Improved Apparatus employed in the Conveyance of Grain and other Matters in and between Granaries, Warehouses, and Vessels.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Feb., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 24th Nuv., 1891-Accepted, 24th Dec., 1891.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improved Apparatus employed in the Conveyance of Grain and
other Matters in and between Granaries, Warehouses, and
Vessels.
1, FREDERIC ELIOT DUCKHAM of Millwall Docks, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to apparatus for use in conveying grain and other matters
(in or between warehouses, granaries, ships, barges, bins, and other receivers) by
the carrying power of a current of air, and the part of said apparatus to which my
improvements relate is the discharging apparatus whereby the grain deposited by
the carrying current is delivered in automatically measured quantities without
permitting the ingress of air.
This part of the apparatus presently to be described may be mounted upon a
barge or other vessel or upon a wheeled or fixed structure on the wharf or else-
where, according as the apparatus is to be used for transferring grain between ships
or other conveyers and warehouses or granaries.
Beneath the conical hopper into which the conveying or suction pipe leads and
to which the exhaust apparatus is connected, is mounted to rock upon a horizontal
axis a twin receiver which makes an air tight joint in the manner of a slide valve
with the mouth of the conical hopper the valve faces of the two parts being curved
to an arc struck from the centre of oscillation.
By the oscillations of the said twin receiver, the inlet orifices leading to the two
compartments are alternately made to coincide with the discharge aperture of the
hopper so that the one compartment will be filling whilst the other (whose inlet
orifice is then open to the air) is discharging and so on alternately, the parts being
so proportioned that the discharge orifice of the hopper is never unclosed except to
the compartment to be filled.
Each compartment of the twin receiver has discharge flaps opening outwards and
held closed by external air pressure against the admission of air during the filling
of the receiver.
The oscillating motion of the twin receiver is controlled by weighing apparatus
whereby a regulated quantity of grain is delivered at the discharge of each com-
partment of the receiver.
Such mechanism consists of a pair of steelyards or equivalent weighing device
(one for each direction of oscillation) provided with means of adjustment according
to the average weight of a box-load of grain and with hanging catches pivoted to
their short arms by which the oscillating receiver is held up under the weight of
the grain contained in the compartment being filled until the said charge preponde-
rates over the load on the steelyard whereupon the catch will be automatically
disengaged and the receiver will fall over to the other side thus disconnecting the
full compartment from, and putting the empty one in communication with, the
hopper.
.
The discharge flap of the full compartment is then free to be pressed open by the
charge of grain which may be delivered into sacks or other receivers.
To prevent shock by too-sudden oscillation of the twin receiver, its motion is
checked by a dash-pot or cataract cylinder.
Dated this 24th day of Fahmu 1001
F. E. DUCKHAM.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Patent Agents.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Apparatus employed in the Conveyance of Grain and
other Matters in and between Granaries, Warehouses, and
Vessels.
I, FREDERIC ELIOT DUCKHAM of Millwall Docks, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to. be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My invention relates to apparatus for use in conveying grain and other material
in bulk (in warehouses or granaries or between warehouses or granaries and ships,
barges, bins, and other receivers) by the carrying power of a current of air, and
the part of said apparatus to which my improvements relate is the discharging
apparatus whereby the grain or other material deposited by the carrying current is
automatically delivered, without permitting the ingress of air.
This apparatus is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming part of this
Specification, which represents an elevation (partly broken away) of the delivery
apparatus. This apparatus may be mounted upon a barge or other vessel or upon
a wheeled or fixed structure on the wharf or elsewhere, according as the apparatus
is to be used for transferring grain between ships or other conveyers and ware-
houses or granaries.
Beneath the conical hopper A into which the conveying or suction pipe leads
and to which the exhaust apparatus is connected (preferably through the medium
of the dust-catching device described in a later application for Letters Patent
dated April 17th 1891 No. 6665) is mounted to rock upon a horizontal axis ba
twin receiver B B the upper face C of which makes an air-tight joint in the
manner of a slide-valve with the mouth A¹ of the conical hopper, the faces of the
two parts C and A' being curved to an are struck from the centre of oscillation b.
