CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF CONVEYING AND DISTRIBUTING OR SEPARATING GRANULAR AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Davison, of No. 33, Mark Lane, in
the City of London, Civil Engineer, and James Scott Horrocks, of
Heaton Norris, in the County of Lancaster, Gentleman, for the
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF CONVEYING
AND DISTRIBUTING OR SEPARATING GRANULAR AND OTHER SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 21st June 1853, and dated the 29th April 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Davison
and James Scott Horrocks at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 29th April 1853.
We, ROBERT DAVISON, of 33, Mark Lane, in the City of London,
Civil Engineer, and JAMES SCOTT HORROCKS, of Heaton Norris, in the
County of Lancaster, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF CONVEYING
AND DISTRIBUTING OR SEPARATING GRANULAR AND OTHER SUBSTANCES"
be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in adapting and applying to the ordinary
Archimædian screw conveyer plates, ribs, or blades, so disposed or
arranged as to cause, by the revolution of the screw, the turning over

page_text: and distribution or separation of the several grains or particles of such
substances as they are carried along by the conveyer. And this our
Invention is applicable to the purpose of drying or roasting grain, and
other uses in which a screw conveyer may be advantageously employed,
and have combined with it plates, ribs, or blades, for the purpose of
constantly turning over the substances as they are carried along by the
conveyer, and thereby causing the exposure of an extended surface of
such substances to the action of the heating surface or of the heating
or drying air.
The plates, ribs, or blades may be applied between the convolutions
of the worm or thread of the screw or otherwise, and may be of greater
or less depth and varied in form.
The substances to be operated upon may be fed into the apparatus
or instrument in any convenient manner..
And this combined form of screw conveyer and distributor or sepa-
rater may be combined with various forms of machinery or apparatus
according to the particular purposes for which it is designed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Davison and James Scott Horrocks in
the Great Seal Patent Office, on the 29th October 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
ROBERT DAVISON, of No. 33, Mark Lane, in the City of London, Civil
Engineer, and JAMES SCOTT HORROCKS, of Heaton Norris, in the
County of Lancaster, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said Robert Davison and James Scott Horrocks,
Her special licence that we, the said Pabert Davison and James Scott
Horrocks, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said Robert Davison and James Scott Horrocks, our

page_text: 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
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF CONVEYING AND DISTRIBUTING.
OR SEPARATING GRANULAR AND OTHER SUBSTANCES,". upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Robert Davison and James Scott
Horrocks, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals,
or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Davison (on behalf
of myself and of the said James Scott Horrocks) do hereby declare
the nature of our 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):
Our Invention of "Certain Improvements in the Means of Conveying
and Distributing or Separating Granular and other Substances" is
applicable to the various processes of drying and roasting and other
processes in which it is essential that the berries, grains, or particles of
the substances should be regularly and frequently turned over and
separated during the process. It is applicable in simple drying, and
also in cases of drying in which an equal and uniform turning over is
needed for the purpose of mixing one ingredient with another; also in
cases of roasting, wherein the same turning over and separating
requisite, in order to prevent scorching on the one hand, and to insure
equal and uniform roasting on the other; also in other processes
wherein the same equal and uniform turning over, niixing, or separa-
ting may be required.
The precise nature of our Invention may be understood by considering
it as a means of rendering the ordinary Archimædian screw conveyer by

page_text: a simple addition thereto, herein-after described, capable not only of
conveying or propelling substances as heretofore, but also at the same
time of distributing, separating, turning over, and mixing such substances
as required. And this effect is produced by adapting and applying to the
said screw conveyer plates, ribs, or blades, so disposed or arranged as to
cause, by the revolution of the screw, the turning over and distribution
or separation, as well as, when required, the admixture of the several
grains or particles of the substances or ingredients as they are carried
along by the conveyer. We prefer that the plates, ribs, or blades
should be placed between the threads of the screw, but they may be
varied in size and form, and mode of application to the screw.
In order, however, that our Invention may be fully understood we
will proceed to describe, by the aid of the accompanying Drawings, a
mode by which it may be readily carried into effect.
Fig. 1, is a section of an oblong vessel or case containing a number
of tubes with screw conveyers (fitted with the plates, ribs, or blades,)
inside them. Fig. 2, is an end view of the same, shewing the gearing
for driving the screws. Fig. 3, is a transverse section of the same,
shewing the communications of the tubes from one to another throughout
the series. Figs. 4, and 5, are detail representations on a larger scale of
a portion of the screw, with the additions, under our Invention, applied
thereto.
A, is the case containing a number of tubes B, secured and made
tight at each end of the case. These tubes have pipes of comi-
munication from one to the other at their ends, as shewn at C, by means
of which the material may be passed throughout the series of tubes B.
The screws D, within the tubes B, are made to revolve by means of the
wheels E, gearing into one another, and driven by the pulleys F, from
any prime mover. d, d, are the plates, ribs, or blades applied between
the threads of the screws D, by which the substances are turned over
during their conveyance by the screw. G, is the hopper by which the
substances are introduced into the apparatus; and H, is the shoot by
which they are discharged after having passed through the same.
The apparatus thus referred to, when employed in the processes of
drying and roasting, is combined with any suitable mode of heating,

page_text: but it is to be observed that if the tubes B, are to be heated by being
surrounded with steam or hot water they must be tight and made
capable of sustaining the pressure applied to them. If, however, dry.
heat from a naked fire, or heated air alone, be applied to them, such
tightness is unnecessary, and the tubes may be perforated or made of
woven wire if preferred.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-The substances to be
operated upon are introduced into the upper tube B, (at the right hand
end in Fig. 1,) whence they are conveyed along the tube by the revolu-
tion of the screw D, to the other end, being constantly turned over
during their course by the several plates, ribs, or blades as at d, in
regular succession until they pass down the first connecting pipe C,
into the next tube B. Having fallen into this tube at the left hand
end they are conveyed by its screw D, to the right hand end of the
same, being constantly turned; over by the plates, ribs, or blades d, on
this screw successively, as in the former instance, until they pass down
the second connecting pipe C, into the third tube B. The same opera-
tion is carried on in this tube, and so on throughout the whole series;
the substances thus continually turned over as they are conveyed along
the tubes, and (in the processes of drying & roasting) acted upon by the
heat applied to the same, are eventually delivered from the apparatus
at the shoot H. Should it be thought desirable, the substances may be
carried up by an elevator to the hopper G, and be submitted to the
same operations of turning and heating (or turning only) in the tubes B,
two or three times. This, however, is no part of our Invention, it being
already well known.
We would here remark that the apparatus above described may be
varied in the combination of its parts, and that it may be combined
with other mechanism not described. We have merely described the
above as a simple form in which the apparatus may be arranged so as
to produce a beneficial effect.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we would have it understood that
we do not mean or intend to confine ourselves to the precise forms and
arrangements of the parts shewn and described; neither do we claim

page_text: as of our Invention any of the parts described, except as used in combi-
nation with the plates, ribs, or blades for the purposes referred to. But
what we do claim as of our Invention is, the adaptation and application
of plates, ribs, or blades to the screw, in order to cause it to turn over,
distribute, or separate the grains or particles of the substances carried
along by it, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Davison, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
three
ROBERT DAVISON. (L.S.)
Witness, JOHN MACKENZIE.