great extent.
My invention seeks to remedy the above referred to defect, by constructing the
housing or casing of the pickers or cleaners, substantially closed or imperforate, and
arranging the grids with dead-air chambers beneath them, and supplying the
exhaust-fans with air introduced from the exterior to the interior of the cleaning-
devices, at definite places in the housing or casing of said devices, by means of the
perforated air-tubes. Considering now the embodiment of my invention with the
inachine here shown, the air-tubes 26 are, as shown, four sided and with one face
perforated, as at 27, and have one or both ends opened to freely admit air. These
may be constructed of sheet-metal, wood, or any suitable material, and they form the
air-ways or supplies of my invention. One or more of these tubes 26 are fixed

page_text: longitudinally across the bottom of the casings 7 of the cleaning devices and may
displace several or all of the grids 23, according to the number of air-tubes used.
The air-tubes are arranged with the perforated portions of their bodies and the open
ends in communication with the interiors and exteriors respectively of the casings of
the cleaning devices. Below the air-tubes 26, and below the grids 23 when used, I
construct still or dead air chambers 29, and I close practically all parts of the
housings or casings of the cleaning devices, which are provided with the feed and
delivery openings, as above described. By virtue of this construction, it will be seen
that the only means of entrance of the air-supply for the fans is practically from the
side of the machine into the open ends of the air-tubes 26, as per the arrows shown,
through the perforations 27 and about the interior of the housing, over the grids
when therein used, out of the delivery-chute and over the grids therein, through the
trunk to the gauze drums or catchers, and so to the fan.
When a series of the air-tubes 26 are employed, as shown in the drawings in the
right-hand cleaner, I construct them quite narrow and space them slightly from one
another, so that considering the group of the tubes 26, a grid is formed of
themselves, and by virtue of the spaces between, leading into a dead-air chamber 29
below, the dust can readily drop out of the cotton passing thereover, down through
the dead-air spaces, immediately upon being loosened by the air-currents from the
perforations 27.
It is to be observed that the air-tubes 26 may be of any desired cross-section and
may have more or less perforations, and may be set in the casing of the picker or
cleaner drum at any place. When the perforated air-tubes are used as I have shown
them, in the picker or cleaner drum, at the right hand of Figure 1, the tubes
perform the function of a hollow, perforated grid-bar, through which the air supplies
may be obtained, as hereinbefore described. It is evident that these air-tubes can be
used with most any ordinary form, of a drum or cylinder of a cotton picking or
cleaning device, or any analogous device.
In cleaning and opening out bale-cotton by beating and blowing the same, the
blowing, or use of the air-currents, forms a most important feature of the process,
since the more perfect the supply and arrangement of said currents of air, the more
rapidly and perfectly is the cotton cleaned and opened out, so that when the soft
fleece cotton is caught by the catchers and lapped, the lap is rendered evener.
claim these advantages for my invention, and since my construction admits of the
cotton being more rapidly finished as lap, the cotton is manipulated accordingly less,
which is an important advantage in this art.
Į
Beyond the trunk 17 of the left-hand cleaner another set of cotton catching or
lapping mechanisms, similar to that shown, may be supposed to be arranged, as is
the case generally in this class of machinery wherein the above described process is
repeated several times, before the cotton goes to the finisher lapper or evener.
It is obvious that my invention may be readily employed in the cleaning and
opening out of any fiber material otherwise than cotton, as herein alluded to, and
that various modifications may be made in the several parts of my invention,
without a substantial departure from the spirit of the same, as herein described and
claimed.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is ;-
Claim 1. The combination with a picker or cleaner drum provided with a feed and
a delivery opening, of one or more air-tubes perforated, substantially as described,
and having one or both ends thereof open, said air-tubes placed in the casing of said
drum with the perforations opening into the interior of the drum, substantially as and
for the purpose herein described.
2. The combination with a picker or cleaner drum provided with a feed and a
delivery opening, and provided with grids having a dead air chamber, of one or more
open air-tubes having perforations in the sides thereof, and said tubes placed in the
casing of the drum, substantially as and for the purpose herein described.

page_text: 3. The combination with a picker or cleaner drum mounted horizontally, as
described, and provided with a feed and a delivery opening, of a set of perforated
air-tubes or hollow grid-bars set in the bottom of the casing of said drum with
inter-spaces, and a dead-air chamber beneath said set of air tubes, substantially as and
for the purpose herein described.
4. The combination with a picker or cleaner drum provided with a feed and a
delivery opening, substantially as described, of grids set in the bottom of the casing
of said drum, a set of spaced, perforated air-tubes placed in the bottom of said
casing, a dead-air chamber disposed beneath said grids and the set of air-tubes,
substantially as and for the purpose herein described.
5. The combination with a picker or cleaner drum provided with a feed-opening
and with a delivery-chute provided with a feed-opening and with a delivery-chute
having dead-air gratings in the bottom thereof, of one or more perforated air-tubes
set in the bottom of said drum and slightly spaced from each other, a dead-air
chamber arranged beneath said tubes, catching or lapping mechanism disposed near
the exit of the delivery-chute, an exhaust-fan coacting with said mechanism
substantially as described, whereby a suction draught may be created from the
exterior of said drum through the air-tubes and through the interior of the drum,
thence through the chute to said mechanism, substantially as and for the purpose
described.
6. The combination with a picker drum or analogous fiber working device, of the
open perforated air-tubes or hollow grid-bars, disposed in the walls of said drum or
device, substantially as herein described.
7. The combination with a picker or cleaner drum provided with a feed and a
delivery opening, of one or more of the air-tubes or hollow grid-bars 26 having
perforations 27, substantially as and for the purpose herein described.
Dated this 3rd day of July & D 1886