IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING GRAIN, SEEDS, MALT, SPENT HOPS, BREWERS' AND DISTILLERS' GRAINS, HOPS, WOOL, RAGS, AND OTHER MATERIALS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Lee Norton, of Belle Sauvage Yard,
Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING GRAIN, SEEDS, MALT, SPENT HOPS,
BREWERS' AND DISTILLERS' GRAINS, HOPS, WOOL, RAGS, AND OTHER
MATERIALS."
Sealed the 7th January 1868, and dated the 13th July 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Lee Norton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th July 1867.
I, JAMES LEE NORTON, of Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill, in the
City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING GRAIN, SEEDS, MALT, SPENT HOPS,
BREWERS' AND DISTILLERS' GRAINS, HOPS, WOOL, BAGS, AND OTHER MATERIALS,'
to be as follows:-
The first part of my Invention consists of a cylinder with a steam casing
or jacket around it, and it may be made to revolve or remain stationary; I
prefer it stationary. When the cylinder is caused to revolve it has a series of

page_text: shelves fixed inside which take up the material to be dried and allow it
to fall in showers, and a backward or forward movement is given to the
material by its falling against directing plates. The directing plates may be
either fixed to a shaft in the centre of the cylinder, or they may be arranged
on the shelves which carry the material. The cylinder is driven from the
outside with suitable gearing, and it runs on friction rollers. The material is
fed in at one end of cylinder, and delivered out at the opposite end, or it may
be fed in and delivered out at the same end if required, but usually the
operation is continuous, and at the delivery end an endless apron carries away
the dried material to any convenient place, from whence an elevator may take
it forward where needed. When the steam cylinder is stationary revolving
shelves carried by a central shaft take up the material and allows it to fall in
showers, and directing plates are fixed on to the shelves, the direction of
which can be varied as required so as to cause the material to pass one way
or other in the machine, or the directing plates may when required be set in
a neutral position. On the top part of the cylinder a box or frame is fixed for
the purpose of utilizing the outer casing as a medium for heating and partially
drying the material before it enters the cylinder where it is finally dried.
This operation is most important, ás it heats the material to a considerable
temperature before it goes into the interior of the cylinder, and facilitates the
drying. The cylinders are by preference placed in a closed room, and which
is ventilated from the lower part, and an exhaust or forcing fan or steam jet
may be used to assist the moisture being carried off. Hot air heated by
steam or fire heat may also be forced through the cylinders to hasten the
drying process, and where the exterior of the cylinder is used to commence
the heating and drying of the material, as already explained, this heated air
after it comes from the interior of the cylinder may advantageously be led
over the material on its exterior. Portable machines for drying grain and
other materials will be found of great advantage; I make them' in the various
ways above described, and combine them with a carriage with wheels.
For drying wool;, grass; or other fibrous' material when using cylinders, as
described, in place of using shelves, prongs or hooks are fixed to carry the
material and allow it to drop, or endless chains or bands carrying cross bars
with hooks upon them are fixed either vertically or at an inclination in such
a way that the material to be dried is fed either direct on to the endless
carrier, or it is féd on to a' feed sheet, from which it is taken up by the carrier
or books on the cross bars, and when it gets to the top of the endless carrier
it drops from the hooks and comes in contact with the next endless carrier,
and is again carried up from one to another according to the size of

