IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES INTO BALES, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles James Robinson, of Walmer Buildings,
Water Street, Liverpool, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PRESSING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES INTO BALES, AND IN
APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE."-A communication from abroad
by George Brunton, residing at Cochin, in the East Indies.
Sealed the 7th June 1864, and dated the 15th December 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles James Robinson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th December 1863.
1. CHARLES JAMES ROBINSON, of Walmer Buildings, Water Street,
Liverpool, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES INTO BALES,
AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in pressing cotton and other
fibrous substances into bales, and in apparatus to be used for this purpose. In
presses of the usual construction it is customary to complete the compression
of cotton or articles of the like nature at one operation. I use for that pur-
pose two separate and distinct hydraulic or other presses; the first or lighter
press compresses the material operated on to a considerable extent but not as
much as is necessary to form a bale of the usual size for exportation. The
second or heavier press finishes the work begun in the first press, and reduces
the bulk of the cotton or other material of the like nature to the requisite
dimensions. Also in ordinary presses the cotton or other material of the like
[Price Sd.1

page_text: nature is put into a box of wood or iron which generally is attached to the
press, and the follower or moving table is propelled either upwards or down-
wards within this box until the cotton or material is reduced to a very small
portion of the space formerly occupied in this box. Doors in the box are
then opened which expose the cotton or material to view on both sides, and
ropes are passed round the cotton or material a sufficient number of times
through toothed plates or boards of cast iron or wood at the top and bottom
of the bale and then tightened and the ends secured, when the pressure being
relaxed the bale is finished. The boxes I use for holding the cotton or
material to be pressed are not attached to the press but can be moved
alternately in and out of the press, out to get refilled, and in to get the cotton
or material compressed.
The first press in this Invention is supplied with three boxes (though one
or two only may be used); each of these boxes is divided into two portions, an
upper and lower portion; each box has wheels and axles attached to its lower
part on which it travels, the wheels running on a plate or plates. One box is
intended to be under the press and the cotton or material pressed whilst the
two other boxes are being filled. The lower portion of the boxes is bolted
together permanently and serves merely as an oblong pipe to confine the
material while it is being forced into the upper portion. The side walls of
this upper portion of the box are drawn and held together by two or more
screwed or keyed strong iron or steel bolts and the two end walls are brought
to their proper position by the closing movement of the side walls, which at
their ends are provided with bevilled ledges against which the corresponding
bevilled edges of these end walls rest, or the side and end walls are connected
together by jointed corner stays or hinges or in any convenient manner, so that
on the bolts holding the side walls together being unscrewed or their keys
driven back the elasticity of the pressed cotton or material shall force apart
the four walls simultaneously and free the half pressed bale from the hold of
the upper portion of the box, and on the bolts being again tightened the four
shall simultaneously resume their proper position and remain so immoveably
whilst the half pressed bale is being formed. To complete a bale by this
method it is necessary that the cotton or other articles of the like nature
partially compressed in the first press should be removed from it to the second
press, and to do this that the upper portion of the box in the first press should
in some manner open or be got out of the way. The head or top plate of the
first press is made with a projection downwards cast with it or afterwards bolted
to its under side. This projection is no larger in its horizontal section than
the same section of the bale and therefore will allow the upper portion of the

