IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR BOLLING, SEED SEPARATING, STRAW BREAKING AND SCUTCHING FLAX AND OTHER LIKE FIBROUS BODIES
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Robert Dry of 25 Oriental Street East India Road
in the County of Middlesex for an Invention of IMPROVED MEANS AND
APPARATUS FOR BOLLING, SEED SEPARATING, STRAW BREAKING AND SCUTCHING
FLAX AND OTHER LIKE FIBROUS BODIES
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Robert Dry at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th March 1883.
JAMES ROBERT DRY of 25 Oriental Street, East India Road in the County of
Middlesex "IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR BOLLING, SEED SEPARATING,
STRAW BREAKING AND SCUTCHING FLAX AND OTHER LIKE FIBROUS BODIES
"
According to my Invention, in order to remove the seed bolls from the ear of,
say, flax, I enter the ears into and between a pair of skeleton rollers the blades of
which are set at an angle to the length of the rollers and caused to intercept each
other as the rollers revolve, whereby the bolls only are acted upon and separated
from the straws.
The bolls thus removed are arranged between two wire seives which almost touch
and give a rubbing action to break up the bolls to free the seed therefrom.
The seed is afterwards placed in a vessel whose bottom as a seive is fitted with
curved exterior which rides upon cams fitted to the frame to ensure during the
revolution of the same a combined rising and falling motion, and a swerving action
to the unclean seed by the constant change of place the particles are thrown into,
whereby the seed is separated and the refuse of the bolls and other impurities
which accumulate near the periphery of the bottom to be removed by a vertical
creeper which dips into the refuse and lifts it over the top edge into any suitable
receiver; the seed and fine dust having passed through the seive into a vessel
beneath through which a blast of air is forced to carry the dust clear of the seed.
To break the straws, I feed them from a table or board into and between a pair
of geared fluted rollers to lead the straws onto the surface of a rotating drum

page_text: which is coated with rubber to ensure the grip on and so carry the straws round
with it for nearly one half of its circumference the straws being pressed upon by
other fluted rollers arranged around that part of the circumference of the drum
between the entering rollers and the delivery one. The straws then pass into
between a series of fluted rollers and a second rubber coated drum from which the
straws leave by a pair of geared delivery rollers on the opposite side of the
machine.
Above the second drum I arrange another feed table from which the broken
straws are again passed through between two or more pairs of geared fluted rollers.
The lower of these geared-fluted rollers form. a portion of the series over the first
named rubber coated drum For scutching purposes I make the blades of the
drum with curved edge faces, said faces being notched or recessed as to form angled
edges.
Any number of these blades may be fitted upon the periphery of the drum, the
notches of one blade being arranged to intercept those of the next blade and so on.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said James Robert Dry in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
11th September 1883.
JAMES ROBERT DRY of 25 Oriental Street, East India Road in the county of
Middlesex "IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR BOLLING SEED SEPARATING,
STRAW BREAKING AND SCUTCHING FLAX AND OTHER LIKE FIBROUS BODIES."
According to my invention in order to remove the seed bolls from the ears of
say flax I enter the ears into and between a pair of skeleton rollers—the blades of
which are set at an angle to the length of the rollers and caused to intercept each
other as the rollers revolve whereby the bolls only are acted upon and separated
from the straws. The holls thus removed are arranged between two wire seives
which almost touch and give a rubbing action to break up the bolls to free the
seed therefroin.
The seed is afterwards placed in a vessel whose bottom as a seive is fitted with
curved exterior which rides upon rollers fitted to the frane to ensure during the
revolution of the same a combined rising and falling motion and a swerving action
to the unclean seed by the constant change of place the particles are thrown into
whereby the seed is separated from the refuse of the bolls and other impurities
which accumulate near the periphery of the bottom to be removed by vertical
creepers which dip into the refuse and lift it over the top edge into any suitable
receiver, the seed and fine dust having passed through the seive into a vessel
beneath, through which a blast of air is forced to carry the dust clear of the seed.
