IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS for DRYING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE." PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Murray Edward Gordon Finch-Hatton, of Haverholme
Priory, in the County of Lincoln, and Robert Thorpe, of Evedon, also in the
County of Lincoln, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS for
DRYING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Murray Edward Gordon
Finch-Hatton and Robert Thorpe at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents on the 21st October 1881.
MURRAY EDWARD GORDON FINCH-HATTON, of Haverholme Priory, in the County
of Lincoln, and ROBERT THORPE, of Evedon, also in the County of Lincoln.
" IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE."
It has been proposed to dry hay, corn, and other agricultural produce by blowing
through it, while it is agitated, currents of heated air, and certain apparatus for
this purpose have been used as described in Specifications of Patents granted to
W. A. Gibbs on the 30th of March 1876, No. 1380, and on the 22nd September
1880, No. 3845. Our Invention relates to the construction and arrangement of
apparatus for this purpose so as to render it more light, cheap, and simple, and
more easy to transport and erect for action, and also to lessen the amount of
manual labour and fuel required to work it.
We combine and arrange on one vehicle, like a traction or portable engine, the
furnace and flues for heating the air, and the fan for blowing it along, with a
steam boiler and engine for working the fan and the drying apparatus. We place
the furnace under the barrel of a tubular boiler with air flues extending along each
side of it, these air flues as well as the furnace flue leading to a fan which is
mounted at the end of the boiler, and is driven by the engine. The flues are
provided with suitable valves or dampers for regulating the quantity and direction
of the air currents. The furnace heat acting on the bottom of the boiler generates
steam which works the engine, and at the same time the hot products of com-
bustion along with air admitted by the side flues pass to the fan where the whole is
[Price 8d.]

page_text: mixed and is propelled as a current of heated air to the drying machine. When this
machine is not in action the fan is thrown out of gear, and the products of com-
bustion may be directed through the boiler tubes, the engine being then applicable
as a traction engine or as a portable engine for threshing or other uses.
In some
cases it is convenient to make the furnace, boiler, and engine in the form of a
portable or traction engine without the fan, which in such cases is mounted on the
drying machine.
To drying machines of the kind described in the Specifications above referred to
we adapt self feeding apparatus at the supply end, and elevating apparatus at the
delivery end. The feeding apparatus consists of an inclined frame to which a
vibratory motion is imparted. A workman delivers the produce from a waggon
on to this frame, by which it is fed into the machine without requiring the labour
now needed for feeding by hand. The elevating apparatus receives the dried
material and carries it up to the stack, thus dispensing with the labour now
required in taking the produce from the drying machine, and raising it to the
stack. We prefer to arrange the elevator so that it can be turned in various
directions to command several different stacks or different parts of one stack. The
elevator may be cased over, and hot air may be directed up it so as to effect partial
drying of the material while it is being elevated. Both the feeding and the
elevating apparatus are worked by suitable gear from the shafting that works the
agitators of the drying machine, this shafting being worked from the engine that
drives the fan. We arrange the hot air channel of the drying machine and the
discharge channel of the fan at a low level, so that when the engine and fan are
connected to the drying machine or disconnected therefrom, the junction of the
channels is readily accessible. By thus arranging the air channels at a low level
we avoid the instability resulting from the top weight of these as they are now
arranged overhead, and we facilitate inspection of the thermometer or pyrometer
which indicates the temperature of the heated air. When corn or seed bearing
produce is dried, the grain or seed shaken out in the process becomes deteriorated
by lying long on the hot floor of the machine exposed to the hot air; to avoid
this evil we provide at the lowest part of the floor continuously travelling bands
which convey the grain or seed to the end of the machine, where it may be passed
through a fanner to be cleared of chaff and sifted.
The combined furnace, engine, and fan above described is applicable not only to
drying machines of the kind referred to, but also to other machines in which
produce is exposed to the action of hot air. An apparatus sometimes employed
consists of a wirework cylinder revolving round an inclined axis. The produce is
introduced at one end, and is tumbled and gradually advanced by the revolution
of the cylinder while hot air rises through it from a channel below. We modify
this apparatus in the following manner :--Instead of using wirework to constitute
the shell of the cylinder we make the periphery consist of a number of shelves or
blades, each inclined to a radius and overlapping the next in order. Each shelf is
at its exterior lip bent so as to present a trough-like form, and near its interior
edge it is furnished with inwardly projecting tines. When material like hay or
straw is dealt with these tines carry it partly round as the cylinder revolves and
drop it a little in advance of its former position, so that it becomes gradually
advanced along the cylinder while it is tumbled and exposed to the hot air, passing
through the intervals between the shelves. When grain, seed, or the like is treated,
it lodges in the trough like parts of the lower shelves, and is carried partly round
until these successively empty themselves, when it drops as a shower from the
shelf into another set of the troughs a little in advance of the position from which
it was raised. Such a machine being available for drying the various kinds of
produce with which agriculturists have to deal, the need for separate machines to
operate on different kinds of produce is by its use avoided.
