AN IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR DRYING WOOL
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Sept., 1887.
Specification Accepted, 21st Oct., 1887
We WILLIAM NELSON of Tomoana in the Provincial District of Hawke's Bay in
the Colony of New Zealand Sheep Farmer and EUGENE BOWEN of Tomoana aforesaid
Wool Classer do hereby declare the nature of our invention for AN IMPROVEMENT
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR DRYING WOOL and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
Our Invention relates to wool-drying machinery in which a sparred drum revolves
in a casing the wool being dried in the said drum by means of a blast of air forced
from a longitudinal slit in a longitudinal air-trunk essentially as described in a
Specification filed by us on the twenty seventh day of August 1887 in application for
Letters Patent No. 11665 and we will describe our Invention as applied to the machine
described in that specification.
In the said machine the blast from the air-trunk aforesaid simply dried the wool
without expelling it from the drum the expulsion of the said wool being effected from
time to time by means of a blast from an air-pipe opening into the said drum at the
feed-end thereof.
Now our present Invention consists of the modification herein-after described in the
aforesaid air-trunk whereby we are enabled to dispense with the air-pipe above referred
to and to effect both the drying of the wool and the expulsion of the dried wool
either continuously or intermittently by means of the blast from the said air-trunk
According to our present Invention we do away with the air-pipe above described
and we mount in the slit of the said air-trunk moveable partitions (herein-after termed
"feathers") by which the said slit is divided into a series of ports. These feathers
turn on pivots and are jointed at their upper ends to a connecting rod by means of
which they can be moved simultaneously as required so as to place them either in a
vertical or an inclined position. When the feathers are vertical the blast passing
through the aforesaid ports simply dries the wool without propelling it through the
drum in which case the expulsion of the dried wool is effected from time to time by
setting the feathers at their greatest inclination to the discharge end of the drum but
when the feathers are thus inclined in the first instance the wool as it is dried is
continuously expelled by the blast from the air-trunk which blast impinges upon the
wool at such an angle as to propel it through and expel it from the said drum at a

page_text: speed proportioned to the angle at which the said feathers are set. The connecting-rod
aforesaid passes through a hole in the fixod part of the feed-end of the casing so as to
be readily operated by the workman who feeds in the wool the projecting end of the
said rod being marked with a graduated scale which indicates the exact position of
the feathers. An aperture is formed in this part to admit the wool to be dried which
is thrown down an inclined shoot fixed in front of the said aperture the feed being
assisted by a blast of air from the upper end of a small pipe the lower end of which
communicates with the air-trunk which supplies the longitudinal air-trunk aforesaid.
We prolong the casing of the machine so as to form at the discharge end a small
chamber which receives the wool as it is blown out of the drum the said chamber
being closed by folding doors by opening which the accumulated dried wool can from
time to time be removed.
Having now described the nature of our Invention we will proceed to describe
the manner in which the same is to be performed reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings and to the letters and figures marked thereon.
Figures 1 and 2 are side and end elevations respectively of so much of the drying-
machine described in our aforesaid Specification as is necessary to the comprehension
of our present Invention (the flap-doors a¹ a¹ in Figure 1 being shown broken away in
order to exhibit the longitudinal air-trunk and feathers) and Figure 3 is a transverse
section of the said air-trunk as modified according to our present Invention, and
Figure 4 is a side elevation of a portion of the said air-trunk in which the feathers are
shown by the dotted lines as set in a vertical position. The same letters indicate the
same parts in the several Figures.
A is the casing which is prolonged at A' so as to constitute a discharge chamber a² a³
being the folding doors thereof. B is the feed-end of the drum. a³ is the fixed part
of the casing at that end. a is the sliding door by which the said casing is closed at
that end and is the sliding door by which the discharge-end of the drum is closed
as required. is the feed-aperture and a is the feed-shoot. a' is the pipe for blowing
in air to assist the feed the lower end of which pipe opens into the air-trunk C. a® is
a cock by which the pipe can be opened or closed as required. c is the flap-valve
by means of which the blast can be directed into or cut off from the longitudinal air-
trunk E as required. e¹e are the feathers herein-before referred to. e² e² are the
pivots on which they turn. 3 is the connecting-rod or bar to which the said feathers
are jointed one end of which rod passes through a hole in the casing and is marked
with a scale indicating the inclination of the said feathers. a is the longitudinal
opening through which the blast escapes from the casing.
The action of the machine is as follows: When the wool is to be discharged inter-
mittently (i.e. when a charge has been dried) the workman first sets the feathers e¹ e¹
in their vertical position closes the door opens the door a starts the drum throws in
a sufficient quantity of wet wool to form a charge and then closes the door a². When
the wool is sufficiently dry he opens the door b and sets the feathers e¹e at their
greatest inclination so that the blast shall impinge upon the wool obliquely as indicated
by the arrows a Figure 1 and thus propel the wool rapidly through and expel it from
the drum. He then closes the door and again proceeds as above described.
When it is wished to dry and expel the wool continuously the door bis kept open
and the doors a² a² and a are closed. The workman sets the feathers at such an
inclination or angle as to regulate the speed at which the blast from the air-trunk E.
propels the wool through the drum according to the dampness of the wool. If it be
very damp the feathers are but slightly inclined from a vertical position so as to cause
the wool to travel slowly but if it be comparatively dry the feathers are set at a greater
inclination so that the blast shall impinge upon the wool more obliquely and thus
cause it to travel faster. Having thus arranged the feathers and fixed the flap-valve
in its horizontal position the workman starts the drum and throws the wet wool by
handfuls into the shoot a and turns on the feed-blast through the pipe a'. The wool
is thus passed into and through the drum being dried during its passage and expelled
into the discharge chamber A¹ by the blast from the longitudinal air-trunk E from
which chamber the dried wool is cleared from time to time as it accumulates.

page_text: The wool may be fed into the drum and carried away by endless creepers or any
other suitable mechanical contrivance instead of being fed in and removed by hand as
herein-before described.
Although our Invention is especially applicable to the machine described in our
aforesaid Specification it will be obvious that the principle of mounting feathers on
pivots in the slit of a longitudinal air-trunk may be applied to such air-trunks (other
than that described in our aforesaid Specification) as are or may be so arranged
relatively to drying-drums that a blast directed by the said feathers obliquely upon
the wool in the drum shall expel such wool as herein-before described.
We wish it to be understood that we do not limit ourselves to the precise details
herein-before described as they may be varied without departing from the nature of
our Innention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said Invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we claim is
Mounting on pivots in the slit of the longitudinal air-trunk herein-before described
"feathers "jointed to a connecting-rod essentially as and for the purposes described.
Dated this 11th day of August 1887.
W. NELSON.
E. BOWEN.