page_text: machine required; or the wool or material may be carried up and down by
the endless chains carrying the hooks and cross bars and delivered at the
bottom from one to another without being allowed to drop, as described.
These endless carriers are fixed in a closed room or chamber, and heated air
is forced into or exhausted through the room or chamber, or coils of steam
pipes are fixed between the endless carriers, the heat from which, with the
aid of a fan or otherwise, dries the material.
In drying brewers' or distillers' grains, or other grain or material, it is
found that some portions of the grain that are whole or are less crushed are
much more difficult to dry than the lighter portion; I therefore pass them
through such machines as are used for separating corn, such as (Child's:
aspirator) or Penny's rotary corn separater, whereby the heavy portions are
separated from the lighter or smaller portions according to their weight or
size, and by drying them separately the process is much facilitated, besides
the various qualities or sizes are thus kept distinct. The same plan applies to
all kind of grain or other materials requiring drying which are in grains of:
various sizes, and it may also be advantageously used after the material
is dry.
In another form of drying machine the material is caused to travel over a
series of steam cylinders all running in the same direction, so that the one
turns and delivers the material to the other or next one. In all cases where
steam cylinders are used or hot air heating apparatus, it will be found of
great advantage to fix them above the level of the steam boiler supplying the
steam, so that the condensed water may be returned into the boiler without
any loss from evaporation.
When using a revolving cylinder not heated by steam, such as described in
a Provisional Specification filed by me on the 18th day of May last, No. 1485,
it will be found of great advantage to place a fixed or revolving steam
cylinder or vessel inside the cylinder in place of the centre shaft carrying the
directing plates, in which case the directing plates will be fixed in the shelves
that carry the material, and thus leave a free space between the shelves and
the internal cylinder for a blast or current of air to pass between them.
. A similar arrangement to that just described can also be made with a
fixed outer cylinder and for the shelves only to revolve that carry the material
up with directing plates fixed on them. This same plan of an interior fixed
or revolving steam cylinder may be used, whether the outer cylinder is heated
by fire or not, & in some cases cold air may be used advantageously when.
drying materials that are liable to be injured by high temperatures.
In some cases a steam pipe or cylinder of smaller diameter is fixed insider
:

page_text: the stationary double or jacketed steam cylinder, and revolving shelves with
directing vanes are arranged to work between it and the outer cylinder so as
to carry and turn over the material to be dried; this gives a considerable
increase of heating surface. A similar arrangement may also be made by
fixing a stationary or revolving steam pipe or cylinder inside a revolving
cylinder with directing vanes fixed in the shelves; in this case the outer
cylinder need not be a double steam cylinder, and may be driven from the
Where a
outside with suitable gearing and heated with hot air and a fan.
great heat is required cylinders either stationary or made to revolve may be
heated by fire heat, and when a stationary cylinder is used, revolving shelves
and directing vanes are arranged to carry the material, as before described.
I am aware that a revolving cylinder heated by fire and with directing
plates fixed inside in the centre and cold air forced or caused to pass through
it has been used, but in place of this arrangement I heat the revolving
cylinder with fire, and arrange directing vanes or plates to revolve within it
and force hot air through it, and in some cases fix a stationary steam cylinder
within it.
I am aware that revolving steam cylinder drying machines have heretofore
heen used, but in such cases the material to be dried is carried forward by a
screw fixed to the cylinder; with this arrangement the material is obliged to
travel onwards from one end of the cylinder to the other, and cannot be
turned over so often or carried backwards and forwards, as in machines con-
structed as above set forth.
Another part of my Invention relates to apparatus in which the material is
spread on steam plates and carried forward and turned about thereon. The
steam plates may be made with holes cored through, or with straight or coiled
wrought-iron pipes cast in them, and the plates may be arranged in one con-
tinuous length or one above another, so that the material from the top plates
may fall on to the plates below and be carried forward to any extent required.
Rakes or scrapers are arranged over the surface of the plate or plates, and
these have a to-and-fro movement communicated to them in such manner as
to draw the material gradually forward. The material is fed on at one end
of the plate and thrown off by the rake or scraper at the other, or where the
plates have boles through them, and are arranged one above the other, the
rakes or scrapers bring the material over the holes and cause it to fall through
from plate to plate.
In drying some kinds of grain or material that is easily dried the shelves
that carry up the material in the cylinders are arranged or constructed in
the form of a screen or otherwise so that the material will be carried forward

page_text: continuously from one end of the cylinders to the other at any rate desired,
and directing plates or vanes, as already described, may also be used if found
to be convenient.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Lee Norton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 18th January 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
LEE NORTON, of Bell Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill, in the City of London,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Lee Norton, Her special licence that I, the said James Lee Norton,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as 1, the said
James Lee Norton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 APPARATUS FOR DRYING GRAIN, SEEDS, MALT, SPENT Hops,
BREWERS' AND DISTILLERS' GRAINS, HOPS, WOOL, RAGS, AND OTHER MATERIALS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Lee Norton,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their bands 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.
"
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Lee Norton, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what nianner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
The first part of my Invention consists of a cylinder with a steam casing or
jacket around it, and it may he made to revolve or remain stationary; I
prefer it stationary. When the cylinder is caused to revolve it has a series of

