AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE FEEDING APPARATUS IN COTTON GINS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Gerard Brown Finch,, of No. 2, New Square,
Lincoln's Inn, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire for the Invention of
*AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE FEEDING APPARATUS IN COTTON GINS."-A
communication from abroad by Peter Taylor, of Mehallet-el-Kebira, in
Evv.of.Merchant....
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Gerard Brown Finch
át: the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 20th December 1866.**
I, GERARD BROWN FINCH, of No. 2, New Square, Lincoln's Inn, in the
County of Middlesex, Esquire, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE FEEDING APPARATUS IN COTTON GINS,"
to be as follows.
The Invention consists in the use of a comb-which is constructed of a
found bar of iron into which pieces of steel wire about six inches long are
firmly fixed these are placed about half an inch apart, and form the teeth of
the comb. The comb is placed above the seed grid of the cotton gin on a
line parallel with the knife board, having the points downward; it is worked
[Price Sd.]

page_text: in bearings fixed to the side frame of the gin. Motion is given to the comb
by a crank which works from the end of the leather roller, and moves an arm
fixed on the end of the comb shaft. The crank movement gives a rocking
motion to the comb backwards and forwards which keeps the cotton pods on
the seed grid in constant agitation. By the use of this comb the liberated
seed is made to pass freely through-the grid,-and-a free passage is opened for
the cotton to the leather roller. The cotton pods are also prevented from
accumulating in front of the beating knife and choking both the knife and the
seed grid.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Gerard Brown Finch in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th June 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GERARD
BROWN FINCH, of No. 2, New Square, Lincoln's Inn, in the County of
Middlesex, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the 'T'wentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her reign.
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Gerard Brown Finch, Her special licence that I, the said Gerard Brown
Finch, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Gerard Brown Finch, 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 "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN THE FEEDING APPARATUS IN COTTON GINS," a communication
to me from abroad by Peter Taylor, of Mehallet-el-Kebira, in Egypt,
Merchant, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Gerard
Brown Finch, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Gerard Brown Finch, 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 :-
The object of the said Invention is to prevent the pod cotton in the process
of cleaning in a cotton gin from accumulating in front of the beating knife
and choking both the knives and the seed grid; this is to be performed by
employing a comb which is constructed and used in the manner herein-after
described. The comb consists of a round bar of iron in which a straight row
of holes is bored, the holes being about half an inch apart; into these holes
are fixed pieces of steel wire six inches long and pointed at the end; these
pieces of wire form the teeth of the comb. The comb is placed inside the
cotton gin, on a parallel line with the knife-board, and having the points
down.
The Drawing hereunto annexed represents a section of the comb per-
pendicular to its length, and exhibits the manner in which it is applied and
worked.
R is a section of the leather roller of the cotton gin; K and K, are the
two knives; G is one of the wires of the seed grid; B is a section of the bar
forming the back of the comb; T, one of the steel teeth; C is a section of the
axis round which the comb works, and to which the comb is firmly fixed;
this axis works in bearings fixed to the side frame of the cotton gin. The
dotted Figure d, d, d, d, represents an arm which is connected with oneend
of the leather roller by a crank by which the comb is worked; when at work
the comb has a rocking motion through about one-eighth of a circle; the
dotted arc a, a, the path of the point of one of the teeth, and e, e, that of
the point c of the arm d, d. A lateral motion of about one inch is also
given to the comb by the addition of a cam movement to the axis C. The
backward and forward motion of the comb keeps the pod cotton in con-
stant agitation as it is brought by the feeding apparatus in front of the roller
and knives; it makes a freer passage for the cotton to the knives, and aided
by the lateral motion given by the cam causes the liberated seed to pass more
freely through the grid. With this comb in operation an ordinary cotton gin
will clean fully twenty-five per cent. per diem more cotton, and a considerable
saving in labour is effected, as one person by its use can attend to a greater
number of gins. The comb can be applied to the cotton gins in present use
at a very trifling expense.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in

page_text: which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not
claim the particular piece of mechanism herein-before described, but I do
claim the exclusive use of a comb in connection with a cotton gin applied for
the purposes and in the manner herein-before described and mentioned.
In witness whereof, I, the said Gerard Brown Finch, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of June, in the year of Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
GERARD BROWN FINCH. (L.S)