Improvements in Machines for Hulling Coffee, Rice, and other Grain.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Dec., 1893-Accepted, 25th May, 1894
CUMI LEIC
Improvements in Machines for Hulling Coffee, Rice, and other
Grain.
:
I, LEON ALEXANDRE RIESTER, of 325 Seneca Street, Buffalo, County of
Erie, and State of New York, United States of America, 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 certain improvements in machines for hulling coffee,
rice or other grain and will be fully and clearly hereinafter described and claimed,
reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which:-
Fig. 1, is a side elevation of the machine complete, a portion of the inside gear
wheel being broken away to show the interior construction and arrangement of the
gear for driving the elastic faced rollers.
Fig. 2, is a vertical longitudinal section in or about line e e, Fig. 4, the fan
blower and its operating parts being omitted.
Fig. 3, is a side elevation of one of the elastic faced rollers.
Fig. 4, is a front elevation of the machine complete.
Fig. 5, represents a cross section through the grinding roller, on or about
line a a, Fig. 2.
Fig. 6, represents a detached sectional portion of one of the flanges projecting
from the side of the machine also an end view of one of the boxes in which the
feeding rollers are mounted.
Fig. 7, is a top view of the same showing the slot through which the collar bolts
pass for holding the box to the flange when adjusted to the point desired.
Referring to the drawings-
The frame of the machine is usually constructed of cast iron but any other
suitable material may be used.
It is made in a rectangular form and is provided with a cover or door, '2, at the
front end of the frame, secured in place by bolts, 3.
At the front top of the frame is a hopper 4, having in its inside lower portion a
slightly inclined plate, 5, forming the bottom of the same. This bottom piece 5,
extends forward to within a short distance of the grinding roller leaving room
enough to let the grain fall through. It is made adjustable back and forth by
means of the set screw; 5", which passes through the lug, 5°.
This adjustment allows it to be immoved forward as the grinding stone (or emery)
wears away.
On each inner side of the hopper is a slideway, 6, in which is fitted a vertical or
substantially vertical partition plate 6, which is adjustable up or down so as to let
more or less grain pass through, some grain, such as coffee and rice requiring a
different adjustment to regulate the feed.
The machine is mounted on four legs, 7, made preferably of cast iron.
In this frame is mounted a stone or emery hulling wheel 8, made either of a
grindstone or of emery, the stone or emery is fitted on a spider, 8, made of cast
iron and rigidly secured to a shaft, 9, which is mounted in bearings, 10, in said
frame so as to turn thereon.
This stone or emery hulling wheel is provided with two circular side pieces 11.

page_text: and 11, which are held rigidly in place by bolts, 12. The heads and nuts of these
bolts are fitted in countersunk portions, 13, see Figure 5, so as to leave a perfectly
plain surface on each side of the stone bulling wheel without any obstructions.
On one end of the hulling wheel shaft is a pulley 14, for driving a fan blower 13
of any suitable construction and on the opposite end is a sprocket gear wheel, 14,
for driving the feed rollers. The said fan blower serves to separate the hulls and
chaff from the grain in any well-known manner; for example, by blowing the hulls
or chaff falling from the box 37 through the passage 38 whilst permitting the
grain to fall through the passage 39.
The feed rollers 15 and 15º, are made of elastic material, india-rubber for
instance, mounted upon a spider 16, made preferably of cast iron.
On each side of the elastic feed rollers is a thin disk of raw hide 17, and 17,
see Figure 3, connected or otherwise secured thereto.
-
These feed rollers are mounted in adjustable bearings that can be moved forward
and secured at any desired point.
The bearing boxes, 18, and 18ª, for the feed rollers rest upon flanges 19 and 19ª,
which project far enough out from the sides of the machine to receive them.
In Figures 6 and 7, I have shown detached enlarged views of a portion of one
of these flanges and one of the adjustable boxes.
The flanges are provided with a slot, 20, through which the bolts for holding the
boxes pass and by which, as will be readily understood, the box may be adjusted
along back and forth.
:
Each feed roller is provided with a pinion, 21; see Fig. 1, in which these pinions
are shown.
A slotted arm, 22, is bolted by a bolt, 23, to a lug, 24, (shown partly by dotted
lines in Fig. 1) projecting from the side of the machine. The bolt, 23, passes
through a slot, 25, in said arm, which allows the arm, 22, to be adjusted back and
forth by means of said bolt.
•
To hold this arm, 22, more securely when adjusted and secured by the bolt, 23, I
employ a slotted arm, 26, having its upper end pivoted to the arm, 22, by a
pivot 27, shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1. The lower eud of the arm, 26, is
provided with a slot, 28, through which the bolt, 23ª, passes into a lug, 29, which
projects out from the side of the machine.
To a stud on the outer end of the arm, 22, is mounted an internal gear wheel, 30,
so as to turn thereon, the gear teeth, 31, being on the inside, engage with the teeth
on the pinion for operating the feed rollers, the operation being such that while the
stone or emery rollers move more slowly than the feed rollers in the direction of
the arrow V, Fig. 2, the feed rollers move in the same direction, but, in as much as
the opposite faces of the stone or emery wheel and elastic feed rollers face each
other, the working surfaces at the point of contact with the grain of each move in
opposite directions.
On the gear wheel, 30, is mounted a sprocket gear wheel, 32, which connects
with the sprocket wheel 14", by a sprocket chain, 33. The driving shaft or stud 34,
upon which the sprocket gear, 32, is mounted, is provided with a projecting square
portion, 35, adapted to receive a handle for turning it. When power is used to
drive the machine a pulley 36, shown in Fig. 4, is employed.
For some uses it is desirable to use more than one elastic feed roller.
From the above description it will be seen that the stone or emery wheel is
considerably larger than the elastic face feed rollers.
The face of the elastic feed rollers should run at least with double the speed of
the face of the stone or emery wheel; so that the stone or emery hulling wheel will
not be liable to carry the grain or berries up.over with it but allow the feed rollers
to roll them directly downward between the elastic and stone or emery surfaces.
The feed rollers being elastic and running with much greater speed at their
peripheries than the periphery of the stone or emery, wheel, and in the proper
direction for feeding, the grain is "all carried down, through the oppositely. moving
surfaces.

