IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND ARRANGEMENTS FOR CLEANING AND REDUCING WHEAT, MAIZE, BEANS, PEAS, AND OTHER SEEDS INTO FLOUR OR SEMOLINA, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY FOR PULVERISING OR REDUCING OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Carr, of the City and County of Bristol,
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND
ARRANGEMENTS FOR CLEANING AND REDUCING WHEAT, MAIZE, BEANS, PEAS,
AND OTHER SEEDS INTO FLOUR OR SEMOLINA, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS
ARE APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY FOR PULVERISING OR REDUCING OTHER
SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 21st October 1870, and dated the 5th July 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Carr at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th July 1870.
I, THOMAS CARB, of the City and County of Bristol, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY AND ARRANGEMENTS FOR CLEANING AND REDUCING WHEAT, MAIZE,
BEANS, PEAS, AND OTHER SEEDS INTO FLOUR OR SEMOLINA, PART OF WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY FOR PULVERISING OR REDUCING
OTHER SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
--
My improvements consist mainly in applying my Patent disintegrator
("No. 778, A.D. 1859, and No. 3235, A.D. 1868") in an improved and

page_text: modified form combined with other mechanism or arrangements to the
cleaning and reducing of seeds into coarse or fine flour.
For cleaning wheat or other seeds my Patent disintegrator may be
used with two sets of cages having reverse action and driven at a slow
speed, but I prefer to use a machine having many cages all driven in
one direction, and such machine may be placed on a horizontal axis,
but I prefer to arrange it on a vertical axis, and having a central dish
rotating with shaft, on to which dish the grain or seed is delivered, so as
to be distributed all round in about the middle of the bars of the cages.
If the machine is on a horizontal axis a distributing arrangement is
used forming a special feature of my improvements herein-after
described. When the cages are on a vertical axis the latter may rotate
in suitable bearings, or the axis may be a fixed shaft, and a bushed
hollow shaft from the disc of the cages may rotate upon it. The casing
may be of the volute form to discharge the seed at one point like a
centrifugal blowing fan, there being vanes on the exterior of the cages.
to throw out the seed and dust.
Another modification consists in prolonging the shaft which carries
the cages downwards, and in fixing centrifugal fan arms upon it, these
arms being encased so as to draw in air from a chamber, the external
sides of which are formed by a sieve to admit air on all sides. The
grain or seed, which in this case is discharged all round the cages, falls
through the chamber and the fan draws the dust away from the grain
or seed as it falls. The fan in the above arrangement may be placed,
if desired, on a shaft separate from the cage shaft. The bars of the
cages for the cleaning machine may have one end secured in one disc,
and the other end in another disc, or one end only of the bars may be
in the driving disc and the other ends may be in rings, and in this
latter case fixed bars are arranged in the casing to come into the spaces
between the cages.
Such a machine
For reducing wheat and other seeds to fine or coarse flour I prefer
to use one of my improved disintegrators having many cages and
arranged so as to be perfectly balanced both when at rest and when in
motion, so that it may be driven at a high speed.
is arranged in a casing provided with a chamber or dome and an
exhaust fan, or the outlet to an exhaust fan, so that as the fine flour
is falling the exhaust fan will act to withdraw that part of the grain of
wheat termed " cerelian," "blue powder," or other deleterious matter,

page_text: which is discharged into a suitable chamber.
There is a screw or
endless band arranged in the lower part of the casing to remove the
flour as it is produced. The flour produced may be partly fine and
partly coarse; the latter, if desired, may be separated and passed through
ordinary millstones, which will reduce a much greater quantity of it to
fine flour in the same time than they will of whole unbroken grain.
I will now describe the improvements and modifications in my Patent
disintegrator to render it more particularly applicable to the purposes
above-named, some of which improvements being also applicable to
disintegrators for general purposes. The cages, by preference, are
mounted on shafts placed end to end in the same line. The shafts are
made of steel with the heads to which the disc plates are securod cast
or forged upon them. The disc plates are turned with recesses for the
rings of each cage, and each set of cages and discs is balanced by a
fly wheel on the outer end of the shaft, which fly wheel is calculated so
as to counterbalance the mass of cages and disc on the shaft both at
rest, and when in motion to get rid of all tendency to vibration at the
high speed required. The first two or more cages all rotate in the same
direction so as to distribute the grain and scale off the bran without
reducing it to powder, and also to give increased strength to carry the
annular disc. When the cages of the machine are upon horizontal
axes the grain or other material fed in, drops by gravity to the lower
part of the cages, so that the larger part of the work is done in a
comparatively small section of the cages only; and one important im-
provement consists in arrangements which will distribute the grain or
material by centrifugal force equally over every part of the cages, and
thus bring the whole of the bars simultaneously into operation, which
arrangements also answer the purpose of protecting the cages from the
casual entrance of lumps of metal and such other objectionable matter.
I accomplish this by forming a cylindrical chamber within the inner
cage having a series of narrow slits or holes in it all round, and another
cylinder within the first-named chamber with corresponding slits or
holes. One cylinder is fixed and the other is adjustable so as to open
the holes or spaces formed by the two cylinders to a greater or less
extent. Instead of cylinders conical dishes may be used, one fixed the
other adjustable, leaving a central space or series of spaces between
them which can be increased or decreased to any required extent by