To break the straws I feed them from a table or board into and between a pair
of geared fluted rollers to lead the straws onto the surface of a rotating drum
which is coated with, rubber to ensure the grip on and so carry the straws round
with it for nearly one half of its circumference the straws being pressed upon by
other fluted rollers arranged around that part of the circumference of the drum
between the entering rollers and the delivery one. The straws then pass into
between a series of fluted rollers and a recond rubber coated drum from which the
straws leave by a pair of geared delivery rollers on the opposite side of the
machine.
Above the second drum I arrange another feed table from which the broken
straws are again passed through between two or more pairs of geared fluted rollers.
The lower of these geared fluted rollers form a portion of the series over the first
named rubber coated drums.
For scutching purposes I make the blades of the drum with curved edge faces,
said faces being notched or recessed as to form angled edges. Any number of
these blades may be fitted upon the periphery of the drum, the notches of one blade
being arranged to intercept those of the next blade and so on.
The first part of my invention is clearly shown at Figures 1 and 2 of the annexed
drawing these being a sectional elevation and transverse section of an apparatus
so constructed or arranged as described
A. A. are two rollers set to be revolved in the casing B. The blades C C are
set at an angle to the axis and are so arranged that the blades of one roller
intercept those of the other during the revolutions
The rollers are of smaller diameter at the same end consequently the axles on
the shafts D D are set at an angle and at such a distance apart that the blades
exercise a gentle beating action upon the ears of the flax or like straws which may
be put between them the ears only being so placed in between the rollers as to remove
the pods from the straws i.e. Rippling the straws themselves being held by the .

page_text: operator who as soon as the bolling has been effected withdraws the straws and
sets them apart for a future and distinct operation the bolls or seeds having fallen
into the shoot or spout E where they are acted upon by a vertical sliding screen F
which not only cracks and breaks up the shells or pods but dislodges the seed
therefrom the particles of pods and the seed then passing through the meshes of
the screen F to be separated in any wellknown manner.
Figure 3 is a plan and Figure 4 a transverse section of a modified arrangement
of bolling or rippling machine. In this I set the sinaller diameter of one roller to
the larger diameter of the other and the two axles or shafts parallel in the frame or
casing.
The blades project from the larger diameter to a greater distance than from the
smaller diameter or they may be parallel and the spaces between the blades of each
roller are filled in instead of being in open or skeleton form as shown in the
previous figures. The arrangement also shows a method by which the straw can
be fed to enable the operation of bolling to be effected by a sliding or dragging
action from the entry to the withdrawal of the straws, the ears or heads of the
straws being fed over the edge of the curved bar G in the direction of the arrow.
Figure 5 shows a similar apparatus in which a feeding can take place at each
end of the rollers by different attendants. The two rollers may be geared as
shown at Figures 1 and 2 also at Figures 3 and 4 as to run at the same speed, they
may however be so set or arranged as that one of the pair shall run at a higher
speed but regulated as to ensure the intercepting of the blades during the
revolutions.
In the construction the blades will project about two inches beyond the disc of
the tapered drums or rollers and filled in between the blades with a covering of
sheet iron. The tapered drums will be placed with one large end and one small
end together and so geared that the blades of the small end will be between the
two blades of the large end. The seed will be offered between the cone drums
vertically and fed over a bar G. The drums thus constructed and arranged can be
used for preparing or breaking the straws ready for being scutched
All the blades of each roller are set at a tangent either to the right or to the left
to a circle at one end and in radial order at the other or both ends may be set at a
tangent if desired. The tapered drums are preferably formed by two. discs a a¹²
with slots b b₁ cast in them to receive the blades.
In Figure 4 I have shown a fluted or serrated faced roller F to crack the pods
and effect a dislodgement of the seed therefrom by causing them to pass between
the roller F and a roughened faced plate H from which they fall into a sifting
apparatus shown at Figure 6, this being composed of a drum I with an irregular
shaped base edgeplate J which when rotated gives a rocking action to the drum I
and a swerving agitation to the seeds and broken up pods as to continuously change
their position from the centre to the outer edge or shell of the drum to facilitate
the sifting.
