IMPROVE- MENTS IN COTTON GINS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Theodore Bourne, of the City, County, and State of
New York, United States of America, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN COTTON GINS."-A communication from abroad by John Stevens,
of the City, County, and State of New York, United States of America.
Sealed the 23rd September 1864, and dated the 4th April 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Theodore Bourne at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th
April 1864.
I, THEODORE BOURNE, of the City, County, and State of New York, United
States of America, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON GINS," to be as follows:-
This Invention is an improvement in the kind of cotton gin known as the
double roller gin or churka; in the method of constructing the main roller;
it is applicable also to single roller gins.
The double roller gin has hitherto had various defects which it is the object
of this Invention to remedy. One hindrance to the efficient working of both
the double and single roller gins has been the want of a main roller suitable
for warm climates sufficiently elastic to firmly grasp the fibre, yet hard and
durable.
To remedy the various defects this Invention employs a roller made. of or

page_text: covered with hide, raw or dried, or skins, the surface of which is roughened,
fretted, or grooved, in order to give the necessary grasp or bite for the cotton;
also a brace roller or wheels equivalent thereto to sustain, strengthen, or
support the roller adjacent to the main roller, so that it may not spring; a
vibrating plate or stripper (to strip off the seeds), having a reciprocating
motion from side to side, or in the direction of its length; a doffer or cleaning
roller (to prevent the cotton from clogging the main roller or stopping the
machine) constructed of strips or ribs of leather, zinc, or any other suitable
material placed upon a cylinder or upon a flexible endless band; a small
cleaning roller covered with cloth, list, or any suitable material placed in
contact with the brace roller and roller adjoining; and an arrangement of a
chain belt running upon whelps in the grooves of pulleys, whereby more
continuous certainty of action and compactness are secured.
The operation of the gin is as follows:-When the cotton is placed upon
the feed board in contact with the main roller, and the motive power is
applied, the main roller attracts the fibre of the cotton, and simultaneously
therewith the vibrating plate moving laterally not only. prevents the seed
from entering between the two rollers, but also detaches them from the cotton
by its vibrating motion, and the seeds fall through the rods at the end of the
feed board into any convenient receptacle. The cotton passing between the
two rollers is carried down and around the roller to the point of intersection
where it meets with the doffer or cleaning roller which revolves in contact
with the main roller, and its ribs or strips strike the main roller with sufficient
friction to remove the cotton and prevent its passing around the main roller
again or clogging it. The brace roller or the wheels equivalent thereto
supports or sustains the roller which is adjacent to the main roller, and
prevent its springing, thus enabling the operator to use a rapid motion with
greater certainty. By the use of the brace roller this gin may be constructed
of any desired width instead of a few inches as hitherto. The small cleaning
roller collects any fibres which may attach themselves to the roller adjoining
the main roller. The arrangement of the chain belt preserves the relative
distance between the main and adjoining rollers, and prevents the liability to
slipping off to which the usual method is exposed. The movement by gearing
may be adopted where that is preferred.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Theodore Bourne in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st October 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THEODORE
BOURNE, of the City, County, and State of New York, United States of
America, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by. Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Theodore Bourne, Her special license that I, the said Theodore
Bourne, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Theodore Bourne, 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," a communicaiion to me from abroad by John Stevens, of the
City, County, and State of New York, United States of America, the Inventor,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Theodore Bourne,
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 Theodore Bourne, do hereby declare the
nature of the 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 (that is to say) :-
This Invention is an improvement in the kind of cotton gin known as to
the double roller gin or churka; in the method of constructing the main
roller; it is applicable also to single roller gins.
The double roller gin has hitherto had various defects which it is the
object of this Invention to remedy. One hindrance to the efficient working
of both the double and single roller gins has been the want of a main roller

page_text: suitable for warm climates, sufficiently elastic to firmly grasp the fibre, yet
hard and durable.
To remedy the various defects this Invention employs a roller made of or
covered with hide, raw or dried, or skins, the surface of which is roughened,
fretted, or grooved, to give the necessary grasp or bite for the cotton; also
a brace roller or wheels equivalent thereto, to sustain, strengthen, or support
the roller adjacent to the main roller, so that it may not spring; one or more
vibrating plates or strippers to strip off the seed, having a reciprocating
motion from side to side, or in the direction of their length; a doffer or
cleaning roller to prevent the cotton from clogging the main roller or stopping
the machine, constructed of strips or ribs of leather, zinc, or any other
.suitable material placed upon a cylinder or upon a flexible endless band; a
small cleaning roller covered with cloth, list, or any suitable material placed
in contact with the brace roller and roller adjoining; and an arrangement of a
chain belt running upon whelps in the grooves of pulleys, whereby more
continuous certainty of action and compactness are secured.
.In the annexed Drawings, Figure 1 is a transverse vertical section of a
cotton gin constructed according to my improvements, and Figure 2 is a
front view or elevation of the same.
The main roller a is made of hide, raw or dried, or skins, and the manner
in which I prefer to construct this roller is to cut a number of discs of the
hide, each having a hole through the centre, which will fit upon a mandril or
shaft, upon which the disks are firmly held closely together by screw plates at
the ends of the mandril or shaft, or a wood or metal roller may be covered
with lags of hide or with strips wound spirally or otherwise on the roller.
The roller is then carefully turned down to be a true cylinder, and the
surface is slightly roughened by turning on it fine lines around the cylinder,
and drawing similar lines in the direction of the length as shewn in Figure 2,
or fine spiral lines may be used, or the surface of the roller may be otherwise
roughened. The roller 6 adjacent to the main roller is made by preference
of steel, and it is necessarily of small diameter in order that the angle
presented to the cotton at its tangent with the roller a may be sufficiently
open. As these rollers must be of sufficient length to accomplish a due
amount of work, the roller adjacent to the main roller will unavoidably
spring under the pressure of passing the cotton, and to obviate this I place
upon it a brace roller c, taking care that the centres of the three rollers are
in the same line, as thus the support afforded by the brace roller will be
directly against the line of contact of the other rollers, or this brace roller

