Improvements relating to the Malting and Drying of Grain, and to Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Feb., 1895-Accepted, 23rd Mar., 1895
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to the Malting and Drying of Grain, and to
Apparatus therefor.
I, EDUARD LARSEN of 5 Laurence Pountney Hill in the County of London,
Engineer, (communicated from abroad by the Berliner Actiengesellschaft for
Eisengiesserei and Maschinenfabrik vormals J. C. Freund & Co. of Charlottenburg,
near Berlin, in the Empire of Germany) do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
In the treatment of grain either for the purpose of converting it into malt or for
drying same by means of specially prepared air, drawn or blown through the grain
contained in drums, tanks or similar receptacles, it has hitherto been customary to
pass the air through the mass of grain in one direction only, for instance from the
centre to the periphery, from top to bottom, or from one side to the other.
This method of aeration may cause irregularities and variations in the tem-
perature of the contents of the receptacle, as the temperature, degree of moisture,
or other conditions of the air passing through the grain may vary at the point
of inlet and outlet. The object of this invention is to remedy and counterbalance
these irregularities by arranging the receptacles in such a manner that the
direction in which the air is passed through the grain can, at will, be reversed,
and this is attained in the following manner, the receptacles being, for simplicity's
sake, called drums.
On the annexed drawing,
Fig. 3 represents the plan of two malting drums, in which by means of
arrows it is indicated that the air enters drum 1 (Fig. 3) at side marked A,
passes through the air pipes along the periphery thence through the grain into
the central pipe and out by side marked B. In drum 2 (Fig. 3) the arrows
indicate that the air enters at side marked B, travels in the opposite direction
and leaves the drum on the side marked A.
Fig. 1 shows a longitudinal section of drum, and Fig. 2 a cross section of
drums 1 and 2 seen at side B and the arrows show the direction of the travel
of the air in each case.
The change in the direction of the travel is effected by the use of two air-
flues at either end of the drums. These airflues can, as shown in the drawings,
be made of bricks and placed one above the other, or they can be made of iron
or wood, and be placed side by side or one above the drums and one below.
Of these flues one, at either end of the drums, is always connected with the
source from which the prepared air is taken and the other with the exit. The
drums are at both ends connected with both flues, and supplied with throttle
valves d, and it will now be plainly understood that by opening or shutting
these valves, either end of the drums can, at will, be connected with the source
from which the air comes or with the exhaust, and the direction in which the
air travels inside the drum, can at any moment be reversed.
In cases where the air is blown through the drums, one flue at each end may
be sufficient, and the air will in this case be blown from the drums directly into
the room containing them.
Fig. 4 represents another means of reversing the air current, by which it may be
diverted at will to either side channel, all the drums being in this case fed from the
same side and exhausted from the other side or vice versa, by opening or shutting

page_text: the dampers e, which in this case are in the flues themselves. F is here the source
where the air is prepared. G the exit for same, and it will be seen from the
drawing that the air can by opening and shutting the dampers be made to travel
from F to G along either side of the drums and consequently be reversed in
passing through same.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I hereby declare that
what I claim is :-
The making of apparatus for malting or heating and drying grain or similar
material arranged in such a manner that by means of flues and valves at both ends
of the apparatus, either end of same can, at will, be connected either with the source
from whence the air is supplied, or with the exit for the air, and the direction in
which the air travels inside the apparatus can at any moment be reversed,
substantially as herein described.
Dated this 1st day of February 1895.
EDUARD LARSEN.