IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TEARING, BREAKING UP, AND REDUCING RAGS, ROPES, WASTE FABRICS, AND OTHER SIMILAR FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Cowpe at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th December
1862.
I, JOHN COWPE, of Mill End, near Newchurch, in the County of Lancaster,
Waste Breaker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TEARING, BREAKING UP, AND REDUCING
RAGS, ROPES, WASTE FABRICS, AND OTHER SIMILAR FIBROUS MATERIALS," to be as
follows:-
My Invention is an improvement upon the common "devil" hitherto used
for the purposes above mentioned, and consists in a new combination and
arrangement of mechanism for the purpose, namely, an endless feeder, upon
which the material to be operated upon is fed between a pair of fluted rollers,
which deliver it to a rotating cylinder provided with teeth. The journals of
the fluted feed rollers are held in stands or brackets, which also hold a
pressing roller placed in front of the fluted feeding rollers, and resting upon
the roller carrying one end of the feeding apron. These stands or brackets
also hold the bearings of a roller covered with card or other teeth, which
roller is placed above the top fluted feeding roller; the bearings of the said
toothed roller resting upon the journals of the top fluted feeding roller. The
fluted feed roller is weighted by a lever at each side, which act upon the
bearings of the toothed roller; the same weighting levers also act upon
the pressing roller in front of the fluted feeding rollers. The said toothed
cylinder is rotated, so that its teeth act upwards from the fluted feeding

page_text: rollers, and the said toothed roller is rotated, so that the teeth when operating
will move in the opposite direction to those on the said toothed cylinder.
Bends are placed on the side frames of the machine opposite the upper half
of the toothed cylinder, which serve to carry the ends of a series of bars or
"flats" passing across the cylinder from one bend to the other. These bars or
flats are fixed at intervals apart from each other, and are provided on that
side opposite the toothed cylinder with a series of teeth. These bars or flats
are so arranged as to be readily adjusted, so that the points of their teeth may
be brought nearer to or further from the points of the teeth of the cylinder.
The toothed cylinder is cased or covered both above and below. When the
material operated upon has passed the last toothed bar or flat, or that which
is furthest from the feeding rollers, it may be carried out through a suitable
opening by the current of air produced by the rotation of the toothed cylinder,
or it may be driven by the said current against a rotating wire cylinder, and
thus pass out in sheets between the wire cylinder and a roller working
against it.
My Invention further consists in causing the material after it has been
taken over the toothed cylinder to be carried back under the cylinder, and
delivered in sheets by a rotating wire cylinder and roller placed under the
feeding apron. In this arrangement the casing under the tooted cylinder
may be perforated or provided with grating to allow the heavy dirt to fall and
separate from the fibrous materials. A fan may also be used in combination
with the rotating wire cylinder to draw the dust away.