Another form of machine according to our Invention, applicable for drying hay,
straw, corn, or the like, if of the following construction:-On a wheeled truck is
mounted a framing carrying in its upper and lower parts guide and driving rollers

page_text: by which a number of continuous bands or chains are caused to travel in inclined
zig zag directions upwards and downwards, the bands or chains on the two sides
having crossbars connecting them with tines projecting from the bars. Partitions,
which may be gratings or open work, are fixed between the ascending and
descending bars of each set, and along the lower part of the vehicle extends a
channel from which heated air issues through grated apertures. While the produce
is carried up and down by the travelling tines the heated air ascends through it.
As each set of descending tines delivers its charge to the ascending tines next in
order the produce is gradually advanced from the feeding to the delivery end, and
these ends are provided respectively with feeding and elevating apparatus as
already described. The grain or seed shaken out is by boards or blades fixed at
intervals on the travelling bands swept through apertures in the floor, and falls
through the hot air channel on to a travelling band, by which it is conveyed to
the end of the machine to be collected or winnowed and sifted.
According to a modified construction we employ instead of travelling bands with
tines projecting from them a number of tines caused to reciprocate by crank
motions, so that each set lift the produce and advance it a little, and before they
retreat stationary tines interspaced with the reciprocating tines cause the produce
to fall off the latter on to the floor, ready to be similarly operated on by the next
set of tines; the produce is thus lifted and allowed to drop a number of times
while it is gradually advanced along the machine exposed to the action of hot air
rising through a perforated floor from a duct below, into which the air is forced by
a fan mounted on the machine.
When grain dried by hot air is heaped up in a warm condition it is apt to
become deteriorated in quality. In order to avoid this we cool the dried grain,
employing a combined drying and cooling apparatus of the following kind :-Wo
arrange two perforated floors one above the other, each having under it suitable
air ducts. On the upper floor at one end we deliver the grain to be dried, and
cause hot air to pass through it while it is agitated and advanced towards the
other end by reciprocating or rotating rakes, or by combined screens and shovels
continuously travelling. From the delivery end of the upper floor the dried grain
falls down a shoot to the lower floor, where it is in like manner agitated and
advanced in the reverse direction while cold air is caused to pass through it. The
hot and cold air may be supplied to the respective ducts by separate fans, or a
single fan may draw the cold air through the grain on the lower floor, and discharge
it through beating flues leading to the ducts of the upper floor.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Murray Edward Gordon Finch-Hatton and Robert Thorpe in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th April 1882.
MURRAY EDWARD GORDON FINCH-HATTON, of Haverholme Priory, in the County
of Lincoln, and ROBERT THORPE, of Evedon, also in the County of Lincoln.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE."
It has been proposed to dry hay, corn, and other agricultural produce by
blowing through it while it is agitated currents of heated air, and certain apparatus
for this purpose have been used, as described in Specifications of Patents granted to
W. A. Gibbs on the 30th March 1876, No. 1380, and on the 22nd September 1880,
No. 3845. Our Invention relates to the construction and arrangement of apparatus
for this purpose, so as to render it more light, cheap, and simple, and more easy to
transport and erect for action, and also to lessen the amount of manual labor and
fuel required to work it.
We combine and arrange on one vehicle, like a traction or portable engine, the
furnace and flues for heating the air, and the fan for blowing it along, with a
steam boiler and engine for working the fan and the drying apparatus. We place
the furnace under the barrel of a tubular boiler, with air flues extending along
each side of it, these air flues, as well as the furnace flue, leading to a fan which is
mounted at the end of the boiler, and is driven by the engine. The flues are
provided with suitable valves or dampers for regulating the quantity and direction
of the air currents. The furnace heat, acting on the bottom of the boiler, generates
steam which works the engine, and at the same time the hot products of combus-
tion, along with air admitted by the side flues, pass to the fan, where the whole is
mixed and is propelled as a current of heated air to the drying machine. When
this machine is not in action the fan is thrown out of gear, and the products of
combustion may be directed through the boiler tubes, the engine being then
applicable as a traction engine or as a portable engine for threshing or other uses.