page_text: box to rise. I have before mentioned toothed plates above and below the
bales for passing the lashing ropes through as being commonly used in cotton
presses; such plates (which I call lashing plates) I use also, only that I make
the teeth much deeper than those in ordinary use. One lashing plate is fixed
to the under side of the projection on first press head and one always remains
within each box rising and falling with the ram. In the second or finishing
press one lashing plate is fixed to the under side of the press head and another
to the press follower or moving table on top of the ram. The top portion of
the box under the press I remove in the manner following:-I relax the
screwed or keyed bolts which hold the walls of this part of the box together:
these walls then recede from one another sufficiently to remove all side pres-
sure arising from the elasticity of the cotton or material; I then raise the upper
part of the box by means of a hydraulic cylinder and ram placed on the top
of the press. Or in place of employing a hydraulic cylinder for lifting the
upper part of the box other lifting apparatus may be used. Then the upper
portion of the box is raised clear above the cotton or material and the teeth
of the lashing plates. To remove the partly compressed bale from one press
to another I use an instrument which I call an extractor. This consists of
a number of pieces of iron or steel projecting from plates of iron or other
metal at such a distance from one another and of such a
shall be able when the first press has done its duty to pass into the spaces
between the deep teeth in the lashing plates and extend some short distance
beyond the side of the bale opposite to that on which they were inserted.
These pieces of iron or steel, which I call prongs, being so inserted form a
series of stops or hindrances above and below the compressed cotton or
material to its expansion when the pressure exercised by the first press is
relaxed, so that on the sinking of the ram the partially compressed cotton or
material will be left and held between the prongs of the extractor when it is
withdrawn from the teeth of the lashing plates of the first press. The second
or finishing press being provided with lashing plates the teeth of which are
precisely the same in distance from each other and dimensions as those in the
first press it will be easily understood that the prongs of the extractor upon its
being swung over on a crane from the one press to the other will readily enter
therein, and a pressure being exerted by the second press the bale will be freed
from the extractor, which may then be withdrawn, leaving the bale in the grip
of the second press in which it will be finished.
length that they

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles James Robinson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 15th June 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COMF, I, CHARLES
JAMES ROBINSON, of Walmer Buildings, Water Street, Liverpool, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself. Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles James Robinson. Her special licence that I. the said Charles
James Robinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Charles James Robinson, 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 "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN PRESSING COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES INTO BALES, AND
IN APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR THIS PURFOSE."A communication to me from
abroad by George Brunton, a person resident at Cochin. in the East Indies,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles James
Robinson, 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 Charles James Robinson, 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 thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in pressing cotton and
other fibrous substances into bales, and in apparatus to be used for this
purpose.
In presses of the usual construction it is customary to complete the com-
pression of cotton or articles of the like nature at one operation. I use for
that purpose two separate and distinct hydraulic presses, the first or lighter
press compresses the material operated on to a considerable extent; but not as

page_text: The
much as is necessary to form a bale of the usual size for exportation."
second or heavier press finishes the work begun in the first press and reduces
the bulk of the cotton or other material of the like nature to the requisite
dimensions. Also in ordinary presses the cotton or other material of the like
nature is put into a box of wood or iron which is generally attached to the
press, and the follower or moving table is propelled either upwards or
downwards within this box until the cotton or material is reduced to a very
small portion of the space it formerly occupied in this box. Doors in the
box are then opened which expose the cotion or material to view on both
sides, and ropes are passed round the cotton or material a sufficient number
of times through toothed plates or boards of cast iron or wood at the top and
bottom of the bale and then tightened and the ends secured, when the pressure
being relaxed the bale is finished.
In this Invention the boxes for holding the cotton to be pressed are not
attached to the press, but can be moved alternately in and out of the press,
out to get refilled and in to get the cotton or material compressed.
The first press in this Invention is supplied with three boxes (though one
or two only may be used) as shewn in the Drawings hereunto annexed and
colored yellow (D, E, Figures 1, 2, and 3). Each of these boxes is divided
into two portions, as shewn, marked E for the upper and D for the lower
portion. Each box has wheels and axles attached to its lower part, on which
it travels, the wheels running on a cast-iron plate or plates as shewn in the
Drawing (P, Figures 1, 2, and 3). One box is intended to be under the press
and the cotton or material pressed whilst the two other boxes are being filled.
The lower portion of the boxes (D, Figures 1 and 2) is bolted together
permanently and serves merely as an oblong pipe to confine the material while
it is being forced into the upper portion. The side walls of this upper portion
of the box are drawn and held together by two or more screwed or keyed
strong iron or steel bolts, and the two end walls are brought to their proper
position by the closing movements of the side walls, which at their ends are
provided with bevilled ledges against which the corresponding bevilled edges
of these end walls rest (E, Figure 4), or the side and end walls are connected
together by jointed corner stays or hinges or in any convenient manner, so
that on the bolts holding the side walls together being unscrewed or their
keys driven back, the elasticity of the pressed cotton or material shall force
apart the four walls simultaneously and free the half pressed bale from the
hold of the upper portion of the box, and on the bolts being again tightened
the four shall simultaneously resume their proper position and remain so
immovably, whilst the half pressed bale is being formed. The using of boxes

