Year: 1885

page_text: I JAMES GREGSON CHAPMAN of the firm of Fawcett Preston and Company of
17 York Street, Liverpool and 25 Austin Friars, London Engineers, do hereby.
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Hitherto when sugar cane mills have been provided with carriers or endless
bands for conducting the canes to the slides or shoots which lead to the rolls, these
carriers have been made of nearly the same width as the rolls and the width of the
carrier has generally been greater than the length of the canes. With, this
arrangement some of the canes are occasionally thrown upon the carriers
transversely thereof instead of longitudinally; they thus enter between the rollers
sideways instead of endways and thereby tend to choke the mill. Now instead of
a single carrier of about the same width as that of the rolls I employ several
narrow cane carriers whose combined width is equal to, that of the rolls or
approximately so. These narrow carriers are placed side by side and separated
from each other by high sides or divisions. As the canes cannot travel therein or
thereon transversely they must enter between the rolls end on. A. manifest
advantage is that the canes are more uniformly spread between the rolls. The slide
or shoot leading from the carriers to the rolls should be divided into as many slides
as there are narrow carriers.
3
A further improvement consists in dividing the face of the returner-bar or trash-
turner into compartments to guide the canes after first crushing, and to prevent the
crushed canes from travelling over the face of the returner-bar or trash-turner
transversely. But the narrow cane carriers may be applied to mills already
established and at work without necessarily using the, improved trash-turner or
returner-bar.
Doted this 4K
T
1

page_text: Improvements in and relating to Sugar Cane Mills.
I, JAMES GREGSON CHAPMAN of the firm of Fawcett Preston and Company of.
17 York Street, Liverpool and 25 Austin Friars London, Engineers 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:-
Hitherto when sugar cane mills have been provided with carriers or endless
bands for conducting the canes to the slides or shoots which lead to the rolls, these
carriers have been made of nearly the same width as the rolls and the width of the
carrier has generally been greater than the lengths of the canes. With this
arrangement some of the canes are occasionally thrown upon the carriers
transversely thereof instead of longitudinally; they thus enter between the rolls
sideways instead of endways and thereby tend to choke the mill. Now instead of
a single carrier of about the same width as that of the rolls, I employ several
narrow cane carriers whose combined width is equal to that of the rolls or
approximately so. These narrow carriers are placed side by side and separated
from each other by high sides or divisions. As the canes cannot travel therein or
thereon transversely they must enter between the rolls end on. A manifest
advantage is that the canes are more uniformly spread between the rolls. The slide
or shoot leading from the carriers to the rolls should be divided into as many slides
as there are narrow carriers.
A further improvement consists in dividing the face of the returner-bar or
trash-turner into compartments to guide the canes after first crushing, and to
prevent the crushed canes from travelling over the face of the returner-bar or
trash-turner transversely. But the narrow cane carriers may be applied to mills
without necessarily using the improved trash-turner or returner-bar.
The accompanying drawings illustrate my invention: Figure 1 is a side elevation
and Figure 2 a plan of a sugar cane mill provided with my improved endless
carriers for conducting the canes thereto; these carriers may be supported by
pulleys as shown at the middle portion of Figure 2 or by rollers as shown towards
the right hand end of this figure, or in any other suitable manner. Figure 3 is a
cross section (on a larger scale) showing the pulley arrangement and Figure 4 a
similar section showing the roller arrangement. Figures 5, 6 and 7 are respectively
a cross section, a side elevation and a plan of my improved returner-bar or trash-
turner. Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.
a a a are the cane carriers, of which three are shown but the number may be varied
as thought best. These carriers pass over pulleys or drums b b and c c placed
respectively at the front and back ends of their travel and over intermediate
pulleys d d (or rollers ee when such are used instead of pulleys) placed as shown
at as many points as may be thought necessary. Motion is imparted to the carriers
by giving rotation to the shaft of the front pulleys b b or in any other convenient
manner. The pulleys d d (or rollers e e) are free to turn in bearings in the side
frames gg. hhhh are the high sides forming the separating divisions and walls
for the canes that are placed upon and carried forward by the carriers aaa; these

page_text: sides h are shown as secured to and supported by cross beams ii between the side
posts kk; if rollers ee are used instead of the pulleys d d the sides h must be
recessed underneath to give room for the rollers. is the shoot or slide leading
from the carriers a a a to the rolls; this shoot is separated by walls h¹¹ into as
many divisions as there are carriers. mm m are the rolls. n is the improved
returner-bar or trash-turner; its face is separated by divisions o o into as many
compartments as there are cane carriers.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
1. Constructing cane carriers for sugar cane mills in the form of several narrow
carriers suitably separated from each other as and for the purpose set forth.
2. Constructing the returner-bars or trash-turners of sugar cane wills with
compartments or divisions on their face as and for the purpose set forth.
3. The combination with the rolls of a sugar cane mill of several suitably
separated narrow cane carriers, a correspondingly divided slide or shoot, and a
correspondingly divided returner-bar or trash-turner, as set forth.