IMPROVEMENTS IN CLEANSING AND PREPARING FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in
the County of Middlesex, and of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
CLEANSING AND PREPARING FIBROUS MATERIALS."-A communication from
Samuel W. Brown, of Lowell, Massachusetts, in the United States of
America.
Sealed the 31st July 1855, and dated the 3rd March 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Johnson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd
March 1855.
I, WILLIAM JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN CLEANSING AND PREPARING FIBROUS MATERIALS," being a communication
from Samuel W. Brown, of Lowell, Massachusetts, in the United States of
America, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved arrangement of machinery for
picking, beating, or scutching and cleaning cotton, wool, and similar fibrous
materials.
According to one modification of the improved apparatus, the first scutcher
or disintegrating action to which the cotton wool is introduced in the usual
way by means of an endless feed cloth and a pair of feed rollers situated at

page_text: the upper part and to one side of the scutcher drum, consists of a set of bars
fixed upon arms carried by a rapidly revolving shaft. These scutcher bars are
formed with serrated edges, and a large portion of the drum inside which the
scutcher revolves consists of a series of moderately sharp-edged bars, lying
parallel to the scutcher shaft in such a manner as to present a serrated
appearance in transverse section on the inner side. The drum is cast in seg-
ments, the bars composing it being set at slight distances apart, and connected
by cross pieces, so as to leave interstices through which the heavier and coarser
dust from the cotton wool is thrown out by the scutching action. The cotton
wool is thrown out of the scutcher drum through a passage at the upper part
of the drum, and at the opposite side of the feed rollers, and enters a dome or
chamber formed by metal gratings, through which the fine dust is exhausted
from the cotton wool by means of a fan revolving at a high velocity. This
exhausting dome or chamber is situated over the second scutcher. The cotton
wool enters the chamber at one of its lower corners, whilst the remainder of
the chambers, floor, or bottom is taken up by sets of feed rollers, which con-
duct the cotton wool into the second scutcher drum, when it falls upon them.
Several pairs of feed rollers are employed at separate points round the peri-
phery of the drum, so as to introduce the cotton wool simultaneously in several
streams, whereby the second scutcher is made to act much more effectively
than in cases where the cotton wool enters the drum in a single stream only.
The beater bars of the second scutcher are constructed in a manner similar to
those of the first scutcher, that is to say, with serrations on their acting edges,
and the lower portion of the second scutcher drum is also made like the first
scutcher drum, as already herein-before described, it being obvious, however,
that the proportions of the parts may be modified if necessary. The cotton
wool is thrown by the second scutcher into a trough or duct in the usual
manner, and may be subsequently treated as in ordinary machines of a similar
class
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed s
by the said William Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
3rd September 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex, and of
Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Civil Engineer, send 3
greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Johnson, Her special license that I, the said William Johnson,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Johnson, my executors, administrators, or 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
CLEANSING AND PREPARING FIBROUS MATERIALS," (a cominunication from Samuel
W. Brown, of Lowell, Massachusetts, in the United States of America,) upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Johnson, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Johnson, 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 in writing, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
The said Invention relates to an improved arrangement of machinery for
picking, beating, or scutching and cleaning cotton, wool, and similar fibrous
materials.
According to one modification of the improved apparatus, the first scutcher
or disintegrating action to which the cotton wool is introduced in the usual
way, by means of an endless feed cloth and pair of feed rollers, situated at the
upper part and to one side of the scutcher drum, consists of a set of bars fixed
upon arms carried by a rapidly revolving shaft. These scutcher bars are formed
with serrated edges, and a large portion of the drum inside which the scntcher
revolves consists of a series of moderately sharp-edged bars lying parallel to
the scutcher shaft in such a manner as to present a serrated appearance in
transverse section on the inner side. The drum is cast in segments, the bars
composing it being set at slight distances apart, and connected by cross pieces,
so as to leave interstices through which the heavier and coarser dust from the
cotton wool is thrown out by the scutching action. The cotton wool is thrown

