AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF DRYING WOOL, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Thomas Hughes, of the Firm of Hughes
and Son, Patent Agents, 123, Chancery Lane, London, for the Invention
of "AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF DRYING WOOL, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH."
-A communication from abroad by Carl Beu and Louis Boettcher,
of the Firm of Carl Beu and Company, of Dessau, in the Dukedom
of Anhalt Dessau.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Thomas Hugbes
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 28th January 1865..
I, EDWARD THOMAS HUGHES, of the Firm of Hughes and Son, Patent
Agents, 128, Chancery Lane, London, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF DRYING WOOL, COTTON, AND OTHER
FIBROUS MATERIALS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE-
WITH," a communication to me from abroad by Carl Beu and Louis Boettcher,
of the Firm of Carl Beu and Company, of Dessau, in the Dukedom of Anhalt
Dessau, to be as follows:-
The wet or damp wool or other material is placed in a drying chamber in a
number of single boxes of uniform dimensions and shapes, and each provided

page_text: with a wire or perforated bottom. The said boxes rest one upon another, and
the bottom box is supported by cams, two in each side of the chamber; and
the lower part of the chamber below the boxes receives a supply of heated air
from a hot air apparatus in which the air is heated by steam or by the direct
action of combustion, and on the top of the chamber there is a pipe communi-
cating with a revolving fan or other suitable contrivance for creating a current
and drawing the heated air through the boxes and contents. The warm air
passes first through the lower layer of wool or material, and then rises
upwards through the contents of all the boxes, taking up more and more
moisture, and finally escaping completely saturated with it. The lowest layer
of the whole quantity of material will always be the driest, and those above
them will contain more or less moisture according to their height, and it is
therefore important to place a wet layer of material at the top when the lowest
dry layer is being or has been removed. For this purpose there is a gradual
descending motion given to all the boxes, and then a pause for enabling the
boxes to descend one after the other to the lowest position, and then allow
time for the lowest box to be removed and another to be placed at the top
through two openings in the drying chamber, which openings are afterwards
closed by doors or flaps. The cams on which the boxes rest are formed with
breaks or gaps, and the downward motion of the boxes and their pauses are
obtained by causing the cams to revolve, the said cams being so shaped as to
slightly exceed the depth of a single box in order to allow the lowest box to
be free from the one immediately above when it is resting in the breaks or
gaps and the cams have caught the bottom of the next box, which will become
the bottom one when the free one is removed. Revolving motion is given to
the cams by worms and worm wheels driven by pulleys from any motive power,
and on the shaft of the worms there is a clutch box worked by a lever which
is shifted one way when the lowest box descends to a certain position and
stops the revolution of the cams, but when the lowest box is removed the
lever is shifted the reverse way by weights or springs, and puts the clutch
into gear and turns the worms and cams. At the side of the drying chamber
there is a bell or signal which is struck at each revolution of the cams, and
indicates that the machinery is stopped and the lowest box waiting for
removal and another to be supplied at the top.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edward Thomas Hughes in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 28th July 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
THOMAS HUGHES, of the Firm of Hughes and Son, Patent Agents, 123,
Chancery Lane, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, Her special licence that I, the said
Edward Thomas Hughes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, my executors, administrators,
and 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 "AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF DRYING WOOL, COTTON, AND
OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS CONNECTED
THEREWITH," a communication to me from abroad by Carl Beu and Louis
Boettcher, of the Firm of Carl Beu and Company, of Dessau, in the Dukedom
of Anhalt Dessau, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Edward Thomas Hughes, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Edward Thomas Hughes, 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 (that is to say):-
;
The wet or damp wool or other material to be dried is placed in a drying.
chamber in a number of single boxes of uniform dimensions and shapes, and
each provided with a wire or perforated bottom. The said boxes rest one
upon another, and the bottom box is supported by cams, two on each side of
the chamber, and the lower part of the chamber below the boxes receives a
supply of beated air from a hot air apparatus in which the air is heated by

page_text: steam or by the direct action of combustion, and on the top of the chamber
there is a pipe communicating with a revolving fan or other suitable con-
trivance for creating a current and drawing the heated air through the boxes
and contents. The warm air passes first through the lower layer of wool or
material, and then rises upwards through the contents of all the boxes, taking
up more and more moisture, and finally escaping completely saturated with it.
The lowest layer of the whole quantity of material will always be the driest,
and those above them will contain more or less moisture according to their
height, and it is therefore important to place a wet layer of material at the
top when the lowest dry layer is being or has been removed.
For this purpose
there is a gradual descending motion given to all the boxes, and then a pause
for enabling the boxes to descend one after the other to the lowest position,
and then allow time for the lowest box to be removed and another to be placed
at the top through two openings in the drying chamber, which openings are
afterwards closed by doors or flaps. The cams on which the boxes rest are
formed with brakes or gaps, and the downward motion of the boxes and their
pauses are obtained by causing the cams to revolve, the said cams being so
shaped as to slightly exceed the depth of a single box in order to allow the
lowest box to be free from the one immediately above it when it is resting in
the breaks or gaps and the cams have caught the bottom of the next box,
which will become the bottom one when the free one is removed. Revolving
motion is given to the cams by worms and worm wheels driven by pulleys
from any motive power, and on the shaft of the worms there is a clutch box
worked by a lever which is shifted one way when the lowest box descends to
a certain position and stops the revolution of the cams, but when the lowest
box is removed the lever is shifted the reverse way by weights or springs, and
puts the clutch into gear and turns the worms and cams. At the side of the
drying chamber there is a bell or signal which is struck at each revolution of
the cams, and indicates that the machinery is stopped and the lowest box
waiting for removal and another to be supplied at the top.
These improvements will be clearly understood by the following detailed
description thereof, reference being had to the figures and letters on the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings, in which Figs. 1 and 2 are vertical
sections, Figs. 3 and 4 outside views, and Fig. 5 a sectional plan, of the
improved machinery or apparatus for drying wool, cotton, and other fibrous
materials.
The machinery consists of the following principal parts:-Firstly, the
heating apparatus for the generation of the warm air required for drying
secondly, the drying apparatus in which the process of drying is effected; an

