IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON GINS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William James Burgess, of Brentwood, in the
County of Essex, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
COTTON GINS."
Sealed the 11th May 1866, and dated the 20th November 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William James Burgess
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th November 1865.
I, WILLIAM JAMES BURGESS, of Brentwood, in the County of Essex,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN COTTON GINS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in cotton gins, and the
Invention is applicable to the description of machines known as "Cowper's
cotton gins" (the general character of which is described in the Specification
of a Patent granted to Edward Alfred Cowper, and dated the 20th May 1864,
No. 1274) in which rollers are used, having on them at intervals pointed
surfaces. These surfaces are usually produced by cutting plates of steel, so as
to form very numerous rows of small points or teeth, and the surfaces are
formed to the curvature of the rollers on which they are fixed and used. It
has been found in practice that the cutting of the numerous fine small points
on the steel surfaces, even by machinery, is necessarily a slow and very
costly operation.

page_text: Now my Invention consists in producing such pointed surfaces by casting
metal in moulds, and for this purpose very fluid cast iron is preferred, and
such casting is found to be conveniently done in moulds of very fine sand
without admixture, using well prepared metal patterns in making such
moulds.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William James Burgess in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 18th May 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
JAMES BURGESS, of Brentwood, in the County of Essex, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of Noveniber, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William James Burgess, Iler special licence that I, the said William
James Burgess, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William James Burgess, 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 GIS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William James Burgess, 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 William James Burgess, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say: -
This Invention has for its object improvements in cotton gins, and the
Invention is applicable to the description of machines known as "Cowper's

page_text: cotton gins," the general character of which is described in the Specification
of a Patent granted to Edward Alfred Cowper, and dated the 20th May 1864,
(No. 1274), in which rollers are used having on them at intervals pointed
surfaces. These surfaces are usually produced by cutting plates of steel, so as
to form very numerous rows of small points or teeth, and the surfaces are
formed to the curvature of the rollers on which they are fixed and used. It
has been found in practice that the cutting of the numerous fine small points
on the steel surfaces, even by machinery, is necessarily a slow and very
costly operation.
Now my Invention consists in producing such pointed surfaces by casting
metal in moulds, and for this purpose very fluid cast iron is preferred, and
such casting is found to be conveniently done in moulds of very fine sand
without admixture, using well prepared metal patterns in making such
moulds.
In carrying out the Invention, patterns (of brass or other suitable metal)
of the plates with their pointed or toothed surfaces are to be very carefully
prepared or formed by hand or by machinery, corresponding in form and
dimensions with those now used, and fixed on the surfaces of the rollers of
cotton gins. Moulds are then to be made by the aid of these patterns, using
very fine sand for the purpose, and by reason of the fineness of the rows of
points or teeth required on the working surfaces of the castings, very fluid
iron should be employed in making the castings. The cast plates or surfaces
thus produced are then to be fixed on the rollers of cotton gins, as the metal
plates are now applied.
In witness whereof, I, the said William James Burgess, have hereunto
set my hand seal, this Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
W. J. BURGESS. (L.B.)