IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING GRAIN, FLOUR, AND OTHER SIMILAR SUBSTANCES, AND IN THE APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, Patent Agent, of the
British and Foreign Patent Offices, 24, Rue du Mont Thabor, Paris,
in the Empire of France, and 38, Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING
GRAIN, FLOUR, AND OTHER SIMILAR SUBSTANCES, AND IN THE APPARATUS
CONNECTED THEREWITH."-A communication from Alphonse Louvel, Doctor
of Medicine, Officer of the Legion of Honour, residing at Saint Denis,
near Paris, in the Empire of France, aforesaid.
Sealed the 26th January 1864, and dated the 20th November 1863.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration,
on the 20th November 1863, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent
Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRI
ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, Patent Agent, of the British and Foreign Patent
Offices, 24, Rue du Mont Thabor, Paris, in the Empire of France, and
38, Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRESERVING GRAIN, FLOUR, AND OTHER SIMILAR SUBSTANCES, AND IN THE APPARATUS
CONNECTED THEREWITH," communicated to me by Alphonse Louvel, Doctor of
Medicine, Officer of the Legion of Honour, a person residing at Saint Denis,

page_text: near Paris, in the Empire of France, aforesaid, and have petitioned Her
Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her
Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn declaration that
it is a communication.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification under my hand and seal fully
describes and ascertains the nature of the Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be performed, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in the preservation of grain, flour, meal, and similar
granular and farinaceous substances by the production of a vacuum more
or less perfect in the reservoirs or recipients on which these substances are
contained.
The description following of the means employed for the purpose by the
Inventor is given purely as an example, the principle of the Invention
admitting of an infinite variety of form and means.
The apparatus represented in the annexed Drawing is composed of three
distinct parts, the first of which, A, is a cylinder, which should be hermetically
closed, and capable of supporting a vacuum. In this cylinder, reservoir, or
recipient the grain or other substance to be operated upon is placed. The
second, B, is the apparatus which exhausts the air from the cylinder A. The
third, C, is a generator supplying the necessary steam to the apparatus B.
The second part B consists of a boiler or vessel hermetically closed, from
which the air is driven by a steam jet, and where a vacuum is obtained by
the condensation of this steam by a current of cold water, or by watering the
boiler with cold water; the vacuum being thus formed the boiler is placed in
communication with the cylinder A containing the grain or other substance
operated upon, when the air from the latter rushes into it, and is by the
repetition of the process driven out. The above-described means of effecting
a vacuum may be replaced by a pneumatic pump or other suitable apparatus.
This operation repeated three or four times sufficiently exhausts the recipient.
Thus, the cylinder A is filled by a man-hole D, E, which is afterwards shut
with care, and the exhaustion is performed by means of the steam air pump.
This latter works by the simultaneous opening of the taps g and h, the former
supplying the steam and the latter the condensing water. As soon as the
vacuum is established in the pump, the valve V communicating with the
preserving cylinder opens, and allows the air to flow from this cylinder into
the pump. The steam jet shuts the valve V, and drives out the air and
condensing water by the tube S. The state of the vacuum is indicated by an
ordinary vacuum gauge T. When after a lapse of time the vacuum has

page_text: given way a few minutes pumping quickly re-establishes it. The reservoir A
may be of any form and capacity whatever, divided into compartments or
otherwise. The effect of the application of the vacuum to reservoirs containing
grain, flour, meal, and similar matters, is to kill the insects which devour the
latter, and to prevent fermentation and spontaneous or other combustion,
causes which in a short space of time may destroy such immense stores of the
substances in question.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I do not
intend to confine myself to the precise details above given; but what I claim
is the application of the vacuum to the preservation of grain, flour, meal, and
other similar substances by the use of the apparatus above described, and
represented in the accompanying Drawing, or other analagous means giving a
like result.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
H. BONNEVILLE. (L.S.)