page_text: thirdly, the apparatus for conducting the air saturated with steam and moisture
away from the drying apparatus.
The wet wool, cotton, or other material to be dried is placed in single
boxes with wire bottoms in the drying apparatus and exposed to a warm dry
current of air in such manner that this warm current of air first touches the
lower layers of wool or material and rises upwards through them, by this
means taking up more and more moisture from the wet wool or material, and
finally escaping completely saturated with it. In consequence of this arrange-
ment the lowest layer of the whole quantity of wool or material in the
apparatus will always be the driest, and the layers above it will be wetter in
proportion to their height, the upper layer being the wettest. If the whole
quantity of wool or material to be dried in the apparatus be of a certain
unvariable height, and the lowest dry layer removed from the apparatus,
another wet layer must be added at the top to make up for that taken away;
it is therefore important always to bring a wet layer at the top of the apparatus
if the lower dry layer is removed from it. In order that during this operation
the single layers of wool or material shall gradua reach the lowest part of
the apparatus, it is required that the layers gradually move downwards, and in
the Drawings single layers of wool are represented by the boxes in the
apparatus.
1a
9
7
In the annexed Diagram these layers are marked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8,
the arrow shewing the direction of the current of warm air. If the lowest
dry layer 1 be removed, and above the upper wet
layer 8 a new wet layer 1* be added, the heights h
and remain the same. Now if the layers 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, and 1° are moving downwards the thick-
ness of one layer, the surface a will arrive at the
surface b, and the layer 2 will consequently become
the driest, and thus it follows that by removing the
lowest layers and adding new wet ones these last
6
h.
5
4
3
2
a
will gradually come down dry.
The machinery represented in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings serves
as an application of the above-mentioned principle.
In the Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, a is the vessel for heating, and it will bo
seen that it is similar to a tubular boiler. Through the pipe b steam is led
into this heater direct from any steam boiler, and the water condensed in the
heater arising from the cooling of the steam is led off self-actingly and inter-
mittently without any loss of steam by means of a trap or discharge apparatus
of any known construction. By means of a jacket d of sheet metal sur-

page_text: rounding the heater the outer air is caused to enter at the upper part of this
heater (as the arrows indicate), first to become warm at the outer sides of it,
then to pass through the tubes or pipes inside of it, and finally to pass into
the drying apparatus e above the heater. The drying apparatus e is a case
made of wood, in which the single boxes f, g, h, i, k, l, m, and n being filled
with wool or material are placed. The front side of the apparatus has two
openings o and P closed by flaps, the lower opening o serving for taking out
the lowest box n with dry wool or material, and the upper opening p for
pushing in a box f with wet wool or material. The boxes are placed one
upon another, and the downward motion of the same is effected by means of
It is
cams q, two on each side, and moving in the direction of the arrows.
évident that the downward motion of the boxes is effected by the motion of
the cams, and that at each turning of these cams the extent of this downward
motion will always be equal to the thickness of a box increased by the space r
between the two lowest boxes. It is also evident that before this space r
becomes perceptible at the last motion of the cams their ends s take up and
carry all the boxes above the lowest box, and thus enable the lowest box n to
be quickly free of those placed above it. The moment the space appears
the motion of the cams ceases, the machine stops, and the lowest box filled
with dry wool or material can be taken out through the under opening o.
The above-described position of the boxes in the apparatus, that is the
moment when the machine stops, is represented in Figs. 1 and 2, and it will
be seen that at this moment a new box filled with wet wool or material may
be pushed in through the upper opening p, and further, that the operation
just described may be repeated as soon as the cams are put in motion and
have turned again. It now remains to describe how the cams are actuated,
and how after each turn they are put in and out of gear. Upon the cam
shafts are placed the worm wheels and s¹ at the back of the apparatus;
these worm wheels are put in motion in opposite directions (as shewn by the
arrows) by the two endless screws t and u by means of the cone pulleys v
and and pulley put in motion by a driving shaft. The putting into gear
and out of gear is effected by the lowest box in the apparatus actuating the
lever y during its last motion. This lever is connected by the rack z with the
clutch a¹ in such manner that the latter is out of gear when the box has
reached its lowest position and the downward motion of the boxes is caused to
stop. As soon as a fresh box with wet wool or material is pushed through the
upper opening, and the lower box with the dry wool or material taken out of
the apparatus, the lever y is again loose and moves upwards and puts the
clutch a¹ into gear, and the boxes are again in motion. The signal apparatus b¹

page_text: indicates, by striking a bell at each rotation of the worm wheels and cams,
the stoppage of the machine to the workman, and gives a signal for the
changing of the boxes. The apparatus for taking off the air saturated with
steam and moisture is a fan or exhauster of any known construction actuated
by the driving shaft, and it is evident that instead of a heater heated by steam
any heating apparatus may be applied.
of
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of July, in the year
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
E. T. HUGHES. (L.S.)