AN IMPROVED COTTON GIN
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Robert Macarthur at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th February 1871.-A communication from abroad by Edward
Jones, of Dharwar, India.
I, JAMES ROBERT MACARTHUR, of 30, John Street, Bedford Row, in
the County of Middlesex, Solicitor, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVED COTTON GIN," to be as follows:
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The object of this Invention is the cleansing of "kuppas" or cotton
in its natural state as gathered by the speedy, effectual, and economical
separation of the cotton sced, and largely of other foreign matters from
the cotton fibre by the process designated "ginning."
The method by which it is proposed to attain the above object consists
in the construction of an improved cotton gin.
This machine or machinery is mounted on a metal or wooden frame,
and consists of a roller fixed on an iron axle, which roller may be of
any suitable material having a number of metal beaters fixed on its

page_text: periphery, and revolving in a closed or partially closed chamber; or to
the said axle may be fixed a series of metal discs at regular or irregular
distances apart, to which discs are secured a number of blades or beaters
at equal or unequal distances from one another, and either parallel or
oblique to the axis of the axle, both horizontally and vertically. At a
suitable distance from and parallel to the said axle a square metal axle
is mounted, on which is fixed a series of leather discs or washers tightly
compressed together so as to form a roller of the same length as the
aforesaid beaters. Between this leather roller and the beaters a vertical
knife is fixed, so that its lower edge touches the surface of the leather
roller along its entire length. This leather roller and knife are similar
to those already in use in the McCartley gins. The axles of the beaters
and leather roller work in bearings fixed on the aforesaid frame. The
beaters and the leather roller revolve in contrary directions, each turning
outwards, as viewed from above, and may be driven by hand, steam, or
other power by means of a driving band and pulleys. The lower portion
of the chamber in which the beaters revolve is formed of a curved metal
grating or grid, the interstices thereof being sufficiently wide to allow
the separated seed to fall freely through them. This grating is so
placed that the beaters when revolving may take up with them the
requisite quantity of "kuppas" for feeding the leather roller. The
upper portion of this chamber is formed by a curved moveable lid made
of any suitable material to prevent the "kuppas" or the cotton fibre
being thrown out of the chamber by the revolving beaters. The
"kuppas " to be ginned or cleansed is passed into the covered chamber
containing the beaters along a falling incline, which is a continuation of
or joined to the grating previously described, a sufficient opening freely
to admit the "kuppas" being left between the upper and lower portions
of the chamber. The machinery being put into rapid motion the beaters
catch up the "kuppas" and throw it against the revolving leather roller,
which roller drags the cotton under the knife, leaving the seed and other
hard material at its edge; the edges of the beaters in rising separate the
seed left against the knife from the cotton fibre, and carry the seed away
together with any cotton which may not have been caught by the
leather roller. The cotton caught by this roller and thus freed from its
seed is thrown off the roller when it reaches the opposite or outside
position of the said roller, while the seed and other separated material
falls through the loose cotton and the grating at the bottom of the

page_text: chamber. The cotton which had escaped being caught by the leather
roller during its former revolution is again caught up by the revolving
beaters, and thrown against the leather roller.
By the process above described and the constant agitation of the
cotton in the chamber it is freed from its seed, and to a large extent
from leaves, dirt, and other impurities.