IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR OPENING, CLEANING, OR SCUTCHING COTTON, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake,
& Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, for an Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR OPENING, CLEANING, OR SCUTCHING
COTTON, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS." A communication from
abroad by Alfred Clarke and Haven C. Perham, both of Lowell, Massachusetts,
United States of America.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Robert Lake at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th April 1881.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent
Agents, Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
OPENING, CLEANING, OR SCUTCHING COTTON, WOOL, AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS." A communication from abroad by Alfred Clarke and Haven C.
Perham, both of Lowell, Massachusetts, United States of America.
The first part of this Invention relates more especially to the feed rolls by which
the cotton or other fibrous material is fed to a beater, and held while the beater
blades of a cotton opener act upon it.
This part of the said Invention comprises the construction of a feed roll to act
in conjunction with one or more other feed rolls to feed the cotton or other fibrous
material to the beater, which feed roll is made in sections, each of which extend
only a portion of the length of the roll or rolls against which it operates, that is
to say, such roll or rolls have a length which is as great as two or more of the
sections of the sectional feed roll.
The object of such construction is to deliver to the beater a sheet or lap of cotton
which shall always be held by the feed rolls and compressed between them in its
different parts, passing under the different sections of the sectional feed roll equally
regardless of the thickness of such different parts, thus permitting lumps and
masses of unopened cotton to pass to the beater between the feed rolls without
releasing the nip of the rolls from the sheet of cotton on either side of such lump
across the machine.
The second part of the said Invention relates, to regulating the speed of the feed
rolls, according to the thickness of the lap passing between them and to compressing
"

page_text: the lap or sheet fed to the beater, so that it will be more firmly held by the feed
rolls while being acted on by the beater.
This part of the said Invention comprises the construction of mechanism, which
will communicate the rise and fall of the several sections of the sectional feed roll
to speed changing mechanism, through which the feed rolls are driven in such a
manner that with each rise or fall of the sectional feed roll or any section thereof
a corresponding change will be made in the speed with which the feed rolls are
driven, and in the construction of such mechanism, as will permit of an equal and
constant pressure being given to each section of the upper feed roll.
The object of such construction is to feed to the beater a regular amount of
cotton, regardless of the different thickness of the sheet or lap being fed forward
by the feed rolls in its several parts and to hold the several parts passing under
such sectional roll, as before described, with equal pressure regardless of their
differing thickness, while the cotton is being acted upon by the beater and to make
such pressure so considerable that any change in the amount of cotton passing to
the beater will quickly actuate the speed changing mechanism, and will more
firmly hold the cotton while being acted upon by the beater than has been
heretofore practical.
In the accompanying Drawing,-
Figure 1 represents the rolls and speed changing mechanism by which they are
driven placed in position in front of a beater, the feed apron upon which the cotton
is conveyed to the rolls being removed.
Figure 2 is a side view of the machine with the apron in place, and the feed
rolls, their case, and the mechanism which lies upon the said rolls, and through
which the speed of the rolls is regulated shown in section on the line x, x,
Figure 1.
A represents the frame of the machine, and a is the beater rotating in the
direction indicated by the arrow and driven by a belt from any convenient counter
shaft; B is an endless apron on which the cotton to be fed to the beater is placed;
b is an idler gear wheel which engages with pinions on the ends of the shafts of
the lower feed rolls, and one on the end of the apron roll shaft b²; c, c¹, are the
lower feed rolls which rotate both in the same direction and at the same surface
speed, one of them having upon its shaft at one end the worm wheel L, and at the
other end the pinion C, which drives the idler b that engages with and drives both
the pinion on the apron roll shaft and the pinion on the other feed roll shaft; D
is the upper feed roll, consisting of a number of separate sections d, d, which rest
upon the lower feed rolls. These separate sections are all placed upon the shaft d²,
which is made much smaller than the openings in the sections through which it
passes. This shaft is placed in bearings supported by pillow blocks placed on the
frame, which blocks are of such height that the shaft occupies a position in the
upper half of the bore through the sectional rolls when no cotton is between
the rolls, so that when a sheet or lap of cotton is passing through the machine
the sectional roll will rise to permit the passage of such cotton without coming
into contact with the shaft; but if from the passage of some extraordinarily large
mass of cotton the sections or any one of them are lifted above the level of the
tops of the lower feed rolls, such section or sections will not be liable to be thrown
over the lower feed rolls and displaced, being limited in their movement by the
shaft d². This shaft d can however be omitted without affecting the operation
of the machine in most cases.
