COTTON GIN. The improvements in cotton-gins during the past decade include novel forms of condensers and feeders, and the extended use of these attachments, and the inven tion of a new type in which a peculiarly formed working cylinder is substituted for the saws. It may not be generally known to cotton-planters that not only is all the dirt and dust taken from the cotton before spinning, but the exact amount of dirt in every bale is known and recorded, so that it is impossible at the present time to sell dirt for cotton. A first-class condenser will not only raise the grade of cotton, but will add greatly to the con venience of running the gins, and decrease dangers from fire. As the output of a gin depends materially upon the maintenance of the integrity of the roll. and this in turn upon the skill of the person feeding, it will be evident that an automatic feeding contrivance which substi tutes regular machine-work for hand-labor should possess important economical advantages. In the following illustrations are represented the newest forms of standard gills.
The Eagle Gin is represented in perspective in Fig. 1, with the condenser and feeder attached. Its interior construction is shown in the sectional view (Fig. 2). Among the new features is an adjustable grate-fall hollow, and an arrangement of the breast, which it is claimed prevents breaking of the roll. The object sought also was a perfect ly smooth seed-board, pre senting no angles to in terfere with the easy turn ing of the roll. The bot tom is formed of an iron plate. sufficiently strong to hold the weight of the , roll. This plate is at tached to the body of the seed-board with hinges at its top edge, so that the bottom edge, which is notched to correspond with the saws, may swing in or out. The feeder is arranged on top of the gin. The feed - cylinder has the same speed as the gin-saws, and has strong, blunt pins to bring up the , cotton. Behind this, and parallel with it is another cylinder, moving slowly in the same direction, hav ing wires in it bent back ward. Between these two cylinders the cotton is completely opened, and the whole bolls broken apart, putting them in such condition that the gin will easily dis charge them, at the same time knocking out a large amount of leaf and dirt. The condenser is simply a large drum, covered with cloth, and having a pressure-roller over it. These are inclosed in a case, reaching to the floor, leaving a few inches of the drum uncovered, from which the cotton is blown off in a continu ous sheet by the brush. A hole is to be cut through the floor under the condenser, through which the air made by the brush is blown, carrying the dust with it.
The Brown (lin is represented in section in Fig. 3. The feeder has an endless apron,
_A', by which the cotton is delivered to the roll-hox, and is arranged to tilt back. The brush cylinder-shaft is made of large iron pipe with journals of cast steel running in adjustable boxes, allowing the cylinder to he moved up to the saws, to compensate for the wear of the bristles. it is driven by two belts, one at each end. This gives the cyl inder the strong steady speed necessary to clean the teeth of the saws well, and cause the gin to mote properly. • The Mason Colton-din is an entirely new departure in machinery. Its principle is defined as follows : to construct a ginnint,r-eylinder having teeth, which shall seize only the cotton-fibers, and not the seeds or oilier relatively hard foreign sub stances contained in the mass presented to its tietion, and shall strip or remove the cot omfiber wholly or in great degree from said seeds. Ity "ginning-eylinder ' is meant a cyliudrieal body for drawing out the cotton-lint from the seed-cotton, to be substituted in place of the aggregation of saws now used in an or dinary gin. This, the inventor says, can be accomplished by means of a cylinder having a tient periphery, in which periphery are numerous openings, and in cad! of which openings is secured a tool) fixed at one I gill and extending in said opening in in circumferential direction with reference to the cylinder, provided that the position of the free points or ends of said teeth shall npproxiimite to the eireumjneent level or siirfiwe of the periphery of cylinder, the said cylinder being retaled so that the teeth shall be presented points forward to the cotton. It is requisite, also, that there shall exist in front of and on each side of the end or point of each tooth a space or opening into which the lint, by reason of its softness and elasticity, may enter when the cotton is placed in contact with the surface of the cylinder, and into which space the seeds or hard foreign material. not being soft and elastic, can not enter, and into which the seeds are also prevented from entering by reason of their size. By simply causing the cotton to lie in contact with said cyl inder when rotating, with the points of the teeth forward, the lint will by its own elas ticity enter the openings around the teeth in a radial direction, toward the axis of cylinder, and will be engaged and drawn out by said teeth, while the hard bodies— such as the seed and foreign matters—will not be so engaged. The point of the tooth is also arranged to protrude beyond the circtnnjacent parts to such a degree only as that by the rotation of the cylinder it may be thrust for a minute distance into the outer adherent coating of the seed.