IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR OPENING AND CLEANING
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Suckow and Edward Habel, of the City
of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Engineers, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR OPENING AND CLEANING
Scaled the 14th March 1862, and dated the 18th September 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Suckow and
Edward Habel at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 18th September 1861.
We, EDMUND SUCKOW and EDWARD HABEL, of the City of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR OPENING AND
CLEANING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
Our improvements in machinery or apparatus for opening and cleaning
cotton and other fibrous materials consist of a shaft capable of rotating in suit-
able bearings, having a cone fixed upon it, to which spiral or screw vanes are
attached; this arrangement is surrounded by a fixed cylindrical casing, having
screw blades or vanes secured to its inner periphery. The front edges of the
screw vanes upon the cone describe a plane at a right angle to the shaft, and
are made either with or without teeth, and act upon the cotton or other fibrous
material fed to them by means of toothed or fluted rollers, or other suitable
arrangements; thus, by the rotation of the shaft, the screw vanes not only act
upon the cotton or other fibrous material, so as to detach and open it and
drive out the seeds and other matters, but at the same time produce a strong
current or blast of air, which propels the detached fibrous material into and
through a chamber formed by a fixed cone joining up to the rotating cone,
(both together making a double cone with their bases together) and a conical

page_text: continuation of the cylindrical casing. Portions of the exterior casing of this
chamber are made of network, which permits the dust and other foreign
matters detached from the fibrous material to be carried away by the blast
or current of air, but retains the loose fibro (thus freed from dust and other
matters,) and delivers it to a suitable arrangement of rollers or other
mechanism for making the same into "laps," if required.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edmund Suckow and Edward Habel in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 17th March 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDMUND
Suckow and EDWARD HABEL, of the City of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Iler Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of IIer reign,
did, for Herself, IIer heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Edmund Suckow and Edward Habel, IIer special license that we, the said
Edmund Suckow and Edward Ifabel, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Edmund Suckow and Edward Habel,
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 FOR
OPENING AND CLEANING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that we, the said Edmund Suckow and Edward
Habel, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals (or under the
hand and seal of one of us,) should particularly describo 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 Edmund Suckow and Edward Habel,
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 improvements in machinery or apparatus for opening and cleaning

page_text: cotton and other fibrous materials consist of a shaft capable of rotating in suit-
able bearings, having a cone fixed upon it, to which spiral or screw vanes are
attached; this arrangement is surrounded by a fixed cylindrical casing, having
screw vanes secured to its inner periphery. The front edges of the screw vanes
upon the cone describe a plane at a right angle to the shaft, and are made
either with or without teeth, and act upon the cotton or other fibrous material
fed to them by means of toothed or fluted rollers or other suitable arrange-
ments; thus, by the rotation of the shaft, the screw vanes not only act upon
the cotton or other fibrous material, so as to detach and open it and drive out
the seeds and other matters, but at the same time produce a strong current or
blast of air, which propels the detached fibrous materials into and through a
chamber formed by a fixed cone, joining up to the rotating cone (both together
forming a double cone with their bases together), and a conical continuation of
the cylindrical casing. Portions of the exterior casing of this chamber are
made of network, which permits the dust and other foreign matters detached
from the fibrous materials to be carried away by the blast or current of air,
but retains the loose fibre (thus freed from dust and other matters) and delivers
it to a suitable arrangement of rollers or other mechanism for making the same
into laps, if required.
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal vertical section; Fig. 2 is a plan view, the dust
chamber being shewn in section; Fig. 3 is an elevation of the feeding end of
the machine; Fig. 4 is an elevation at the same end, the stand carrying the
end of the cone shaft, the feeding hopper & end plate being removed; Fig. 5
is a plan sectional view of the cone and cylindrical casing part of the machine
detached, a section of the cone being shewn on one side, and an exterior view
on the other side of the shaft; Fig. 6 is a longitudinal elevation in section of the
cylindrical casing detached; Figs. 7 and 8 show by longitudinal sections two
arrangements for feeding; Figs. 9 and 10 are longitudinal sections shewing a
method of making both the interior cones to rotate, Fig. 9 representing an
exterior view of the cone and screw vane upon it, the casing being in section,
and Fig. 10, a section of both the cone and casing.
a is the cone shaft; b, the cone fixed upon it; c, the cylindrical casing,
which is secured to a base plate d; to this base plate a stand d' is also secured,
which is properly bushed to form a bearing to receive one end of the cone
shaft (a) (the end thrust of it being received by a tail screw), the other end of
the shaft having a bearing carried by diagonal arms or cross bearers c¹ from
the interior of the cylindrical casing (c). The oil is supplied to this bearing
from the exterior of the cylindrical casing (c) by means of a cup, with which a
pipe (c) is connected, which conveys the oil to the bearing, the outside end of

