IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON GINS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Melville Clark, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for´an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN COTTON GINS." A communication from abroad by Abraham Gould
Jennings, of Brooklyn, in the County of Kings, and State of New York,
United States of America.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Alexander Melville Clark at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th April 1881.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON GINS." A communication from
abroad by Abraham Gould Jennings, of Brooklyn, in the County of Kings, and
State of New York, United States of America.
This Invention relates to what is commonly called the roller gin, in distinction
from the saw gin, and it relates more particularly to the devices by which the seed
is separated from the cotton lint or fibre. In the saw gin the lint is pulled by the
teeth of the saw through the bars that prevent the seed from following. In the
roller gin now in use the essential features are:-(1) The roller or drawing
cylinder having a rough surface of leather to seize and draw the cotton lint;
(2) a blade or bar tangentially to the roller and close to it; and (3) a reciprocating
blade that has an up and down motion, passing over a section of the roller and
the stationary blade, separating the seed from the lint as it is drawn away by the
roller.
:
The present improvement consists of a straight plate or blade made of steel or
other hard metal, which is notched, serrated, or indented on the upper edge, and
reciprocated rapidly in a horizontal direction in front of the stationary blade and
the roller. This serrated blade has a reciprocating, or vibrating, or alternate
motion to the right and left of two inches, more or less, the effect of which is to
violently shake, roll, and twist out the seed as the lint is drawn away by the
roller, and carried down between it and the stationary blade. The teeth or notches
of this blade are one inch, more or less, far apart, are bevelled or inclined each way,

page_text: and more or less pointed, as found best in practice, and the indentations are one
half inch, more or less, deep.
The Invention also relates to an improvement in the construction of the roller
which is used in roller cotton gins and analogous machinery, employing such rollers
for conducting the cotton to be liberated of the seed, or otherwise conducting
fibrous matter. The rollers heretofore have been made of wood or metal, covered
with leather, or rubber, or both, presenting a rough surface to permit the convenient
seizing and pulling away of the fibre of the cotton from the seed by a metal blade
brought close to the roller, which separates the seeds from the lint. If this
revolving roller becomes smooth, as it invariably does after a greater or less length
of time, the lint or fibre of the cotton will no longer adhere to it sufficiently to be
drawn away from the seed, and it then fails to do its work, and renders the gin
useless.
It is a cause of common complaint that the rollers of cotton gins soon wear
smooth, and this is likewise the cause that roller cotton gins have not as yet been
introduced as freely as they would but for this defect. The surface of such roller
has to be roughened up from time to time, sprinkled with sand or pounded pumice
stone, and soon must be entirely renewed. The improvement in this connection
consists in constructing the roller sections of particularly fibrous wood, placed so
that the fibres of the wood will be radial to the roller, and present their ends at
their outer circumference. I much prefer for this purpose the wood of the palmetto
tree, because it has a coarse fibre, with the interstices filled with a chalky substance,
which will wear away sooner than the fibre itself. Therefore in use the exposed
surface of the roller will be apt to remain rough and always in proper condition
for use.
The Invention is not limited to the use of the palmetto wood, which, as
stated, is much preferred, but the palm, sugar cane, or cocoa nut trees, or other
fibrous woods, or vegetables of these genera or species, will frequently be found of
great advantage.
In the accompanying Drawing, Figure 1 is a front elevation, partly in section, of
a cotton gin containing the Invention; Figure 2 is a vertical cross section of the
same; Figure 3, a detail face view of the reciprocating notched blade; Figure 4, a
detail top view of the grating, which is directly in front of the notched blade, and
serves to support the cotton to be ginned and to let the seed drop down between
its bars; Figure 5 is a detail longitudinal section of one end of the roller. The same
letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the Figures.
A represents the roller of the cotton gin. This roller is made with a rough or
brushy surface for the purpose of enabling it to properly draw the lint, and is to
this end prepared to have a sufficiently frictional surface, so that it will always
cause the lint to adhere to it. The most favorable construction is that indicated
in Figure 2, where the roller is shown to be constructed of an inner shaft e carrying
a suitable sleeve f that is embraced by the segmental pieces g of the palmetto
wood. These segmental pieces, as already stated, are so cut that the fibre of the
palmetto wood will extend radially through them, and have its ends exposed at
the outer circumference of the roller. Suitable feathers may be formed on the
shaft or on the sleeve to prevent the segments of wood from revolving loose on the
shaft. The bark of the palmetto tree will answer almost as well as the wood
proper itself; or I may use alternate sections of wood and bark, taking care always
to have the fibre extend radially to the roller. Leather may be interlaid with
these sections of palmetto wood, or ordinary wood may be interlaid with the
sections, according to the grade of material to be treated in the gin or other
machine. The sections of the palmetto wood are suitably glued or otherwise
secured together, and firmly attached to the shaft so as to revolve together with
the same, or to the sleeve that revolves on the shaft.
The shaft may be made of polygonal form, if desired, to more readily facilitate
the application of the segmental pieces of the palmetto wood.
The important part of the Invention, and that which makes the roller effective,
is that the end of the fibres always present themselves at the surface of the roller,