page_text: giving end movement to the adjustable cone dish. The annular opening
to the inner chamber of the machine may be closed by a fixed plate,
and the grain may be discharged into it by a pipe having one or more
outlet branches.
With the arrangement above described the grain or material is
retarded in its escape so long that it takes an entire revolution before
the grain received when passing the feeding spout is discharged in a
radiating shower from the circumference of the chamber, so that every
part of the cages receives its due portion, and thus comes into simul-
taneous operation. To regulate the supply of grain to the feeding
chamber a "feeler" may be used within the chamber mounted on a
lever or otherwise arranged, which feeler will rest upon the surface
of the grain when rotating with the chamber, this fecler rising and
falling with the increase or decrease of the grain in the chamber,
and being connected with a valve which shall adjust the supply
accordingly.
To increase the draught through the machine fan blades may be
applied to the outer periphery of the cages. The driving belts frequently
become slack and slip, and to take up the slack and give adhesion a
pulley is used which is weighted against the belts, the pulley rotating
on a stud secured in a lever having its fulcrum in any convenient
position.
An alternative method of constructing the machine consists in
forming a disc on the end of each shaft, and about the lengths of the
bars apart one from the other, and in fixing the bars for the cages in
these discs, the grain or material being fed through spaces between
arms carrying each disc, the grain having previously received rotary
motion in a conical mouth piece outside the arms and carried by them.
For cleaning and reducing grain, and for like purposes, the bars may
be formed by pegs or pins screwed or otherwise secured in the discs,
and without connecting rings at their other extremities.
Another improvement consists in constructing the cages for dis-
integrators with the bars connected into rings at both ends, these cages
being secured to the discs by bolts or otherwise, so as to admit of
removal for repairs.
Another improvement consists in screwing the bars and tapping
them into the discs and rings, or in securing them by screw nuts so as

page_text: to be readily replaced separately instead of being rivetted into the discs
and rings as hitherto.
Another improvement consists in using discs or teeth on a few of
the bars in each cage to clear the spaces between the cages when the
material tends to adhere to the bars, and in using pins in the discs to
clear the spaces between themselves and also between the discs and
rings.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Carr in the Great Seal Patent Office ou
the 29th December 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
CARR, of the City and County of Bristol, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-fourth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Thomas Carr, Her special license that I, the said
Thomas Carr, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Thomas Carr, 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, usc, 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 ARRANGEMENTS
FOR CLEANING AND REDUCING WHEAT, MAIZE, BEANS, PEAS, AND OTHER SEEDS
INTO FLOUR OR SEMOLINA, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO
MACHINERY FOR PULVERIZING OR REDUCING OTHER SUBSTANCES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Carr, 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 I, the said Thomas Carr, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement and accompanying Drawings (that is to say) : —
My improvements consist mainly in applying my Patent disintegrator
(No. 778, A.D. 1859, and No. 3235, A.D. 1868) in an improved and
modified form combined with other mechanism or arrangements to the
cleaning and the reducing of seeds into coarse or fine flour, such
machinery and arrangements constituting a new means or process for
manufacturing flour by which an enormous quantity of flour can be
produced with very little machinery, power, and labour as compared with
the ordinary process of manufacture, as one of my improved machines
taking up about the same space as two pairs of millstones will with
about 25 horse-power reduce as much wheat to fine flour as 25 to 30
pairs of ordinary millstones taking 120 horse-power to drive them.
For cleaning wheat or other seeds from encrusted clay and other
foreign matters, and likewise for cracking malt for brewers and distillers,
my Patent disintegrator having two sets of two or more cages driven at a
moderate speed in opposite directions may be used, but I prefer to use a
more simple machine for this purpose having many cages mounted on
one axis so as to be all driven in the same direction. The axis of this
machine may be placed in a horizontal position, but I prefer to arrange
it on a vertical axis provided with a central dish rotating with the shaft,
on to which dish the grain or seed is delivered so as to be distributed by
centrifugal force all round in about the middle of the bars of the cages.
If the machine is on a horizontal axis a distributing arrangement is
used forming a special feature of my improvements herein-after described
in connection with my improved machinery for reducing seeds to flour.
When the cages are on a vertical axis the latter may rotate in suitable
bearings, or the axis may be a fixed shaft and a bushed hollow shaft may
rotate upon it, the disc for the cages being secured to the upper end of
the hollow shaft. The casing may be of the volute form to discharge
the seed at one point like a centrifugal blowing fan, there being vanes
on the exterior of the cages to throw out the seed and dust.
Fig. 1 is a vertical section, and Fig. 2 is a plan partly in section of
the machine on a vertical axis which I prefer to use for cleaning seeds
or cracking malt.
A is the foundation; a, the base plate carrying the footstep
bearing a¹; a, four columns carrying a frame as having a cross beam a¹
to which the pedestal bearing a³ is secured; b is a shaft driven by means