page_text: out of the scutcher drum through a passage at the upper part of the drum, and
at the opposite side to that of the feed rollers, and enters a dome or chamber
formed by metal gratings, through which the fine dust is exhausted from the
cotton wool by means of a fan revolving at a high velocity. This exhausting
dome or chamber is situated over the second scutcher. The cotton wool enters
the chamber at one of its lower corners, whilst the remainder of the chambers,
floor, or bottom is taken up by sets of feed rollers, which conduct the cotton
wool into the second scutcher drum, when it falls upon them. Several pairs of
feed rollers are employed at separate points round the periphery of the drum,
so as to introduce the cotton wool simultaneously in several streams, whereby
the second scutcher is made to act much more effectively than in cases where
the cotton wool enters the drum in a single stream only. The beater bars
of the second scutcher are constructed in a manner similar to those of the first
scutcher, that is to say, with serrations on their acting edges, and the lower
portion of the second scutcher drum is also made like the first scutcher drum,
as already herein-before described; it being obvious, however, that the propor-
tions of the parts may be modified if necessary. The cotton wool is thrown by
the second scutcher into a trough or duct in the usual manner, and may be
subsequently treated as in ordinary machines of a similar class.
And in order that the said Invention may be properly understood, I shall
now proceed to describe the several explanatory Figures on the two Sheets of
Drawings hereunto attached.
Figure 1 on Sheet 1 of the Drawings is a complete side elevation of one
form or modification of the cleansing, picking, or preparing machine, as in
operation for treating cotton; Figure 2 is a plan of the machine correspond-
ing; Figure 8 on Sheet 2 of the Drawings is a side elevation of the machine
looking on the opposite side to that represented in Figure 1; and 4 is a
vertical longitudinal section shewing the internal construction of the machine.
Figures 5 and 6, also on Sheet 2 of the Drawings, are respectively a face view
and a transverse section drawn to an enlarged scale of a portion of the drum
gratings through which the dust is driven by the scutching action. In the
example selected for description the details of the machiuery are carried upon
a stout wooden framing A, at one end of which is the endless feed cloth B,
passed round the pair of rollers C. The rollers C and feed cloth B are driven
by means of an intermediate pinion D', gearing with a pinion on the spindle of
the innermost roller C, and connecting it with the lower feed roller L by
means of a pinion on the spindle of the latter. On the other end of the last-
mentioned spindle is a bevil wheel D, which is in gear with a bevil wheel on
the end of a horizontal shaft E, carried in bracket bearings- bolted to the

page_text: framing. The shaft E has fast upon it a bevil wheel F, in gear with a bevil
wheel G fixed to a spur wheel H, and carried on a stud pin fixed to the
framing.. The spur wheel H is in gear with a pinion on a short shaft I,
carried in bracket bearings fixed to the framing; and this shaft has fixed upon
it a belt pulley J, by means of which it is driven from an overhead shaft. The
cotton wool to be acted upon by the machine is laid upon the endless belt B,
and is conducted thence into the interior of the first scutching drum K by the
pair of grooved feed rollers L, which are pressed together by the weighted
levers M acting upon their bearings, and which are driven by the pinion.
on the shaft D; this pinion being in gear with a pinion on the spindle of
the lower roller L, whilst the latter pinion is in gear with a pinion on the
upper roller. Rather more than half the circumferential portion of the drum
or case K consists of a metal grating N, through which the coarse dust
contained in the cotton wool is driven by the scutching action. This grating
is preferred to be made of the peculiar form and section more clearly repre-
sented in the enlarged views, Figures 5 and 6, the openings widening out-
wardly, whilst the inner surface presents a serrated appearance. This grating
may be cast in segments, the bars being connected and supported by transverse
pieces O, placed at intervals. The scutcher consists of four longitudinal bars P,
which are serrated on their outer edges, as shewn at the broken-away portion
Q, in Figure 2, and are mounted upon radial arms R carried by a shaft S,
driven at a rapid rate by means of the belt pulley T, upon the externally pro-
jecting end of the shaft. The top of the drum K is covered in as at U, and
the cotton wool passes from the scutcher up the passage V opposite to the feed
rollers L to the exhaust dome or chamber W. The sides and top of this
chamber are formed by wooden or metal gratings, and the chamber is enclosed
in an external dome or shell X, which communicates by the passage Y with
the exhaust pipe Z of a powerful fan a. The exhaust action causes the fine
dust to be sucked away from the cotton wool through the gratings of the
chamber W, whilst the cotton wool thrown into this chamber falls down upon
a series of grooved feed rollers b, placed across the bottom of the chamber W,
and at the top of a second scutcher drum c. In the present instance there are
four sets of feed rollers b, and the cotton wool is consequently introduced to
the second scutcher in as many separate streams, whereby an improved scutch-
ing action is secured. A grating d, similar to the grating N, forms the lower
part of the drum c, and the bars e of this second scutcher are similar to those
P of the first scutcher, herein-before described. This second scutcher is
driven by means of the belt pulley f upon the externally projecting end of its
spindle g. The several feed rollers b are geared together by pinions h upon

