Improvements in the Method and Apparatus for Cleansing Wheat and other Grain.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 6th June, 1889
Complete Specification Left, 3rd Apr., 1890-Accepted, 17th May, 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Method and Apparatus for Cleansing Wheat
and other Grain.
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:-
I have by prolonged experiments observed that the separation of wheat and other
grain from the stones and other impurities contained in it is most efficiently performed
by bringing to bear on it the action of water, in such a way that the freest possible
scope is given to the several component classes of material to be allowed to form
themselves into horizontal layers according to their different specific gravities.
The results thus obtained are entirely new in their almost absolute perfection, and
vastly superior to anything so far achieved in this important field.
The use of Indian, Egyptian, Black Sea and Baltic wheats &c. and other wheats
largely mixed with stones, stony clay, and similar impurities is, by this inventiou,
greatly facilitated, and advantages of the greatest importance thus secured to the
Indian and other wheat growers and the English miller.
I obtain these results by imparting to the water in which the wheat or other
grain is being washed, a vertically pulsating or reciprocating motion, strong enough to
lift again and again the mass, or continued stream of unwashed grain during its
passage through the apparatus, thus allowing the heaviest particles such as stones,
ores &c. to settle on a bottom consisting of a sieve or its mechanical equivalent,
and the lighter particles to arrange themselves above according to their specific
gravity in such a way, that the lightest, which is the grain, is at the top.
'
It is easy to draw off separately, and in a continuous and automatic manner, any of
the layers thus formed, and thus to obtain the wheat or other grain absolutely pure
and clean.
Feed rollers, worm conveyors or the like are arranged in such a way as to provide
for an even spread and complete submersion of the wheat or grain to be washed, and
the pulsation of the water is produced either by plunger or a flexible diaphragun
moving backwards and forwards in the water contained in, or flowing through, the
machine.
On the sides of the vessel above the screen, orifices with sluices are suitably
arranged for taking off the various layers of material such as clean grain on the top,
and accumulated stones &c., below, resting on the perforated bottom.
The mud or similar material passes through the perforated bottom and is also taken
out of the machine separately.
In cases where water is either costly or difficult to obtain, the same water may be
used repeatedly with a very small addition to provide for waste.
Dated this 6th day of June 1889.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Method and Apparatus for Cleansing Wheat
and other Grain.
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 :-
I have by prolonged experiments observed that the separation of wheat and other
grain from the stones and other impurities contained in it is most efficiently performed

page_text: by bringing to bear on it the action of water, in such a way that the freest possible
scope is given to the several component classes of material to be allowed to form
themselves into horizontal layers according to their different specific gravities.
The results thus obtained are entirely new in their almost absolute perfection, and
vastly superior to anything so far achieved in this important field.
The use of Indian, Egyptian, Black Sea and Baltic wheats &c. and other wheats
largely mixed with stones, stony clay, and similar impurities is, by this invention,
greatly facilitated, and advantages of the greatest importance thus secured to the
Indian and other wheat growers and the English miller.
I obtain these results by imparting to the water in which the wheat or other grain
is being washed, a vertically pulsating or reciprocating motion, strong enough to lift
again and again the mass, or continued stream of unwashed grain during its passage
through the apparatus, thus allowing the heaviest particles such as stones, ores &c. to
settle on a bottom consisting of a sieve or its mechanical equivalent and the lighter
particles to arrange themselves above according to their specific gravity in such a
way, that the lightest, which is the grain, is at the top.
It is easy to draw off separately, and in a continuous and automatic manner, any of
the layers thus formed, and thus to obtain the wheat or other grain absolutely pure
and clean.
Feed rollers, worm conveyors or the like are arranged in such a way as to provide
for an even spread and complete submersion of the wheat or grain to be washed, and
the pulsation of the water is produced either by a plunger or a flexible diaphragm
moving backwards and forwards in the water contained in, or flowing through, the
machine.
On the sides of the vessel above the screen, orifices with sluices are suitably
arranged for taking off the various layers of material such as clean grain on the top,
and accumulated stones, &c. below, resting on the perforated bottom.
The mud or similar material passes through the perforated bottom and is also taken
out of the machine separately.
In cases where water is either costly or difficult to obtain, the same water may be
used repeatedly with a very small addition to provide for waste.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings is a side view partly in section, Fig. 2 is
a plan and Fig. 3 is an end view partly in section of apparatus according to my
invention for cleaning wheat and other grain.
A is an inclined worm having its lower end immersed in a washing tank B the
water level in which is regulated at will by a slide on the overflow pipe b. The
grain being kept in the water for some time has loose dirt washed off and clods of
clay softened by the soaking.
The worm A carries up the grain and delivers it at the head of a sieve or tray C
which may be borizontal or slightly inclined. The wire of the sieve is sufficiently
fine to prevent the grain from passing through it, and it. is covered to a depth of
several inches with water. D is a plunger, reciprocated by a crank eccentric or cam,
causing the water in the sieve chamber to have an up and down pulsatory motion.
For a plunger D might be substituted a flexible diaphragm, working in a chamber
separated from, but communicating with the sieve chamber, and preferably close to
the latter; and the reciprocation of the plunger may be in a horizontal or inclined
direction.
E is a feed tank supplied with water by a centrifugal pump F which draws from
the draining chamber K hereinafter described. The tank E supplies the sieve
chamber at or nearly at the level of the water therein, causing a flow towards and
over the tail board G.
The pulsatory movement of the water keeps the grain floating, whilst the heavier
materials, such as stones, descend the sieve and the flow carries the floating grain
over the tail board G into a cross shoot H. The height of the tail board G is such
that stones are not lifted high enough by the pulsation to pass over it along with the
grain.
By the shoot H the grain along with the overflow water passes into the inclined

