IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR HULLING OR DECORTICATING, WINNOWING, CLEANING, POLISHING, AND ASSORTING RICE
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Whalley, of No. 11, Sussex Place, Man-
chester Road, Cubitt Town, Poplar, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, for the Invention of “ IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR HULLING OR DECORTICATING, WINNOWING, CLEANING,
POLISHING, AND ASSORTING RICE."
Sealed the 1st May 1874, and dated the 17th January 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Whalley at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th January 1874.
I, JAMES WHALLEY, of No. 11, Sussex Place, Manchester Road,
Cubitt Town, Poplar, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
OR APPARATUS FOR HULLING OR DECORTICATING, WINNOWING, CLEANING, POLISHING,
AND ASSORTING RICE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery or
annaratus for hulling or decorticating winnowing cleaning nolishing

page_text: and assorting rice, and is designed to produce a machine which shall
perform upon rice passed through it the several operations of hulling or
removing the hulls or husks; separating them, the brown meal, and the
hulled grains from each other; "milling" or cleaning and polishing
the rice, separating therefrom what is known as the "polisher meal,"
and assorting the polished rice, or in other words separating from each
other the large rice, the small rice, and the "seconds."
For these purposes, according to my Invention, the grain to be treated
is fed by a suitable hopper to a machine, wherein it is caused by centri-
fugal force to pass between a stationary steel wire disc, brush, and a
rotating annular stone (by preference Horwich stone) connected to and
carried by the vertical main shaft of the machine and serving as a fly
wheel to the same.
After passing between the steel brush and the rotating stone the grain
descends into a hopper, whereby it is fed on to the central portion of a
rotating steel wire gauze sieve carried by the main shaft. Above this
rotating sieve is a stationary annular steel or other disc brush, between
´ which and the sieve the grain is thrown outwards by centrifugal force,
the brown meal passing through the meshes of the sieve into a stationary
receptacle placed below to receive it, which receptacle is provided with a
spout or spouts for conducting the brown meal into any suitable external
receptacle. The grain then descends into another hopper; and during
its descent the husks are blown into an annular receiver or channel by
blasts of air forced up through the main shaft, which for this purpose is
made hollow and slotted, or the necessary blast may be produced by fans
or blowers.
The rice is further treated between a stationary disc brush and a
rotating surface formed by a series of slabs of a composition or compound
consisting of emery and alum boiled together in about equal proportions
by weight; thence the rice is conducted by a hopper to and is treated
between a stationary disc brush and a surface of felt; thence by another
hopper to and between a stationary felt surface and a rotating fine sieve,.
through which the polisher meal is forced into a receptacle provided for
the purpose and furnished with spouts. The rice having been thus
polished is fed by a hopper to and is assorted by passing between a
stationary annular brush and a rotating perforated iron disc having a
receptacle or receptacles below it,

page_text: Each hopper is surrounded by an annular receiver or channel, into
which any remaining husks are from time to time blown, as herein-
before described, so as to remove the whole of the loosened husks from
the rice before it emerges from the machine.
The husks are removed from the annular receivers or channels by
suitable flappers carried round by arms attached to the main shaft of the
machine.
The rotating stone discs and other parts are made in sections to
facilitate removal for examination or renewal, and the whole of the
brushes are made adjustable by means of suitable screws and hand
wheels.
The mashing is nuvided with on avtannel platform to facilitate ca
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Whalley in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th July 1874. .
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
WHALLEY, of No. 11, Sussex Place, Manchester Road, Cubitt Town,
Poplar, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in
the thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said James Whalley, Her
special license that I, the said James Whalley, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Whalley, 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 MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR HULLING OR

page_text: DECORTICATING, WINNOWING, CLEANING, POLISHING, AND ASSORTING RICE,” upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Whalley, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands 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 Whalley, do hereby declaro
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 thereof, and the Drawing therein referred to (that
is to say):
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery or
apparatus for hulling or decorticating, winnowing, cleaning, polishing,
and assorting rice, and is designed to produce a machine which shall
perform upon rice passed through it the several operations of hulling
or removing the hulls or husks, separating them, the brown meal, and
the hulled grains from each other; "milling" or cleaning and polishing
the rice, separating therefrom what is known as the "polisher meal,"
and assorting the polished rice, or in other words separating from each
other the large rice, the small rice, and the "seconds.
For these purposes according to my Invention the grain to be treated
is fed by a suitable hopper to a machine wherein it is caused by centri-
fugal force to pass between a stationary steel wire disc brush and a
rotating annular stone (by preference Horwich stone) connected to and
carried by the vertical main shaft of the machine, and serving as a fly
wheel to the same.
After passing between the steel brush and the rotating stone the grain
descends into a hopper, whereby it is fed on to the central portion of a
rotating steel wire gauze sieve carried by the main shaft. Above this
rotating sieve is a stationary annular steel or other disc brush, between
which and the sieve the grain is thrown outwards by centrifugal force,
the brown meal passing through the meshes of the sieve into a stationary
receptacle placed below to receive it, which receptacle is provided
with a spout or spouts for conducting the brown meal into any

