IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR GRINDING OR REDUCING QUARTZ, BONES, GRAIN, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick St. George Smith, of Drogheda, Ireland,
of the Firm of Thomas Grendon & Co., Engineers, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR GRINDING OR REDUCING QUARTZ, BONES,
GRAIN, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES."-Partly a communication from abroad
by Edward Furber, of New York, in the United States of America.
Sealed the 22nd August 1862, and dated the 24th February 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick St. George Smith
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th February 1862.
I, FREDERICK ST. GEORGE SMITH, of Drogheda, Ireland, of the Firm of
Thomas Grendon & Co., Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR GRINDING OR REDUCING QUARTZ,
BONES, GRAIN, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in mills for grinding or
reducing quartz, metallic ores, bones, bark, grain, and other mineral, animal,
and vegetable substances. I take a cylindrical drum, by preference toothed
on the inuer surface, and mount arms on a spindle or axis made to revolve
very rapidly inside the said drum by means of a strap and pulley on the outer
end of the spindle, or by any other means of communicating motion. The
material to be operated upon is fed through an opening in the side of the drum
near the axis, and the revolving arms meeting the material when inside the

page_text: drum, dash it by centrifugal action with great violence against the internal
circumference of the drum, whereby the material is broken to pieces. At one
portion of the circumference I place an exit pipe, through which the particles,
when sufficiently reduced, are driven by the blast of wind caused by the
revolving arms. The exit pipe opens into a large chamber, in which the
ground material subsides, and in the event of the comminution being required
of different degrees of fineness I make the said chamber of considerable length.
The largest particles subsiding first and nearest to the entering end of the
chamber, and so on down to the finest particles, allows of the separation being
easily effected.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick St. George Smith in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 23rd August 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
ST. GEORGE SMITH, of Drogheda, Ireland, of the Firm of Thomas Grendon
and Company, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Frederick St. George Smith, Her special licence, that I, the said
Frederick St. George Smith, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Frederick St. George Smith, 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 FOR GRINDING OR REDUCING QUARTZ, BONES,
GRAIN, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES," (the result partly of communication from abroad
made to me by Edward Furber, of New York, in the United States of America,
and partly of Invention and discovery made by myself,) upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Frederick St. George Smith, my executors
or adminstrators, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said. Frederick St. George Smith, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in mills for grinding or
reducing quartz, metallic ores, bones, bark, grain, and other mineral, animal,
and vegetable substances. I take a cylindrical drum, by preference toothed
on the inner surface, and mount arms on a spindle or axis made to revolve
very rapidly inside the said drum by means of a strap and pulley on the outer
end of the spindle, or by any other means of communicating motion. The
material to be operated upon is fed through an opening in the side of the drum
near the axis, and the revolving arms meeting the material when inside the
drum, dash it by centrifugal action with great violence against the internal
circumference of the drum, whereby the material is broken to pieces. At
one portion of the circumference I place an exit pipe, through which the
particles, when sufficiently reduced, are driven by the blast of wind caused by
the revolving arms. The exit pipe opens into a large chamber, in which the
ground material subsides, and in the event of the comminution being required
of different degrees of fineness, I make the said chamber of considerable length.
The largest particles subsiding first and nearest to the entering end of the
chamber, and so on down to the finest particles, allows of the separation being
easily effected.
Figure 1 is an external elevation; Figure 2, a transverse section; and
Figure 3, a longitudinal section, of a machine constructed according to this
Invention. The same letters indicate similar parts in all the figures.
A is a drum or casing bolted down to a foundation; the interior surface of the
periphery is formed with serrations or teeth, as shewn at B; C is a revolving
fan, shown at Figure 3 with five arms, but more or less may be used. This
fan is carefully balanced on the shaft H, to which it is keyed. D, D, are fast
and loose pulleys on the shaft H, by which the fan C is driven through a
belt; E is a hopper, through which the material to be operated is fed into the
machine; F is the exit pipe, through which the material, when ground, is
propelled by the current of air produced by the revolving fan. The chamber
into which the exit pipe leads is not shewn in the Drawing.
The operation is as follows:-The fan is driven in the direction indicated
by the arrows, say, at a velocity of from 1,000 to 1,800 revolutions, more or
less, per minute; the material to be ground is shovelled into the hopper E,
and as soon as it falls inside the drum the revolving arms of the fan meet it
and drive it with velocity against the circumference of the drum, whereby

page_text: the material is reduced. The rapid revolution of the fan also produces a
current of air which carries the finer particles through the exit pipe, and the
coarser particles falling down into the drum are again operated upon until they
are sufficiently reduced to enable the current of air to expel them through the
exit pipe.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the machinery
herein-before described for grinding or reducing quartz, bones, grain, and
other substances, consisting of a drum and fan with arms constructed and
acting in manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick St. George Smith, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of August, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
F. ST. GEO. SMITH. (L.S.)