IMPROVE- MENTS IN MILLS FOR GRINDING
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
BLAKEY and JOSEPH SKAIFE, of Keighley, in the County of York, Millers,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Sixth day of July, in the sixteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Thomas Blakey and Joseph Skaife, Her especial license, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that we, the said Thomas Blakey and Joseph
Skaife, our exors, admors, and assigns, and such others as we, the said Thomas
Blakey and Joseph Skaife, our exors, adñññors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the terni
of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and in the Islands
of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, our Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MILLS FOR GRINDING;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso obliging us, the said Thomas Blakey and Joseph Skaife, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and
seal of one of us, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause
the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in
part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Thomas Blakey and Joseph Skaife, do hereby declare that the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following description
thereof, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):
:-
Our Invention of "Improvements in Mills for Grinding" relates to a novel
or improved method of forming and arranging the grooves or lines which are
cut in the face of millstones. The usual method of making the working grooves
or lines of millstones or grinding surfaces is in a series of straight lines arranged
in sets at particular angles, as is well known to all millers. It has been found
by experience that this arrangement is open to objection, inasmuch as the meal
is not delivered quick enough, and air cannot easily reach the grinding
surfaces, consequently the meal gets heated, and is thereby injured. To
obviate these difficulties it has been proposed to substitute curved lines. for
straight ones, but experience has proved that the employment of simple curved
lines instead of straight ones will not produce the desired effect, as the stones
will not deliver freely, and the air is prevented by the meal from entering the
working lines or grooves. Our invention consists in substituting compound curved
lines in place of either straight lines or simple curves. The lines, according to
our improvement, are curved in two directions, as shewn in Fig. 1, which
represents the face of the running stone with our compound curved lines made
thereon. The first curve starts from the eye of the stone, and is taken at
a given angle, according to the speed at which the stone is intended to be
driven. By thus setting the curve at an angle, the corn, when it first enters, is
quickly broken down, and is caused to travel quickly over that portion of the
stone nearest the centre or eye until it arrives at the best and most effective
part of the grinding surface where the operation of grinding is performed with
much greater ease and in a more effectual manner than heretofore. The line
or groove is then made to bend or curve round in the opposite direction, and
by its angle causes a quick delivery of the ground corn or meal, and at the
same time causes a current of air to be drawn in through the eye, and made
to pass over the surface of the stones and keep them cool. It will now be
seen that the inner curves draw in the corn and convey it quickly to the most
effective part of the grinding surface, where it becomes ground before it has
time to become heated, and the remaining curves quickly deliver the ground corn
or meal from between the grinding surfaces, and by thus keeping the working
lines or grooves free from meal facilitates the introduction of a current of fresh
air. We find by experience that stones with the above form and arrange-
ment of lines will make flour of better quality than stones with the ordinary

page_text: lines formed thereon, and that the offal is much clearer, and a greater quantity
of work can be done than by the old stones. In order to further facilitate the
delivery of the meal from the grinding surfaces, we sometimes find it advisable
to have some additional short curved lines made near the periphery of the
stones, as shewn in Fig. 2. When such is the case the additional lines should
be placed midway between the others, and may extend inwards as far as the
commencement of the outer curves.
Having now described our Invention, and the best means with which we
are acquainted for carrying the same into effect, we would observe, in con-
clusion, that we do not claim the use of simple curved lines, such lines having
been heretofore used for similar purposes, but that which we consider to be
new, and therefore wish to claim as the Invention secured to us by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent, is the use or employment of grinding
surfaces with compound curved lines or grooves formed thereon, as above
shewn and described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Blakey and Joseph Skaife,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fifth day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
within-named Thomas Blakey and
Joseph Skaife (being first duly
stamped) in the presence of
THOMAS (L.S.) BLAKEY.
JOSEPH (Ls.) SKAIFE.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifth day of January, in
the year of our Lord 1858, the aforesaid Thomas Blakey and Joseph Skaife
came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and speci-
fied, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tonor of the Statute made for that purpose.