IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR WINNOWING, WASHING, SIFTING. OR SEPERATING CORN, GRAVEL, MINERALS, AND OTHER MATERIALS." PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Thomas Smith, of New Hampstead Road,
Kentish Town, in the County of Middlesex, Surveyor, and George Hill,
of the City Road, in the same County, Gentleman, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR WINNOWING, WASHING,
SIFTING. OR SEPERATING CORN, GRAVEL, MINERALS, AND OTHER MATERIALS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Thomas Smith
and George Hill at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 25th October 1854.
We, WILLIAM THOMAS SMITH and GEORGE HILL, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
FOR WINNOWING, WASHING, SIFTING, OR SEPERATING CORN, GRAVEL, MINERALS, AND
OTHER MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
We propose constructing one or a series of screws something in the
shape of an ordinary sieve; if more than one, the frames will work parallel
above each other, (not so the bottom of the screen itself, that being inclined
towards a shoot, with which each will be provided,) to which we propose to
impart a motion similar to that which a man would exert in the ordinary
process of hand screening.. This screen or screens will work on rollers or
otherwise, attached to uprights, so as to keep each in its place. In the centre
A

page_text: of each screen a circular hole will be left, sufficiently large to admit of a
perforated pipe, to supply water, air, or any other matter we may require. On
the outside of the standards boarding will be erected, so as to form seperate
compartments, into which the shoots from the screens will be directed, in order
to keep the several sizes of the material seperated, as when rough gravel is to
be operated upon. When the machine is set in motion together with the
water from the flushing tube (the top screen being supplied at the point
furthest from the shoot), the material will move in the direction of the shoot,
the coarser particles will pass out, and, the lesser ones will fall into the next
screen, below the bottom of which will slope in almost an opposite direction;
by which arrangement this material will be subjected to the same treatment
as the first, and so on through the remainder, until the number of sizes
required are obtained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Thomas Smith and George Hill in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 24th April 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
THOMAS SMITH, of New Hampstead Road, Kentish Town, in the County of
Middlesex, Surveyor, and GEORGE HILL, of the City Road, in the same
County, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said William Thomas Smith and George Hill, Her special licence that
we, the said William Thomas Smith and George Hill, our executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said William Thomas Smith
and George Hill, our 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 WINNOWING, WASHING, SIFTING, OB SEPERATING
CORN, GRAVEL, MINERALS, AND OTHER MATERIALS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said William Thomas Smith and George Hill, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, should particularly describe

page_text: 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 we, the said William Thomas Smith and George
Hill, 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 accompanying
Sheet of Drawings, on which are drawn four Diagrams, having similar letters
of reference marked on each, to shew similar parts where such parts appear or
may be seen in each of the Figures respectively.
The Invention having for its object sifting or winnowing gravel, corn, or
other materials, it may be as well to state that these operations are usually
performed by manual labor; but we are also aware that machinery moved
by steam or other power has also been applied for similar purposes, more
especially to the sifting or screening sand or gravel. Our object is to screen,
sift, seperate, or winnow effectually, rapidly, and economically, and we believe
it will be found that in the machinery or apparatus herein-after described we
have succeeded therein, and that without any second operation the materials
submitted to its operation are effectually seperated.
In the Drawing, Figure 1 represents an elevation of the machine or appa-
ratus with part of the front at screens 1, 2, removed; Figure 2, a plan view
thereof, taken at section No. 2; Figure 3, a section of two of the sifters or
screens; and Figure 4, a plan of one of the pieces (of which there are 4
shewnin each compartment) of wirework forming the sifters. On.a strong
frame or framing a, a, having one or more side than the number of screens
c, c, required, the same number (as of the screens) of standards b, b, are
erected, between which the several mouths of 'the screens (numbered in the
clevation 1 to 6) work. Attached to these standards, which are grooved
on the outer side, are the same number of division boards d, d, to keep the
material operated upon seperate as it comes from the mouth of the screens,
whose gyrations are made to be from right to left, or vice versa, their hori-
zontal motion not being fully circular, but only so far as the side appropriated
to the exit of the screened material will allow. This exit is made either at
once from the mouth of the screens, or from a fixed shoot e, (shown in dotted
lines in the Drawing), into a truck or other receiver f (also dotted out), -as
desired. The upright perforated metal tube g, serving to wash the material
by means of jets of water, issuing from the perforations into the screens, has
its lower end stopped, and formed as a pivot,, working on a capped step or

