AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR HUSKING & WINNOWING CASTOR (& OTHER SEEDS & BERRIES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Anguish Honour Augustus Durant, Esq., of the
Conservative Club, St. James's, in the County of Middlesex, for the In-
vention of "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR HUSKING & WINNOWING CASTOR
(& OTHER SEEDS & BERRIES."
Sealed the 5th October 1858, and dated the 15th April 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Anguish Honour Augustus
Durant at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 15th April 1858.
I, ANGUISH HONOUR AUGUSTUS DURANT, Esq., of the Conservative Club,
St. James's, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR HUSKING & WINNOWING CASTOR
(& OTHER) SEEDS & BERRIES," to be as follows, and consists of a perforated
paddle wheel or fan made of wood, metal, gutta percha, or other suitable
material, & so attached to an axle or shaft, that by the application of steam
or other mechanical power, the seed or berries when falling through feeders
upon paddles acting in an opposite direction are husked & winnowed by the
centrifugal force so applied, & which machinery I purpose calling an improved
castrine apparatus.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Anguish Honour Augustus Durant in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 11th October 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANGUISH
HONOUR AUGUSTUS DURANT, Esquire, of the Conservative Club, St. James's, iu
the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Anguish Honour Augustus Durant, Her special licence that I, the said
Anguish Honour Augustus Durant, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Anguish Honour Augustus Durant, my exe-
cutors, 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 "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR HUSKING AND
WINNOWING CASTOR (AND OTHER) SEEDS AND BERRIES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Anguish Honour Augustus Durant, 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 Anguish Honour Augustus Durant,
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, that is to say:-
My apparatus consists of a perforated paddle wheel or fan made of wood,
metal, or gutta percha, or other suitable material, and so attached to an axle
or shaft, that by the application of steam or other mechanical power, the seed
or berries when falling through feeders upon the paddles acting in an opposite
direction, are husked and winnowed by the centrifugal force so applied, and
which machinery I purpose calling "an improved castrine apparatus."
By means of rapid rotary motion being given to the axle or shaft by steam
or other suitable mechanical power, the fans, paddles, or levers (which should

page_text: not exceed six feet in length) affixed to the axle strike violently the seed or
berries falling thereon, and supplied by one or more feeders; the outer skin
or cuticle is thus cracked and the seed or berries thrashed, shelled, and
winnowed by the centrifugal force so applied, without the necessity of sieving
or sizing them, the tighter portion or cuticle is separated from the inner part,
which is a great desideratum when mechanically performed with castor berries
previous to their being pressed for oil and subjected to the means already
described in my previous "castrine Patent" for making castor oil for medicinal
or other business purposes, and bearing date the Sixth July 1855.
These fans, wings, or paddle wheels can be made movable, so as to increase
or diminish their number, and when perforated allow the air to pass through
the holes, and thus take less mechanical power to work the axle or shaft in a
rotary motion, but some of the paddle wheels may be free from air holes and
not perforated; the fans or paddle wheels may be made of different sizes,
according to the stroke required, and set at horizontal or different angles, so as
to allow the seed to fly off in any required direction after being so struck.
Castor berries thus husked do not get heated, and mashed, and being freed
from the outer cuticle necessarily produce a much larger quantity and a finer
kind of oil than when pressed for oil making with the outer skin or cuticle on;
there is also no necessity for seiving the seed with this apparatus, in order to
separate the different sizes before being husked.
Having thus described the nature of my apparatus, and the manner in which
castor (and other) seeds may be husked and winnowed, I desire it to be
understood that I do not confine myself to the precise details of size or shape
of the paddle wheels or feeders, or do I claim any one part of the machinery
as separately and singly considered, but what I do claim is, the combination
and arrangement as above described, whereby castor (and other) berries and
seed are husked and winnowed without being heated or mashed together, and
without the necessity of first sieving or sizing the seed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Anguish Honour Augustus Durant, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
ANGUISH HONOUR AUGUSTUS DURANT. (L.S.)
JOHN JAMESON.