IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR EXPRESSING MOISTURE FROM SUBSTANCES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Kite (Secundus), of Princes Street, Lambeth,
in the County of Surrey, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR EXPRESSING MOISTURE FROM SUBSTANCES,"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Kite at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th June
1854.
I,JAMES KITE, Secundus," do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR EXPRESSING MOISTURE
FROM SUBSTANCES" to be as follows:-
The method I intend using for this purpose is the employment of a per-
forated or grooved cylinder, tube, or other vessel, lined internally with a
strainer. In the interior of this vessel revolves a shaft, to which are attached
projections or knives, so placed as to work according to the principle of the
screw. At one end of the vessel is a valve, die, or mould, as occasion may
require. The substance to be operated upon is then forced into the vessel at
one end by a pump; the liquid finds vent through the strainer, while the
revolving screw shaft of knives gradually forces the more solid particles of the
substance to the other end of the vessel through the valve, die, or mould. In
some cases I intend using (instead of the screw of knives) a plunger, so
worked that the solid substance is forced out of the vessel in such form and
manner as may be required.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Kite in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th
December 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
KITE (Secundus), of Princes Street, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth of Her
year
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Kite, Her special licence that 1, the said James Kite, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Kite, 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 Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND
APPARATUS FOR EXPRESSING MOISTURE FROM SUBSTANCES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said James Kite, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said James Kite, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to beperformed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
reference being had to the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, and forming
part of this my Specification, and to the letters of reference placed thereon,
similar letters being used to denote similar parts (where such parts can be
seen in each of the diagrams respectively.
The object of this Invention is to express moisture from substances. With
little exception moisture has hitherto either been extracted from substances by
heat, sifting, or evaporation, and it would appear little success has attended
any attempt to force moisture from semi-liquid substances or material by
mechanical operations. I would also here premise, that although I have only
shewn in the annexed Drawing an apparatus suitable for forcing moisture
from clay or other similar substances, I would have it perfectly understood,

page_text: that I intend using my machinery or apparatus (with certain modifications)
for expressing moisture from blood, sewerage, oil, fatty matters, and any sub-
stance or semi-fluid, from whence it may be desirable to extract moisture.
In some instances, as slip for clay, used in the manufacturing of pottery or
porcelain, the substance is the valuable produce or residium; in others the
liquid becomes the portion to be preserved, (such as in treating grapes for
wine;) in the latter case, arrangements must be made to receive the liquid
after it passes through the outlets between the blocks (hereafter described);
but to perform this I need give no directions, as the means of catching and
conducting the liquid to a tank or other receptacle must be obvious to even
the most unskilful operator. The principle of the Invention is the filling a
receiver with semi-fluid or moist substance, (forcing it therein by means of a
force pump,) operating ou such semi-fluid or substance while in the receiver
in such manner as to seperate the moisture from the substance, and delivering
each seperately, according to the nature or uses of the material operated upon.
I will now describe the means or apparatus used in carrying out this prin-
ciple; but as substances which are to be treated under my Invention are
various, indeed, I may say multifarious, I cannot attempt to shew every
modification that may be made in parts of my apparatus to render it appli-
cable to each particular substance, as much must depend on the substances to
be thereby treated, and the purposes for which they may be required; the
combination of parts required for the expression of moisture from potters' clay
would evidently be not precisely the same as if the apparatus were required
for the coarser purpose of expressing the moist or wet portion of sewerage.
In the Drawing will be seen (by reference thereto) eight diagrams or Figures,
Figure 1 being a longitudinal elevation of my apparatus; Figure 2, a a longi-
tudinal section of the cylindrical portion thereof, shewing the cylinder lined
with cloth, with the shaft and oblique scrapers fixed thereto; Figure 3 is an
end view, shewing the wheel which sets the screw shaft in motion; Figure 4
is an end view, shewing the metallic cone by which the substance is dis-
charged; Figure 5 shewing the shape and position of the blocks, forming,
when put together, the cylinder, shewn in section at Figure 2; Figure 6
(section of Figure 5) shews the grooves by means of which the expressed
moisture is received and conducted to the outlets provided; Figure 7 is an
end view of the shaft and knives or blades as they appear; Figure 8 shows
a hollow shaft, with screw worm thereon and slots therein, and scraper. To
construct the machinery or apparatus for the purposes of my Invention, I
take a number of blocks of wood, such as beech, oak, or whatever wood may
be found most suitable for the immediate purpose;

