IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DECORTICATING RICE AND OTHER GRAIN
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hector Auguste Dufrené, of the General Patent
Offices, 10, Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire of France, and
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Civil Engineer, for the Invention
of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DECORTICATING RICE AND OTHER GRAIN."-
A communication from Joseph Perre, of Avignon, in the Empire of
France.
Sealed the 4th December 1866, and dated the 11th June 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Пector Auguste Dufrené
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 11th June 1866.
I, HECTOR AUGUSTE DUPRENÉ, of the General Patent Offices, 10, Rue de la
Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire of France, and 4, South Street, Finsbury,
London, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention.
for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DECORTICATING RICE AND OTHER GRAIN," to be as
follows, that is to say:-
This Invention consists in the construction of improved apparatus for
decorticating rice, corn, and other grain in which I employ the friction of
two elastic bodies, or the friction of one elastic body and one hard and rough
body, the rice, corn, or other grain to be decorticated being in both cases
placed between them. India-rubber of all kinds is among other elastic bodies
the one which I prefer to employ.

page_text: Firstly, the apparatus consists of a millstone with a vertical axis, having a
plane or conical side composed of a hard body, such as sandstone, silex, emery,
artificial or natural stone, and of another millstone with a plane or conical
side, made of any suitable substance, but lined with a plate of iudia-rubber or
other analogous elastic material..
Secondly, the apparatus may also consist of two elastic millstones composed
like the last and turning one on the other.
Thirdly, the apparatus may also consist of a millstone enveloped with india-
rubber with a horizontal axis, which millstone turns at a short distance from
a rough and rigid or an elastic body, adapted wholly or in part to the form of
the turning millstone.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Hector Auguste Dufrené in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 11th December 1866..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HECTOR
AUGUSTE DUFRENE, of the General Patent Offices, 10, Rue de la Fidélité,
Paris, in the Empire of France, and 4, South Street, Finsbury, Loudon, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Hector Auguste Dufrené, Her special licence that I, the said
Hector Auguste. Dufrenó, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Hector Auguste Dufrené, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times thereafter during the terin 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 "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DECORTICATING RICE AND OTHER GRAIN," (a com-
munication from Joseph Perre, of Avignon, in the Empire of France,) upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Hector Auguste Dufrené,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascer
tain 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

page_text: within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Пector Auguste Dufrené, 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, reference being had to the Drawing hereto annexed, and
to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
The Invention communicated to me consists in the construction of improved
apparatus for decorticating rice, corn, and other grain in which I employ the
friction of two elastic bodies, or the friction of one elastic body and one hard
and rough body, the rice, corn, or other grain to be decorticated being in both
cases placed between them. India-rubber of all kinds is, among other elastic
bodies, the one which I prefer to employ.
Firstly, the apparatus consists of a millstone with a vertical axis, having a
plane or conical side or face composed of a hard body, such as sandstone,
silex, emery, artificial or natural stone, and of another millstone with a plane
or conical side or face made of any suitable material, but lined with a plate or
cover of india-rubber or other analogous elastic material.
Secondly, the apparatus may also consist of two elastic millstones composed
like the last and turning one on the other.
Thirdly, the apparatus may also consist of a millstone enveloped with india-
rubber with a horizontal axis, which millstone turns at a short distance from
a rough and rigid or an elastic body, adapted wholly or in part to the form of
the turning millstone.
Having stated the nature of the Invention I will now proceed to describe
the best way I am acquainted with for carrying the same into effect, by
reference to the accompanying Drawing, in the several Figures of which the
same letters of reference represent parts which are similar.
Figure 1 is an elevation, and Figure 3 a sectional elevation of the improved
apparatus for decorticating rice and other grain, Figure 2 being a plan of the
upper millstone.
The part of the apparatus for decorticating grain consists of two surfaces,
the under one being fixed is horizontal, and the other turning and having a
part of its surface horizontal, the other part being slightly conical to allow the
admission of the grain to be decorticated, as heretofore practised in the mill-
stones of corn mills. These two surfaces are covered with india-rubber or
other elastic material, the thickness of which varies according to the nature of
the operation and the grain to be treated.
For decorticating rice of its first envelope or ski. I employ two thin india-