Instead of a shaft passing through the sections forming the upper feed roll, to
prevent their accidental displacement, the case S which covers the said roll can
be made of sufficient strength to retain any section of the upper feed roll, and
prevent any considerable displacement when any large mass of unopened cotton
comes into contact with the feed rolls.
The upper feed roll is held in position above the lower feed rolls by the
saddles e, e. These saddles are connected in pairs by the connecting bars f, f, upon
each of which bears one of the evener levers g, g, upon which in turn the quadrant

page_text: lever G bears through the post g³ placed between the said quadrant lever and the
upper, evener lever. This quadrant lever has attached to its sides, and pendant
therefrom, two quadrants g, which fall down one on either side of the eveher levers,
to which are attached the chains H, H, which extend out to the side of the machine,
and down over a wheel to their point of connection with the lever I which is
pivoted at i to a stud projecting from the frame. This lever has attached to its
other and longer arm a weight which causes the lever to quickly fall when
permitted by the slackening of the chains, and which through the chains, quadrants,
and evener levers and saddles exerts a constant pressure upon the several sections
of the upper feed roll. The lever I through the pin h operates the belt shifting
levers j,, which shift the belt ja upon the cones J, J¹.
The cone J is driven by a belt j³ from any convenient shaft, and the cone J¹ is
driven by the cone J through the medium of the belt j³.
The cone J has upon its projecting shaft the worm k which engages with the
worm wheel L placed on the end of the shaft of one of the lower feed rolls. This
worm wheel is indicated in Figure 2 by a dotted circle.
Instead however of having two lower feed rolls between which and the upper
sectional feed roll the cotton passes, there need be only one lower feed roll, the
other lower roll being dispensed with or placed above the sheet of cotton passing
to the beater, and serving only as a rear supporting roll for the sectional roll. If one
lower roll be omitted, the lower feed roll should be placed under the sectional roll,
and the saddles which bear upon the sectional roll should have their ends carried
down before and behind the roll sufficiently to retain it in position.
I prefer however to construct the machine with two lower feed rolls, as shown
in the Drawing, for the reason that this construction gives two places or points of
contact between feed rolls which are positively driven by the machine, and the lap
or sheet of cotton which they move forward and through it with the upper sectional
roll which is driven by the sheet of cotton in contact with its surface, besides the
irregularities in the sheet or lap pass first between the sectional roll and the rear
lower feed roll, and will elevate the sections at first only a part of the distance
necessary to pass the inequalities to the beater. When however the irregularities
have passed on so as to be brought between both the lower feed rolls and the upper
sectional roll, the full movement will be given to the upper sectional roll, and
through it to the speed changing mechanism, and thus less sudden change will
be imparted to it than with a single lower feed roll.
As the saddles, evener levers, quadrant, and connecting chain, and belt shifting
levers are so arranged that the belt upon the cones will be shifted toward the
smaller end of the driving cone when any part of the evener levers are raised, the
lower feed rolls will by any raising of the said evener levers or any part thereof
be driven at a slower rate. In consequence of such slower speed given to the cone
through which the feed rolls are driven, and as the evener levers bear upon the
upper roll firmly through the saddles in contact with its several sections, any
change in the thickness of the sheet passing between the upper and under rolls
will act to immediately change the speed of the rolls, so that when the feed roll
mechanism is adjusted to pass to the beater any given thickness of the sheet or
lap of cotton, any change in that thickness will alter the speed with which it is
fed to the beater, and thereby maintain a constant quantity. To make the
mechanism so that it may accommodate itself to inequalities in the lap or sheet being
fed to the beater, which inequalities do not extend along its entire width (such as
hard lumps or masses of unopened cotton), I make the upper feed roll in sections
so that any lump or masses passing toward the beater will not raise the whole
roll and thereby release the cotton from their grasp along the whole of their length
and permit the beater blades to act upon cotton not held by them. If in a machine
provided with the sectional roll a lump passes betweed such roll and the lower feed
roll, only that section with which the lump comes in contact rises, and the evener
evers are affected in only the proportion that the length of that section bears to
the length of the entire roll..

