IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR OPENING, CLEANING, AND GINNING COTTON
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Hochl, Christopher Brakell,
and William Günther, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 15th August 1864.-Partly a communication
from abroad by Albert Westfold, of Smyrna, Asia Minor.
We, WILLIAM HOEHL, CHRISTOPHER BRAKELL, and WILLIAM GÜNTHER, of
the North Moor Foundry Company, Oldham, in the County of Lancaster, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR OPENING, CLEANING, AND GINNING COTTON," being partly a com-
munication from abroad by Albert Westfeld, of Smyrna, Asia: Minor,; and
partly our own Invention, to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists, first, in improvements in ginning machinery for
separating cotton from the husks and seeds.
In most gins the cotton is separated from the seeds by means of a roller
revolving horizontally in close contact with a pressing knife, between which
and the roller the cotton fibres are pulled through, leaving the seed behind;
and to separate the seeds more effectually, another knife called the ginning
knife is used, which moves rapidly up and down in a vertical direction past
the edge of the pressing knife nearly in contact with it, and thereby beats
the seeds from the fibres.
Our improvements consist in employing a ginning knife formed with teeth
like a rack or saw, and moving it to and fro in a parallel or slanting direction
with the axis of the roller by means of a cam, crank, or other mechanical con-

page_text: trivance, so that it acts upon the cotton in both of its motions. The clean
cotton passes between the pressing knife and roller, and tho seeds, husks, and
refuse pass through the spaces between the teeth of the ginning knife to the
seed box. In this machine the pressing knife can be formed much thicker
than those hitherto used, and therefore it may be made of hard brass or other
metal from which sparks or excessive heat is not evolved, and in consequenco
of the great thickness of the pressing knife, the breakages, which are at present
so common in other gins aro entirely avoided. The pressing knifo may be
corrugated or grooved for the purpose of separating the husks and rofuso seed
more effectually.
In another modification wo employ a disc covered with leather rotating
round a vertical axis instead of a leather roller, and also apply one or more
pressing knives and ginning knives on its flat face.
Secondly, our Invention consists in improved machinery for opening and
cleaning cotton from the pod or husk. For this purpose wo pass the pods
and cotton through a revolving fan or breaker, where the husks are partly
broken. This fan moves in a perforated or wire drum through the spaces of
which the dust passes by the combined action of the centrifugal force of the
fan and tho blast created by it, and the cotton, free from its dust, passes
along the inner surface of the drum, and is removed from its open end.
This machine has the advantage of opening the husks and preparing the
cotton for the gin without undergoing the tedious process of hand picking,
and our improved gins before described are especially adapted for separating
and removing the broken husks and seeds from the fibre.