page_text: which has a cap or cover fixed upon it to prevent the escape of oil from that
side, the waste oil dropping from between a collar and the inside of the bearing
upon the bottom side of the interior of the fixed conc, from which it is con-
ducted by a pipe c*.
There are three screw vanes attached to the conc (6), the front edges of
which are, in this instance, provided with teeth. The outer edges of the screw
vanes are connected together by a ring (b) so as to obtain the united strength
of the three vanes. The cone shaft (a) receives rotating motion by a belt
working on the pulley (a'), and the feeding motion is nctuated by a worm (a),
fixed on the cone shaft (a), which geers with a worm wheel on a shaft (e)
placed at right angles to the cone shaft, and fixed in bearings in front of the
bylindrical casing (c). This shaft (e) has a spur wheel at each end which geers
with a spur wheel on the toothed rollersf, having bearings fixed to the cylindrical
casing (c) at the exterior end, and to vertical cross bearers (c) at the interior eud.
This feeding arrangement will be understood by reference to Fig. 7. The teeth
in the rotating rollers (✓) pass and diag the cotton or other fibrous material
between teeth fixed in the lower part of the feeding hopper (9), (as shewn,)
the teeth on the screw vanes (b) passing between the teeth on the rotating
rollers (f). In front of the lower part of the feeding hopper hinged doors (g)
are formed, so that access may be readily abtained to the feeding rollers (f).
Fig. 8 shows another modification of feeding apparatus, consisting of two
toothed rollers f and f', the teeth of one passing between the teeth of the
other. The rollers are rotated in opposite directions, but that roller which
delivers the material to the screw vanes (b) is rotated more rapidly than the
other roller. Grids are shown in the hinged doors (9') opposite the rollers,
which will allow of the escape of seeds and heavy dirt. Instead of toothed
rollers a pair of fluted rollers may be employed, weighted, to pinch the material
passing between them, and in this case, the edges of the screw vanes may be
either plain or toothed.
Openings are left between the vertical cross bearers (c'), and other openings
may be formed in the end cover (c) of the cylindrical casing, and covered with
wire network for the admission of air, to produce the necessary blast or current
for carrying forward the fibrous material and expelling the dust and dirt. The
eatch wings or screw vanes (c) on the interior of the cylindrical casing assist
both to propel the air and open the fibrous material caught between the edges
of the screw vanes on the rotating cone (b) and the edges of the "catch wings"
(c). The fixed cone (h) may be made of thin sheet metal, and is secured to
the cross (e) arms, or to brackets from the cylindrical casing, carrying the
bearing for the cone shaft (a.)

page_text: The conical continuation (k) of the cylindrical casing is a frame covered
with perforated metal or with wirework, forming meshes through which seeds
and dust escape, but sufficiently fine to retain the fibrous material. A further
continuation (¹) is made of the conical part, which is flattened and increased
in breadth, and the under side of this flattened casing is composed of wirework
or perforated metal, so as to allow of the escape of dust and dirt, and conducts
the fibrous materials to a pair of rollers (1), from which it may be delivered or
conveyed to any ordinary mechanism for forming the material into a lap. The
rollers (1) receive rotating motion from the shaft (e) by means of the belt (¹).
The perforated or wirework casing is surrounded or enclosed in a chamber (m),
from which the dust is allowed to escape in any convenient direction.
For the purpose of producing a stronger current of air or greater propelling
effect upon the dust and fibrous materials, a rotating cone (h¹) may be substi-
tuted for the fixed cone (h) (see Figs. 9 and 10). The cone shaft (a) in this
case is extended through the bearing, and a cone drum is secured to it, to
which a cone (h) of thin metal is fixed, to the exterior of which a screw blade
or vane (h) is attached. The space between the rotating cones is filled by a
short casing (h), as shewn in Figs. 9 and 10. If thought desirable, a
"flexible" or endless apron may be placed on the under side of the flattened
continuation (¹) of the conical casing as a substitute for the wirework and to
carry forward the fibrous material to the rollers (1), and in place of the rollers
(7) a roller and cylinder with meshes of wire or a "squirrel cage" (p) may be
used, as shewn in dotted line in Fig. 1.
We have now particularly described the nature of our Invention, and the
mode in which it may be carried into effect, and wish it to be understood that
we do not claim the parts separate and apart from the use to which they are
applied; but claim as our Invention the combination and arrangement of the
mechanism herein-before described, and its mode of action for opening and
cleaning cotton and other fibrous materials.
In witness whereof, we, the said Edmund Suckow and Edward Habel,
have bereunto set our hands and seals this Fifteenth day of March,
sand eight hundred and sixty-two.
EDMUND SUCKOW. (L.S.)
EDWARD HABEL.
(L.S.)