IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND THE FITTING UP OF GRANARIES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Charles Louis Devaux, of King William.
Street, in the City of London, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
Sealed the 17th June 1856, and dated the 8th April 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Charles Louis
Devaux at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 8th April 1856.
I, ALEXANDER CHARLES LOUIS DEVAUX, of King William Street, in the
City of London, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND THE FITTING UP OF GRANARIES, to
be as follows:-
-
The object of this Invention is to provide a means for effecting the perfect
ventilation of grain in store, and also to facilitate the storing of grain in
granaries, and the discharge of the same therefrom into sacks or other
receptacles. For this purpose I provide my granary with deep bins (of a
cylindrical form by preference), constructed of woven wire, or reticulated
sheet metal, or other suitable material, supported by a metal or other
framing, and in the centre of each bin I fix an air shaft, for conducting
streams of air or gaseous products into the mass of grain contained in the bin.

page_text: These several air shafts I connect with a common flue, which is supplied with
air or gases from suitable fans or blowers. For the purpose of regulating the
supply of air to the several bins, I provide dampers for cutting off the supply
from any bins in the series. Instead of the air being forced into the bins, the
fans may, if preferred, be caused to act as exhausters, and the air will then pass
from the exterior of the bin to the central air shaft, and thence away to the
common flue. I arrange the bins in double rows for the greater convenience
of filling the same; and in order to economise labor, in lifting the grain and
discharging it into the bins, I provide endless chains of buckets, which take up
the grain from a trough, and having raised it to the required elevation,
discharge it on to an endless band, which runs in a trough or horizontal
channel. The grain in travelling along with the band is intercepted by
adjustuable shutters, which cross the path of the band, and thereby conducted
to shutes which discharge it into the respective bins.
Each bin is provided at the bottom with a shute (commanded by a sliding
shutter) for discharging the grain therefrom when required, cither on to the
delivering bands, to be shot direct into a boat, or into sacks placed to receive it
at the mouths of the shutes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Charles Louis Devaux in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 8th October 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
CHARLES LOUIS DEVAUX, of King William Street, in the City of London,
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alexander Charles Louis Devaux, Her special license that I, 'the said
Alexander Charles Louis Devaux, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Alexander Charles Louis Devaux, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND THE FITTING

page_text: UP OF GRANARIES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander
Charles Louis Devaux, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
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 Alexander Charles Louis Devaux, do
hereby declare the nature of my 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 Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates, firstly, to a novel construction of granary, the object
being to obtain a perfect ventilation of the grain in store; and, secondly, to
the use of certain mechanical contrivances for facilitating the storing of grain
in granaries, and also the discharging of the same therefrom into sacks or other
receptacles when required.
These several air shafts I
flue d, which is supplied
The vertical air shafts b
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 shews, in elevation, and Fig. 2, in
plan view, the mode of carrying out the above-named objects. For the
purpose of effecting a thorough ventilation of the grain, I provide my granary
with deep bins a, a, (of a cylindrical form by preference,) constructed of woven
wire or reticulated sheet metal, which is supported by a suitable frame of T or
angle iron. In the centre of each bin I fix a tube or air shaft b, also composed
of reticulated sheets of wirework or rolled metal.
connect by means of pipes c, c, with a common air
with a blast of air from suitable fans or blowers e.
I close at top with a plug f, which is pendent from a cord f*, that runs over
guide pullies, and reaches down to near the floor of the granary. These plugs
f are intended to deflect the current of air that is thrown into the shaft b,
and to compel it to find a vent through the lateral holes in the shaft, and thus
percolate through the mass of grain surrounding the air shaft. The plugs are
made adjustable to suit the varying levels of the grain in the bins, and prevent
any air from escaping from the shaft without coming in contact with the
grain. For the purpose of regulating the supply of air to the several bins, I
provide the pipes c, c, with valves or dampers, which the attendant can open
or close as desired by entering the flued for the purpose. Rotary motion is
communicated to the blowers or fans e by a steam engine or other motive
power apparatus, and thus a blast of air is thrown into the central shafts b,
which air will find its way through the mass of grain and escape through the
reticulated sides of the bin, or having passed upwards through the super-

page_text: incumbent body of grain will escape at the top of the bin.
Instead of the air
acting as thus indicated, the fans may, if preferred, be caused to act as
exhausters, and the air will then pass from the exterior of the bin to the
central air shaft, thence through the pipes ċ to the flues d, with which they are
in communication, and so to the exhaust fans.
It will be understood that the abovo-described arrangement or construction
of granary will also greatly facilitate the introduction of sulphurous fumes and
other gases to grain, for the purpose of destroying animal life that may have
generated therein, and otherwise of preserving the grain from destruction
or decay.
I will now proceed to shew the manner of carrying out the second part of
my Invention, premising that I arrange the bins in double rows, as shewn in
the plan view, Fig. 2, for the greater convenience of filling the same. In order
to economize labor, in lifting the grain and discharging it into the bins, I
provide endless chains of buckets g, g, of the ordinary construction, which take
up the grain from a trough h, and having raised it to the required elevation,
discharge it on to a travelling endless band i, which passes over rollers set in a
trough or horizontal channel k, a little above and between the double rows of
bins. Lateral shutes are provided to this trough for guiding the grain into
the respective bins when the grain is intercepted by an adjustable shutter k*,
which crosses the path of the band; and to prevent the channel k from being
choked by grain falling from the band, the band is made to fit the channel
or trough, and form as it were a travelling false bottom thereto. At the
bottom cach bin is provided with a shute (commanded by sliding shutters) for
discharging the grain therefrom, either into a receptacle or on to an endless
travelling band * as required. Rotary motion is communicated to the endless
band i (which I prefer to construct of leather) by a strap m from a pulley shaft n
driven by a strap from the main driving shaft. The strap m passes upwards to.
a pulley on one of the tension rollers of the band i, as shewn at Fig. 1, and a
band o from the pulley shaft n transmits motion to the endless chains of
buckets g, g, by means of a horizontal shaft p, which receives motion by a
band 2 from the pulley shaft n, and is fitted with clutches taking into clutches
on the axles of the pulleys of the bands *; rotary motion is communicated at
pleasure to those bands.
From the above description it will be seen that I not only effect a great
saving of labor in the transference of the grain to and from the granary, but I
also effectually provide for the thorough ventilation of the grain while in store.
By this improved mode of constructing and arranging granaries I greatly
reduce the first cost of building, inasmuch as tiers of floors about ten feet

page_text: apart (more or less) are not required, my system admitting of the use of bins,
of, say, thirty feet in depth, without detriment to the grain.
Having now pointed out the several improvements which I propose to apply
in the construction and fitting up of granaries, I wish it to be understood that
I claim,-
First, the use of reticulated bins with a central air shaft, as explained, for
facilitating the ventilation of grain in store.
And, secondly, the application to granaries of the apparatus above described,
or any mere modification thereof, for distributing the grain (as it is received
from the elevators) into the bins, and also for collecting it from the bins, and
discharging it into suitable receptacles as required.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Charles Louis Devaux, have
hereunto set my band and seal, the Fourth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. C. L. DEVAUX. (L.S.)