In some cases it is convenient to make the furnace, boiler, and engine in the form
of a portable or traction engine without the fan, which in such cases is mounted on
the drying machine.
To drying machines of the kind described in the Specifications above referred to,
we adapt self feeding apparatus at the supply end, and elevating apparatus at the
delivery end. The feeding apparatus consists of an inclined frame, to which a
vibratory motion is imparted. A workman delivers the produce from a waggon
on to this frame, by which it is fed into the machine without requiring the labor
now needed for feeding by hand. The elevating apparatus receives the dried
material and carries it up to the stack, thus dispensing with the labour now
required in taking the produce from the drying machine and raising it to the
stack. We prefer to arrange the elevator so that it can be turned in various
directions to command several different stacks or different parts of one stack. The
elevator may be cased over, and hot air may be directed up it, so as to effect
partial drying of the material while it is being elevated. Both the feeding and the
elevating apparatus are worked by suitable gear from the shafting that works the
agitators of the drying machine, this shafting being worked from the engine that
drives the fan. We arrange the hot air channel of the drying machine and the
discharge channel of the fan at a low level, so that when the engine and fan are
connected to the drying machine or disconnected therefrom the junction of the
channels is readily accessible. By thus arranging the air channels at a low level
we avoid the unstability resulting from the top weight of these, as they are now

page_text: arranged overhead, and we facilitate inspection of the thermometer or pyrometer,
which indicates the temperature of the heated air. When corn or seed bearing
produce is dried, the grain or seed shaken out in the process becomes deteriorated
by lying long on the hot floor of the machine exposed to the hot air. To avoid
this evil we provide at the lowest part of the floor continuously travelling bands,
which convey the grain or seed to the end of the machine, where it may be passed
through a fanner to be cleared of chaff, and sifted.
The combined furnace, engine, and fan above described is applicable not only to
drying machines of the kind referred to, but also to other machines in which
produce is exposed to the action of hot air. An apparatus sometimes employed
consists of a wirework cylinder revolving round an inclined axis. The produce is
introduced at one end, and is tumbled and gradually advanced by the revolution of
the cylinder while hot air rises through it from a channel below. We modify this
apparatus in the following manner :-Instead of using wire work to constitute the
shell of the cylinder, we make the periphery consist of a number of shelves or
blades, each inclined to a radius and over lapping the next in order. Each shelf is
at its exterior lip bent so as to present a trough like form, and near its interior
edge it is furnished with inwardly projecting tines. When material like hay or
straw is dealt with these tines carry it partly round as the cylinder revolves, and
drop it a little in advance of its former position, so that it becomes gradually
advanced along the cylinder, while it is tumbled and exposed to the hot air passing
through the intervals between the shelves. When grain, seed, or the like is
treated, it lodges in the trough-like parts of the lower shelves, and is carried partly
round until these successively empty themselves, when it drops as a shower from
the shelf into another set of the troughs a little in advance of the position from
which it was raised. Such a machine being available for drying the various kinds
of produce with which agriculturists have to deal, the need for separate machines
to operate on different kinds of produce is by its use avoided.
Another form of machine according to our Invention applicable for drying hay,
straw, corn, or the like, is of the following construction:-On a wheeled truck is
mounted a framing, carrying in its upper and lower parts guide and driving rollers,
by which a number of continuous bands or chains are caused to travel in inclined
zig-zag directions upwards and downwards, the bands or chains on the two sides
having cross bars connecting them with tines projecting from the bars. Partitions,
which may be gratings or open work, are fixed between the ascending and
descending bars of each set, and along the lower part of the vehicle extends a
channel from which heated air issues through grated apertures. While the produce
is carried up and down by the travelling tines the heated air ascends amongst it.
As each set of descending tines delivers its charge to the ascending tines next in
order, the produce is gradually advanced from the feeding to the delivery end, and
these ends are provided respectively with feeding and elevating apparatus, as
already described. The grain or seed shaken out is by boards or blades fixed at
intervals on the travelling bands swept through apertures in the floor, and falls
through the hot air channel on to a travelling band by which it is conveyed to the
end of the machine to be collected or winnowed and sifted.
