Improvements in the Manufacture of Bean Flour.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Oct., 1895-Accepted, 8th Feb,
1896
[Communicated from abroad by AUGUSTUS DANIEL BERGTOLD, of 141 Aubun
Avenue, Salesman, and ISADOR HUGO FALK, of 1069 Delaware Avenue,
Merchant, both in Buffalo, New York, United States of America.]
Improvements in the Manufacture of Bean Flour.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Ilaseltine, Lake & Co., Patent
Agents, 45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, 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 has for its object to produce a highly nutritious flour at a
comparatively low cost, and it consists essentially of flour made of reduced beans
and containing the desirable ingredients of the beans, but deprived of those paits
of then albuminous constituents that give to the bean its peculiar taste and yield,
on decomposition, sulphuretted hydrogen and other gases likely to produce nausea
and discomfort.
The accompanying diawing iepiesents a sectional elevation of an apparatus which
may be employed in manufacturing our improved bean flour.
In producing the floun, a batch of ordinary dry beans is reduced in any suitable
grinding or reduction machine A to about the size of split peas. B 13 a steep tank
which receives the reduced beaus from the giding mill. This tank contains an
alkaline solution, composed preferably of 95 parts of water and 5 parts of soda, in
which solution the reduced beans are steeped for a period of about 24 hours. The
mixture 18 stined a number of times during the day, say about twice, and allowed
to settle after each agitation and over might The alkaline solution loosens and
detaches the sheaths or hulls from the bodies of the beans and removes the
legumin, conglutin and glutin-casein contained in the bean substance, partly by
solution or leaching and by decomposing said substances more or less completely
These ingredients constitute the particular kind of plant cheese or vegetable casein
which gives to the bean its characteristic taste and which is objectionable in bean
flow. The composition of vegetable albuminoids is not yet sufficiently well known
to express by chemical formula the reaction taking place between the objectionablo
albuminoids and the alkaline liquid, but the products of decomposition may be
stated in general to be ammonia, cai bon dioxide and the several vegetable acids-
glucic, mucic, aspartic, and the like, derived from the albuminoids The alkali
dissolves also a portion of the gluten-fibrin, gliadin and mucedin contained in the
crude gluten, but not in sufficient quantity to materially impair its nutritive value,
while the phosphates, together with a large proportion of the gluten gluten-fibrin
and other albuminoids and nearly all the staich remain in the beans.
The detached hulls of the beans rise to the sun face of the liquid m the steep
tank and are skimmed off after each settling, while the heavier beau substance
settles to the bottom of the tauk. The alkaline solution with the accompanying
objectionable albuminoids above mentioned, is next drawn from the tank though a
pipe b having a cock and a strainer 2 for intercepting the solid material. The
remaining bean substance is delivered into a tank C containing a suitable
neutralizing agent or solution whereby the alkali in the bean substance is
neutralized. A solution composed of one part of hydrochloric acid and ninety-
nine parts of water has been found satisfactory for this purpose. This mixture

page_text: is frequently stued and the bean substance allowed to remain in the solution
until the alkali contained therein is entirely ueutralized, this being determined by
the use of pheno-phthalin or by any other suitable test The liquid is then drawn
off through a pipe c and the bean substance washed with water for removing any
adheung impunities by means of spray pipes c' arianged in the upper portion of
the tank, and water being allowed to flow freely through the outlet pipe c of the
tank and the solid substance being intercepted by a stramer e arranged over the
inner end of said pipe.
D18 a suitable diying apparatus which receives the purified bean substance
from the neutralizing tank and whereby the material is dried. The drying of the
material is preferably effected at a temperature not exceeding 215° F., so as to
avoid scorching the starch contamed in the bean substance and prevent conversion
of the starch into glucose. After drying the material the same is conducted to
a suitable gimding of crushing mill E whereby it is reduced to flour.
Compared with other flouis, such as wheat flour, con meal and oatmeal, our
improved bean-flour is much more nutritions, and its cost, considering its
comparatively high nutritive value is smalleı, as the bean flour is about one-half
niche in flesh forming material than wheat flour aud corn meal, and about
one-third cher than oatmeal, while containing almost as large a percentage of
fats or fuel forming substances as any of the vegetable foods, such as oatmeal,
corn meal or rice.
There is also less waste or refuse in beans, all parts of the same being either
flesh forming or fuel producing substances. The cluminated albuminoids can be
recovered by condensation from the alkaline and neutralizing solutions and can be
sold as a superior animal food and as a fertilizer, thus further reducing the cost of
manufacturing the flour.
As the objectionable albuminoids are eliminated from the beans, the use of the
flour is unattended with the nausea and discomfort which aic liable to result from
the presence of such albuminoids
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be pet formed, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The herein described bean flour, consisting of staich gluten and the inherent
phosphates and albuminoids of beans uncombined with legumin, conglutin and
gluten casein, substantially as set forth
2. The herem described method of producing flour from beaus, which consists
in disintegrating on coarsely reducing the whole beans, steeping the beans, duectly
after reduction, in an alkaline solution whereby the hulls are detached and the
legumin, conglutiu and gluten casein are extracted from the bodies of the boans,
separating the remaining portions of the bodies from the hulls and solution,
neutializing the alkali remaining in the bodies, diying the bodies and finally
1educing the same to flour, substantially as set forth.
Dated this 22nd day of October 1895
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.