IMPROVEMENTS IN DRYING OR CURING CERTAIN -VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Gossage at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th September
1863.
I, WILLIAM GOSSAGE, of Widnes, in the County of Lancaster, Chemist,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN DRYING OR CURING CERTAIN -VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS," to be as follows :-
The vegetable productions to which my improvements in "drying or
curing" are applicable, are those which require to be "dried or cured" to a
certain extent previously to or after being stored for preservation. Amongst
these I may mention the various cereal crops, also the class of crops repre-
sented by grass, clover, and hops, all of which require to be brought to a
certain state of dryness before or immediately after being stored, otherwise
fermentation ensues and the mass becomes deteriorated greatly in value.
This "drying or curing" is usually effected by exposure of the vegetable
production to atmospherical air in the open fields previously to storing, but
the "drying or curing," by such means is entirely dependent upon the state
of weather at the time, and great loss is frequently sustained by delay in such
drying or curing."
Now my improvements provide means by which such "drying or curing "
can be effected in all states of the weather.
I effect the object of my Invention by causing heated or dry air to be
impelled in currents through the masses of vegetable production requiring to
be "dried or cured" until the moisture has been sufficiently abstracted from

page_text: such masses. To accomplish this object I cause the ricks or stacks of
vegetable productions to be provided with certain perforated tunnels or pipes
through which I can cause a strong current of heated or dry air to be impelled,
which passing through the perforations of such tunnels or pipes becomes divided
into a great number of currents of air, which percolating through the masses
of such vegetable productions carry away the superflous moisture previously
existing in such masses, and the vegetable production thereby becomes "dried
or cured." In place of applying the currents of heated or dry air to the
vegetable productions requiring to be "dried or cured" when these are collected
together in ricks or stacks, I can apply such currents to the vegetable
productions previously to these being stored in ricks or stacks. For this
purpose I provide a chamber constructed of brickwork or other suitable
material provided with a false bottom perforated with holes, and supported
over the solid bottom of the chamber, and I arrange the masses of vegetable
productions requiring to be "dried or cured" in the said chamber in the most
favorable position for allowing currents of air to pass through the same. I
then cause a supply of heated or dry air to be impelled into the space existing
between the false and solid bottoms of the said chamber, from which it passes
through the perforations of the false bottom as currents of air, which percolate
the mass of vegetable productions, contained in the said chamber, and carry off
the superfluous moisture previously existing in such mass until the same
becomes sufficiently "dried or cured," when it may be stored in ricks or
stacks or otherwise disposed of. I obtain the requisite supply of air by the
use of ordinary centrifugal ventilating fans or of other suitable mechanical
arrangements, and when I require to use heated air, I obtain this by the
means ordinarily employed for such purpose, or I cause the heated products
of combustion of fuel to become mixed with ordinary air, and thus to yield
heated air at such temperature as may be suitable for the purpose required.