page_text: of a pulley b¹ and belt 63. To the upper end of the shaft (b) a disc
picce is secured, to which a larger disc c is attached, in which the
lower ends of the bar c¹ are secured, the upper ends being secured in a
disc c² having a central hole. In the machine shewn there are supposed
to be 8 cages, and upon the exterior of the discs vanes c³ are secured to
assist in producing a blast through the machine to throw out the seed
and dust. The cages are enclosed in a casing d secured to the frame a³
as shown, d' being the outlet from the casing. The grain or seed to be
operated upon is conveyed to the machine by a pipe e which has a
piece e¹ upon its end that can be slided up and down and adjusted by a
screw e as shown. This pipe delivers the grain or seed upon the
rotating dish 6*, and regulates the speed at which the seed is to be
delivered. The best speed of rotation both for the machine last
described and of my Patent disintegrator with reverse actions for clean-
ing or cracking seeds will be ascertained most readily by trial, com-
mencing at low speeds, as such best speed will depend upon the diameter
of the machine and the number of cages.
For reducing wheat and other seeds into fine or coarse flour I apply.
my disintegrator having many cages and arranged so as to be perfectly
balanced both when at rest and when in motion, so that it may be driven
at a high speed, such a machine is arranged in a casing provided with a
chamber or dome, and an exhaust fan or an outlet leading to an exhaust
fan, so that as the fine flour is falling the exhaust fan will have just
sufficient strength to draw away the lighter part of the grain or wheat
termed cerealine, blue powder, or other deleterious matter, which is
discharged into a suitable chamber. The flour may be removed as it is
produced by an, endless band or screw arranged in the lower part of the
casing or chamber. The flour produced may be partly fine or partly
coarse depending upon the number of cages and the speed at which they
rotate. The coarse flour if desired may be separated from the fine and
passed through ordinary millstones which will reduce a much greater
quantity of it to fine flour in the same time than they will of whole
unbroken grain.
I will now describe the improvements and modifications in my Patent
disintegrator to render it more particularly applicable to the purposes
above named. The cages, say from 10 to 16 in number, are mounted by
preference on two shafts placed end to end with their axes in the same

page_text: line. The shafts are made by preference of steel with the heads to which
the disc plates are secured cast or forged upon them, or the discs may be
keyed upon the ends of the shafts if desired. The disc plates are turned
up perfectly true with recesses for the rings of each cage, and each set
of cages and discs is balanced by a fly wheel on the outer end of the
shaft, which fly wheel is calculated so as to counterbalance the mass of
the cages and disc on the shaft both at rest and when in motion to get
rid of all tendency to vibration at the high speed required. The first
two or more cages belong to the same set, and all rotate in the same
direction, so as to distribute the grain and scale off the bran without
reducing it to powder, and they also give increased strength to carry
the annular disc and its cages. When the cages of the machine are
upon horizontal axes the grain fed to the machine drops by gravity to
the lower part of the cages, so that the larger part of the work is done
in a comparatively small section of the cages only, and one important
improvement consists in arrangements which will distribute the grain
or material by centrifugal force equally over every part of the cages,
and thus bring the whole of the bars simultaneously into operation,
which arrangement also answers the purpose of protecting the cages
(the bars being only of sufficient strength to operate upon seeds) from
the casual entrance of lumps of metal and other objectionable matter.
The arrangement last referred to consists of a cylinder within the inner
cage having a series of narrow slits or holes in it all round sufficiently
large to allow the grain or seed to pass, but too small to admit of picces
of matter of a much larger size than grain passing, and of another
cylinder within the first-named having corresponding slits or holes.
One cylinder is fixed and the other is adjustable so as to open the spaces
formed by the two cylinders to a greater or less extent by making the
holes or slits coincide with each other more or less perfectly. The grain
to be operated upon is introduced into the interior chamber formed by
the two cylinders, and its escape therefrom is retarded by the narrowness
of the exit slits or holes to such extent that it takes an entire revolution
or thereabouts before the grain received when passing the feeding spout
or spouts is fully discharged from the rotating chamber; thus every part
of the cages receives a due proportion and comes into simultaneous
operation throughout their entire circumference. To increase the draught
through the machine a few narrow fan blades may be applied to the
outer periphery of the cages.

