An Improved Apparatus for Sorting and Cleaning Groats, Flour, and similar Materials.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Aug., 1895
Complete Specification -Left, 28th May, 1896-Accepted, 4th July, 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Apparatus for Sorting and Cleaning Groats, Flour, and
similar Materials.
I REGINALD HADDAN, of the Firm of Herbert Haddan & Co. of 18
Buckingham Street, Strand W.C. London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention a communication to me from abroad by Carl Hermann
Stein, Miller of Potschappel in the Empire of Germany, to be as follows:-
The use of the machine which is the subject of this invention differs from that
of apparatus based on the dressing process hitherto known, since for each separation
the mixture is but once exposed to a strong air current whereupon it immediately
leaves the apparatus through catching hoppers especially adapted thereto.
The air current is not in the first place intended to free the granular materials
from their dusty and branny admixtures but to accomplish a division or sorting of
the materials put in the hopper in such a manner that the strong effect of the
suction immediately separates a finished quality of flour and carries away a
mixture for the next process.
The apparatus consists of several sets of sifting compartments arranged below
each other, each of which is, independently of the others, affected by the above
mentioned air current. In as far as the latter accomplishes the separation of the
mixture which is exposed to it, it is used as a conveying means resulting in a
considerable simplification of the dressing process, for the heaviest materials are
completely removed from the apparatus without difficulty.
The well defined division of the mixture by means of air current may be continued
at will by arranging below each other any number of sorting compartments, such
arrangement having the additional advantage that, according to the requirements,
some of the conrpartments may be omitted.
The mixture is brought into the apparatus through a hopper. It is preferred to
have the hopper obliquely inclined so as to have one vertical surface and one
oblique surface; but in order to prevent a flowing out of the material in parabolic
curves, as is usual in hoppers of that construction, a board is attached to the
vertical wall which, also projecting downward in a vertical direction, thus insures
the vertical movement of the falling material. Said board may either be fixed on
to the vertical wall at a certain distance from the foot end of the hopper, or
attached to said wall in the form of a valve, it being regulated by the gravity of
the mixture. In any case the unsorted material passes in vertically down to a
hopper below. On its way to said hopper it is crossed by a strong air current, the
force of this air current being signified by its separating from the quantity falling
into the second hopper all those particles which are not of the heaviest kind. The
latter leave the apparatus through the outlet of the second hopper without having
been submitted to any further process. The greater part of the quantity carried
away by the air current settles in a third collecting hopper from which hopper the
said quantity is transferred as new unsorted material to the next compartment
below, while a further hopper beyond the third hopper receives the branny and
dusty particles which are then removed from the apparatus through another
outlet.
The new mixture material accumulated in the third hopper now passes a valve
board, the object of which is the same as that of the valve in the uppermost hopper,

page_text: down into another compartment. The further procedure in this second compart-
ment as well as in all the following compartments is the same as that described for
the uppermost compartment.
The air currents, of which the pressure is regulated by valves, are supplied by
one or more exhausters connected to the apparatus in the known manner said
exhausters carrying away the air saturated with bran and other dust.
An arrangement aiming at the highest perfection of this apparatus consists in
the possibility of moving the partition wall between the heavy goods hopper and
the air carried lighter goods hopper.
By partly moving sideways the said partition walls different separation of the
material directed towards the hoppers may be affected, the said material also can,
by entirely turning this wall down towards the one or other hopper, be exclusively
confined to either hopper, this arrangement permitting of intercepting or neutralizing
the effect of one or all of the sorting compartiments below.
Dated this 28th day of August 1895.
An Improved Apparatus for Sorting and Cleaning Groats, Flour, and
similar Materials.
I, REGINALD HADDAN, of the Firm of Herbert Haddan and Co., of
18 Buckingham Street, Strand, London, W.C., Patent Agent, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention, a communication to me from abroad by Carl
Hermann Stein, Miller, of Potschappel, in the Empire of Germany, and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :―
The use of the machine which is the subject of this invention differs from that of
apparatus based on the dressing process hitherto known since for each separation
the mixture is but once exposed to a strong air current whereupon it immediately
leaves the apparatus through catching hoppers especially adapted thereto.
The air current is not in the first place intended to free the granular materials
from their dusty and branny admixtures, but to accomplish a division or sorting of
the materials put in the hopper, in such a manner that the strong effect of the
suction immediately separates a finished quality of the goods and carries away a
mixture for the next process.
The apparatus consists of several sets of sifting compartments arranged below
each other, each of which is, independently of the others, affected by the above
mentioned air current. In as far as the latter accomplishes the separation of the
mixture which is exposed to it, it is used as a conveying means resulting in a
considerable simplification of the dressing process; for the heaviest materials are
completely removed from the apparatus without difficulty.
The well defined division of the mixture by means of an air current may be
continued at will by arranging below each other any number of sorting compartments,
such arrangement having the additional advantage that, according to the require-
ments, some of the compartments may be omitted.
The annexed drawing represents the apparatus in vertical section in Fig. 3.
The mixture is brought into the apparatus through a hopper g. The unsorted
material passes vertically down to a hopper below. On its way to said hopper it
is crossed by a strong air-current as indicated by the arrows, the force of this
current being signified by its separating from the quantity falling into the hopper a
all those particles which are not of the heaviest kind. The latter leave the
apparatus through the outlet d of the hopper a without having been submitted to
any further process. The greater part of the quantity carried away by the air