page_text: ;
bearing h. On this tube are fixed the same number of screen frames, (pro-
vided with the shoots before referred to.) which are fitted with moveable
screens, so as to elevate or depress the side furthest from the shoot, as the
quality or size of the material may differ, or a greater or less quantity of any
one size may require. On the upper end of the upright tube, above the collar,
in which it works, is a stuffing box, with a service pipe attached, to supply 'air,
water, or other matter between the screens. (The whole of the apparatus
shewn in the Drawing is applicable to all the purposes mentioned in the title of
our Invention; but in our description, we deem it better to confine' ourselves
to the washing of material to avoid prolixity and confusion). A tilted board
(seen at i, i, Figure 3,) is also fixed undericach screen to prevent the material
falling through too near the mouth of the next screen, and so passing out
only partially seperated. The hopper with agitators K attached thereon,
receives and partially washes (or fans, if the apparatus be used for win-
nowing,) the material before it enters into the screens. The top part of the
flushing pipe or tube g, down to the joint b, just above the handle or lever m,
by which the 'sifters are set in motion, is.fixed; the lower perforated part
gyrates, as before described;' the screens or sifters are firmly fixed to the pipe,
the water flowing freely from the perforations into the screens.
An arm n
also projects from the upper portion of the pipe over the hopper, and serves
to supply water thereto in like manner. The sifters are arranged in succes-
sion, as indicated, by their numbers, 1 to 6. The section of two of them,
Figure 3, shews their internal structure. The wire work is not flat, as in a
common screen, but is at an angle inclining towards the shoot. Underneath
the wire-work is a board (already mentioned), so' fixed, that' the 'material, while
descending through the wire-work, is prevented from falling immediately into
the lower shoot, instead of into the screen, where it ought to be received. In
order to avoid the necessity of pulling the apparatus to pieces when repairs
of the wire-work becomes necessary, cach screen or circle is divided into 2, 4,
or more compartments, one piece of wire-work fitting into each division or
compartment; (one of these pieces is shewn at Figure 4 of the Drawing.)
These pieces fall into a frame divided as aforesaid to receive them. The
meshes of these pieces of wire work, 'which are large in the upper screen,
gradually diminish in size in each of the lower ones, so that the No. 6 is of
very fine or close mesh; they may be made of any metal which practice may
point out as most desirable.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and the means by
which we carry into practical effect, we desire it to be distinctly understood
that we do not confine ourselves to any particular size or sizes, or relative

page_text: proportions, or number of sifters and their adjuncts, shewn in the apparatus
herein-before described, as the whole must be regulated by the greater or less
power employed, and nature or quantities to be operated upon; nor do we
lay claim to the exclusive use of any of the parts of machinery or appa-
ratus described and shewn, taken simply as mechanical parts, and not put
together or in combination, or for the purposes of our Invention, which we
declare to be, and we claim, the exclusive use, as of our Invention, of the
combination of parts herein-before described, forming, when so combined,
improved machinery or apparatus for winnowing, sifting, or seperating corn,
gravel, minerals, and other materials.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Thomas Smith and George
Hill, have hereunto affixed our hands and seals, this Twenty-third day
of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-five.
Witness,
JOHN GEDGE, Agent,
4, Wellington Street, Strand,
London.
WM THOS SMITH. (L.S.)
GEORGE HILL.
(L.B.)