1)66 



COTTON-SPINNING 



receiving ita motion from a pulley on the beater shaft. Tho projection i on the framing 

 forms a pipe, through which the fan draws the air from the beater, passing on its 

 way through a largo revolving cage or cylinder, the periphery of which is formed of 

 sheets of perforated metal, or wire gauze. Its axis is shown at k. 



From the cage the cotton is delivered by a second travelling creeper, and falls into 

 a receptacle, from which it is taken and passed through the second Scutcher or Lap 

 machine, to which we shall refer presently. 



Fig. 548 exhibits a longitudinal sec- 

 tion of another kind of Opener, or first 

 Scutcher. The machine is about 18 

 or 19 feet long, and three feet across 

 within the case. The whole frame is 

 made of cast iron, forming a close box, 

 which has merely openings for intro- 

 ducing the raw cotton wool, for taking 

 out the cleansed wool, and removing 

 the dust as it collects at the bottom. 

 These doors are shut during the ope- 

 ration of the machine, but may be 

 opened at pleasure to allow the interior 

 to be inspected and repaired. The in- 

 troduction of the cotton is effected by 

 means of an endless cloth or a wooden 

 lath creeper similar to the one in fig. 

 543, which moves in the direction of 

 the arrows a a, at the left end of the 

 figure, by passing round the continu- 

 ally revolving rollers b and c. It is 

 then delivered to the feed rollers e. 

 The double-armed beater fe turns in 

 the direction of the arrow, and strikes 

 the cotton violently as it enters, so as 

 to throw down any heavy particles upon 

 the iron grating or grid at n, while the 

 light cotton filaments are wafted on- 

 wards with the wind, in the direction 

 of arrow a' along the second travelling 

 apron. A is a cylindrical cage made 

 of wire gauze or perforated zinc, from 

 which the air is exhausted by means 

 of a fan formerly placed at some dis- 

 tance from the machine, and comimmi- 

 cating with it through a pipe fixed at 

 the opening k. Now, however, the fan 

 is placed below the machine, and com- 

 municates with the cylindrical cage, as 

 described in fig. 546. The cage h, by 

 its rotation, presses down the half- 

 cleaned cotton upon the cloth a', which 

 carries it forward to the second beater 

 f, by the second set of feed rollers c'. 

 The second beater throws down the 

 heavy dust upon the second grid n', 

 through which it falls upon the bottom 

 of the case. The cotton is wafted by 

 the second beater into the space x w w, 

 provided with a fine grid bottom. In 

 fig. 548 an additional ventilator is in- 

 troduced beneath at m o, to aid the action of the scutchers in blowing the cotton 

 onwards into the oblong trough a. The outlet of that fan is at t ; and it draws in the 

 air at its axis q. u and v, are two doors or lids for removing the cleaned cotton 

 wool. This last fan is suppressed in many scutchers, as the scutching arms sup- 

 ply a sufficient stream of air. The dotted lines show how the motion is trans- 

 mitted from the first mover at s, to the various parts of the machine. 6' 6' repre- 

 sent the bands leading to the main shafting of the mill. 



The necond Scutcher or Lap machine differs from the first Scutcher only in two re- 

 spects. Tho cotton as it passes out of the machine is coiled in a continuous broad sheet 