The seeds are the finer of the two and pass through the meshes of the seive into
the shoot K from whence they fall into a sack arranged at the lower end. The
refuse of the bolls gradually creep to the periphery from which it is lifted by the
archimedian screws L to over the top edge of the cover plate M. A blast can be
employed to impinge against the falling seed so as to separate the dust from it or
the seed can be taken to a winnowing machine to be cleansed in the ordinary
manner
x
My straw breaking apparatus is shown at Figure 7 composed of two india rubber
coated drums P. P¹ with toothed rollers QQ rubbing thereon and rotated by the
touch which causes the straws to be bent, cracked and crushed and ultimately
broken into a fibrous state by the successive action of the toothed rollers as they ie,
the straws pass along. In the drawing I have shown a pair of geared feed
rollers R R the lower of which is not in contact with the rubber of the drum P and
their action is to take the straws from the table S and lead them into between the
rubber of the drum P¹ and the roller R and the rollers Q. The straws after

page_text: travelling about half the circumference of the drum P₁ are passed by a partition
plate T into and between the drum P and its set of toothed crushing rollers Q from
which they are caused to. leave onto the table U after which if not sufficiently
broken the straws are passed from the table V into and between the fluted
rollers of the first named drum and of additional fluted rollers Q₁'arranged above
as shown
The teeth of these rollers intercept and completely break up the straws into a
fibrous state. The drums are geared by the large wheels W W so as to travel
round at the same speed one set of toothed crushing rollers being at the top and
the other at the bottom in order to ensure should the straws retain the flat layer
like condition through the machine that the whole of the length and every portion
be acted upon
Instead of using two rubber coated drums as above described one drum P² only
may be employed, the two sets of geared Huted rollers being arranged in the manner
shown at Figure 8. By this means an equal amount of efficiency can be obtained
with great economy in space and the full circumference of the drum put into action
instead of a half only.
The scutcher is composed of a series of blades X of rounded or camber form ou.
the working edge and provided with ratchet like teeth Y arranged to look in the
opposite direction or alternate one with the other and with the teeth of one blade
arranged to pass in lines concentric to those of the blade last passed so that every
part of the straw is acted upon by the blades as they revolve they being on a
tapered drum A' and set at an angle to the taper as shown at Figure 10. The flax
to be operated upon or scutched by the blades last mentioned is arranged on the
edge of the plate Z the plate being slotted to allow for the wind created by the
revolutions of the blades and drums to escape.
The amount of pinch or frictional contact is determined by the set screw c.
Instead of the saw or toothed edged blades being rounded or of camber form the
working face of the plate or stock Z may be so shaped and the blades be straight
on their edges
The blades may be a fixture as at Figure 10 or they may be arranged in number
(say 5) on an axle d and series of them can be fitted around the drum A¹ so that
they are free to move on their axles by contact with the flax as the drum A
revolves. This will be understood by reference to Figure 11 the series of blades f. f.
being free to give to any extra thickness of flax or other fibrous material that may
be inserted between them and the plate or stock. Z another blade of the set
coming into action. In ordinary working the axles & and their blades f. f. would
be caused to revolve in the reverse direction to that of the drum A¹ and as the
drum revolves the blow of the blades is minimised and softened without diminishing
the force of the blow on the flax for its efficient scutching.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed I declare that I claim The several apparatus shown in the
annexed drawings constructed and arranged as and for the purposes set forth.
In details of construction I claim the following features
The special arrangement of the cone drum A in combination with the undulating
action sieve F shown at Figures and 2 of the drawings for said bolling
or rippling purposes.
The arrangement of two cone drums A. A with bar G to enable the flax to be
fed vertically and the roller F as described and shown at Figures 3 and 4
for seed bolling and rippling purposes also the modification thereof as shown
at Figure 5.
c The apparatus shown at Figure 6 arranged as described for sifting the seed and
the removal of the debris
d. The straw breaking apparatus shown at Figure 7 and its modification shown at
Figure 8 the main feature being the rubber covered drums P. P¹ P³ as
docauibad

page_text: e The cambered and saw toothed blades X arranged on the drum A¹ as described
for scutching purposes and substantially as shown at Figures 9 and 10 also
its modification described with regard to the plate or stock Z as set forth.
The sets of blades f. f. and drums A on axles d fitted on the periphery of a main
drum A' and having a free movement as described for scutching purposes
In witness whereof I the said James Robert Dry have hereunto set my hand
and seal this First day of September in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and eighty three
JAMES.
ROBERT DRY.
(L.S.)