Improvements in Apparatus for Subjecting Materials to the Action of Hot Air or for analogous operations, more especially intended for Use in Drying Tea Leaves, Coffee, and other Produce.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Oct., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 30th Nov., 1893-Accepted, 20th Jan., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Subjecting Materials to the Action
of Hot Air or for analogous operations, more especially intended
for Use in Drying Tea Leaves, Coffee, and other Produce.
I, WILLIAM JACKSON of Thorn Grove, Mannofield, Aberdeen, Scotland,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to apparatus of the kind wherein superposed bands of pivotted
trays are carried over rollers or sprocket wheels the trays being supported by rails
which retain them in position till a break or opening in the rails allows the trays
to turn and discharge their contents to the web travelling beneath. As the chains
carrying the trays get longer from wear the bearings for the rollers and sprocket
wheels are adjusted to take up the slack the rollers and sprocket wheels being
drawn away from the ends of the rails so that in time the gap between the rollers
and sprocket wheels and the ends of the rails becomes so great as to allow the trays
to drop on leaving the rollers. To obviate this defect I make a circular groove in
cach roller or sprocket wheel and I form the end of the opposed rail so that it
accommodates the teeth of the sprocket wheel whilst the said end enters the groove
so that the rollers and sprocket wheels can be adjusted without the formation of
the aforesaid objectionable gap between the rollers and sprocket wheels and the
ends of the rails. To give stability to the trays I insert a tube along one edge.
This may be done by folding the metal of the edge of the tray around the tube
the sides of the tube projecting preferably equally from the opposite faces of the
tray. The ends of the said tube form bearings for the reception of the ears of the
pitch chains.
The edge of the tray opposite to the edge at which the tube is
situated may have wire inserted in it in the well known way. The feeding device
is made so that a reciprocatory or oscillatory or equivalent movement can be
imparted to it so as to shake the tea or other material through a grid at or towards
its lower part or say about midway the said grid having the spaces thereof
preferably adjustable which may be effected by making the grid in two or more
portions movable relatively to each other to adjust the spaces. The said feeding
device is preferably oscillated about a centre at a lower level than the grid but it
may be oscillated or reciprocated in any convenient way.
Dated this 4th day of October 1893.
J. H. JOHNSON & Co.,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Agents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Subjecting Materials to the Action
of Hot Air or for analogous operations, more especially intended
for Use in Drying Tea Leaves, Coffee, and other Produce.
I, WILLIAM JACKSON, of Thorne Grove, Mannofield, Aberdeen, Scotland,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
My invention relates to apparatus of the kind wherein superposed endless bands
of pivotted trays are carried over rollers or sprocket wheels (or both) the trays
being supported by rails which retain them in position till a break or opening in
Price 877

page_text: the rails allows the trays to turn and discharge their contents to the part of the
web travelling beneath.
The accompanying drawings shew elevations at right angles to each other in
Figures 1 and 2 a machine of this kind to which my invention is applied. As the
chains carrying the trays a get longer from wear the bearings b for the rollers c
and sprocket wheels d are adjusted to take up the slack. The adjustment for such
slack cannot conveniently be made at the ends at which the trays tilt over down-
wards as they are about to pass round the sprocket wheels d' and so is made at the
ends where the trays fold themselves up as they pass upwards round the spocket
wheels d. The rails on which the top trays of the web rest must be cut away to
allow the sprocket wheels at that end to move inwards far enough to get the pitch
chains on when they are short.
in
When the chain increases in length from use the rollers c and sprocket wheels d
are drawn away from the ends of the rails fso that in time the gap between the
rollers and sprocket wheels and the ends of the rails at the ends where the rails
should support the trays would ordinarily become so great as to allow the trays to
drop on leaving the rollers. To obviate this defect I make a circular groove
each roller c or at the side of each sprocket wheel d as shewn in the detail elevation
Figure 3 and plan Figure 4 and I form the end of the opposed rail as at f' so that
it accommodates the teeth of the sprocket wheel whilst the said end enters the
groove g so that the rollers and sprocket wheels can be adjusted without the
formation of the aforesaid objectionable gap between the rollers and sprocket
wheels and the ends of the rails. To give stability to the trays I construct them
as shown in plan and end view in Figures 5 and 6 that is to say I insert a tube /
along one edge. This may be done by folding the metal of the edge of the tray
around the tube as at the sides of the tube projecting preferably equally from
the opposite faces of the tray as seen clearly in Figure 6. The ends of the said
tube form bearings for the reception of the ears of the pitch chains. The edge
of the tray opposite to the edge at which the tube h is situated may have a wire h³
inserted in it in the well known way. The feeding device is made so that a
reciprocatory or oscillatory or equivalent movement can be imparted to it so as to
shake the tea or other material through a grid at or towards its lower part or say
about midway the said grid having the spaces thereof preferably adjustable which
may be effected by making the grid in two or more portions moveable relatively to
each other to adjust the spaces. The said feeding device is preferably oscillated
about a centre at a lower level than the grid but it may be oscillated reciprocated
or equivalently moved in any convenient way.
In Figures 1 and 2 I have shown the feeding hopper I and the means for
oscillating it and in Figures 7 and 8 I have shewn two cross sections of the said
hopper with the grid in different positions. The hopper I is mounted upon a
central rod or on trunnions i to one end of which rod or to one of which trunnions
is secured an arm to which (and consequently to the hopper) oscillatory motion
is imparted by means of a shaft J provided with a band pulley ; and with an
eccentric encircled by the strap j³ the rod j of which is attached to the arm i³.
The grid in the hopper consists of fixed bars k and moveable bars k³ which are
provided with pins k³ projecting through slots and with pinching nuts or other
means of securing them.
I have shewn the bars of the grid as being triangular in cross section but they
may be of square circular or any other desired form.
Instead of oscillating the hopper it may be moved in either way such for
instance as by reciprocating it on slides. The grid may be non-adjustable if
desired.
The apparatus described is especially intended for use in drying tea leaves coffee
or other produce or for subjecting other materials to the action of hot air but it
may be used for any other analogous operations such as for example for cooling
materials by exposing them to currents of cold air or for subjecting materials to
the action of gases.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In apparatus of the kind hereinbefore mentioned a groove (9) in the rollers or
at the side of the sprocket wheels and an extended projection (f) from the
adjacent end of the rails substantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore
explained.
2. The combination with the trays of a tube (4) acting as a pivot bearing and
arranged relatively to the tray substantially as herein before described.
3. In apparatus for the purpose described a moveable hopper or feeding device
provided with a grid substantially as hereinbefore described.
4. The arrangement and combination of parts constituting the apparatus
substantially as herein before described and shewn in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 30th day of November 1893.
J. H. JOHNSON & Co.,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C., Agents.