Morning journal and courier., 1880-04-01
The Electric Purifier.

MT. E. IL. Baker Claims the Honor of
 the Invention and Makes Out a Strong
 Case for Himself.
 The following is taken from the Saint Paul and Minneapolis Pioneer Press:
 To the Editor of the Pioneer Press
 In a recent issue of your paper, Saturday, March 20, telegraphed from New Haven, is described an electric middlings purifier patent ed last month by the son of Superintendent Smith of the Atlantic mills and Thomas B. Os- borne, junior in Yale College. As a matter of information to the public in that connection Gas young Mir. Smith claims to have conceived the idea) will you do me the favor to pub fish the following statement2 The discovery that middlings could be purified by frictional electricity was made by me over year ago, and at the last June meeting of the Millers' National Association in Chicago, the discovery was imparted by me to MT. J. A. Christian of
 Minneapolis, chairman of the executive con- mittee and his opinion asked whether it was not best at that time to publicly announce it, with view to influencing the then pend tng litigation and proposed settlement between the Millers' Association and the George T. Smith Purifier Company. At his suggestion 1t was withheld. Mir. V. D. Grey, the we'll known millwright and civil engineer, with
 Messrs. E. P. AIlis $ Go. of Milwaukee, will also further and more particularly substau-
 tiate my claim to the invention. The 4th day of September last (date procured from St. James hotel register, and believe it is cor rect) I received call from young MT. Smith, son of MT Smith of the Atlantic flour mills,
 Brooklyn, New York, whose card. presented by him, now lies on the desk before me- He has travelled quite extensively in Europe, having visited many large mills there, which I had personally inspected. I showed him through my mills. He was very intelligent, and became interested in discussing milling subjects with him. And to him then im-
 parted the fact that middlings could be puri-
 hu fri tV hat I at
 work on machine for that purpose, and told
 him he could satisfy himself of it's feasibility by holding handful of unpurifed middlings
 under a leather cross belt running at high rate of speed, or by taking hard rubber ruler and drawing it rapidly several times across his knee and holding over the mid dlipgs He remarked that Edison could prob ably perfect such device as was needed. I did not give him full details of my design, but it appears too much.
 use in the place of the rubber rolls de- scribed in your article for producing electrici- ty, a revolving, wide, endless rubber belt or belts, which practical millers will recognize as better than rolls, it gives an even surface with uniform attraction, having a revolving brush to remove the impurities that are at tracted to and adhere to the moving belt after | 1t passes over the middlings on the shaking purifier cloth. I applied for the construction of rubber belt for the purpose of construct | ing my experiments on larger scale in let ter to the Boston Betting Company of May 23, 1879, in which I fully described the inven- | ton, a copy of which is enclosed herewith. I did not succeed in procuring belt until July 21, and then of the New York Rubber Comb Company. The records of either or both houses will attest the facts. have given the invention such time | as I could spare from pressing business cares I have not before announced it to
 the public nor applied for patent on it. Indeed, millers have had their stomaohs full of patents and patent suits lately. MT. Os-
 borne is entitled to the credit for any novelty | there may be in producing electricity by re- volvipg rubber roll, not further. He could l invent milling machines more inteIligently probably, did he know the difference between | middlings and flour, as he appears not to from | his description of the purifier. I object, | however, to the ''boys'' carrying off my in
 vention of purifying middlings by frictionaI | electricity. am not ready to have it moved yet, it may prove useful in my mills, and
 dislike to commence paying royalty on 1t so soon, consequently sit down on the project
 early. Messrs. Smith & Osborne are un-
 doubtedly clever young men Gone yet in col
 known better than to have made the afidavits
 necessary to procure their patent Juniors in Yale are getting altogether too reckless. As
 to 'tyoung MT. Smith" personally, cannot
 really forgive him for rushing of so fast for
 the patent office with my ideas. regret the
 
 shall not (after this) accept the invitation he | gave me to ride in his yacht. His intelligence, l coupled with the breach of hospitality, makes the obloquy greater. I am not as covetous of the gain that might accrue from the patent | as am of the honor of the authorship with
 the craft. Because I do not keep dog to
 watch my clothes line, am I not entitled to any clothes?
 would advise the young men to go down to Washington and review their affidavits.
 Yale should teach a finer sense of honor. Yours truly, B. L. BAKER, President Red Wing Mills.
 RED WING, March 24, 1880.
 TcoPY OF LETTER.
 OFFICE OF RED WING MILLS, RED WING, May 23, 1879.
 Boston Betting Company:
 Gentlemen-I have discovered method of purifying middlings in milling, and believe from what experiments have made that 8 hard rubber belt drawn over 8 cloth rubber
 will attract the impurities better than any other device. desire to know if you can make belting of rubber hard and vulcanized like that made into rulers, combs, etc., at the same time by making it pliable enough to run over pulleys not less than twenty inches in di- ameter, and draw simply it's own weight over g narrow rubber between the pulleys, and if you can make it can you do so one foot wide or more? My purpose is to procure belt that by friction will generate much electricity. If can use the rubber it will open up quite new field for it's use, and believe it worth your while to make the attempt to furnish it. I would prefer hard finish on both sides. If you can give me any approximation to the cost per foot of twenty-four inch belt of the kind do so. If you can make me twelve inch belt eight or ten feet long to commence
 my experiment should be pleased to order i it. Yours truly, E. h. BAKER. | ur,,o faotoyv In Rockya formarlv ocnunied hv fha