IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR PULPING TURNIPS AND OTHER VEGETABLE MATTERS."
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Hammond Bentall, of Heybridge, in the
County of Essex, Ironfounder, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MACHINERY
FOR PULPING TURNIPS AND OTHER VEGETABLE MATTERS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Hammond Bentall
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th January 1856.
I, EDWARD HAMMOND BENTALL, of Heybridge, in the County of Essex, Iron-
founder, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVED.
MACHINERY FOR PULPING TURNIPS AND OTHER VEGETABLE MATTERS, to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to improved means for reducing turnips and other
vegetable substances to pulp. For this purpose I provide a cylinder of any
given proportions, with rows of knives or cutters, so arranged that each suc-
ceeding row of cutters, instead of following in the lines of cut of the preceding,
will act in lines intermediate of those cuts.
In order to clear the knives or cutters of the fibrous and other portions of
the pulpy mass that may accumulate around them or adhere thereto, I employ
a revolving or stationary clearer, furnished with suitable projecting edges,
which, as the cutters on the cylinder rotate, will intercept and take off any
vegetable substance that may be adhering to the cutters.

page_text: These knives or cutters may be made in various ways, providing always that
they are arranged as above indicated; but by tapering them at the shank,
and casting slots in the periphery of the cylinder, they may be driven in and
will hold fast like a wedge. In some cases it may be found desirable to give
the clearers a lateral or endway motion.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edward Hammond Bentall in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 4th July 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
HAMMOND BENTALE, of Heybridge, in the County of Essex, Ironfounder, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Edward Hammond Bentall, Her special license that I, the said Edward
Hammond Bentall, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Edward Hammond Bentall, 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 law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an In-
vention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR PULPING TURNIPS AND OTHER VEGETABLE
MATTERS," upon the condition, amongst others, that I, the said Edward
Hammond Bentall, 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 Edward Hammond Bentall, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say)
:-
This Invention relates to certain improved means of reducing turnips and
other vegetable substances to pulp, the object being to effect that operation more
"

page_text: perfectly than heretofore, and to prevent the choking of the machine by reason
of the accumulation of the fibrous and other portions of the pulpy mass around
the cutters. For this purpose I provide a cylinder of any suitable proportions,
and fit in it rows of cutters, so arranged that the cutters of one row, instead of
following in the lines of cut of the preceding, will act in lines intermediate of
those cuts, and thus ensure the thorough disintegration of the roots. The
cutters may either form a helix around the cylinder, or they may form parallel
rings, the planes of which lie at an angle to the squared ends of the cylinder.
In either case I provide a moving clearer, which will remove with facility any
adhering pulp or extraneous matter from between the cutters, and thus
preserve the efficiency of the machine..
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 shews in plan view, and Fig. 2 in
side elevation, so much of a turnip pulper as will serve to explain the modo
of carrying out my Invention. a, a, is a cylinder of cast iron, composed of
two end wheels, upon which are bolted a set of segment plates that form the
periphery of the cylinder. In these plates socket holes are cast to receive
steel cutters 6, which I prefer to form as shewn in the detached Figure, and
to fix in the segment plates by means of a wooden wedge. When the cutters
are arranged in the cylinder as shewn at Fig. 1, that is, in the figure of a
belix, I provide a clearer c, with a thread of a corresponding pitch, and having
a projection about equal to that of the cutters, so that it will enter between the
cutters and remove all the pulpy mass that may be adhering thereto, or to the
periphery of the cylinder. The axles of the cylinder and its clearer lic parallel
to each other in bearings, carried by a common frame, and they are geared
together so that the rows of cutters of the cylinder and the helical thread
of the clearer may always, during their revolution, preserve the same relative
positions.
The turnips or other roots to be operated upon being thrown into the well-
known hopper (the grating only of which is shewn in the Drawing), and rotary
motion being imparted to the axle of the cylinder by steam or other motive
power, the cutters will scrape off small portions of the root and carry the same
forward towards the shute or discharge opening. The clearer c will at the
same time, by reason of its thread entering between the cutters, clear off any
adhering pulp and keep the cutters free and ready to act efficiently and con-
tinuously upon the snpply of roots in the hopper.
Fig. 3 shews, in plan view, a modification of the cylinder and clearer; but
embracing the same principle of action as that above described; and Fig. 4
is an end elevation of the same. The cutters, it will be seen, are arranged in
parallel rings set obliquely around the cylinder, and the rotary clearer is formed

page_text: to correspond to that arrangement: In other respects the construction of the
pulper is similar to that above described.
At Figs. 5 and 6, I have shewn the manner of applying a reciprocating
clearer for preventing the accumulation of fibrous matter on the periphery of
the cylinder. The clearer d consists of a bar of iron, cast with teeth or pro-
jections on one edge thereof, corresponding in depth and position to the cutters
on the cylinder, which, as the cylinder revolves, pass between the teeth of the
clearer; guides g, 9, are provided on the framing of the machine for the clearer
d to slide in, and a reciprocating motion is given to the clearer by means of a
bell-crank lever h, which rocks on a fulcrum pin on the main framing. One
limb of this crank lever is jointed to the clearer, and the other limb to a rod i,
which connects it with the eccentric strap k of an eccentric on the cylinder
axle. By this means a slight endway motion is given to the clearer to adjust
it to a proper position for meeting the advancing lines of cutters on the
cylinder.
It will be readily understood that many other equally efficient ways of com-
municating a reciprocating motion to the clearer might be devised, but I prefer
that described as being the most simple.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improved Machinery
for Pulping Turnips and other Vegetable Matters," and explained the manner
of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the
above in part recited Letters Patent I claim, the means herein described for
keeping the cutters of the pulping cylinder clear of accumulations of disinte-
grated vegetable matter, when the cutters are so arranged on the cylinder that
those forming one line lengthways of the cylinder will act in different planes
from those forming the preceding line.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Hammond Bentall, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
J. W. Moffatt,
66, Chancery Lane.
E. H. BENTALL. (L.S.)