page_text: so divided into upper and lower portions, and the method of causing the
upper portion to expand on all sides simultaneously constitute the first part of
this Invention.
To complete a bale by this method it is necessary that the cotton or other
articles of the like nature partially compressed in the first press should be
removed from it to the second press, and to do this that the upper portion of
the box in the first press should in some manner open or be got out of the
way.
The method of doing this forms the second part of this Invention, and the
holding of the partially compressed cotton together during its passage from
the first to the second press and the method of its conveyance forms the third
part thereof. The head or top plate of the first press is made with a pro-
jection downwards cast with it or afterwards bolted to its under side as shewn
at (F, Figures 1 and 2). This projection is no larger in its horizontal section
than the same section of the bale. and therefore will allow the upper portion of
the box to rise. I have before mentioned toothed plates above and below the
bales for passing the lashing ropes through as being commonly used in cotton
presses, such plates (which I call lashing plates) I use also, only that I make
the teeth much deeper than those in ordinary use, as shown in the Drawing
(L, Figures 1 and 2). One lashing plate is fixed to the under side of the
projection on first press head (F, Figures 1 and 2), and one always remains
within each box, rising and falling with the ram. In the second or finishing
press one lashing plate is fixed to the under side of the press head and another
to the press follower or moving table on top of the ram (L. Figure 1). The
top portion of the box under the press is removed in the manner following:-I
relax the screwed or keyed bolts which hold the walls of this part of the box
together (E, Figure 4). These walls then recede from one another sufficiently
to remove all side pressure arising from the elasticity of the cotton, &c., I then
raise the upper part of the box by means of a hydraulic cylinder and ram placed
on the top of the press (G, Figures 1, 2, and 3).
I would remark that the Invention is not confined to this particular method
of lifting the upper part of the box, but I claim the applying a hydraulic
cylinder or similar apparatus to the press to lift the upper part of the box
when expanded as above described. Thus the upper portion of the box is
raised clear above the cotton or material and the teeth of the lashing
plates.
In the third part of the Invention I use an instrument which I call an
extractor (K, Figures 1, 2, and 3). This consists of a number of pieces of
iron or steel projecting from plates of iron or other metal at such a distance

page_text: from one another and of such a length that they shall be able when the first
press has done its duty to pass into the spaces between the deep teeth in the
lashing plates and extend some short distance beyond the side of the bale
opposite to that on which they were inserted. These pieces of iron or steel
which I call prongs being so inserted form a series of stops or hinderances
above and below the compressed cotton or material to its expansion when the
pressure exercised by the first press is relaxed, so that on the sinking of the
ram the partially compressed cotton or material will be left and held between
the prongs of the extractor when it is withdrawn from the teeth of the lashing
plates of the first press. The second or finishing press being provided with
lashing plates the teeth of which are precisely the same in distance from each
other and dimensions as those in the first press, it will be easily understood
that the prongs of the extractor upon its being swung over on a crane (0,
Figures 1, 2, and 3) from the one press to the other will readily enter therein,
and a pressure being exerted by the second press the bale will be freed from
the extractor, which may then be withdrawn, leaving the bale in the grip of
the second press in which it will be finished.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles James Robinson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
CHAS. J. ROBINSON. (L.S.)