According to a modified construction we employ, instead of travelling bands
with tines projecting from them, a number of tines caused to reciprocate by crank
motions, so that each set lift the produce and advance it a little, and before they
retreat stationary tines interspaced with the reciprocating tines cause the produce
to fall off the latter on to the floor, ready to be similarly operated on by the next
set of tines. The produce is thus lifted and allowed to drop a number of times
while it is gradually advanced along the machine, exposed to the action of hot air
rising through a perforated floor from a duct below, into which the air is forced by
a fan mounted on the machine.
When grain dried by hot air is heaped up in a warm condition, it is apt to
become deteriorated in quality. In order to avoid this we cool the dried grain,
employing a combined drying and cooling apparatus of the following kind. We

page_text: arrange two perforated floors one above the other, each having under it suitable
air ducts. On the upper floor at one end we deliver the grain to be dried and
cause hot air to pass through it while it is agitated, and advanced towards the
other end by reciprocating or rotating rakes or by combined screens and shovels
continuously travelling. From the delivery end of the upper floor the dried grain
falls down a shoot to the lower floor, where it is in like manner agitated and
advanced in the reverse direction while cold air is caused to pass throught it. The
hot and cold air may be supplied to the respective ducts by separate fans, or a
single fan may draw the cold air through the grain on the lower floor and
discharge it through heating flues leading to the ducts of the upper floor.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section, and Fig. 2 is a transverse section of a portable
engine and boiler modified according to our Invention, so as to render it applicable
for delivering a current of heated air to the various kinds of apparatus employed
for drying agricultural produce. We arrange the fire grate A under the barrel of
the boiler and provide air channels B, B, on each side of the furnace, so arranged
that air drawn from the atmosphere, or it may be from some of the drying
apparatus, is caused to travel along these channels, receiving heat from the walls of
the furnace, and at the end of the boiler mingling with the gaseous products of
combustion the mixed air and gases being driven by the fan C to the drying
apparatus. By means of suitable valves or dampers a portion of the products of
combustion may be made to pass through the boiler tubes, as shewn in Fig. 1, or
when the fan is not in use and the engine is applied to purposes other than
working drying apparatus, the whole of the products of combustion may be caused
to pass through the boiler tubes to the smoke box and chimney, the supply of air
to the channels B, B, being in that case shut off. A modified arrangement is shewn
by the longitudinal section, Fig. 3, and by the transverse section through the fire
box, Fig. 4, and the elevation of the smoke box end, Fig. 5. In this case air
.channels D and E are arranged under the boiler, and an opening is made from the
fire box to the upper channel E so that a portion of the hot products of combustion
can pass directly to the smoke box along with air supplied by the channel D. The
damper of the chimney being closed the whole of the products of combustion, along
with the air mingled with them, are drawn from the smoke box by the fan C and
propelled to the drying apparatus. When the engine is used for other purposes
the channels D and E are closed and the chimney damper is opened, the passages
to the fan C are also closed and the boiler then works in the usual way. Fig. 6 is
a longitudinal section of apparatus according to our Invention for drying hay,
straw, and produce of like character. A number of double chains G, having cross
bars joining them with tines projecting from the cross bars are caused to travel, as
indicated by the arrows; partitions H, which may be open gratings, being fixed
between each set of chains. The produce fed in at K is by the tines carried
upwards and downwards a number of times until it is finally delivered at L, while
heated air supplied to a channel M below rises through gratings m and the produce
and escapes by lateral passages N in the roof. When corn is thus dried the ears
that may be shaken out are swept through the gratings m and lodged on a
travelling band O, by which they are conveyed to one end of the channel where
they may be discharged into suitable receptacles or passed directly through a
winnowing machine. It is convenient to provide at the delivery L an elevator P
hinged on a turntable, so that the dried produce can at once be conveyed without
manual labor up to the stack, the elevator being moved when required to the
inclination and direction convenient for stacking.
Fig. 7 is a longitudinal section of another form of apparatus according to our
Invention for drying hay and the like. In this case two shafts Q, each having
four cranks are caused to revolve synchronously, so as to give a to and fro and an
up and down movement to a number of tines R projecting down from longitudinal

page_text: bars S that connect the cranks on the two shafts Q. The produce fed at K is by
the movement of the tines R tumbled and advanced to the delivery opening Ĺ
while heated air supplied to the channel M. rises through it.
