Fig. 15.J.N.
Fig. 17.
(54) The cotton is fed by the tube placed at C, and a fan is fixed just below the entrance of the tube into the beater chamber. The direction in which the cotton enters and the positions of the fans are important points of construction. The feed tube is not fixed in a straight line, but is slightly curved so as to direct the cotton upward as it enters the beater chamber. As it enters it comes in contact with the serrated surface of a truncated conical dish, within which the lowest arm D of the beater revolves. Immediately below this dish a fan disc of the Schiele type is fixed in machines in which a combination of feed table, air trunks, and opener is made. The object of this fan is to exhaust the air in the tubes up to that point, and draw the cotton forward until it reaches the cylinder. There is a decided advantage in this arrangement over one in which the fan is placed beyond the exit orifice at the top of the opener chamber. In the latter case the air is required to draw the cotton through the dust trunks into the opener, upwards past the cylinder, and so on to the cages. In the machine as made by Messrs. Crighton, the fan at the bottom of the dish is sufficient to bring the cotton to that point, and all that is subsequently required of the fans placed beyond the cylinder is to lift the cotton upwards during its progress through the beater chamber. On this account a slower moving current of air can be employed, and the fans connected with the cages can be revolved at a less velocity. The full advantages of this arrangement will be afterwards pointed out, but as the cotton is raised slowly while being beaten, it is thoroughly opened and cleaned.
Fig. 16.
Fig. 19.
Fig. 18.J.N.