page_text: shelves fixed inside, which take up the material to be dried and allow it to
fall in showers, and a backward or forward movement is given to the material
by its falling against directing plates. The directing plates may be either
fixed to a shaft in the centre of the cylinder or they may be arranged on the
shelves which carry the material. The cylinder is driven from the outside
with suitable gearing, and it runs on friction rollers. The material is fed in at
one end of the cylinder, and delivered out at the opposite end, or it may be fed
in and delivered out at the same end if required, but usually the operation is
continuous, and at the delivery end an endless apron carries away the dried
material to any convenient place, from whence an elevator may take it forward
where needed.
Figure 1 of the annexed Drawings is a section of a revolving cylinder
machine with a steam jacket, and Figure 2 is a side elevation, partly in
section, of the same machine. A, A, is the steam space; B, B, are the
shelves; C, C, are the directing plates fixed on a central shaft; they are
stationary while the machine is at work, but the axis may be turned partly
round to adjust the inclination to the vertical of the directing plates. The
cylinder runs on friction rollers D, D, D. E, E, is the steam pipe to supply
the steam jacket with steam. This steam pipe is furnished with a trunnion
at E so as to allow of the turning of the machine; F, F, are the driving
pulleys; G, G, is the gearing of the machine; H is the feeding hopper, and
I the exit spout.
Figures 3 and 4 represent a machine similar to the one just described, but
arranged so as to be driven from pulleys placed above the machine; Figure 8
is a section, and Figure 4 an elevation. A is the steam cylinder; B, B, are
the driving pulleys; C, C, are the driving bands or chains supporting and
carrying the cylinders in place of the cylinder working on friction rollers, as
in Figure 1; D is the steam pipe. When the steam cylinder is stationary
revolving shelves carried by a central shaft take up the material and allow it
to fall in showers, and directing plates are fixed on to the shelves, the direction
of which can be varied as required so as to cause the material to pass one
way or other in the machine, or the directing plates may when required be set
in a neutral position. On the top part of the cylinder a box or frame is fixed
for the purpose of utilizing the outer casing as a medium for heating and
partially drying the material before it enters the cylinder where it is finally
dried. This operation is most important, as it heats the material to a con-
siderable temperature before it goes into the interior of the cylinder, and
facilitates the drying:
Figures 5 and 6 show a machine in which the jacketted cylinder is a fixture

page_text: and the shelves inside revolve independently of it. A is the fixed jacketted
cylinder; B, B, B, are the shelves; C, C, are the directing plates attached to
the shelves. The grain or material is partially dried in the box D, D, formed
on the upper part of the cylinder before being thrown down into the machine
through the opening shown in dotted lines at E; F is the driving gear. A
self-acting feeding screw may be advantageously mounted in the box D, and
in most cases it is advantageous to feed continuously by mechanical means; it
may be a screw or by an endless band, or otherwise.
The mode of attaching the directing plates to the shelves is shown more
fully in Figure 7, which is a longitudinal section of this machine. A, A, is
the steam space; B, B, are the shelves; C, C, are the directing plates which
are attached by a pin joint to the shelves so as to enable them to turn, as
indicated by the dotted lines; D, D, are rods suitably attached to these
directing plates. The rods D, D, are also attached to the plate E, which
slides on the shaft. This plate can be pushed in or out by means of the
clutch F and the lever G outside the cylinder, and the position of the directing
plates can thus be adjusted from the outside as required. In drying some
kinds of grain or other material that is easily dried the shelves that carry up
the material in the cylinders are arranged or constructed in the form of a
screw or otherwise, so that the material will be carried forward continuously
from one end of the cylinders to the other at any rate desired, and directing
plates or vanes as already described may also be used if found to be convenient.
When using a stationary steam jacketted cylinder it may be found unnecessary
that the steam jacket should entirely surround the cylinder. It may then be
only partially surrounded by the jacket, the steam being confined to the lower
portion of the cylinder, and when so constructed the upper portion may be
made in the form of a cover or lid to lift off and allow access to the interior.
A section of a cylinder so constructed is shown in Figure 8. The cylinders
are by preference placed in a closed room, which is ventilated from the lower
part, and an exhaust or forcing fan or steam jet may be used to assist the
moisture being carried off. Hot air heated by steam or fire heat may also be
forced through the cylinders to hasten the drying process, and where the
exterior of the cylinder is used to commence the heating and drying of the
material, as already explained, this heated air after it comes from the interior
of the cylinder may advantageously be led over the material on its exterior.
When malt is the material to be dried the beat should be applied gently at
first and increased gradually; this may be done in one machine, or the malt
may be passed from one machine to another, the heat being greater in each
successive machine. Portable machines for drying grain and other materials