page_text: As the sections of the upper feed roll are free to rise and fall independently
of one another, they always hold all parts of the sheet or lap fed to the beater
while it is being acted upon with equal pressure regardless of its different
thickness in its various parts.
The saddles extend over the top of the roll and down around it, so as to bear
against its upper surface at points far enough down upon its sides to prevent
it from mounting either of the lower feed rolls, and leaving its operative position
with the ordinary and usual irregularities in the sheet or lap fed to the machine,
and they are provided at their bearing points with bearings of metaline or some
antifriction material, or friction rollers may be substituted for such material if
desired.
When a sheet or lap of cotton is fed by my improved device to the beater, it
passes between the upper and under feed rolls, all of which being in rotation can
be compressed upon it very firmly, so that any change in the thickness of the
passing sheet will be more quickly felt than in a machine in which the cotton
passes between a plate or lever and a roll, for the reason that in such machine it
cannot be so firmly compressed, and consequently when a slightly thicker portion
of the lap or sheet of cotton passes between the roll and the plate or lever, it will
be more easily compressed, so as to pass the feed roll in the same space as that part
of the sheet immediately in advance of it did, without actuating the speed changing
mechanism; this it more readily does because the feed roll in such machines must
be made grooved or toothed to obtain sufficient traction on the sheet to draw it
over the levers or plates.
The evening levers and sectional roll being above the sheet of fibre passing to the
beater are not liable to become clogged and choked, and their operative capacity to
be lessened by the sand or dirt falling from the cotton operated upon in the
machine, as is the case with all machines in which the evener mechanism is placed
below the cotton entering the machine.
As all the surfaces with which the cotton comes in contact while being held and
fed to the beater move in the same direction as the cotton, and at the same surface
speed, much less power is required to operate the machine than others in which
the cotton is drawn over a stationary surface by a feed roll, and the injury done.
the fibre is much less than in such machines.
Having thus fully described the said Invention as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondents, and the manner of performing the same, I wish it understood
that I claim.
First. In a machine for opening fibrous materials the combination of a sectional
feed roll with a feed roll whose length is as great as two or more of the sections,
and whose speed is regulated by the action of the sectional roll upon intermediate
speed changing mechanism, as above set forth and for the purpose specified.
Second. In a cotton opener, the combination with a beater of a pair of feed rolls
between which the fibre passes to the beater, one of which feed rolls is composed
of separate sections each capable of independent movement, and each actuating
speed changing mechanism which varies the speed with which the rolls are driven
with each change in the thickness of the sheet of cotton passing between the rolls,
as above described.
Third. The combination of a sectional feed roll and evener levers placed above
the entering sheet of cotton with a lower feed roll and a beater, as above
described.
Fourth. The combination with a beater of a pair of feed rolls, one of which is
divided transversely into several sections, and an endless feed apron whose speed is
changed with each change made in the speed of the rolls, as above described.
Fifth. The combination of a beater and a sectional feed roll with two other feed
rolls not sectional between which and the sectional roll the cotton fed to the beater
passes and speed regulating mechanism actuated by the sectional roll and operating
the feed rolls, as above set forth and for the purpose specified.
Sixth. The combination of two feed rolls, one of which consists of a number of

page_text: sections whose aggregate length is that of the other roll with saddles, each one of
which bears upon a different section of the roll, and all of which are through a
system of evener levers connected with speed changing mechanism through which
the rolls are driven, as above set forth and for the purpose specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty one.
W ROD. LAKE.
(L.S.J