Improvements in Mechanism for Feeding Textile Fibres to Pickers, Openers, and other Machines.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Oct., 1893-Accepted, 25th Nov., 1893
Improvements in Mechanism for Feeding Textile Fibres to Pickers,
Openers, and other Machines.
I, ALBERT HAYES MORTON, of No. 67 Canton Street, Lowell, in the County
of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the United States of
America, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My invention relates to machines for feeding textile fibres of that class in which
spiked or toothed lifting-aprons are employed to raise such fibres from a hopper or
supply-box and to discharge them upon a suitable receiving surface of the machine
to be supplied, and the object of said invention is so to regulate the speed of said
apron that the supply furnished thereby will be substantially uniform at all times.
In the accompanying drawing,
Figure 1 is a side elevation of a feeding-machine, showing the feed-apron and
its rolls, the lifting-apron and its rolls, the doffer, the rotary comb and its clearing
devices in dotted lines (a small part of the lifting-apron and comb being shown in
full lines, a part of the frame of the machine being broken away for that purpose),
also a side elevation of a part of a picker, opener or similar machine with variable
speed-mechanism for driving the lifting-apron and a part of the system of levers
which control said speed-mechanism, showing the feed-rolls and feed-apron of said
last-named machine in dotted lines;
Figure 2, a front elevation of a part of the frame of a cotton opener or similar
machine, the feed-rolls and a system of scale-levers such as may be used to control
the mechanism which drives the lifting-apron.
A represents the frame of the feeding-machine, the space a, inclosed by the sides
of the machine, the end-piece a¹, the lifting-apron B and the bottom or feed-
apron C forming a hopper or supply-box, in which the stock is placed. The stock
is carried towards the lifting-apron B by a feed-apron C, said aprons BC being
endless belts, the apron B running on the parallel rolls 66 and the apron Con
parallel rolls c c¹, said apron B having transverse slats 2, provided with teeth b³,
inclined in the direction in which said apron B travels, and said apron C being
driven from the apron B by gears 2 fast on the respective shafts of the apron-
rolls c and engaging the intermediate gear c³. D is a rotary comb which removes
surplus stock from the lifting-apron, the spikes of said comb being stripped by
a perforated belt d, running on said comb and on an idle-roll d. E represents
the doffer which removes the stock from the lifting-apron. All of the above-
mentioned parts are of a well-known construction and operation, except as
hereinafter stated.
It is customary to run the lifting-apron and feed-apron at a uniform rate of
speed, as by a belt connecting pulleys on the shaft of the upper lifting-apron roll and
on the pulley f hereinafter named.
Gindicates a picker, opener or other machine, having a feed-apron g to which
fibres may be supplied by the lifting-apron B, said feed-apron g conducting the
fibres to feed-rolls g₁ 92, and to another feed-roll or sectional evener-roll G'
arranged above the rolls gl. The sectional evener-roll G¹ may represent any
sectional feed-surface between which and a feed-roller or feed-rolls the fibres are
fed, provided the sections of such sectional feed-surface independently yield
according to the thickness of stock passing between said sections and the feed-roll,

page_text: or may represent any yielding feed-roll or feed-plate. Such a yielding feed-device
combined with levers operated thereby constitutes an evener and is commonly
used to control through intermediate mechanism, the speed of feed-rolls, according
to the amount of stock passing between said feed-rolls and said yielding feed-
surfaces.
H represents a system of scale-levers in three series, the scale-levers h each
resting upon two sections of the roll G¹, the levers h' of the second series each
resting upon two levers h of the first series and the main scale-lever h² resting upon
two levers h¹ of the second series.
I connect the system of scale-levers operated by such sectional evener-devices
with a variable speed-mechanism which drives the lifting-apron B.
This variable speed-mechanism consists of reversed speed-cones F F¹, one F of
which is driven by bevel-gears ƒ ƒ³, one ƒ of which gears is fast on the shaft of
said cone F and engages the other bevel-gear f¹, the latter being secured to a band
pulley 2, concentrically therewith and said band-pulley being connected by a
band to another band-pulley f*, driven at a uniform speed from the machine to
which fibres are fed. The cones are connected by a belt f' and the driven cone F¹
has secured to its shaft a bevel pinion f which engages a bevel-gear 640 on the
shaft of the upper lifting-apron roll b. The belt f5 is caused to traverse on the
cones by belt-shipping levers fƒ³ of ordinary construction, having segmental
gears 10 which engage each other and having belt-shipping forks which
extend above and below said belt f, one of said belt-shipping levers (that, f,
nearest the driven cone F¹) being connected by a rod 13 to one end of a lever F2,
pivoted at f on the side of the machine G, and the other end of said lever F
having a slot 15 which receives the outer end of a lever H having its fulcrum on
the knife-edge and resting upon a knife-edge / on the main scale-lever.
It is evident that when the sectional evener-roll G' or any part thereof is raised,
the slotted end of the lever F2 will also be raised, its other end depressed and the
belt moved towards the large end of the driven cone F1 and the small end of the
driving-cone F, thus diminishing the speed of the lifting-apron B, and that when
the thickness of stock between the sectional evener-roll and the feed-rolls g' g² is
diminished, the sectional evener-roll will approach said feed-rolls and the weight of
the lever H¹ will by means above described raise the belt on the cones F F¹ and
increase the speed of said lifting-apron and cause stock to be fed thereby more
rapidly on to the feed-apron g.
By the means above described of varying the speed of the lifting-apron, the
apron g of the machine G will be furnished with a substantially uniform supply of
fibres.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The combination of an evener, a lifting-apron, mechanism for actuating the
lifting-apron, and connections between the said mechanism and evener whereby the
speed of said lifting-apron is varied inversely to the amount of stock passing
through said evener, as and for the purpose specified.
2. The combination of a feed-roll, yielding sectional feed-surfaces, scale-levers,
operated by said sectional feed-surfaces, a lifting-apron and a variable speed-
mechanism controlled by said scale-levers, to vary the speed of said lifting-apron
inversely to the amount of stock passing between said feed-roll and said sectional
feed-surfaces, as and for the purpose specified.
3. The combination of a feed-roll, a sectional evener-roll, scale-levers, operated
by said evener-roll, a lifting-apron, reversed speed-cones, one of said cones driving
said lifting-apron and the other of said cones having a uniform rotation, a belt,
connecting said cones, and belt-shifting mechanism, operated by said scale-levers,
to vary the position of said belt upon said cones, and to vary the speed of said

page_text: lifting-apron by a variation in the amount of stock between said feed-roll and said
evener-roll, as and for the purpose specified.
Dated this 25th day of October A.D. 1893.
ALBERT HAYES MORTON,
By R. Haddan,
Of the Firm of Herbert Haddan & Co.,
18, Buckingham Street, Strand, London, W.C., Agent to Applicant.