Improvements in Grain Separators.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 13th July, 1893
Complete Specification Left, 5th Apr., 1894-Accepted, 5th May, 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Grain Separators.
I, HENRY SIMON, of No. 20 Mount Street, Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My invention relates to grain separators, or machines which separate good sound
grain in a clean state from small or imperfect grain, foreign seeds, pieces of string,
shavings or other impurities, clearing it from dust and collecting the dust from the
air -employed in the process, so that such of the air as escapes is discharged
without offence, the bulk of the air being used repeatedly without escaping.
the screen.
For this purpose, I feed the grain into one end of a revolving screen which
may have internal helical ribs, so that, while the grain passes through the holes.
of the screen, string, shavings and other matters that cannot pass through the
holes may be carried onwards by the helical ribs and delivered at the end of
When the grain treated has no strings, shavings or the like, the
revolving screen may be dispensed with. In either case, the grain passes on to a
suspended sieve which is swung in a nearly horizontal plane by a revolving
crank. There may be two of these sieves, the one above the other, the upper
serving to separate the larger impurities, allowing the grain and smaller impurities
to pass through its meshes to the lower sieve. The smaller grains and foreign
seeds pass through the sieve, or the lower of the two sieves, and are discharged
into a receptacle; the sound grain passes over the end of the sieve and descends
in a shower subject to a blast of air caused by a fan to pass through the grain as
it falls. This air blast clears the grain from dust and carries the dust along with
it to the fan, by which the dust laden air is caused to revolve rapidly; the dust
being heavier than air is, by the centrifugal force, caused to hug the wall of an
annular channel whence it passes, along with a small portion of the air, to a dust
collector, such as that known as the "cyclone." The main body of the air,
being thus freed from dust is preferably led back to operate again on the grain,
some air being drawn in to make up for the small quantity which passes away
with the dust. I prefer to make the machine double, by arranging two
machines side by side on one framing, one crank for driving the sieves and one
dust collector serving for both, and both fans being on one revolving shaft.
Dated this 13th day of July 1893.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.
Improvements in Grain Separators.
I, HENRY SIMON, of No. 20 Mount Street, Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Civil Engineer, 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:—
My invention relates to grain separators or apparatus for cleaning grain,
separating sound grain in a clean state from small or imperfect grain, foreign
seeds, pieces of string, shavings or other impurities, clearing it also from dust,
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page_text: and collecting the dust from the air employed in the process, so that the air may
be discharged without offence, or the bulk of the air may be used repeatedly.
For this purpose I construct a machine as I shall describe referring to the
accompanying drawings in all of which similar letters are employed to denote the
same parts.
Fig. 1 is a plan the upper half being sectional on the line X X of Fig. 2 which
is a longitudinal section on Z Z of Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 on the right side is a front view and on the left a half vertical section
on W W of Fig. 1.
Fig. 4 on the left is a half back view and on the right a vertical section on Y Y
of Fig. 1.
The machine is duplex, or consists of two similar machines, accommodated in one
framing, with one shaft for a pair of rotating screens, one crank shaft for a pair of
circularly swinging sieves, and one shaft for a pair of fans, and a single dust
collector. It is therefore to be understood that what I am about to describe,
except in respect of these single parts, applies to both sides of the machine. I
feed the grain into one end of a revolving tapering screen A so that, while the
grain passes through the holes of the screen, string, shavings and other matters
that cannot pass through the holes are carried onwards by gravity within the
screen and delivered at its larger open end.
The screen, instead of being taper, may be cylindrical with helical ribs directing
the shavings or the like to the open end. When the grain treated has no string,
shavings or the like, the revolving screen may be dispensed with. In either case
the grain passes on to a suspended sieve B, which is swung in a nearly horizontal
plane by a revolving crank C having counterbalance_c. There may be two of
these sieves the one above the other, the upper serving to separate the larger
impurities allowing the grain and smaller impurities to pass through its meshes to
the lower sieve. The smaller grains and foreign seeds pass through the sieve or
the lower of the two sieves and are discharged thence at D; the sound grain passes
over the end of the sieve B at E into a hopper F, preferably provided with a feed
roller and a counterweighted front between the lower edge of which and the roller
the grain descends in a shower, subject to a blast of air caused by a fan to pass
through the grain as it falls. Should the hopper F be empty or nearly so, the
lower edge of its front is pressed by the counterweight against the roller so that
no part of the air current can pass through the hopper.