page_text: will be found of great advantage. I make them in the various ways above
described, and combine them with a carriage with wheels.
A convenient arrangement for drying grains is by the use of a combined
machine consisting of a revolving cylinder of plates of wire gauze in which
the grain is dried by fire heat in front of a cylinder machine of the jacketted
or partially jacketted form, and the waste heat can be made to pass under the
steam jacket so as to maintain the temperature. In this case the same shaft
can be arranged so as to drive both machines, and the revolving plate or gauze
machine delivers the partially dried grains into the steam jacketted machine,
where the drying is completed.
In the Drawings a combined machine of this kind is shown, Figure 9
being an elevation, partly in section, and Figure 10 a transverse section.
A is the revolving cylinder, which may be made of wire gauze or sheet iron;
B is the partially jacketted stationary cylinder; C is the fire-grate; D is the
chamber in which the machine revolves; E is a flue passing underneath the
steam jacket F. For drying wool, grass, or other fibrous material, when using
cylinders as described in place of using shelves, prongs or hooks are fixed to
carry the material and allow it to drop, or endless chains or bands carrying
cross bars with hooks upon them are fixed either vertically or at an inclination
in such a way that the material to be dried is fed either direct on to the
endless carrier, or it is fed on to a feed sheet, from which it is taken up by
the carrier or hooks on the cross bars, and when it gets to the top of the
endless carrier it drops from the hooks and comes in contact with the next
endless carrier, and is again carried up from one to another according to the
size of machine required; or the wool or material may be carried up and down
by the endless chains carrying the hooks and cross bars and delivered at the
bottom from one to another without being allowed to drop as described.
These endless carriers are fixed in a closed room or chamber, and heated air
is forced into or exhausted through the room or chamber, or coils of steam
pipes are fixed between the endless carriers, the heat from which with the
aid of a fan or otherwise dries the material.
Figure 11 is a machine in which the endless chains or bands are fixed
vertically. The machine consists of a number of endless carriers A', A³, A³,
furnished with prongs working round pulleys B, B, B, in a chamber C; the
wool is fed into a hopper D, or is fed in by an endless feet sheet, and is carried
up and then down by the first endless carrier A¹. It is detached from the
prongs of this carrier by means of a row of points a¹; it is then again
carried up by the second carrier A³ and stripped at a³, and so on through the
machine. E is a ventilator.

page_text: Figure 12 is a machine in which the endless chains or bands are fixed in an
inclined position. The wool is fed on to the first carrier A¹ at B by means of
a hopper or endless apron, and is carried up to the top.
When it arrives at
the point C it is allowed to drop, and is caught up by the second carrier A³, and
is again carried up, and so on through any number of carriers. The source of
heat may be applied underneath these machines, and coils of steam pipes may
be placed between the endless carriers, or currents of heated air may be forced
through the machine by a fan or otherwise.
In drying brewers' or distillers' grains or other grain or materials it is found
that some portions of the grain that are whole or are less crushed are much
more difficult to dry than the lighter portion. I therefore pass them through
such machines as are used for separating corn, such as Child's aspirator or
Penny's rotary corn separator, whereby the heavy portions are separated from
the lighter or smaller portions according to their weight or size, and by drying
them separately the process is much facilitated; besides the various qualities
or sizes are thus kept distinct. The same plan applies to all kind of grain
or other materials requiring drying which are in grains of various sizes, and it
may also be advantageously used after the material is dried. Brewers' grains
after being dried may advantageously be elevated and passed through a rotary
screen, which being of two gauges sorts them into three qualities; the finer
parts may at once be mixed with meal and so used, the larger may if desired
be ground; the screening serves at the same time to cool the grains.
In another form of drying machine the material is caused to travel over a
series of steam cylinders all running in the same direction, so that the one
turns and delivers the material to the other or next one.
Figure 13 shows a portion of a machine which consists of a number of steam
cylinders A¹, A, placed one after another and having inclined shelves on them,
they are driven in any convenient manner, and are so arranged as to carry up
the grain and deliver it one to another; the bottom portion of this machine may
also be a steam chest.
In all cases where steam cylinders are used, or hot air heating apparatus
in which air is heated by steam, it will be found of great advantage to
fix them above the level of the steam boiler, supplying the steam so that
the condensed water may be returned into the boiler without any loss from
evaporation.
When using a revolving cylinder not heated by steam, such as is described
in a Provisional Specification filed by me on the 18th day of May last,
No. 1485, it will be found of great advantage to place a fixed or revolving
steam cylinder or vessel inside the cylinder in place of the centre shaft carrying