page_text: may be divided into parts, or several wheels fixed on an axle will answer the
same purpose. The stripping plate d is attached to a rod d which passes
through each of the side frames of the machine as shewn in Figure 2, a stud
projecting from the rod d takes in a diagonal groove in the cam e, whereby
a reciprocating motion is given to the rod d in the direction of its length.
This plate is curved so that its upper edge extends between the rollers a and b
nearly to the tangent line, and that edge has indentations on the outer side
cut down into the metal of the plate; but not so far as to go through, thus
leaving the side of d at the lower edge, where it is drawn by the cotton into
contact with the roller b, a smooth straightedge, or if desired slightly rough.
The vibrating plate d also acts as a shield to prevent the seeds from wearing
out the main roller. The came is keyed on the shaft of the main rollera,
and it also gives a lateral to-and-fro motion to the second stripping plate a³,
which is fixed to a rod also passing through holes in the frames, the lower
edge of the plate dis serrated or roughened, and the cotton and seeds pass
between the plates d and d³ in, passing from the feeding table q to the rollers
a and b. If preferred one of these vibrators may be used alone. The doffer
f is a wood or other roller, or an endless belt of leather or other flexible
material, which passes over two guide rollers. The roller f, or the belt,, has
upon it a series of narrow projecting strips or ribs i, which may be of leather,
and the roller or the belt is so placed that in revolving or moving in the
direction shown, the strips i act against the main roller and strip the cotton
from it. At k is a strip of metal against which the strips i strike as they
come round, which assists in throwing the ginned cotton off. There is a
small cleaning roller set behind and between the top roller b, and the brace
roller c, which bears alike upon each of those rollers, and hence derives no
motion from either. It is covered with list or other coarse cloth, and serves
to keep those rollers free from loose cotton. It is to be turned by hand from
time to time, and cleaned off with a card or brush... If preferred a small
0. strip of iron or other suitable material may be used for the same purpose.
The speed of the rollers a and b at the surfaces should be uniform, that is, as
if rolling upon each other, and if connected by gear wheels- this speed could
. be readily obtained, but as the rollers wear, the gear wheels, may interfere
with the proper setting up of the axes towards each other. I therefore also
5. when preferred make use of a chain belt, which as it runs upon whelps in the
groove of the pulleys does not slip, and my arrangement for operating the
several parts of the machine consists in connecting the main driving shaft g
with the shaft of the cylinder a by means of a chain belt passing around the
pulleys m and n, which are so proportioned in size as to give the required
.

page_text: relative speeds, or a high speed may be given to the roller adjacent to the
main roller by friction or contact with the main roller, dispensing with geer
wheels altogether if desired. On the pulley m is another chain for driving
the pulley h of the doffer. At the other end of the main shaft g is a pulley
connecting also by a chain belt with the pulley p on the shaft of the brace
roller. The rollers b and c are geared together as shewn in Figure 2, so as
to have uniform speed at the surface, and the pulleys are so proportioned that
the speed of the rollers a and b will be uniform at the surface. If now the
roller c be screwed down upon b, it presses that upon a directly in the line of
'centres of their axes, and this, although slacking the belt between the driving
pulleys, does not diminish the speed of the driven pulley, since there is no
slip in the chain belt. In operation the cotton is fed in between the rollers
a and b, the peculiar surface of a assisting very greatly to draw in the cotton.
The stripping plates d and d³ having a lateral vibratory motion, catch the
seeds against the indentations, and move the seeds from side to side, some-
what as the fingers of the hand would do, thus facilitating the action of the
rollers in drawing the fibres off the seeds, and the lower edge of the plate d
lies so near to the surface of the cylinder a that seeds cannot pass over, and
they fall to the ground by gravity. The roller à may be covered with hide,
raw or dried, or skins, by cutting a strip and setting it lengthwise upon a
cylinder of wood, winding the same spirally around, but this construction will
not be as durable as to make it of disks as before described.
.
I claim firstly, constructing the main roller of hide, either raw or dried, or
skins, in the manner and for the purpose substantially as described.
Secondly, I claim the brace roller c, or wheels equivalent thereto, in com-
bination with the roller b, and having its axis in the line of centres of the
rollers a and b, for the purpose and in the manner set forth.
Thirdly, I claim giving to the stripper plate or plates reciprocating motion
in the direction of its or their length, and using said plate as a shield to
'prevent the wearing of the main roller, for the purpose and in the manner
substantially as set forth..
Fourthly, I claim constructing the doffer of a cylinder or a flexible endless
band, having upon it strips or ribs to sweep the surface of the main roller
substantially as described.
Fifthly, I claim the arrangement for operating the several parts by means
of the chain belt from the main shaft to the main roller, and another from
said shaft to drive the roller b and the doffer f, and the arrangement for
operating the said parts by contact or friction, simply as set forth.
Sixthly, claim the cleaning roller constructed and operating as set forth.

page_text: And lastly, I claim the improved combination and arrangement of parts
constituting the improved cotton gin as herein shown and described. -
In witness whereof, I, the said Theodore Bourne, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of September, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-four..
THEODORE BOURNE. (L.S.)