page_text: blocks into the form shown at b, 6, Figure 5. (The letters a, a, a, a, denote
the framing or support of the apparatus, wherein it appears in the Drawing.)
In the circular portion or inner periphery of these blocks, when shaped, I cut
grooves or channels (parallel or transverse), all of which grooves or channels
terminate in grooves or channels at the bottom and sides of the semicircle,
seen by reference to Figure 6 of the Drawing, where C denotes the first-
mentioned grooves, and d those last mentioned, as being at the bottom and
sides of the semicircle. At either of the sides of the blocks or pieces of
wood aforesaid 1 attach strips of wood, say, about three-sixteenths of an inch
thick; this dimension may be modified, as requisite, for the purpose of forming
openings between the blocks b.b, to allow the moisture to exude orescape upon
pressure. Having obtained a number of these blocks b., (such number will
be regulated by the length of the machine to be constructed,) I place one block
on the top of another (see Figure 5), and thus a complete circle will be formed.
I proceed to place all the remaining blocks in a similar position, and side
by side, so that a cylinder, cylindrical chamber, or cell is formed (of which
Figure 2 shews a section), to keep this combination of blocks together; or, in
other words, to secure the upper and lower pieces of wood when arranged, as
aforesaid, in their proper places. I pass an upright bolt e through every third
upper and lower block or piece of wood b, and place a metal plate fon both
the tops and bottoms of the said three blocks b, of such dimension as will
allow the plate to embrace three sections (as shewn at Figures 1, 3, and 4, of
the Drawing ate, e, e, e, f,f), the nuts being firmly screwed up secure, the
whole in their proper positions inside, and completely covering the chamber
thus formed. On its inner periphery I fix one, two, or more cloths, or any
textile fabric, orany suitable filtering medium; these cloths are tightly placed
over the grooves or channels c, c. I have not thought it necessary to shew
any of these cloths as fixed, deeming that the operator, by the foregoing
directions, and the following description of their uses, will be able at once to
effect their application. To one end of the cylindrical chamber I attach a
cone, which cone is to have a cap screwed on to its mouth or outlet, till
sufficient density has been obtained in the cylinder; this cone is made of iron
or other suitable metal or material; and on the other end of said chamber I
fix a metal plate, having in its centre a hole or opening, of sufficient capacity
to admit the end of the bearer or journal iof the shaft, which, passing through
said bearer or journal, traverses the whole of the cylindrical chamber even to
near the end of the cone g, as shewn inside the cone by the dotted lines, with
the diminishing knives or blades also in dotted lines thercon; firmly fixed on
the shaft are knives k, of sufficient length, so that when the shaft revolves,

page_text: the knives revolving therewith scrape the cloth or cloths covering the grooves.
The knives are placed upon the shaft in such positions in relation the one to
the other, that when the shaft is in motion the knives act similarly to a screw.
propeller, achieving a purpose or result herein-after explained and described..
The cone y and plate are secured to the other portion of the apparatus by
six or more horizontal bolts, which bolts pass through all the blocks project
at each extremity of the cylinder a little beyond the plate and the flange of
the coney, and are secured by nuts, in the usual manner of securing bolt ends
in the metal platcha hole is left for the introduction of the pipe ?, whose upper.
end is screwed (or otherwise firmly secured) into the said plate. The use of the
pipe, which communicates with a force pump, the feeder of which pump. is.
led intoa tank or other vessel or place containing the substance to be operated
upon, is to convey the semi-liquid or substance into the cylindrical chamber,
before described; as thus motion being communicated by steam or any other
power to the shaft. the stuff is forced by pressure (produced by the pump,,
and regulated by means of a safety valve at m. adjusted for that purpose, and
according to the requirement of the case,) into the said cylinderor cylindrical
chambers; the liquid or moisture urged by the pressure applied seeks for and
finds a vent through the filtering medium (cloths or other), runs along. the
channels or grooves, and makes its escape through the openings between the
blocks formed by the strips or pieces of wood, as herein-before described,
leaving the solid particles of the substance in the chamber, while the substance
or material being operated upon is being forced into the chamber by the
forcing pump through the pipe ; the shaft, and consequently the knives,are
kept rotating or revolving, the knives scraping from the cloths the more solid.
portions or particles of the substance, and while propelling them forward keep.
the meshes of the cloths sufficiently clear, so that the drainage may not be.
interrupted or impeded. The shaft and knives are usually made of iron, but.
as in some cases the oxydation of the iron might produce injurious effects on
the substances (such, for example, as the clay used by porcelain manufacturers),
the shaft or knives or blades may either be made of hard wood, zinc, or
other suitable metal or material, or the iron, may be galvanized, and so ren-
dered harmless to the substances; or, as in the treatment of fatty matters, the
shaft and blades may be made hollow, or the latter partially hollow, and per-
forated, so that a jet of steam may be introduced into the cylinder to supply
caloric, where the substances operated on may require its application. The
shaft is made to rotate by any power; or, if desired, the cylinder may be
made to rotate round the shaft, or both may be made to rotate in opposite
directions.

