AN IMPROVEMENT IN CLEANSING AND TREATING CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS OF WHEAT
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN'
WREN, of Yarm, in the County of York, Miller, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,.
the Twentieth day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-nine, in the thirteenth year of Her reign, did
give and grant unto me, the said Benjamin Wren, my exors, admors, and
assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Benjamin Wren, my exors, admors, and assigns, and such others,
as I, the said Benjamin Wren, my exors, admors, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN CLEANSING AND TREATING CERTAIN
DESCRIPTIONS OF WHEAT;" in which said Letters Patent there is amongst others.
contained a proviso, that if I, the said Benjamin Wren, shall not particularly

page_text: describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, and cause the same to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said recited Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all
liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease,
determine, and become void, as by the said Letters Patent, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said recited proviso, I, the
said Benjamin Wren, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following instrument in writing, reference being had
to the letters and figures therein referred to, and to the Drawings hereunto
annexed (that is to say):-
Certain descriptions of wheat, imported principally from foreign parts, are
ill adapted for being manufactured into flour, by reason partly of the hard,
brittle, and dirty state of the grain, and partly in some cases from a dirty
appearance and musty or disagreeable smell, which the flour possesses if the
wheat be ground and made into flour in the ordinary manner. Now, I have
discovered that wheat of this description, when cleansed and treated in the
manner herein-after described, may be ground without difficulty in the ordinary
manner; and that the. flour, made therefrom will be free from the dirty appear-
ance. which flour. from such wheat usually possesses, while at the same time
the disagreeable smell, usually accompanying. flour made from that description.
of wheat, not cleansed and treated according to my Invention, will be. either
entirely or almost entirely removed. The wheat, cleansed and treated accord-
ing to my. Invention; has the grain softened and the earthy, particles removed.
by hot water, and is, then dried as herein-after mentioned. The apparatus
which I employ consists of four cylinders.
In, the first cylinder the earthy and soluble; particles are washed off or re-
moved. by, hot water,; the wheat is then passed through a spout into the second:
or draining cylinder in which the water is drained off and, the wheat exposed to.
the heat of a hot, cylinder, heated by steam,, fixed in the centre, and round
which the draining cylinder revolves exposing all the grain to the heat as it
passes through. The wheat is then taken to the third cylinder, also heated by
steam, which is constructed so as to expose a great heated surface to the wheat..
After the wheat has passed through this third cylinder, it is conveyed to the
fourth cylinder which is double, and has a large steam pipe in its centre; this

page_text: pipe and the double cylinder are heated by steam and revolve together, and the
wheat passes through the space between them; thus continuing and completing
the drying. After the wheat has passed through this cylinder, it must be spread
thin upon a floor to cool, when it will be fit for grinding. By means of these
successive cylinders the wheat is washed, cleansed, drained; and dried; the
drying, which is partially performed in the second and third cylinders, is con-
tinued and completed in the fourth cylinder. In cylinder No. 1; A is a spout
for conveying the wheat into the machine; B, B; is a pipe for conveying
heated water into the machine; C, C, represents the holes in the pipe through
which the water flows over the wheat; D is the sliding stop for regulating
the quantity of water (shewn in the Drawing as it is when the water is stopped
"off); it is fixed to a spur rack into which a pinion works at d; E, E; are brushes
fixed by armis F; F, F, F, on pipe B, B; G, G, is the cylinder clothed with wire
which revolves slowly round the fixed pipe and brushes; H, H, are pinions
working into the spur wheels I, I; for giving motion to the machine; 'h; h; are
friction rollers for bearing the weight of the cylinder at i, . The pinions H, H,
are fixed on the shafts 1, which are furnished with bevil wheels 2, at one eriil
working into wheels 3, for communicating the motion from the upright shaft
4, 4, to the cylinders. All the cylinders are worked by similar arrangements,
as indicated by the same letters of reference. There is a zinc floor under this
cylinder, to which a pipe is fixed for taking away the waste water as it flows
from the cylinder after the wheat is washed: K is the spout for conveying the
wheat into the cylinder below No. 2. In cylinder No: 2, L, L, is the second
cylinder clothed with wire for draining the water off the wheat; and has been
called the draining cylinder; M is a fixed metal cylinder, in the centre filled
with steam for heating the wheat, thus assisting in drying it; N; N, are pieces
of thin metal, running lengthways of the outer or draining cylinder, to which
they are fixed; they project inwards; and as the cylinder revolves carries the
wheat upwards, and it falls on the heated cylinder in the centre, it is then swept
off the heated cylinder and falls on the draining cylinder L, L. This action is
kept up until the wheat passes into the spout. O, O, is the spout for conveying
the wheat into elevators, which are not shewn in the Drawing, but, which are
well understood, and by which the wheat is raised into the spout 2°, through
which it passes into the third cylinder. In cylinder No. 3, P, P, is the
outside metal cylinder; p, p, is the inside cylinder, consisting of a pipe
spirally coiled about the axis in the form of a screw, the corn passing through
the interior of such spiral pipe as it revolves, the spaces between such pipe
and the cylindrical surface of such coil and the outside cylinder being

page_text: filled with steam supplied through the pipe Q. The parts of the external and
internal cylinders are fixed together, so as to bear a pressure of steam supplied
in the direction of the arrows from the pipe Q, which is furnished with a centre
at each end, on which it revolves. The pipe Q receives the supply of steam
through the centre next V, V, which is fitted with a gland to allow it to revolve
with the screw cylinder without any waste of steam. R is the spout for con-
veying the wheat to the cylinder below No. 4. In cylinder No. 4, S, S, is an
outer metal cylinder; s, s, is an inner cylinder. There is a space between these
two filled with steam, the two being fixed together, so as to bear a pressure
of steam supplied from the pipe T; these two are called the double cylinder.
T is a large steam pipe (placed in the centre of the double cylinder), furnished
with a centre at each end, and on which it revolves; the double cylinder
is fixed on this pipe, and both revolve together. The steam is first received
into the. pipe through the centre next to V, V, which is furnished with
a gland to prevent steam escaping. The double cylinder is supplied with
steam from this pipe by means of a small pipe, not shewn in the Drawing.
U is a spout for conveying the wheat from the machine. V, V, is the main
steam pipe supplying the machine. 1 are shafts, each furnished with a bevil
wheel (2) on one end, which work into the bevil wheels (3, 3,) on the upright
shaft (4, 4), as already described, to which the power is applied for giving
motion to the machine by the wheels and pinions above mentioned. The
arrangements and apparatus above described answer extremely well for cleans-
ing and treating wheat according to my improvement, but I do not claim
such apparatus as of my Invention, or the exclusive use thereof, except when
the same are employed for the purpose of my improvement. And it will be
obvious that other similar arrangements and apparatus, as, for instance, the
placing the cylinders one above the other, or the use of hot water in pipes as
the heating medium, may be employed for the purpose of my said Invention,
which I hereby declare to consist in cleansing and treating wheat by hot water
and drying the same by artificial means, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Wren, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty.
BENJAMIN (L.S.)
WREN.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twelfth day of March, in the
year of our Lord 1850, the aforesaid Benjamin Wren came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twelfth day of March, in the year of our Lord One thou-
eight hundred and fifty.