US685439A - Cotton-picker spindle. - Google Patents

Description

' Patented out. "2 99999 s.

AUNirriD VS*Aff-1"?S PATENT OFFICE.

ANCUs CAMPBELL, OF PI'TTSBURC, PENNSYLVANIA, AssIGNOR rro AMERICAI COTTON PICKER COMPANY, OF PITTSEURQPENNSYLVANIA, A CORPO RATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

COTTONfPioKER SPINDLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 685,439, dated Qctoberj29, 1,901.

Application and March 2v, 1901. serai No. 53,054. .oro model.)

To all whom t may concern: n, l

Be it known that I, ANCUS CAMPBELL', a: subject of the King of Great Britaimresiding 1 at Pittsburg, in the countyof Allegheny and 5 State of Pennsylvania, have invented anew and useful Improvement in Cotton-Picker Spindles, of which thefollowing is a specification.

My inventionrelates to improvements in 1o rotary picker stems or spindles for cottonharvesting machines.

My improvement is intended for use more especially in cotton-harvesting machinesof the type shown and described in United States `1 5` Letters Patent No. 542,7 94, granted to me July 16, 1895. Each machine of this type employsv a large number of picking-spindles, and the successful Operation of the machine to properly gather and save the cotton depends toa 2b large extent upon the peculiar construction of the spindles employed.

\ My object is to provide a pickingspindle of improved construction which renders it peculiarly eiective in gathering cotton from the a5 open bolls of cotton-plants and which will permit the cotton to be easily and cleanly stripped from the spindle in the machine. ItV is also my object to provide a picking-spindle which in use will not injure the cotton-plants oand is comparatively free from danger of injury to itself by striking the plants, and, furthermore, to provide a picking-spindle which may be manufactured at comparatively small. cost. 3`5 In the drawings, Figure 1 is a view in ele-y vation of my improved picking-spindle; Fig. 2, a broken and enlarged view in elevation of the spindle, showing more clearlythe form of L the teeth; Fig. 3,-a section taken on line 3 in 4'ol Fig. 2 and showing the construction involving three setsof teeth, and Fig. 4 a broken section taken on irregular line 4 in Fig. 3 and viewed in the direction of the arrow.

The blank from which rmy improved pick- 45 ing-spindle is formed comprises a rod A, of steel or other suitable metal; about one foot in length. The shank portion a is cylindrical and about one-third of an inch in diameter. The stem portion b tapers from the shank to i 5o the end, where it is about one-sixth of an inch 1 in diameter. The size of the spindle may b1 varied'as desired. In the stem portion an preferably equidistaut and parallel longitu dinally-extending grooves c, extending int( the stem more or less tangentially with rela tion to the center ofv rotation ofthe `stem Thus each groove presents amore or less un dercut side c. `Formed in the stem at thi undercut sideof eachgroove is a series o: teeth d, the serrations being formed in thi stem itself. I prefer toproduce the serrationi with gangs of rotary angular-faced millingcutters, and the' teeth may extend at an angle of, say, forty-five degrees to the body of the spindle, pointing` in the direction of the small end of the stem. The teeth may number, sayj fourteento the inch; but I do not limit myself tothe exact number, angle, or way o1 cutting. The side edges d' of the teeth,which are the sides toward the reduced or free end of the stem, are more or less abrupt, while the opposite sides d2 of the teeth are beveled tc incline outward in the direction of the'free end of the stem. v

Owing to the undereutting and the angle of extent of theteeth, their free ends project comparatively -far past a line drawn radially from the center of the stem through the bases of the grooves, thus producing long Asharp points. The teeth project much farther over the grooves than they would if the serrations extended transversely instead of slantingly with relation'to :the body of the stem, which causes them to present long sharp points which will readily engage and hold the cotton while it is being' picked and wound upon the stem. The stripping'of the stem is performed in the machine Vby sliding the cotton wound thereon in a direction longitudinal of the stem after its rotation has been stopped. lThe fact that the teeth point in the direction of the ,reduced end of the stem renders thisoperation easy to accomplish without cutting the cottonfibers. The inclined sides d2 of the teeth also facilitate this operation and permit thecotton to befstripped cleanly from the stem.

In practice the butt-end of the spindle carries a gear-wheel and clutchv to engage the Aclutch-pin a. shown, and the end portion of the shank a and v.part thereof between the pin and end of the/grooves rotate in bearings, rwhich purpose they are left cylindrical, described. The tapering stem portion of e spindle extends about the length of the nove.

I have shown the stem provided with three .dercut serrated grooves c, this being the .mber I prefer to employ. The number of ooves may be increased or diminished and e spindle otherwise modified without'derting from the spirit of my invention as ned by the claims.

While the longitudinally-extending grooves re shown to be straight, obviously they may tend more or less spirally without departg from the invention.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure Letters Patent, `is

1. A pickingspindle for cotton-harvesters, rmed with a tapering stem provided with a igitudinally-extending groove undercut at one side, and a series of teeth at the undercut side of said groove wholly within the circumference of the circle'described by the body of the stem and each presenting an inclined face at its side toward the butt-end of the stem and pointing at an angle, to the length of the groove, inclined toward the free end of the stem.

2. A picking-spindle for cotton-harvesters, formed with a tapering stem provided with two or more longitudinally-extending grooves undercut at one side, and a series of teeth at the undercut side of each groove wholly within the circumference of the circle described by the body of the stem and pointing at an angle, to thelength of the groove, inclined toward the free end of the stem.

' ANGUS CAMPBELL.

In presence oli--v i WM. B. DAvIEs, ALBERT D. BACCI.

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