page_text: current settles in the collecting hoppers B and C formed by the walls, m and n, o,
from which hopper B the said quantity is transferred as new unsorted material to
the next compartment below, while the further hopper C formed by the walls n
and o receives the branny and dusty particles which are then removed from the
apparatus as a first remainder.
The first or uppermost compartment has thus accomplished the separation of the
first quality material and the first remainder.
The material accumulated in the hopper B now passes a valve-board f vertically
from the uppermost hopper down inte the hopper a'. The further procedure in.
this second compartment as well as in all the following compartments is the same
as that described for the uppermost compartment.
The material or quality No. 2 leaves the machine through the opening d of
hopper a whilst in the part B which is formed like the hopper B, the material is
collected for sorting in the third chamber and the hopper C₁ similarly to the
hopper C conducts the remainder No. 2 to the discharging hole.
The following sorting chambers, the essential parts of which are a², a³, B2, B3³, c², c³
effect in the already described manner the sorting of the third and fourth quality
of material and the same numbers of qualities remainders.
The air currents of which the pressure is regulated by valves are supplied by
one or more exhausters connected to the apparatus in the known manner: said
exhausters carrying away the air saturated with bran and other dust.
An arrangement aiming at the highest perfection of this apparatus consists in
the possibility of moving the partition walls s between the heavy goods hopper a, a,.
a², a³, and the air carried lighter goods hopper B, B1, B2, B3. By partly moving
sideways the said partition walls the different separation of the material directed
towards the hoppers may be effected: the said material also can, by entirely
turning this wall down towards the one or other hopper a, or the wall m, be
exclusively confined to either hopper a, a¹, a², a³, or the hopper B, B1, B2, B3, this
arrangement permitting of intercepting or neutralizing the effect of one or all of
the sorting compartments below.
Although the vertical valves f which regulate the entering of the sorting.
material to each chamber have no influence upon the working of the machine
itself, they form however nearly indispensable assisting elements in regard to the
construction of the machine, since the hoppers B, B1, B2, would not be able to
conduct the material intended for the next sorting chamber in a vertical stream
without these vertical valves.
Figs. 2 and 3 show the methods of constructing the sorting machines in which
also the above described working for this invention is made possible.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. An apparatus for sorting and dressing groats, flour and the like in which the
material to be sorted is exposed in its free fall to an air-current only a corresponding
small part having the possibility of following its direction of gravity, this part being
separately caught by a hopper, tube or the like, then conducted away and excluded
from further cleaning process, whilst the part carried away by the air current is
submitted in the same way to a second similar process by depositing in a convenient
collecting hopper whence it falls, in order that a part thereof, which is caught and
conducted away separately, can follow its direction of gravity whilst the remaining
part is carried away by the air current, said process being repeated as long as is
necessary to divide the qualities of the materials, for the purpose to effect the
sifting and cleaning of the materials by immediately excluding in each chamber
the next heaviest parts from the further material to be sorted.
2. A machine for sorting and cleaning of groats, flour and the like for the process.
described under Claim 1 having several superposed sorting chambers, characterized
by hoppers a, a, a² etc. arranged in all chambers and by which the heaviest part of

page_text: the material to be sorted is caught separately, whilst a hopper of each under
chamber receives such of the material from the overflow hopper B, B1, B2, etc. in
the upper chamber next to the hopper a, a¹, a' etc. therein as the goods carried off
by the air current have in the meantime deposited the whole for the purpose of
effecting the sorting and cleaning of the material by immediately separating the
next heaviest parts.
3. A machine for sorting and cleaning groats, flour and the like as under Claims I
and 2, having separating walls between the hoppers a, a', a², etc. and B, B1, B2 etc.
respectively for the purpose of closing completely the passage to single hoppers
and conducting the material to any chamber avoiding the other chambers lying
above it.