IMPROVEMENTS IN AND THE COMBINATION OF CERTAIN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR WINNOWING, WASHING, SIFTING, AND SEPA- RATING GRAIN, BALLAST, SAND, SHOT, MINERALS, AND OTHER MATERIALS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Thomas Smith, of No. 21, Lincoln's Inn
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Surveyor and Civil Engineer, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND THE COMBINATION OF CERTAIN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR WINNOWING, WASHING, SIFTING, AND SEPA-
RATING GRAIN, BALLAST, SAND, SHOT, MINERALS, AND OTHER MATERIALS."
Sealed the 24th December 1858, and dated the 2nd July 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Thomas Smith,
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd July 1858.
I, WILLIAM THOMAS SMITH, of No. 21, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County
of Middlesex, Surveyor and Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for “ IMPROVEMENTS IN AND THE COMBINATION OF CERTAIN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR WINNOWING, WASHING, SIFTING, AND SEPARATING
GRAIN, BALLAST, SAND, SHOT, MINERALS, AND OTHER MATERIALS," to be as
follows:-
My Invention consists in the combination of certain machinery or apparatus
for winnowing, washing, and sifting materials of all descriptions into any given
number of sizes, and also of a girating motion herein-after described.
I will now describe my Invention in its application to the separation of
gravel, &c., for the formation of filtering beds as used by water companies,
and confine myself to that one purpose in order to prevent complexity in

page_text: description. I propose to attach to a hollow perforated vertical shaft (working
in a collar, gudgeon, or ring at the top, securely fixed to the surrounding
framework of the machine, and on a step or bearing at the bottom), one or
more sieves or screens (as may be required), one above the other, which
sieves or screens are made with one or more outlets or mouths discharging
the completed material into compartments, or fixed hoppers or shoots, for the
purpose of simultaneously loading carts, &c., thereby the upper sieve or screen
is supplied with the material to be operated upon by .a self-regulating hopper
worked by the motion herein-before referred to. On the machine or appa-
ratus being set in motion, the larger portions of the material pass out of the
mouth or mouths of the upper sieve or screen, and are washed by water
supplied to the hollow perforated vertical shaft, and the self-regulating hopper,
the smaller gravel or other material falling through upon the next sieve or
screen, where it is subjected to the same process, which is repeated until the
material has passed through the sieves or screens provided for that purpose,
when the result I propose to obtain will be effected, and the material fit for
immediate use.
The motion herein-before referred to, and by which I arrive at the foregoing
results, is obtained by means of a triple or other camb or cambs, or spoked
wheel or wheels working on a horizontal shaft or shafts geared to machinery
propelled by manual or other motive power, and striking alternately above
and below arm or arms attached horizontally to the vertical hollow shaft
before mentioned, and projecting beyond the sieves or screens to the distance
required, thereby producing the peculiar girating motion referred to herein,
and applied to this Invention.
Having now described in outline the principal features in my Invention,
and its application to this purpose, I do not limit myself to details, but to the
principle laid down, only reserving to myself the right to make any minor
alterations and additious that suggest themselves to me before the filing of
the Final Specification.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Thomas Smith in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 1st January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
THOMAS SMITH, of No. 21, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex, 3
Surveyor and Civil Engineer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Thomas Smith, Her special licence that I, the said Williamı
Thomas Smith, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
'as I, the said William Thomas Smith, 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 AND THE COMBINATION OF CERTAIN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
FOR WINNOWING, WASHING, SIFTING, AND SEPARATING GRAIN, BALLAST, SAND,
SHOT, MINERALS, AND OTHER MATERIALS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Thomas Smith, my executors or administrators, by.
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their bands and seals,
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 William Thomas Smith, 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 accompanying Sheet of
Drawings, on which are drawn three Diagrams having similar letters of
reference marked on each to show similar parts, when such parts appear or
may be seen in each of the Figures respectivey.
The Invention having for its object winnowing, washing, sifting, and sepa-
rating grain, ballast, sand, shot, minerals, and other materials, it may be as
well to state that these operations are usually performed by manuel labour,
but I am also aware that machinery moved by steam or other motive power
has also been applied for similar purposes, more especially to the sifting or
screening sand or gravel. My object is to winnow, wash, sift, and separate,
effectually, rapidly, and economically, and I believe it will be found that in
the machinery or apparatus herein-after described I have succeeded therein,,
and without any second operation, and that the materials submitted to its
operation are effectually winnowed, washed, sifted; and separated.
In the Drawing, Figure 1 represents a plan of the interior of the machine
with the top removed; Figure 2, a section thereof taken at A,B; and Figure 3,