page_text: and it is these ends that give efficacy to the roller in that they impart to the
roller a continuously brushy surface which is most admirably adapted to the
seizing of the cotton lint, and to its retention when the lint is to be pulled away
from the seed. The circumference of the roller may be quite cylindrical, or small
grooves may be cut in it an inch, more or less, far apart. Such grooves are
indicated in Figure 1. They may run spirally around the roller or be of other
suitable form. The roller will never polish or wear smooth like the material now
in use, will be exceedingly durable, and can be attached to all roller cotton gins of
usual or suitable construction, such as the gin known as the McCarthy gin, the
Osgood gin, and other roller cotton gins, and also to other machinery for carrying
fibres, such as napping machines, and the like.
B is the stationary blade secured to one or a series of weighted levers C, so that
thereby it is made to properly bear against the surface of the roller, as indicated
in Figure 2; but instead of making the blade B thus movable laterally, the roller
may by suitable means, such as springs or the like, be pressed against the blade B,
which in that case is quite stationary. D is the reciprocating notched blade above
referred to. Its ends are provided with projecting pins a that take against the
surfaces of cams b which are mounted upon a rotary shaft E, so that by revolving
said shaft by suitable means reciprocating movement in a horizontal direction to
the extent of about two inches, more or less, in a full sized gin will be rapidly
imparted to the blade D. F is the grating placed directly in front of the blade D
and attached to the stationary framework of the gin. Its grate bars are so spaced
that the seed when liberated from the lint will readily pass through between
them, and the upper edge of the front bar d of the grate is by preference made
more or less undulating or notched, in order to facilitate the permanency of the
cotton on its way to the roller, and this front bar d of the grating, inasmuch as it
is close to the reciprocating blade D, also assists in guiding the latter properly
keeping it in the proper place. The steel notched or serrated reciprocating
blade D is placed close to the stationary blade B, and so much above it that the
lowest part of the indentations are 18 to 1 of an inch below the upper edge
of the stationary blade or bar B that presses against the drawing roller A.
Immediately in front of this reciprocating blade is the grid or grate F through
which the seeds as they are separated fall. This grid (which forms part of the
table holding the cotton to be ginned) is made of perforated sheet metal, or,
if preferred, of heavy wires separated sufficiently to allow the seed to pass through.
The ends of these wires are fastened in the bar d parallel to the reciprocating
blade D and about 1/16 of an inch in front of it and about the same height, and
notched as stated.
The usual doffer or brush for taking off the cotton from the roller is or may be
used when required. Only so much of the gin is shown in the Drawings as is
required to exhibit the Invention.
The horizontally reciprocating blade D for separating the seed from the cotton fibre
has its alternate motion given to it, as stated, by means or one or both cams 6 on
the shaft E to which power is attached. This shaft is underneath the reciprocating
blade D, a cam b on the shaft at each end of the blade acting so as to pull the
blade, as required, first to the right and then to the left, and so on, rapidly. These
cams are so nicely adjusted that there is no jar or lost motion in the movements.
This method of giving alternate motion to the blade seems to be the best, although
the Invention is not confined to it, for by a suitable framework for the blade to
stiffen it the blade can be moved by one cam that will push as well as pull it, or
it can be moved by the common crank motion.
In this improved cotton gin the feed of the unginned cotton to the roller is at no
time cut off, neither is the cotton fibre pinched, cut off, or broken, as it is in the
McCarthy roller gin, by the action of the separating blade moving up and down
against the edge of the stationary blade, sometimes cutting the cotton fibre like a
pair of shears. By having the teeth that project from the upper edge of the
blade D bevelled or inclined each way, as indicated in Figure 3, the blade becomes

page_text: effective for the purposes of loosening and throwing the seed in each of its two
movements, that is. to say, both, while it moves to the right and while it moves to
the left. This is an important feature of the Invention because the gin is thereby
made continuously active where in ordinary gins the downward movement of the
separating blade was a lost motion.
Having described the nature of the said Invention and the manner of performing
the same, I declare that what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters
Patent is,-
1st. The rough surface roller constructed of segmental sections g, g, of fibrous
wood, such as the wood of the palmetto tree, said sections being arranged around
a central shaft, and so formed from the said wood that the fibre traverses them
radially, thereby exposing the brushy ends of the fibres at the circumference of
the roller, substantially as described.
2nd. In a roller cotton gin having drawing roller A and stationary plate B, the
horizontally reciprocating blade D having toothed or serrated upper edge and
placed close to and in front of the plate B combined with mechanism for imparting
motion to the said blade D, substantially as described.
3rd. The combination of the roller A and plate B with the horizontally recipro-
cating notched or toothed blade D, and with the cam or cams b on the shaft E for
imparting motion to said blade D, substantially as described.
4th. In combination with the roller A and plate B, the borizontally recipro-
cating blade D and the grid or grating F having notched front bar d, substantially
as described.
5th. In a roller cotton gin which is arranged to draw the lint in a lateral
direction, the seed loosening bar D made with toothed upper edge and moved
horizontally back and forth to be effective while moving in either direction,
substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty one.