page_text: an end or front sectional view of the same machine party in section;
and Figure 5 is a plan shewing the pedestals for the shafts and the
base plates.
A is the foundation; a is the base plate formed and connected
together, and secured to the foundation as shewn. The base plates have
pedestals cast in them for the two shafts. These shafts c and d are
formed of steel with the discs for the cages keyed thereon. The discs
are of wrought-iron plate; and the bars, by preference, of steel. On the
shaft ca disc c' is keyed, and to this disc an annular disc c is rivetted,
into which all the bars c³ of one set of cages are secured, the ends of
each set of bars forming a cage being connected together in a ring c*.
On the shaft da disc d' is keyed, in which the inner ends of the
bars d forming the first three cages are secured, the outer ends of these
bars being all secured in onc annular disc d', in which the bars ³
are secured that form the cages which come between those carried by
the large disc on the shaft c. The ends of the bars forming each of
the cages carried by the annular disc & are collected together in a
ring d', and each disc is recessed to give space for the rings of each cage.
In the machine shewn by the Drawings there are 14 cages, the first
three cages from the centre containing 34, 40, and 46 bars respectively,
and all rotate in the same direction, while the other eleven cages
contain in succession 52, 58, 62, 70, 74, 79, 85, 91, 98, 102, and 109 bars
respectively, which rotate in opposite directions, that is, the 1st, 2nd,
3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th cages all rotate in one direction, and
the 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, and 14th cages all in the other direction.
e' is a cylinder with slits or holes in it secured to the annular disc d³,
and e is another similar cylinder secured inside the first-named, but so
that it can be adjusted by slightly rotating it, being then secured by
set screws passing through short concentric slots in the flanges formed
upon the cylinders, or by other means. The front of the inner cylinder
forms an annular disc, which is covered by a fixed plate g secured as
shewn, in which plate a pipef is fixed having an outlet branched on
each side of the shaft d, through which the grain is fed. c and d³ are
pulleys for the driving belts, the shafts c and d being driven in opposite
directions by means of an open and crossed strap. These straps can
be kept tight by a pulley free to rotate on a pin in a lever arranged on

page_text: a suitable fulcrum, the pulley being weighted to work against the strap
to take up the slack. c and d are the balance fly wheels formed by a
central disc of malleable iron plate with rings rivetted on each side of
it, as shewn. A wrought-iron boiler plate casing (not shewn) of any
convenient form is used to enclose the cages, and in its upper part a
pipe is fixed, which is connected with an exhausting fan that withdraws
the cerealine and discharges it into a suitable chamber. The mixed
flour and bran will fall to the lower part of the recess below the cages,
and may be removed by a screw i, as shewn. The shafts, discs, and
rings, and the fly wheels and pulleys are turned up as true and are 1
balanced as accurately as possible, and the shafts c and d are each
driven in reverse directions at about 800 revolutions per minute.
In place of bars with rings for cleaning and reducing grain and like
purposes pegs or pins may be used, screwed or otherwise secured in
the discs, but without the connecting rings at their outer ends.
I have now particularly described the nature of my Invention, and
the mode of carrying it into effect, and claim as my Invention,-
Firstly. The process or means of cleaning wheat and other seeds
and cracking malt by the application to the purpose of my Patent
disintegrator, as herein-before described.
Secondly. The use and application of machines formed by a series of
cages all rotating in the same direction for cleaning wheat. and other
seeds and for cracking malt, substantially as herein-before described
and illustrated by Figures 1 and 2 of the Drawings.
J
Thirdly. The process or means of reducing wheat and other seeds 2
into coarse or fine flour by the application to the purpose of my Patent
disintegator, as herein-before described.
Fourthly. The construction of the machine for reducing wheat and
other seeds to flour with two or more of the first inner cages all
rotating in the same direction, and with distributing cylinders and 3
counterbalancing fly wheels, substantially as described.
Fifthly. The combination of an exhausting draught with the casing or
chamber in which the reducing machine works to draw away the
cerealine or other deleterious matter from the flour, substantially as
described.
3

page_text: Sixthly. The use of pins or pegs without connecting rings (in place
f bars and rings) to form the cages, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Carr, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.