page_text: rubber coverings or surfaces, if this envelope is thick, but I employ thicker
india-rubber if the envelope is not so thick, so as to preserve uninjured as
much as possible the rice or other grain submitted to the operation. If it is
required to remove from the rice its second envelope or skin which adheres to
the body of the grain, or the adhering envelope of any other grain, I adopt
india-rubber coverings considerably thicker than the first.
My apparatus consists in a peculiar arrangement which allows of obtaining
this result by means of a body or material, such as large grained sand, emery,
or artificial sand, if necessary, such as flint, ground and sifted through two
sieves, so as to reject what is too fine and what is too coarse. A metallic
body, such as iron pyrites may be employed. For that purpose the upper
turning millstone is provided with a circular groove Z, Figures 2 and 3,
sufficiently deep, perforated with four equidistant holes Y which extend right
through the turning millstone and come out on the surface of the india-
rubber. Two small receivers of any desired form (not shewn in the Drawing)
placed on the same diameter and fixed on the cover of the bed N permit the
arrival into the channel or groove Z and in variable quantities of the neutral
material intended to arrive at the same time as the rice between the two
surfaces of india-rubber. The neutral material which may be replaced by
iron pyrites or metal filings rolls at the same time as the grain between the
two millstones, and being pushed forward like the grain by the centrifugal
force, occupies the empty spaces in the bed until they are filled, when they
escape together through an opening made in the circumference of the bed
and run off through the conduct L, Figure 1; the bottom of the conduct is
formed of metallic gauze, the meshes of which are large enough to permit the
neutral body to escape, but too small to allow the passage of the grain
submitted to the operation or their larger portions. The sand or neutral
material falls into the interior on to the lower part of the trough of the
ventilator V, Figure 1, which is slightly inclined inside, by which arrangement
it slides along till it meets a small opening in the form of a whistle, from
which by means of an inclined plane it is received in a box having two com
partments, one of which serves to receive it. The rice which is too large to
pass through the meshes of the metallic gauze continues to travel along the
inclined plane and falls into the second compartment of the said box.
The dust produced by the skin or envelope of the rice is carried away
by the ventilator to a certain distance from the box, where it easy to
collect it.
The machine is so constructed as to enable it to be worked at option either
by means of animal, manual, or other power. To work it by steam or other

page_text: like power I raise the gearing E, Figure 3, which is then put out of gear,
and the pulley P¹ is set in motion by means of a strap, the pulley P being a
loose pulley.
To set the apparatus in action by manual power I remove the shaft A and
the gearing E¹, and I set up at each end of the shaft B a crank arm, one of
which is elbowed in a particular way, so that its motion should not be con-
tracted by the support of the shaft A; I then set up the wheel F¹ on the
shaft B, and the wheel F on the shaft C.
To set the apparatus in operation by draught animals the gearing F1 and F
are left as they are placed for working by hand; the shaft A is mounted with
the gearing E into the position they are to occupy, and the animals are
harnessed to the single or double bar U, Figures 1 and 3, to turn to the left.
The distribution of the grain is effected by means of a circular conical
hopper T, having at its lower part two adjusting cylinders which enter
telescope-wise one in the other, so as to allow of lessening the distance of the
edge of the moveable adjusting cylinder from the turning cup R mounted on
the iron cross of the turning millstone. In the centre of this cup is set a rod
formed with points t, Figure 3, which turns with the cup, and the object of
which is to facilitate the descent of the grain. It can thus be made of a.
spiral form, and provided or not with points, according to requirement.
The other arrangements are nearly the same as those adopted in flour mills.
The whole of the mechanism is supported on a cast-iron plate or pedestal S
by means of the columns R, which renders the apparatus removeable for
agricultural and other purposes, and permits of its being placed without a
foundation simply on the ground by means of iron hooks or plugs placed there
and traversing holes made in the foundation plate.
One of the peculiarities of my Invention consists in the method I employ to.
fix the india-rubber to the metal millstones. For this purpose for temperate
countries it will only be necessary to take pieces of india-rubber covered with
cloth on one of their faces, and to fix them by means of glue little affected
by heat, such as gum arabic, on a false millstone in wood, M being the
turning millstone provided with a cast-iron plate M', but in hot countries it
is of the greatest importance in order to insure a perfectly plane surface not
to employ wood. I then proceed in the following manner :-I take metallic
dises which I tin; I also tin very fine metallic gauze and place it in a hot
state on the metallic discs in such a manner that it is soldered and adheres to
them in a perfect manner, then by means of glue, little affected by heat, such
as that before referred to, the india-rubber is applied on the gauze.

page_text: I can also employ a biting or rough millstone, natural or artificial, metallic
or not, to replace one of the india-rubber millstones.
The apparatus herein-before described in which plane surfaces are employed
may be modified and be constructed on the same principle with cylindrical or
conical surfaces.
The ventilator V, Figure 1, is put in action by two pulleys I, I', mounted
on the shaft C by means of a strap.
Having now described the nature of the Invention communicated to me,
and the best means I am acquainted with for putting the same into execution,
I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the precise details
of construction herein laid down, nor do I confine myself to the use of two
india-rubber surfaces, as one india-rubber surface and a surface composed of
hard material may be employed; but what I claim is,―
First, the decorticating rice and other grain between two surfaces of india-
rubber, between which a powder of some hard substance is or is not inter-
posed, as herein-before described and represented in the accompanying
Drawing.
Secondly, the general arrangement and construction of apparatus or
machinery as herein-before described and shewn in the accompanying
Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ilector Auguste Dufrené, have hereunto
set my band and seal, this Eighth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
1. A. DUF RENE. (L.S.)
DUFRENE.
Paris, 10, Rue de la Fidélité.