IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR ANEADING.
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Eugène Drouot, of 2, Rue Ste. Appoline, Paris,
France, and of 4, South St., Finsbury, London, Baker, for the Invention.
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR ANEADING.
Sealed the 14th January 1862, and dated the 2nd August 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Eugène Drouot
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd August 1861.
I, JOSEPH EUGÈNE DROUOT, of 2, Rue Ste. Appoline, Paris, France, and of
4, South St., Finsbury, London, Baker, do hereby declare the nature of my
said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR KNEADING,"
to be as follows, that is to say:-
I have remarked that for a long time attempts have been made to replace
hand kneading by mechanical means. Until now the kneading machines with
circular troughs appear to give the best results, whilst they present sufficient
defects in practice to prevent their being adopted until now. One of the great
difficulties in the employment of kneading machines with circular troughs was
the setting in motion of the various mechanical parts. I have also observed
that the setting in motion of other kneading machines by any motive power
presented great difficulties; some arose from too great space being taken up
thro' the separation of the motive engine from the kneading apparatus, others

page_text: from obstacles and expenses as well as loss of power incident to the trans-
mission; and my Invention has for object to remedy these defects, and consists
in combining a motive engine with a kneading machine in such a way that
the two shall form but one and the same machine. The motive power may
be a steam, gas, air, electric, or any other motive-power engine, with a vertical
or horizontal cylinder, and may be placed either above or below the trough.
The improved kneading machine is composed preferably of a movable
circular trough, the sides of which rise like a cone on each side, having in the
centre a frame or support of a cylindrical form; a steam engine is placed on
this support to give the required motions to the kneading apparatus. Two
vertical connecting rods, united by the upper crosshead of the piston rod, set
in motion a crank axle at its lower extremity, on which is keyed a bevil wheel
working two other bevil wheels-keyed-on-two-shafts placed at right angles to
the said crank axle. These two shafts carry two toothed pinions catching in
two chains which pass over & cog with two wheels working two shafts
carrying round the kneaders & a fork for kneading the dough. The trough
is supported at its lower part and drawn along by two rollers receiving a
rotative motion from the crank axle. This motion may also be obtained by
employing one-or-more-pinions-catching with a rack placed under the trough.
The fork for working the dough is so placed as to receive a circular motion
from the prime mover, and by means of jointed levers it also receives a motion
perpendicular to its axis, and by the employment of a handle and a screw bolt
the fork is kept in a vertical position when it is at work, or raised up in a
horizontal position when not required to work.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Eugène Drouot in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 31st January 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
EUGÈNE DROUOT, of 2, Rue Sainte Appoline, Paris (France), and of 4, South
Street, Finsbury, London, Baker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Joseph Eugène Drouot, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph
Eugène Drouot, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others

page_text: as I, the said Joseph Eugène Drouot, 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 MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR KNEADING," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Eugène Drouot, 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 immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Eugène Drouot, 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 Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
This Invention relates, as previously specified in my Provisional Specifica-
tion, to a mechanical scheme or set of schemes for the purpose of compounding
in one apparatus both the means of kneading by power and the
power itself,
whatever might be the kind of power to be employed, as far as it is set, in the
manner explained hereafter.
.
In the first place, the kneading part of the system, consisting of an annular
tank or trough, with peculiar instruments or organs working within the same
as means of mingling and beating the paste, is made to revolve around a
central hollow support or trunk, which is the fundamental piece, on the top.
of which the motive engine is resting likewise. This being clearly under-
stood, that the central support, in the shape of a column or trunk, is the
foundation stone of the whole apparatus, and constructed in such a manner as
to secure both a stiff upright journal for the annular trough to revolve upon,
and an equally strong crown for to form the bed plate of the engine. I shall
now state and describe the various parts of my Invention. First of all, the
central support is a hollow cylinder, of cast iron of moderate thickness, with
as many apertures cut out in the periphery as necessary to allow passage for
the transmission of motion projecting from the interior. The said central
support is strictly cylindrical from the bottom (which rests on a cross plate of
the same material by means of internal paws, and connected together with
bolts). It is, I say, cylindrical from the bottom up to the breast, if it may be