page_text: draining worm J which extends upwards from the draining chamber K. The casing
of the worin J is perforated metal allowing the water to drain from the grain back
into the tank K. The grain may also in its passage along the worm K be subjected
to a spray of clean water to rinse it.
The washing and draining worms, as well as the pulsating plunger or diaphragmi
may be driven by any suitable gear such as that shown in the drawings. The
stones and heavier particles collecting on the sieve C may be removed by appliances
such as are represented in the drawings. For example at some convenient part of
the sieve chamber there is a lip M behind a guard box L.
The lip M, standing above the level of the sieve, always keeps on the sieve a bed
of stones of uniform thickness, which thickness is determined by trial to suit the
grain treated. When there is any excess of stones on the sieve, some are caused to
pass over the lip M into a chamber N whence they are conveyed away by a chain
creeper or otherwise.
The discharge of stones over the lip M is effected by the pulsation of the water
which lifts the bed of stones bodily, keeping them together so that the more buoyant
grain does not tend to get through the stones and out under the guard L the lower
edge of which extends down into the stone bed. As the pulsation lifts up the stones,
some of those lying within the guard box L fall over the lip M into the chamber N,
and this discharge of stones continues until the stone bed attains the level determined
by the height of the lip M, whereupon the pulsation, although it still lifts the stone
bed, cannot lift it high enough to allow any stones to fall over the lip M.
'
The guard box and lip may be arranged at the tail end of the sieve as at O and P ;
the top of the guard box being in this case in line with the top of the tail board G.
The sieve stops at the lip P, so that between P and G there is an open slot through
which excess of stones can fall into an inclined shoot G leading them through a
valve R into a collecting box S. When it is seen by looking through a glass in the
front of S that there is an accumulation of stones, the valve R is closed and a valve T
is opened letting out the stones along with only the small quantity of water contained
in the box S.
The lip and guard box may be dispensed with by the following arrangement. A
portion of the tail end of the sieve is made of larger mesh than the rest, this larger
mesh being such as to allow the stones, left in the grain after passing over the usual
preliminary cleaning sieve, to pass through it. The whole surface of the sieve is,
in the first place, covered with a permauent bed or layer of stones of such size that
they cannot pass through the larger mesh, this bed being of sufficient depth to
prevent the grain from passing through the interstices and so getting under this
permanent bed. The pulsatory movement of the water, while it raises and lowers the
stone bed, opens the mass sufficiently to permit the small stones from the grain to
pass through the interstices of the large stones and collect below them. As the
pulsation goes on, the small stones gradually find their way to the large meshes and
pass through them to the shoot Q and to the collecting box S as described above.
The thin sludge which passes through the sieve collects at the bottom of the
sieve chamber, whence it can be washed out at intervals by opening a valve V.
As the water is made by the pump F to circulate from the draining chamber to
the sieve chamber and thence back to the draining chamber, the same water is used
over and over again with very little waste. The clean water used for rinsing the
grain in the draining worm J falls into the draining chamber K, from which over-
How passes by a valve W to the washing chamber B where the water is kept at a
lower level, so that the washing water which is dirty, cannot become mixed with the
circulating water.
Suitable valves are provided for emptying all the tanks when required.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
1. The berein described method of cleansing wheat or other grain by subianting it

page_text: while it is passing in water over a sifting bed to pulsations of the water, whereby
stones and other heavy impurities are separated from the grain, the impurities
passing away by meshes and openings below, while the more buoyant grain is
delivered over a tail board.
2. For cleaning grain in the manner above referred to, apparatus consisting of a
sieve, provided with tail board for passage of the grain and with outlets at a lower
level for stones and other heavy impurities, the whole arranged in a water chamber
in combination with a reciprocating plunger or diaphragm substantially as herein
described.