IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING MALT."
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Stokes Cressey, of Burton-on-Trent, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING MALT."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Stokes
Cressey at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 28th October 1874.
1.
I, THOMAS STOKES CRESSEY, of Burton-on-Trent, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING MALT,"
to be as follows :—
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating malt.
In the manufacture of malt it is usual whilst the malt is hot and
before it is ready to be taken from the kiln to employ men to tread it to
break off the sprout or comb. This labour, in consequence of the heat
and moisture of the kiln, is very trying to the men, and the process is

page_text: consequently expensive. Now according to my Invention I omit this
treading operation and leave the malt until it is ready to be taken from
the kiln, and then I cause it to be shovelled into a hopper, from which
the malt flows in streams and falls amongst a series of wires set just so
far apart that the malt is able to pass between them, so that the fall of
the malt is not arrested, but as it falls the grains strike wire after wire,
and so the comb is effectually broken off, and it is afterwards separated
by sieves:
It will be understood that I operate on the grain when it is crisp,
whereas the treading operation is necessarily performed whilst much of
the moisture remains in the malt, otherwise the grain would be broken
and spoiled, and any severe treatment of the grain in the crisp state
would have the same effect; but there is no risk of breaking the malt
by treating it in the manner which I have described, as the fall of the
malt against the wires, although sufficient to separate the comb, will not
break the grain.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Stokes Cresscy in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 27th April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS:
STOKES CRESSEY, of Burton-on-Trent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Stokes Cressey, Her
special license, that I, the said Thomas Stokes Cressey, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Stokes Cressey, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an

page_text: Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING MALT," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Stokes Cressey, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
onc of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was
to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Scal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Stokes Cressey, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating malt.
In the manufacture of malt it is usual whilst the malt is hot and
before it is ready to be taken from the kiln to employ men to tread it to
break off the sprout or comb. This labor, in consequence of the heat
and moisture of the kiln, is very trying to the men, and the process is
consequently expensive. Now according to my Invention I omit this
treading operation and leave the malt until it is ready to be taken from
the kiln, and then I cause it to be shovelled into a hopper, from which
the malt flows in streams and falls amongst a series of wires set just so
far apart that the malt is able to pass between them, so that the fall of
the malt is not arrested, but as it falls the grains strike wire after wire,
and so the comb is effectually broken off, and it is afterwards separated
by sieves.
In order to facilitate the passage of the grain through the apparatus
I propose to mount some of the wires in frames to which motion is
given.
It will be understood that I operate on the grain when it is crisp,
whereas the treading operation is necessarily performed whilst much of
the moisture remains in the malt, otherwise the grain would be broken
and spoiled, and any severe treatment of the grain in the crisp state
would have the same effect; but there is no risk of breaking the malt
by treating it in the manner which I have described, as the fall of the
1
11

page_text: Figure 1. is a side view partly in section of the apparatus; Figure 2 is
a plan, and Figure 3 a transverse vertical section of the apparatus.
a, a, is an outer frame or case containing a number of inner rectan-
gular frames ¹, b², b³, b³, bº, bº, 6º, 6º, 6º, 6º. These frames have
transverse and longitudinal wires fixed in them, as the Drawings show.
The wire I employ is square in section, and about one-sixth of an inch
on each side of the square c is a hopper fixed on the top of the frame a;
it has apertures c², c², in the bottom, by which the grain put into the
hopper is able to descend amongst the wires in the frames b. a', a¹, are
cross bars to stiffen the apparatus; the apertures c¹ are so arranged as to
direct the grain clear of these cross bars. The frames b¹, b³, b³, and ¿¹º
are fixed within the casing a, the others b³, b³, bª, bº, b², and 7º are
moveable, and receive a short endway motion from eccentrics fixed on
the vertical shaft d. The eccentrics are arranged alternately so as to
give opposite motions to the frames to which they are attached. The
throw of each eccentric is about one inch. The shaft d is driven by
bevilled gear from a shaft e, which has a fly wheel upon it, and is turned

page_text: I also claim the apparatus for treating malt to remove the sprout or
comb, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Stokes Cressey, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of April, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.
n tlic presence of
H. HILLAM,
76, Branstone Road,
Burton-upon-Trent.
T. S. CRESSEY. (L.S.)