IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLOUR "
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Nield Robinson of Rochdale in the County of
Lancaster Engineer for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED
WITH APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLOUR
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Nield Robinson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th December 1883.
THOMAS NIELD ROBINSON, of Rochdale in the county of Lancaster, Engineer
IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF FLOUR
The object is to provide efficient and durable apparatus for use in the various
operations or stages of making flour from wheat and other grain.
I employ a roller mill with three rollers disposed in a horizontal or nearly
horizontal plane, feed the grain to be ground in between the first and second and
second and third rollers and give motion of rotation in the reverse directions to
the outer rollers the centre roller being stationary or nearly so.
The grain is supplied to the mill from a hopper provided with two shoots, an
adjustable deflector and a vibrating distributor fitted at the discharge end with a
serrated or indented delivery plate. The said vibrating distributors may be single
or double acting and receive grain or flour from one or more hoppers. After leaving
the mill the meal or ground product passes to a purifier consisting of a series of
superposed screens kept clean and caused to vibrate by means of a current of air
passing through the case or chamber containing the said screens. The ground meal
or product to be treated is fed to the highest screen and is carried by vibration
from one to the other.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Thomas Nield Robinson in the Patent Office on the 14th June 1884.
THOMAS NIELD ROBINSON of Rochdale in the county of Lancaster Engineer
" IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF FLOUR
"
The object is to provide efficient and durable apparatus for use in the various
operations or stages of making flour from wheat and other grain.
I employ a roller mill with three rollers disposed in a horizontal or nearly
horizontal plane feed the grain to be ground in between the first and second and
second and third rollers and give motion of rotation in the reverse directions to
the outer rollers the centre roller being stationary or nearly so but by preference
stationary.
The grain is supplied to the mill from a hopper provided with two shoots, an
adjustable deflector and a vibrating distributor fitted at the discharge end with a
serrated or indented delivery plate. The said vibrating distributors may be single
or double acting and receive grain or flour from one or more hoppers. After leaving
the mill the meal or ground product passes when sufficiently reduced to a purifier
consisting of a series of superposed screens kept clean and caused to vibrate by
means of a current of air passing through the case or chamber containing the said
screens. The ground meal or product to be treated is fed to the highest screen and
is carried by vibration from one to the other.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig 1 is a plan, Fig 2 a vertical section, and Fig 3 a front elevation of roller
mill apparatus employed under my invention for the manufacture of flour. a frame,
b casing, c. d. e rollers disposed in a horizontal plane and carried in bearings in the
usual way. The rollers cand e are driven in the reverse directions by belting, the
roller d remaining stationary or nearly so, ƒ gear for setting up the rollers, g hopper
with two shoots i j and adjustable deflectors kl. m distributor carried beneath the
shoots on bearings n and caused to vibrate by means of the excentric
o, p indented or serrated delivery plates fitted across the delivery ends of the
vibrating distributor for the purpose of spreading the grain and delivering it equally
and regularly between the rollers c d and de. The action of the above apparatus
is as follows:-The grain is fed into the hopper g and passes over the distributor to
the rollers c d and d e. After passing between the said rollers the crushed and
ground grain falls down the shoot q and is further reduced in suitable machinery
until the condition of middlings is reached. The said middlings are then passed
through a purifier preferably constructed as herein before described or in any other
suitable manner.
Fig 4 is a longitudinal section of a purifier suitable for use in combination with
my improved mill and feed apparatus, any other efficient purifier may however be
employed. p¹p' q¹ q¹ are screens in series of any usual or suitable construction
suspended by links or their equivalents from the partitions of the chamber,
tt inlets for middlings fitted by preference with the feed apparatus hereinbefore
described, u fan or exhauster to draw air through the screens p¹ q¹ to p¹ q¹.
The operation is as follows:-The middlings are fed onto the screens p¹ p¹³, q¹ q¹
and t t¹ and travel along the said screens to which vibrating motion is given by the
passage of air therethrough. The middlings instead of being fed independently
to both screens may be fed to the upper one only and pass from it to the
lower one.

page_text: Having now described and ascertained the nature of the said invention in
such manner that others will be enabled to carry my improvements into effect
I claim:
First. In the manufacture of flour, mills with three rollers disposed moved and
caused to operate substantially as setforth.
Second. In combination with roller mills constructed as above setforth a feed
hopper provided with two shoots an adjustable deflector and vibrating distributor
with a delivery plate all operating substantially as setforth.
Third. The several parts or apparatus herein described in combination for the
purposes setforth.
In Witness Whereof I the said Thomas Nield Robinson have hereunto set my
hand and seal this twelfth day of June in the year of Our Lord, one thousand
eight hundred and eighty four.
THOMAS NIELD ROBINSON (L.S.)