The twin receiver is constructed preferably of a central casting with end flanges
to which are bolted light steel cylinders with closed ends, the two chambers being
separated by a central partition B2 and each sloping downwards at such an angle
that when in its most inclined position it will be at a slope not less than the angle
of repose of the grain or other matter to be discharged and the centre of gravity of
the unloaded receiver is coincident with or just above the centre of oscillation b.
In the valve face C are two inlet apertures cc' leading respectively to the two
compartments B B and by the oscillations of the twin receiver these inlet orifices
are alternately made to coincide with the discharge aperture a of the hopper so
that the one chamber will be filling whilst the other (whose inlet orifice is then
open to the air) is discharging and so on alternately. The parts of the valve
face C intervening between the orifices c c' should have sufficient lap to close the
discharge orifice a of the hopper and prevent direct communication between the
orifices e el during the oscillating motion.
Each chamber B B' of the twin receiver has a discharge flap D opening outwards
but held closed by the superior external air pressure during the filling of the
chamber. The oscillating motion of the twin receiver is controlled by mechanism
consisting of counterweighted levers E E' (one for each direction of oscillation)
working on centres at e e¹ and each provided with jockey-weights for regulating the
counterbalance to an extent corresponding to the average weight of a chamber
full of the particular kind of grain or other matters to be discharged. To the
short arm of each lever is pivoted a pendent catch For F¹ in position to engage
with a corresponding lug for f'fixed to the oscillating receiver which is thereby
supported in position during the filling of the corresponding chamber, as shewn
for example with respect to chamber B' by the full lines in the drawing. Each
catch F is connected by a slotted link G or G₁ to a pin g or g₁ on the frame
whereby when the load in the chamber being filled (B' for example) overcomes the

page_text: 1
corresponding lever E' the catch F1 will by the angular motion of the link G¹
about its pin g as the said catch sinks be automatically disengaged from lug f
and the twin receiver. will be caused by the preponderating weight of the contained
load to fall over to the other side, as shewn in dotted lines, thus disconnecting the
full chamber B' from the hopper A. and putting the empty one B in communication
therewith.
The orifice c' of the full chamber being then open to the air the discharge
flap D' is then free to be pressed open by the load of grain which may be delivered
into sacks or other receivers. The discharge flap of the chamber which for the
time being is about to be filled is closed by external air pressure immediately the
chamber is in communication with the exhausted hopper A. To prevent shock by
too sudden oscillation of the twin receiver its motion may if necessary be checked
by a double-acting dash-pot or cataract cylinder whose piston is connected to the
receiver, but this is generally not required.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
1. In a pneumatic conveying and discharging apparatus the combination, with
an exhausted hopper of the herein described two-chambered receiver mounted to
oscillate on a horizontal axis and provided with inlet orifices in a slide-valve face
working against a corresponding face on the hopper mouth so as to put the latter
in connection with the chambers alternately and of detent mechanism delaying the
oscillation of the receiver and permitting it to fall over suddenly, substantially as
specified.
2. The combination, with the herein described oscillating twin receiver working
in slide-valve like connection with the mouth of an exhausted hopper so as to put
each chamber alternately in communication therewith and with the outer air, of
self closing and opening discharge flaps, substantially as described.
3. The combination, with the herein described oscillating twin receiver working
in slide-valve like connection with an exhausted hopper above, of mechanism con-
sisting of sets of counterweighted levers and latches respectively engaging with
and supporting the oscillating receiver and of means whereby the disengagement
of the one or other latch is automatically effected when the load preponderates over
the supporting lever, thereby allowing the receiver to oscillate suddenly, as and for
the purpose specified.
301 1
Carambon 1001
F. E. DUCKHAM.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.