Fig. 8 is a longitudinal section, and Fig. 9 is a tranverse section of drying
apparatus similar to that described in the Specification No. 1380 of 1876 above
referred to, with modifications according to our Invention. Instead of employing
a vibrating floor we provide a stationary floor, which may most advantageously
be of plate with the hot air channel M below it. The tines R may have the.
obliquely reciprocating action for shaking the produce, and at the same time
advancing it gradually along the machine, as described in the Specification above
referred to, and indicated on the left hand side of Fig. 9. The oblique action of
the tines R may however be dispensed with by substituting at intervals for one of
these tines a rake T, as shewn on the right hand side of Fig. 9, this rake having
the oblique reciprocating action, that is to say, descending among the produce,
advancing it a certain distance, ascending and then retreating ready to descend and
advance again. When the apparatus is applied for drying corn the ears shaken out
may be collected in a trough at the lower angle of the floor and conveyed by a
travelling chain O to one end of the machine, or when the rakes T are employed
they may have scraping blades t for advancing the ears along the trough.
Fig. 10 is a tranverse section of a drying cylinder according to our Invention,
this cylinder consisting of a number of plates U placed at intervals apart round
the periphery, each plate being bent to trough form as shewn, and some of them
having tines V projecting radially from their inner faces. The cylinder has
suitable circular rims, by which it rests on rollers W, and by turning these the
cylinder is caused to revolve while heated air rises through it from the channel M
below, and escapes through a grating or perforations in the upper part of a casing
which encloses the cylinder. When hay, straw, and the like are dried, the tines
serve to raise it and let it tumble, and when grain or the like is dried it is collected
in the trough like hollows of the lower plates, carried upwards in these, and falls
from them in a shower as they ascend to be collected in the lower troughs, and
again raised and showered down. For advancing the produce along the cylinder
the rollers W which support it are arranged so that the axis of the cylinder is
inclined, and the produce fed in at the upper end is advanced a little every time
that it falls towards the lower end from which it is discharged.
Fig. 11 is a longitudinal section of another form of apparatus according to our
Invention for drying grain, seeds, and the like. The grain or the like fed in at K
is moved gradually and stirred as it is moved along the upper perforated floor,
through which heated air rises from the channel M. It is then dropped on to the
lower floor and moved along it while cold air is drawn through it, so that it is
delivered, dried, and cooled. The movement and agitation is effected by inclined
scrapers X projecting from a travelling chain.
Although we have shewn the apparatus Fig. 11 connected to the engine and
boiler Fig. 1, it is to be understood that either that form of engine and boiler or
the form shewn in Figs 3, 4, and 5 may be employed, either with this apparatus
or with any other of the drying apparatus described and shewn in the Drawings,
one main feature of all of which is that the channel for heated air occupies a low
position in the apparatus, so that its connection to the supply fan is easily
accessible; it does not involve top weight and inconvenient height in the apparatus,
and the temperature and condition of the air passing through the supply channel
can be readily ascertained.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, we hereby declare that we make no general claim to
the application of heated air to the drying of agricultural produce, nor to the
use of tines or the like for agitating the produce while it is being dried, but we
claim in respect of apparatus for drying agricultural produce by heated air,-
First. Combining and arranging on one vehicle like a traction or portable
engine the furnace and flues for heating the air, the fan for blowing it, and the

page_text: steam boiler and engine for working the fan and the drying apparatus, sustantially
as herein described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2 of the accompanying
Drawings.
Second. The modified arrangement of boiler, flues, engine, and fan on one
vehicle, substantially as described with reference to Figs. 3, 4, and 5.
Third. The construction of drying apparatus herein described with reference to
Fig. 6.
Fourth. The construction of drying apparatus herein described with reference to
Fig. 7.
Fifth. In drying apparatus of the kind described in the Specification No. 1380
of 1876 supplying the heated air at a low level, substantially as and for the
purposes herein set forth with reference to Figs. 8 and 9.
Sixth. The use in drying apparatus of a travelling band for collecting grain or
seed shaken out of the produce treated, as herein described with reference to
Figs. 6, 8, and 9.
Seventh. The construction of drying cylinder, substantially as herein described
with reference to Fig. 10.
Eighth. The construction and use of apparatus for drying and cooling grain,
seeds, and the like, substantially as herein described with reference to Fig. 11.
In witness whereof, I, the said Murray Edward Gordon Finch-Hatton have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty-two.
MURRAY EDWARD GORDON FINCH-HATTON.
rol