The air current, caused by a fan about to be described, descends by a channel G,
passes round under the casing of a worm or other conveyor H, and ascends the
channel I. The air blast passing through the shower of grain clears it from light
impurities and dust and carries them along with it to a pyramidal settling chamber K
in which some of the impurities and dust is deposited and from which it passes away
by a shoot k. The air, still more or less dust laden, passes through a circular
opening from K into the case of the fan and by the blades in front of the conical
shield L is caused to revolve rapidly while it passes the edge of L into an annular
pocket M formed in the fan casing. In this pocket the air, still rapidly revolving,
first advances then retreats while the dust, being heavier than air, is by the centri-
fugal force caused to hug the outer wall of the annular pocket and as the air,
mostly cleared of dust, passes to the descending channel G, the dust, accompanied
by a small portion of the air, passes to a dust collector O by a tube N which
enters O tangentially. In this dust collector the dust descends wheeling round,
gathers at the bottom and issues at P, while the air separated from it, issues at Q.
The pipe N, instead of issuing from one part of the pocket M, may issue from an
annular channel indicated by the dotted lines m which may be formed around the
pocket M communicating with it at one or more places or all round. The main
body of the air, being freed from dust by the action of the fan, is led back by the
channel G to operate again on the grain, some air being drawn in to make up for
the small quantity that passes away with the dust.
This air is preferably drawn in so as to pass through R where the grain is

page_text: delivered from the conveyor, so as to carry with it dust which may have descended.
with the grain into the casing H.
In order that the air may thus be drawn in, the descending channel G is provided
with a valve V for throttling it more or less, so that the suction of the fan on the
channel I causes the pressure of air under the valve V to be somewhat under that.
of the external atmosphere.
Obviously, instead of the specially arranged hopper F, a shoot adapted for
delivering a nearly uniform shower of grain might be employed, and instead of the
worm conveyor in the casing H an inclined shoot might serve to convey away the
cleaned grain, but a worm is to be preferred as it keeps the grain in motion while
air is being drawn in as above described.
Although I have described a grain separator as a complete machine including the
screen A, sieve B, hopper F, conveyor H, air channels G and I, fan L and dust
collector K, it is obvious that the arrangement of the air channels G and I and
conveyor H might be used for acting with an air current on grain delivered in a.
shower from other apparatus, also that the fan and its casing with annular pocket
might be employed, with or without the dust collector O, for separating dust from
dust laden air derived from grain cleaning apparatus other than that described, or
from sources other than the cleaning of grain.
Nor is it essential that the main body of the air discharged by the fan should be-
returned to perform cleaning work again, though this is of advantage in all cases
where a large volume of air is required. The fan might discharge into the open air
or elsewhere without offence, as the air discharged from it is almost entirely freed
from dust.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In grain separators or cleaning apparatus the combination of a taper or
equivalent screen, a swinging sieve, a hopper, and channels for air current, settling
chamber for dust, a fan and casing having annular pocket and a dust collector,.
substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
2. The combination of the hopper F or its equivalent, the conveyor casing H,.
the valved air supply channel G, and channel I for the dust laden air, substantially.
as described.
3. For separating dust from dust laden air, a fan having a narrow annular passage.
around its edge leading into an annular pocket formed in the casing, in which
pocket the rapidly rotating air flows forwards and then backwards the dust along
with a portion of the air escaping by an outlet from the pocket substantially as.
described.
4. In grain cleaning apparatus, the combination of the air channels referred to
in Claim 2 with the fan referred to in Claim 3, substantially as and for the purpose.
set forth.
5. The herein described method of separating the dust from the air and rendering
the air available for repeated use, by conducting the current of air which passes.
through a descending shower of grain to a fan such as is referred to in Claim 3,
whereby the dust along with a small portion of the air is caused by centrifugal
force to pass to a dust collector or elsewhere, while the main body of the air mostly
freed from dust is returned to operate again on the grain.
Dated this 5th day of April 1894.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.