page_text: machine. It works in suitable bearings, and is driven by a band or
gearing in the ordinary manner; c is the casing enclosing the upper
portion of the machine, into which the rice to be operated upon is fed
by a suitablé hopper arranged to regulate the feed by the use of oval
funnels of various sizes; d is a plate which receives the rice, and by the
centrifugal action of the machine feeds it in between a stationary steel
wire disc brush composed of steel bristles é half an inch long (in a wood
backing e' carried by a cast-iron frame e made adjustable as to height
by screws e³, which support it), and a rotating annular stone g of the
kind known as Horwich stone, supported in a cast-iron pan or bed g¹
keyed to and carried by the main shaft so that the stone and bed form
a fly wheel of which the stone constitutes the rim. Between the brush e
and the stone 9 the grain is decorticated. h is a circular hopper to
conduct the decorticated rice, husks, or shudes, meal, et cætera, on to the
central portion of a rotating steel wire gauze sieve i carried by the main
shaft b, above which is a stationary annular disc brush composed of hair
bristles j half an inch long in a wood backing carried by a frame j
adjustable by screws in brackets j fixed to the main framing, as shewn,
so that by the hand wheels j³ the amount of pressure to be put upon the
rice may be regulated to suit the kind of rice under treatment.
grain is thrown outwards by centrifugal force between the brush and the
sieve the brown meal passes through the meshes of the sieve into a
stationary receptacle attached to the hopper, and provided with
spouts for conducting the brown meal into any suitable external
receptacle. The grain then descends into the hopper ³, and during its
descent the husks are blown into an annular receiver / provided with
flappers (which may be made of leather or felt) carried round by arms
connected to the main shaft b, as shewn, so as to remove the contents of
the annular receiver through suitable spouts . The orifices through
which the husks are blown into the receivers are provided with guards
or deflectors to prevent the rice as it leaves the discs entering tho
As tho

page_text: rice, or the requisite blast may be produced by fans or blowers n carried
by the main shaft b, as shewn in red. The machine is provided with
exhaust pipes o for the escape of foul air and ventilation of the discs
while at work. By the hopper h¹ the grain is fed on to the central
portion of the iron bed p of a rotating disc p¹ consisting of a scries of
slabs. Each slab is composed of emery and alum boiled together in
equal proportions by weight, and cast or run in a pan so as to form a
slab about from half an inch to three-quarters of an inch in thickness.
Above the rotating disc p¹ is a stationary annular steel wire disc brush p³
like that already described. The disc p' and brush p² are specially
adapted for milling, completing the hulling, and separating the meal,
husk, and rice from each other. ³ is a hopper, which next leads the
grain to the central portion of an iron base or plate q attached to the
shaft b, and carrying discs or flat rings of strong felt q¹, above which is
a stationary disc brush composed of steel wires q³ protruding about half
an inch from a wooden backing q³ carried and made adjustable in the
same manner as the brushes already described, or a brush composed of
other material than wire may be used. Between the rotating surface of
felt and the steel brush the rice is polished, and by centrifugal force is
driven into a hopper h³, which feeds it on to the central portion of a
cast-iron boss or plater, having arms 7* carrying a disc of wire gauze 11,
having a receptacle or separating hopper below it provided with
spouts 7-³.
Above the disc of gauze 71 is a stationary steel brush 14,
which as the rice passes between it and the gauze r³ causes the so-called
polisher meal or polished rice meal to fall through the meshes into the
receptacle. The grains pass into the hopper *, by which they are fed
on to the central portion of an iron boss or plates provided with radial
arms 8* carrying a perforated disc or plate s¹, having a receptacle or
separating hopper & below it for the small particles or grains, and a
hopper h³ for conducting away the large rice. The perforations in the
disc or plate 8¹ are to be large enough for the small rice to pass through,
but not so large as to allow the large grains to go into the receptacle 8*.
Above the perforated plate or disc 8) is a steel wire brush & similar to
those already described, or the brush may be of other material.
To separate the rice into more than two qualities as to size an additional
nerforated dise or plate or plates having other sizes of holes in them max

page_text: arrangements may be modified to direct the different sizes of grains into
suitable spouts, shoots, or guides, whereby they may be conveyed into
separate receivers. The rice passes out from between each of the brushes
and its respective disc plate or surface at x. c¹, c³, c³, c', c³, are casings
or covers to the respective working portions or divisions of the machine.
t is an external platform to facilitate access to the upper part of the
machine. All the brushes are made adjustable by screws
brackets, and regulated by hand wheels jo, as shewn.
carried in

page_text: Lastly. The adaptation and arrangement in combination of the per-
forated plate 8¹, steel wire brush 8³, receptacle 8³, and hopper h³, substan-
tially as described for the purposes specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Whalley, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
JA'. WHALLEY. (L.S.)