IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON GINNING MACHINERY
Year: 1884

page_text: I CHARLES THOMAS BURGESS of Brentwood in the County of Essex Engineer
do hereby declare the nature of my invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON
GINNING MACHINERY" to be as follows:-
Heretofore in that class of machinery for ginning cotton in which a series
of revolving circular saws are used and in which the cotton is drawn away from
the saws by a revolving brush, the cotton thrown off by the brush has been carried
away by the current of air produced by the revolving brush and has either be
allowed to deposit at a distance from the machine or else in some cases the current
of air has carried it against a revolving perforated drum through which the air
could escape but which held back the cotton. When the cotton has been caught in
this manner on the surface of the drum it has usually been taken off from it by an
endless apron and has been conveyed upwards by this apron to a pair of rollers by
which it has been condensed into a bat and delivered from the machine. The
apron in this case has usually been carried around the lower compressing roller and
has so served to prevent the cotton from winding around this roller as it would
otherwise have had a tendency to do.
One object of my invention is to produce a more regular and certain action of the
upper compressing and discharging roller and for this purpose I make it as a drum
with a perforated circumference so that part of the current of air may pass away
through it.
In this case the current of air will first assist in holding the fibre to the surface
of the roller and afterwards on the opposite side of the nip of the rollers will tend
to detach the fibre and prevent it from clinging to the roller.
In order also to simplify the construction of the machine in place of using
a perforated drum and endless band to carry the fibre to the compressing and
discharging rollers I cause the fibres as they are discharged from the revolving
brush to be carried upwards by the current of air over the surface of an inclined
plate which leads them upwards and into the nip of the compressing and
discharging rollers. Both the lower as well as the upper roller of this pair of
rollers may be perforated.

page_text: Above the upper roller I place a grating of perforated metal and also form
perforations in the upper part of the inclined plate which guides the fibre upwards
to the compressing and discharging rollers.
In this way the cotton is arrested not only by the rollers but also by the
gratings.
As the rollers revolve the cotton is drawn between them and delivered as a bat
or fleece from the machine. The cotton fibres which are arrested by the perforated
gratings will be drawn off from them by the action of the rollers as all the fibres
tend to cling together. The improvements above described can be used with all
forms of cotton ginning machinery in which the cotton is carried off from the
ginning mechanism by a current of air.
Dated this 21st day of March 188A

page_text: I, CHARLES THOMAS BURGESS of Brentwood in the County of Essex Engineer
do hereby declare the nature of my invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COTTON
GINNING MACHINERY "and in what manner the same is to be performed to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :—
Heretofore in that class of machinery for ginning cotton in which a series of
revolving circular saws are used and in which the cotton is drawn away from
the saws by a revolving brush, the cotton thrown off by the brush has been carried
away by the current of air produced by the revolving brush and has either been
allowed to deposit at a distance from the machine or else in some cases the current
of air has carried it against a revolving perforated drum through which the air
could escape but which held back the cotton. When the cotton has been caught in
this manner on the surface of the drum it has usually been taken off from it by an
endless apron and has been conveyed upwards by this apron to a pair of rollers by
which it has been condensed into a bat and delivered from the machine. The
apron in this case has usually been carried around the lower compressing roller and
has so served to prevent the cotton from winding around this roller as it would
otherwise have had a tendency to do.
One object of my invention is to produce a more regular and certain action of
the upper compressing and discharging roller and for this purpose I make it as
a drum with a perforated circumference so that part of the current of air may pass
away through it.
In this case the current of air will first assist in holding the fibre to the surface
of the roller and afterwards on the opposite side of the nip of the rollers will tend
to detach the fibre, and prevent it from clinging to the roller.
In order also to simplify the construction of the machine in place of using
a perforated drum and endless band to carry the fibre to the compressing and
discharging rollers I cause the fibres as they are discharged from the revolving
brush to be carried upwards by the current of air over the surface of an inclined
plate which leads them upwards and into the nip of the compressing and
discharging rollers. Both the lower as well as the upper roller of this pair of
rollers may be perforated.
Above the upper roller I place a grating of perforated metal and also form
perforations in the upper part of the inclined plate which guides the fibre upwards
to the compressing and discharging rollers.
In this way the cotton is arrested not only by the rollers but also by the
gratings.
As the rollers revolve the cotton is drawn between them and delivered as a bat
or fleece from the machine. The cotton fibres which are arrested by the perforated
gratings will be drawn off from them by the action of the rollers as all the fibres
tend to cling together.
The improvements above described can be used with all forms of cotton ginning
inachinery in which the cotton is carried off from the ginning mechanism by a
current of air.
The Drawing hereunto annexed shows a vertical section of a cotton gin
constructed in the manner above described.
A is one of a series of circular saws mounted on an axis B and which as usual
work through a grid or grating C at the lower part of the hopper 1 into which the
cotton to be ginned is thrown as is usual. E is the revolving brush by which the

page_text: cotton is drawn away from the saws. F is an inclino on to which the cotton is
thrown by the revolution of the brush-G. H. are a pair of compressing and
discharging rollers at the top of the incline F.-The upper compressing roller is as
shewn perforated to allow part of the current of air to pass off through it. The
current of air carries the fibre up to these rollers and when by the revolution of
the rollers the fibre has been drawn between them it is prevented from clinging to
the upper roller by the current of air blowing through it. As before stated the
lower roller might also be perforated if desired but usually I employ a perforated
roller for the upper roller only-I is a grating above the top of the compressing
and delivering rollers and J is a grating at the top of the incline F-these gratings
are to afford sufficient outlet for the current of air from the revolving brush.
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. The employment in cotton ginning machinery, in which the cotton fibres are
carried off from the ginning mechanism by a current of air, of compressing and
delivering rollers one or both of which are perforated to deliver the fibres in a bat
or fleece from the machine substantially as herein before described.
2. The employment in cotton ginning machinery in which the cotton fibres are
carried off from the ginning mechanism by a current of air, of compressing and
delivering rollers one or both of which are perforated in combination with
perforated gratings at the ends of the top and bottom plates or at the end of
either of these plates of the casing which conducts the cotton fibro to such rollers
substantially as herein before described.
3. The construction of cotton ginning machines substantially as herein-before
described and illustrated in the Drawing annexed.
Dated this 19th day of December 1884