page_text: I expect that by the foregoing description the operation of my apparatus
will be perfectly understood, it being to force intonreceiver semi-fluid or moist
substance, to force the moisture through the opening left for that purpose, and
to gather, mix, press on, and deliver at the cone's mouth the substance of the
material forced into the cylindrical chamber, entirely denuded of moisture.
But it will be necessary to remark, that although the Drawing shows an
apparatus fully competent to treat some substances for the purpose of the
Invention, yet that for others much modification must take place in the con
struction of the apparatus; as for example, to express moisture from sewerage
and other coarse work, while the mode or means of forcing the semi-fluid or
wet substances into the cylindrical chamber would remain the same, the
component parts of the chamber itself would be altered; as I then use a
cylinder, tube, or pipe of metal (or any suitable material)inside of such cylinder,
I place another cylinder of smaller capacity; this second cylinder is perforated
either with slots, holes, or grooves, or in any convenient manner; I then pack
the space between the inner periphery of the outer cylinder and the outer
periphery of the inner cylinder with peat, tan,charcoal,or any suitable filtering
material, which will act as a sponge; I place cloths (as before directed in my
description of the wooden cylinder), the shaft and knives revolving as before
directed. The uniform pressure on the substance forming the contents of the
cylindrical chamber is maintained by an air vessel attached to the supply pipe,
as shewn at m, Figure 1. Or I make the wooden cylinder or cylindrical
chamber, as herein first described, providing a middle perforated cylinder and
outer metal cylinder, as before described, thereby retaining the advantages of
the grooves or channels herein-beforementioned and described, and obtaining
by the outer cylinder an additional resisting power where the forces employed
in the operation of expressing are great; or in some cases I merely bind the
wooden cylinder with iron, as one might hoop a barrel. Or for some purposes
I use a shaft n, Fig. 8, of larger dimensions (in proportion to the cylindrical
chamber) than that shewn in the Drawings as working in the cylindrical
chamber, which shaft I perforate and cover with cloths, in the manner the
inner periphery of the cylinder-is covered; having so covered the shaft, I
place thereontheknives or blades, as aforesaid, and also I affix knives or blades
to the inner periphery of the cylinder (after the cloths are spread or affixed),
the use of which knives is to scrape the cloths now placed on the shaft in the
same manner as those placed on the shaft scrapes the cylinder cloths; or I
insert in the periphery of the cylinder a plate of iron (0) or other metal, in
which are teeth to work on the worm of a screw attached to the shaft, the
teeth being of sufficient length to scrape the worm of the screw, and thus

page_text: gather the substance formed on the shaft. At either side of the screw I make
a slot p, in order to check at every half turn of the screw the progress of the
plate containing the teeth working in the worm, the plate being thus checked
is forced back to the point from whence it started, by means of a spring or
counterbalance, and clears the worm of the screw and the shaft of the substance
formed thereon, as shewn in part at Figure 8. The advantages obtained by
this modification of my apparatus are an increased draining surface, and a
greater facility of operating on obstinate substances.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the means by which
it is carried into effect, I desire it to be distinctly understood that I lay no
claim to the exclusive use of any of the parts or portions of machinery or
otherwise, taken as parts or portions, I have herein described or shewn in
the Drawing when used seperately and not in combination for the purposes
of my Invention; nor do I confine myself to the exact modifications herein
described, nor to the proportion of parts to each other, as such may be and
indeed must be varied and altered to suit the various substances, the treatmen
of which is the object of my Invention; but I declare to be of my Invention,
and I claim, by means of one or more cylindrical or similarly shaped vessels,
provided with pressing or straining apparatus, as herein-before described, the
expression of moisture from substances, and the delivery of such substances so
treated by part of the apparatus employed in expressing the moisture in the
manner also described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Kite, have hereunto affixed my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
JOHN GEDGE,
Patent Agent,
4, Wellington Street South,
Strand, London.
J. KITE. (L.S.)