page_text: the directing plates, in which case the directing plates will be fixed in the
shelves that carry the material, and thus leave a free space between the
shelves and the internal cylinder for a blast or current of air to pass between
them, or the directing plates may be fixed to the steam cylinder when it does
not revolve.
A similar arrangement to that just described can also be made with a fixed
outer cylinder and the shelves only revolving they carry the material up and
have the directing plates fixed on them. This same plan of an interior fixed
or revolving steam cylinder may be used whether the outer cylinder is heated
by fire or not. In some cases a steam pipe or cylinder of smaller diameter is
fixed inside the stationary double or jacketted steam cylinder such as is shown
at Figures 5 and 6, and revolving shelves with directing vanes are arranged to
work between it and the outer cylinder so as to carry and turn over the
material to be dried; this gives a considerable increase of heating surface.
A similar arrangement may also be made by fixing a stationary or revolving
steam pipe or cylinder inside a revolving cylinder with directing vanes fixed
on the shelves; in this case the outer cylinder. need not be a double steam
cylinder, and may be driven from the outside with suitable gearing and heated
with hot air and a fan. Where a great heat is required cylinders either
stationary or made to revolve may be heated by fire heat, and when a stationary
cylinder is used revolving shelves and directing vanes are arranged to carry
the material as before described. I am aware that a revolving cylinder heated
by fire and with directing plates fixed inside in the centre and cold air forced
or caused to pass through it has been used, but in place of this arrangement I
heat the revolving cylinder with fire, and arrange directing vanes or plates to
revolve within it and force hot air through it, and in some cases fix a stationary
steam cylinder within it. I am aware that revolving steam cylinder drying
machines have heretofore been used, but in such cases the material to be dried
is carried forward by a screw fixed to the cylinder, with this arrangement the
material is obliged to travel onwards from one end of the cylinder to the other,
and cannot be turned over so often or carried backwards and forwards as in
machines constructed as above set forth.
Another part of my Invention relates to apparatus in which the material is
spread on steam plates and carried forward and turned about thereon. The
steam plates may be made with holes cored through or with straight or coiled
wrought-iron pipes cast in them, and the plates may be arranged in one
continuous length or one above another, so that the material from the top
plates may fall on to the plates below and be carried forward to any extent
required.

page_text: Rakes or scrapers are arranged over the surface of the plate or plates, and
these have a to-and-fro movement communicated to them in such manner as
to draw the material grdually forward; the material is fed on at one end of
the plate, and thrown off by the rake or scraper at the other; or where the
plates have holes through them and are arranged one above the other the
rakes or scrapers bring the material over the holes and cause it to fall through
from plate to plate.
Figure 14 is a side view of a steam plate having a frame furnished with a
series of scrapers to move the grain or material along the plate. A, A, are
cranks on revolving shafts, which by engaging in the hooks B, B, attached to
the frame push the frame forward, raise it, and bring it back to its original
position. A series of these plates may as already mentioned be placed one
above another, and so arranged that the uppermost one shall deliver the grain
on to the next, where it is carried back and delivered on to the third, and so on
through the machine.
Figure 15 is a plan of one of these steam plates, the dotted lines showing
the coil of pipes cast into it.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Lee Norton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
Witness,
A. LE GRAND,
38, Belle Sauvage Yard,
Ludgate Hill,
London.
J. L. NORTON. (L.S.)