IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLEANS- ING GRAIN, MORE PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE TO FLOUR MILLS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of No. 20, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLEANS-
ING GRAIN, MORE PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE TO FLOUR MILLS."-A com-
munication from abroad by Charles Vannier, of No. 23, Boulevard
de Strasbourg, Paris, France, Miller.
Sealed the 1st January 1870, and dated the 12th July 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 12th July 1869.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. .20, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR CLEANSING GRAIN, MORE PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE TO FLOUR MILLS," to be as
follows:-
Great inconvenience is caused by apparatus for cleansing grain of
present construction, more particularly in corn mills, on account of the

page_text: dust and foreign matter separated thereby from the grain being allowed
to fly about in the mill, thus acting injuriously upon the attendants
and the machinery, and occasioning considerable inconvenience through
its deposit, to mitigate which it is necessary for the millers to arrange
an expensive system of ventilation throughout the mill.
The present Invention has for its object to obviate these incon-
veniences, and consists, mainly, in enclosing all the apparatus employed
for cleaning the grain in air-tight casings connected by passages to one
or more exhaust fans for creating a draught, by means of which the
dust and other matter separated from the grain is drawn from such
casings, and is deposited in various receptacles situated at different
points of the passages, the current of air being made to pass away from
the building after all the dust has thus been deposited therefrom. Tho
apparatus may be variously arranged for carrying the Invention into
practice. Thus the said air-tight casings of several smut machines or
other cleansing apparatus, as also the shoots conducting the grain away
from such apparatus, may be connected by enclosed passages with a
central chamber, which is itself connected by a passage or pipe with
the exhaust fan, so that the heavier portion of the dust drawn up
through the first-named passages is deposited in the central chamber,
while the remainder is carried forward to the fan and is impelled by
the blast into other depositing chambers, from the last of which a pipe
or passage conducts the current of air to the. outside of the building.
The various passages are provided with slides or valves for regulating
the current of air, and the passages may with. advantage be contracted
at certain points near the cleansing machines to intensify the current
and cause it more effectually to carry the dust away.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 8th January 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of July, in the year of our

page_text: Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-third
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Charles Denton Abel, Her special licence that
I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my execu
tors, 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 APPARATUS FOR CLEANSING GRAIN, MORE PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE TO FLOUR
MILLS," a communication to me from abroad by Charles Vannier, of
No. 23, Boulevard de Strasbourg, Paris, France, Miller, upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands 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 in-
mediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawing, and to the letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
Great inconvenience is caused by apparatus for cleansing grain of
present construction, more particularly in corn mills, on account of the
dust and foreign matter separated thereby from the grain being allowed
to fly about in the mill, thus acting injuriously upon the attendants and
the machinery, and occasioning considerable inconvenience through its
deposit, to mitigate which it is necessary for the millers to waste con-
siderable time in frequent cleansing operations, and to arrange an ex-
pensive system of ventilation throughout the mill.
This irregular
ventilation however gives rise to permanent currents of air acting
against all sanitary rules, and though they facilitate the expulsion of
the dust they nevertheless do not free the mill therefrom sufficiently.
Lastly, this dust, consisting as it does mostly of small particles of busks,
and other matters, are susceptible of numerous industrial applications,

page_text: and it is therefore against reason to allow them to escape into the
atmosphere.
The present Invention has for its object to obviate the above men-
tioned inconveniences, and consists mainly in enclosing all the apparatus
employed for cleansing the grain in air-tight casings communicating
by means of passages with one or more exhaust fans or other exhaust
apparatus, which propel the dust through such passages and into inter-
mediate closed receptacles.
The accompanying Drawing shews a sectional elevation of a flour
mill with the before-described system of exhaust applied thereto.
Each smut machine, a is enclosed in a casing a¹. The grain after
passing through the machine falls into the side chamber b, while the
heaviest dust falls through the four funnel-shaped passages c, c, (arranged
symetrically round the machine) into the lower deposit chamber f, also
closed. The regulating valve g allows the grain to pass through the
channel into a hopper i, which conducts it, into a receptacle, whence
it is removed by chain buckets as is ordinarily the case, in order to be
introduced a second time into a smut machine. The grain in its passage
through his subjected to the action of the exhaust fan A in the upper
part of the building, which is set in motion by means of a band from the
machinery of the mill. By this means the light dust contained among
the grain is made to rise in the passages j, as indicated by the arrows,
and is deposited partly in the second closed chamber k. This chamber
is by preference of a polygonal form, into the sides of which enters
several of the draught passages, as indicated, and from which the air
is exhausted through the passage m leading to the fan A. By this
means the dust is drawn up through the passage j from the chamber B,
and through the passage from the casing a surrounding the smut
machine. Similar passages may serve to conduct the dust from other
machines into the chamber k. The lighter dust, which is not deposited
in the chamber k, is drawn through the passage m into the fan A, and
propelled by the same into the two last deposit chambers n and p.
The chamber n is provided with horizontal divisions, over which the
air and dust circulates, as indicated by arrows, and upon which a
great portion of the remaining dust is consequently deposited according
to its gravity. The remaining dust, if any, is deposited in the chamber p,
while the current of air freed from all dust escapes into the atmosphere
through the tube
In the intermediate chamber B the passage jis
4.

page_text: contracted to a funnel shape at o in order to actuate the draught at
that point so as to propel the dust with considerable velocity into the
rising passage j. x, x, y, y, represent the two floors of the mill. This
enclosing of the cleansing apparatus also has the advantage of deadening
the noise occasioned thereby.
Having thus described the nature of this Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise arrangement and application of the Invention as
shewn on the accompanying Drawing, as these may be variously modified
without departing from the essential feature of the Invention, thus it
may with equal advantage be applied to all other kinds of cleansing
apparatus; but what I claim is, the before-described method of exhausting
the dust from machinery for cleansing grain characterized principally,-
Firstly. By the complete isolation of the cleansing apparatus inside
closed casings in which the separated dust is caught up and prevented
from flying about in the mill.
Secondly. By the use for the same purpose of intermediate chambers
either with or without divisions into which the dust passes succes-
sively, and in which it is deposited according to its gravity until no
more dust is contained in the current of air, which then escapes into
the atmosphere.
Thirdly. By the use of an exhaust fan or other apparatus for pro-
ducing a current of air in the said chambers and the passages by which
they inter-communicate.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
CHAS. D. ABEL. (L.S.)