IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CLEANING COTTON FROM SEEDS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Platt, of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster,
Mechanical Engineer, and William Richardson, of the same Place,
Mechanical Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
OR APPARATUS FOR CLEANING COTTON FROM SEEDS."
Sealed the 29th August 1862, and dated the 8th March 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Platt and William
Richardson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 8th March 1862.
We, JOHN PLATT, of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster, Mechanical
Engineer, and WILLIAM RICHARDSON, of the same Place, Mechanical Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention.or IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CLEANING COTTON FROM SEEDS," to be as follows:-
"
Our Invention relates to that machine for cleaning cotton from seeds known
as MacCarthy's gin. In such arrangement a reciprocating blade is employed
working in conjunction with a fixed blade and roller. According to our
Invention, we employ two reciprocating blades coming into action alternately.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Platt and William Richardson in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 8th September 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JORN PLATT,
of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster, Mechanical Engineer, and WILLIAM
RICHARDSON, of the same Place, Mechanical Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said John Platt and William Richardson, Her special license that we,
thesaid John Platt and William Richardson, our executors, ad ministrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said John Platt, and William Richardson,
our 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 MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
FOR CLEANING COTTON FROM SEEDS," upon the condition, amongst others, that
we, the said John Platt and William Richardson, by an instrument in
writing under our 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 mouths next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Platt and William Richardson,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement and accompanying Drawings (that is to say):-
Our Invention relates to that machine for cleaning cotton from seeds known
as the MacCarthay gin. In such arrangement a reciprocating blade is employed
working in conjunction with a fixed blade and roller. According to our
Invention, we employ two reciprocating blades coming into action alternately.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 represents a longitudinal section of
a MacCarthay gin so improved, and Fig. 2 is a plan view. In combination
with the double-acting blades constituting our present Invention, we have
'shewn apparatus for opening out the material and for transferring it in
detached tufts, which apparatus is secured to us by Letters Patent, bearing

page_text: date the Sixth day of June, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one. In
order however to make the description of the machine as now shewn complete,
we will point out the general operation:-The material to be cleaned is placed
upon an endless travelling apron a, and is by it and a fluted roller presented
to the action of a spiked roller c, revolving in the direction of the arrow,
and
by which it becomes disentangled and partially opened out. At d is a crank
connected to a rod e, the upper part of which is provided with a spring, so
asto constitute an elastic medium for causing a lever g to vibrate, as described
in theSpecification of aPatentgranted to us,and bearingdate the Seventeenth
day of December, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one. As the method
now adopted for constructing this elastic medium is somewhat varied, we will
now describe it by reference to the detached view, Fig. 3. The upper part of
the rod e is formed as a tube h, within which is a coiled spring i, acting
against a piston k, and to this the lever gis connected. At k* is a cotter passing
through a slot in the piston k, whereby the action of the spring i is limited.
At is the transferring comb fixed to the axis of the lever g, so as to be caused
to vibrate between the spiked roller c,and the ordinary MacCarthay roller m.
At n is a dish along which the transferring comb sweeps, the end of such
dish, at o, being a grating through which the detached seeds fall. At p is
the fixed MacCarthay blade, and at q is what may be considered the ordinary
vibrating blade capable of turning upon a centre at 1, and carried by a con-
necting rod s, which is actuated below by a crank t. To the blade q are fixed
radius rods u, turning upon a centre at v, and capable of being adjusted by
nuts to, so as to regulate the blade nearer to a farther from the roller m.
Thus far this is the ordinary arrangement, but according to our Invention we
adapt a second vibrating blade a, constructed as above described, but carried
by second cranks y, connecting rods s*, and radius rods u*. The cotton being
fed upon the apron a, and opened out by the spiked roller c, is transferred
therefrom in detached tufts by the vibratory movements of the transferring
comb, and is presented in that condition to the roller m, between the fixed
blade P, and the vibrating blades q, a, which owing to the position of the
cranks t, y, advance alternately towards the fixed blade P, and separate the
seeds in the usual inanner. Above the spiked roller is a fixed row of
teeth 1, through which the transferring comb / passes, and in that manner it
is kept free from an accumulation of material. At 2 is a roller revolving
nearly in contact with the roller m, so as to remove the clean material, which
then falls down a partition 3, and at 4 is another partition for guiding the
seeds as they fall through the grating o. There are two connecting rods s, s*,
to each vibrating blade, and the upper blade z is hollowed out so as to admit

page_text: of the radius rod u passing therein. The arrangement of gearing or bands
by which the several parts are driven may be varied at pleasure, but we will
point out the method we adopt in practice. The shaft first driven is the crank
shaft y, t, which by means of a pinion communicates rotatory motion to the
shaft of the crank d, upon which is a pulley 6, driving the ordinary roller m,
by means of a band. Upon the axis of the roller m is a pinion 6*, which
through a carrier 7, gives motion to a toothed wheel 8, mounted upon the axis
of the spiked roller c, so as to slide thereon. This axis is provided with a
friction cone situate within a conical box 7x, fixed to the wheel S; when there-
forethe saidconicalsurfaces are incontact, motion iscommunicatedtothespiked
roller c. Upon the axis of the spiked roller c is a pinion 9, taking into a carrier
10, on the axis of which is a pinion 11, gearing into a wheel on the axis of the
roller 12 of the feed apron, which axis carries a pinion 13, through which the
fluted roller 6 is driven. It will be seen that as the spiked roller c is driven
by the friction cones it will merely be necessary to slide the wheel 8, and its
friction surface upon its shaft by means of a lever 14, to arrest the motion of
all those parts beyond it, and that the feed of the machine will therefore cease
We have in the foregoing described our Invention in combination with
arrangements which have as before stated been patented by us, but we do not
confine ourselves to such combination, that which we claim as secured to us
under the above in part recited Letters Patent, and in reference to the afore-
said description ofgin, being the adaptation of two reciprocatingblades acting
alternately.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Platt and William Richardson,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Sixth day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
FRED. WALKDEN,
66, Chancery Lane.
WILLIAM RICHARDSON. (L.S.)