page_text: their several spindles, and are driven at an uniform rate by means of a bevil
wheel i upon the spindle of one of them, this bevil wheel being in gear with
a bevil wheelj on the herein-before mentioned shaft E. The second scutcher
throws the cotton wool out along the passage k to the space between two end-
less cloths m and n, the lower one m of which is horizontal, whilst the upper
one n is inclined so as to approach the latter at the extremity furthest from
the scutcher. The sides of the space are closed, and the space above the
cloth n communicates by the passage o with the exhaust passage Z, already
described. The endless cloths m, n, are perforated, as represented at the
broken-away portion p in Figure 2, and the exhaust is thus made to act upon
the cotton wool, so as to carry off any dust it may still contain. The cloths m
and n are driven in the direction of the arrows, and gradually convey the
cotton wool along and deliver it to the rollers q, it being finally wound in the
form of a lap upon the roller r. The rollers s, s, of the endless cloths m, n, are
geared together by pinions upon their spindles, and the lower rollers q having
pinions upon their spindles, the entire series, including the rollers s, are driven
in concert, by means of the intermediate pinions t, which are carried upon stud
pins upon the framing. Motion is imparted to this set of rollers by means of
a bevil wheel on the spindle of one of the rollers q, this bevil wheel being in
gear with a bevil wheel on the end of a longitudinal and horizontal shaft u,
carried in bracket bearings fixed upon the framing. The shaft u carries at its
opposite end a spur wheel v, in gear with an intermediate pinion w, carried
upon a stud pin on a bracket fixed to the framing, and the pinion w is in gear
with a spur wheel x, fast on the end of the herein-before described shaft E.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I may observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict myself to
the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to describe or
refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without deviating from the
principles or main features of the Invention; but what I consider to be novel
and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the general arrangement and construction of machinery or apparatus
for scutching, cleansing, or preparing fibrous materials.
Second, the application and use, in scutching or cleansing apparatus for
fibrous materials, of a scutcher drum grating of the kind herein-before described,
more particularly with reference to Figures 5 and 6 on the Sheet of Drawings
hereunto attached.
Third, the system or mode of forming the scutcher or beater bars of

page_text: cleansing apparatus for fibrous materials with serrated edges, as herein-before
described.
Fourth, the application and use, in scutching or cleansing apparatus for
fibrous materials, of two or more pairs of grooved feed rollers suitably driven
for conveying the fibrous material into the second scutcher drum at two or
more separate points, as herein-before described.
Fifth, the application and use of an exhaust action in scutching or cleansing
apparatus for fibrous materials, arranged so as to act upon the fibrous mate-
rial after it has left the second scutcher, the endless traversing cloths between
which the fibrous material is conveyed being perforated to facilitate the exhaust
action, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Johnson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of September, One thousand eight hundred