page_text: an elevation with a portion of the boarding removed. In a strong box or
open
frame having sides in proportion to the number of sifters or screens
required, receivers a are fixed 'sloping in the direction of the outlets b, and
into which the mouths of the sifters c are directed.
The upright perforated tube n (for the purpose of winnowing or washing
the material by means of air, water, or other fluid issuing from the perfora-
tions into the screens, which may be omitted when separation is the sole
object,) has its lower end stopped and formed as a pivot working on a capped
step or bearing; to this tube are attached the sifters (when washing or
winnowing is the object, or to the framing when separation only is required),
which are provided with mouths or shoots C, directed as before stated, into
the several receivers fixed to the sides of the box or open frame, and also
with fixed or moveable screens (if required) so as to elevate or depress the
side furthest from the mouth, as the quality or size of the material may differ,
or in order to obtain a greater or less quantity of any one particular size or
sizes. On the upper end of the upright perforated tube n, above the collar
in which it works, a service pipe d is attached to supply air, water, or other
fluid between the screens.
The sifters are arranged in succession one above the other, the wire work
is not placed horizontally in the drum as in the ordinary sieve, but at an
angle with the sides, and sloping towards the mouths or shoots C. The meshes
of the wire work, which are large in the upper screen, gradually diminish in
size in each of the lower ones, so that the last is of very fine or close mesh;
they may be made of any material which practice or experience may point out
as most desirable. A tilted board g is also fixed under the wirework of each
screen, so as to convey the material passing through to the back part of the
screen below, in order that the entirety of the material should pass over the
whole surface of the screen.
The girating motion by which the separation of the material to be operated
upon is produced in the following manner, namely, a tripple or other camb
or cambs, or spoked wheel or wheels f, (the spokes of which may be curved
when the motion requires modification,) attached to a shaft or shafts geared
to machinery propelled by manual or other motive power, is made to revolve.
Arm or arms are attached horizontally to the perforated tube or framework
of the seives in such a position and of such projection that the spoked wheels
or cambs may strike them alternately above and below as they revolve, thus
producing the rapid girating motion required for the perfect separation of the
material, and applied to this Invention.
When the material to be operated upon is supplied by means of the hopper e

page_text: to the surface of the top seive, and the water or other fluid required laid on to
the service pipes d, and the machine set in motion by means of the fly wheel
attached, the larger portions of the material pass over the surface of the seive,
and eventually out of the mouth c into the compartment a before described,
and made to receive it, and so out of the outlet b, the smaller portions fall
through on to the tilted board g, down which they pass and fall upon the back
part of the next screen below, furthest from the mouth c, and passing over the
surface as in the first instance becomes separated as before, and washed or
winnowed by means of the perforated tube shewn on Diagram, and so on until
the number of sizes required are obtained.
Having now described the nature of my Invention and the means by which
I carry it into practical effect, I desire to be distinctly understood that I do
not confine myself to any particular size or sizes, or the proportions or number
of sifters or their adjuncts, or as to the shape of the box or open frame to
which they are attached, as the whole must be regulated by the greater or
less power to be employed, and the nature or quantity of material to be
operated upon for the purpose of this my Invention, which I declare to be, and
I claim, the exclusive use, exercise, and sale, as of my Invention, of improve-
ments in and the combination of certain machinery or apparatus for win-
nowing, washing, sifting, and separating grain, ballast, sand, shot, minerals,.
and other materials.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Thomas Smith, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.