page_text: called so, forming the afore stated journals, neatly turned, against which the
annular tank or trough is made to revolve. Above this line it is enlarged
in a conical or mushroom shape, so as to form a flange, the function of which
is such as to act as an edge, lid, or rabbet, for preventing the paste from
rising out of the trough and passing through the joint of the journal and
collar, the latter of these being formed of the internal face of the trough itself.
On the top of the cone or mushroom cap is the circular bed plate for the
engine, which is separate.
Secondly, on the aforesaid bed plate the engine is set, which may be made
on any principle whatever'; either fed with steam or hot air, or gas, or electric
fluid; either a fixture,, horizontal, upright, inverted, et cætera; either oscil-
lating or rotating, disc or pendulum, or any other way of using and employing
the motive power, of whatever kind it might be.
Thirdly, underneath the bed plate, and through apertures secured in the
same for convenient connection, the power is caused to communicate with all
the requested gearings inside the column for transferring and distributing the
motion to the various parts of the apparatus, like the trough and tools working
into it..
'
Fourthly, around the column is the annular tank or trough, revolving freely
by means of moderately accusate turning of the corresponding surfaces, which
are, however, sufficiently kept apart by three breast rollers slightly-projecting-
from the interior and made to touch tangentially. Another set of three, or
four, or any other number of conical rollers or wheels are so placed as to act
like carriages, supporting the trough from the bottom. The motion is given
to the tank or trough either by special gearings besides the carrying rollers,
either by one of the rollers itself, in either case the working roller or pinion is
keyed on the crank shaft laid on bearings situated at the bottom of the appa-
ratus; and in the case of the pinion and wheel, they may be made cogged, or
wedge and groove, or simply frictional, which would finally return to the
principle of the friction roller.
Fifthly, as to peculiar contrivance for the performance of the kneading as
imitated from manual work, they consist of the combination of three motions.
First, the revolution of the annular tank or trough around the column, as
aforesaid, which brings successively all the particles of the flour, water, and
ferment, mixed in proportions for making bread, to the action of the hereafter
described tools, and consequently allowing the paste to rest and retain the
carbonic acid gas during the intervals, which is the most important feature of
the manual kneading, and likewise of my Invention, which realises the same
with a complete and faithful similarity.

page_text: Second, the action of a beater, shaped in a kind of nautical-screw form;
with carved out blades, performing horizontally, in a fixed position, like the
hands of the kneader, and allowing the atmospheric air to be enveloped
between the leaven of the paste, thus blowing the paste, as technically termed.
Third and last, the action of a kind of fork (the fingers of which are,
however, connected at the ends as well as at the beam), and which revolves
vertically at a right-angled position with the beater; the performance of this
tool being that of carving the paste, as would likewise be done by the man
when drawing and tearing it out in lumps before mixing it again. By such
means the actual way of kneading, as practised ever since it was introduced
in domestic processes, is accurately performed by mechanical power, with
every facility, rapidity, economy of time and space, and conveniences of all
kinds. For, by such a way of setting the power on the centre and top of the
apparatus, this becomes perfectly clear and free from all impediments which
would come in the way of the surveyor of the work, and so rendering it easy
and safe.'
The accompanying Drawings will now illustrate better my Invention by
shewing a specimen of my apparatus, whose I shall give a rough description
with the referring letters, as follows:-
A, A, A, A, hollow column or central support; B, steam engine; C, C,
connecting rods; D, D, crank shaft; D', pinion, gearing into bevil wheel or
circular rack E; E, E, circular rack bolted to the bottom of the trough ;
F, pulley or spur wheel for giving motion to a corresponding one F1, by means
of a belt or chain or any endless strap; F¹, pulley or spur wheel, keyed on an
intermediate shaft, which bears a worm working in the helicoidal wheel G;
G, wheel and axle of the screw-shaped beater H; H, the beater revolving
horizontally; I, another pulley or spur wheel for a belt or chain; I', corre-
sponding pulley or spur wheel on an intermediate shaft for working the fork;
J, K, bevil wheels for verticalizing the motion; L, the fork, made to rise
separate from the motion, by means of the crank M, when required, for the
purpose of cleaning; M, crank and screw for lifting the fork; N, disconnecting
grip for disengaging the beater; O, disconnecting grip for disengaging the
trough; P, disconnecting grip for disengaging the fork, by means of which every
part of the apparatus may be moved at pleasure for the purpose of cleaning
and emptying the trough; Q, supporting rollers or carriages.
After the above Specification & description of the annexed Drawings, what
I claim as my Invention is the compact combination of the power kneader,
as I would call my apparatus, being an annular kneading trough supported
and driven around a central support or column, which is also supporting the

page_text: engine and enclosing all the motive contrivances, radiating like from the
centre towards every point where motion is required, and thus performing, by
means of the screw-shaped beater and the carving fork, the accurate imitation
of the manual kneading.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Eugène Drouot, have hereunto 5
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
J. EUG. DROUOT. (L.S.)