IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DECORTICATING RICE AND OTHER GRAIN
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hector Auguste Dufrené, of No. 10, Rue de la
Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire of France, and 4, South Street, Finsbury,'
London, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR DECORTICATING RICE AND OTHER GRAIN."-A communication from
Monsieur Joseph Perre, residing at Avignon, in the Empire of France.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Hector Auguste Dufrené at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration,
on the 12th October 1867, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent Law
Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HECTOR
AUGUSTE DUFRENÉ, of No. 10, Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire of
France, and 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR DECORTICATING RICE AND OTHER GRAIN," and have petitioned
Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
Her Royal Letters Patent for the saine, and have made solemn Declaration
that it is a communication from Monsieur Joseph Perre, a person. resident at
Avignon, in the Empire of France.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Hector Auguste Dufrené, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and seal,

page_text: fully describes and ascertains the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed :—
The decortication of corn and particularly of rice has hitherto been effected
by means of apparatuses constructed on different principles. The defects
of the best of the apparatuses in use, are, firstly, they break a considerable
portion of the grain submitted to their action; secondly, they allow a large
quantity of grain to escape without decorticating it; thirdly, they wear out
very soon.
The Invention communicated to mo relates to improvements on former
Letters Patent granted to me, and dated the Eleventh day of June, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, and consists in forming the two friction
surfaces of the decorticating apparatus; firstly, with vuloanized india-rubber
and a hard, rough, biting body, such as emery, formed into an agglomerate as
herein-after described; secondly, with vulcanized india-rubber and india-rubber
covered with emery and vulcanized, or of two surfaces of the latter; thirdly,
with india-rubber only.
By means of these improvements the above defects are obviated; firstly, the
agglomerate which I prefer to employ is formed of emery in a granular form
and agglomerated by means of silicate of potash to which dried aud pulverized
plastic clay has been added. The agglomerate is made in the cold and is
applied on surfaces of wood and forins a kind of rasp; when the surface of
this rasp begins to lose its regularity it is only necessary to take a little of the
agglomerate paste, composed as herein-before described, and apply it to the
thickness required on the old agglomerate to obtain at a small expense a rasp
capable of serving for a long time.
I obtain an excellent decortication of rice and corn by submitting them to
the action of friction produced by a vulcanized india-rubber surface on a
body, such as emery, diamond, and bodies harder than silica formed into an
agglomerate as herein-béfore described. Thus there will be, first, an elastic
body, the soft pressure of which will not break the grain; secondly, a hard
body which will immediately cut (without it being necessary to apply a
great pressure) the most biting skin with which coru is covered as well as the
husks of the rice.
To effect a proper decortication, that is to say, to decorticate without
breaking the grain, and without allowing it to pass off non-decorticated, there
should be a certain equilibrium between the resistance of the india-rubber,
the resistance of the husks, and the resistance of the grain to be decorticated,
that is to say, that the thickness of the india-rubber should be proportioned to
the resistance, of the husks, for the same reason the size of the emery employed

page_text: should be proportioned to the size of the grain to be decorticated and be as
much larger as the grain is larger.
The emery acts in the following manner:-The agglomerate is at first
smooth and presents but little or no roughness, but as the husks of the grain
to be decorticated are in general silicious they attack the agglomerate; the
grain is lightly stripped and presents points which commence to work.
Different methods may be employed for agglomerating the emery, but the
one berein-before described gives a good result.
Secondly. The decortication may be effected by the employment of two
rubbing surfaces both very rough or biting and sufficiently elastic, formed by
incorporating emery in grains of the desired size with india-rubber in paste of
which plates are formed and vulcanized, the quantity of emery employed should
be proportioned to the elasticity desired. The arrangement of the machine in
which the friction surfaces are employed may be varied and it may receive
either an intermittent or continuous movement.
One of the most simple arrangements is that of the flour mill. The lower
fixed millstone is made of wood or metal and covered with the agglomerate of
emery. The upper turning millstone is made of a disc of metal which serves
to give it weight; against this metal disc is fixed by means of screws & disc
of wood or other suitable material on which is applied a disc of pure india.
rubber or india-rubber and emery. On leaving the millstone the product falls
into a rough inclined at an angle of about 45°, the bottom of which is made
of metallic gauze with meshes smaller than the grains of rice. A rather
strong current of air produced by a ventilator placed under the machine meets
the product perpendicularly to its direction of movement, and carries away the
husks of the rice and the other substances lighter than the grain. Vertical
millstones may be employed with. horizontal axes covered with vulcanized
india-rubber, either pure or with emery, turning in casings or jackets covered
with india-rubber. The jackets, in place of wholly covering the millstones, may
only partially cover them; in this case the rice enters at one part of the
circumference and egresses at the other. This last arrangement, which allows of
continuous working, and which is analogous to the rasps formerly used, is best
suited for decorticating the first skin.
The second arrangement which allows of an intermittent working is best
suited for cleaning rice. With this arrangement it is necessary to introduce a
certain quantity of rice at the top of the apparatus which is allowed to turn
for a few minutes, then to withdraw it at the bottom.
Different arrangements with continuous movement may also be adopted
by employing either cones or cylinders with vertical axes, and with jackets

page_text: embracing their form, such as is practised in the ordinary cleaning apparatus
with this difference, that the cylinders, cones, and jackets should be made of
emery on one side, and vulcanized india-rubber on the other, or of india-rubber
and emery on one or both sides.
The most simple arrangement of apparatus with an intermittent movement
cousists in placing horizontally an endless band of india-rubber passing over a
table as in a paper-making machine. This band receives a continuous
movement sufficiently slow, above a table covered with the agglomerate of
emery which receives an intermittent movement more or less rapid and extensive
according to the amount of work to be done in a given space of time and the
motive power employed. A hopper in which the grain is enclosed introduces it
between the two surfaces, one of which has an intermittent and the other a
continuous movement. A ventilator placed at the end of the machine produces
the same effect as that herein-before described.
Thirdly. It should be observed that for certain kinds of grain and rice,
I can employ in all the movements herein-before described two surfaces
of india-rubber for removing the first skin, when this skin is not very
resisting.
Having now described the nature of the Invention communicated to me, and
the manner of performing the same, I wish it to be understood that what I
claim is,―
Firstly. The employment of a friction surface of india-rubber against a
friction surface of agglomerate of any hard substance, such as emery, diamond,
or other bodies harder than silica, as herein-before described.
Secondly. The employment of a friction surface of vulcanized india-rubber
against a friction surface of india-rubber covered with emery and vulcanized,
or of two friction surfaces of the latter named material as herein-before
described.
Thirdly. The employment of two friction surfaces of india-rubber as herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hector Auguste Dufrené, have hereto
set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
H. A. DUFRENÉ. (L.S.)