page_text: As the grain is passing an-elastic faced roller it is partly embodied in the face of
the same and the stone or emnery wheel causes it to rotate during its passage
through thereby removing the hull entirely from the grain, the faces of the elastic
rollers being close enough to the stone or emery wheel to cause it to rotate.
The object of the emery or stone wheel is to present a roughened surface to the
grain, a roughened or corrugated iron or steel hulling wheel will also answer a
good purpose and equally as well for some kinds of grain as the emery or stone.
If the stone or emery hulling wheel were the feed roller instead of the elastic
faced roller, and the adjustment and relative speed of the different rollers were the
same as above described, the machine would be practically inoperative, because the
movements of all rollers being reversed and the motion of the elastic faced rollers
very rapid in comparison with the stone or emery wheel, they would, as practical
demonstration has shown, throw the grain up over them and consequently out of
the machine instead of in and through it.
I am aware that machines have heretofore been constructed with a stone or
en:ery wheel acting as a feed wheel and the elastic faced rollers moving in an
opposite direction from the stone or emery hulling wheel.
Machines made in that way have never come into practical use because they
could not be made to operate successfully. I therefore do not claim such
construction broadly, but what I do claim is-
1st. In a machine for hulling coffee, rice or other grain, an elastic roller mounted
in bearings in the supporting frame and geared so as to receive the grain from the
feeding hopper and feed it into the machine, in combination with a roughened
surface hulling wheel of larger diameter, mounted also in bearings in the supporting
frame, and geared to move in the same direction, while at the point of contact with
the grain its periphery moves in an opposite direction and slower than the elastic
feed roller substantially as described.
2nd. A machine for hulling coffee, rice or other grains consisting of a supporting
frame, a hopper to receive the grain in the upper part of said frame, a series of
elastic feed rollers mounted in bearing boxes in said frame and a means as sub-
stantially above described for rotating said elastic feed rollers in a direction to
feed the grain down into the machine, in combination with a roughened hulling
wheel geared to move slower and in the same direction, as the feed roller, so that
its periphery at the point of contact with the grain will move in the opposite
direction, and a means for adjusting the feed rollers forward as the hulling and
feed rollers wear away, substantially as above set forth.
3rd. In a machine for hulling coffee or other grain, a hopper for receiving the
grain, an elastic feed roller having a disk of raw hide secured to each side and
mounted on a shaft set in horizontally movable boxes on the supporting frame and
adapted to be adjusted forward or back on said frame, in combination with a
roughened surface hulling wheel provided with a flange on each side between which
the periphery of the elastic faced rollers move, a means substantially as above
described for giving the elastic feed rollers a rotary movement to feed or carry the
grain into the machine, and for rotating the roughened faced hulling wheel at its
point of contact with the grain in a reverse direction to the movement of the elastic
faced feed roll, substantially as described.
4th. In a machine for hulling coffee or other grain, a hopper for receiving the
grain, an elastic feed roller having a disk of raw hide secured to each side and
inounted on a shaft set in horizontally movable boxes on the supporting frame and
adapted to be adjusted forward or back on said frame, in combination with a
roughened surface hulling wheel provided with a flange ou each side between which
the periphery of the elastic faced feed rollers move, a incans substantially as above
described for giving the elastic faced feed rollers a rotary movement to feed or
carry the grain into the machine, and for rotating the roughened faced hulling
wheel in the same direction so that its periphery at the point of contact with the
grain moves in a reverse direction to the elastic feed roller, a fan blower for
'

page_text: carrying off the chaff or hulls and a belt connected with a pulley on the roughened
hulling wheel shaft and with a pulley on the blower for separating the hulls and
chaff from the grain as it leaves the machine, substantially as described.
Dated this Sixth day of November 1893.
LEON ALEXANDRE RIESTER.