IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR ROASTING COFFEE
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
January 1862.-A communication from abroad by Jean Louis Rivret-
Justin, of 15, Passage des Petites Ecuries, Paris, France, Merchant.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son, of No. 11,
Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
ROASTING COFFEE," communicated to me from abroad by Jean Louis Rivret-
Justin, of 15, Passage des Petites Ecuries, Paris, France, Merchant, to be
as follows:-
The proposed coffee-roasting apparatus will be composed of a sphere of
sheet iron or other metal (to be turned over a fire by the aid of a crank) sur-
rounded by an envelope or casing of similar material (or of cast iron) which will
cause the flame and smoke from a fire beneath to circulate all around the
sphere, and which will have a fixed and a moveable part. The fixed part (which
should be of the thinnest cast iron) will have a sloping cut to permit the
passage of the revolving sphere, the axle of which it will support, and to which
it will be nearly concentric, but by reason of the sloping cut interrupted and as
it were cut by a horizontal plane, and on this side it will be covered with another
casing slightly excentric to and forming part of the first, a passage being left
for the smoke, which will redescend between them and escape through a pipe
joined thereto. The moveable part of the casing will be arranged so as to lift
and turn back behind the fixed part to give passage to the sphere when it is
desired to inspect or arrest the roasting, and for this purpose the moveable

page_text: part being raised a double rack will be brought down to lift the shaft of the
sphere, and a pinion will be placed on each side, and will tooth into the rack,
so that on turning a crank the sphere will come out of its casing, and thus be
withdrawn from the action of the fire, the moveable casing will then be lowered
to prevent the exit of smoke by this opening. Each rack will be edged by a
bar of iron extending slightly beyond, the teeth of the shaft of the sphere will
roll on these bars, and the pinions will be thus prevented from toothing too
deeply. The two racks will be united by a half circle of iron which will
maintain their parallelism. To this half circle will be fixed another which
will turn on two pins or pivots, and of which the extremities will rise slightly
above the rack, and will each have a small sloping cut or half elbow in which
the shaft of the sphere may lodge; when the shaft arrives near this point, the
half circle will be made to turn, and will be held by a small spring hook or
catch, which will resist the weight of the sphere and its contents. When it
may be desired to replace the sphere over the fire the hook will be withdrawn,
the sphere will lower and the pinion roll along the rack, the moveable casing
will be raised, the axle of the sphere will be brought above its place on the
fixed casing into which it will fall on raising the double rack, and the move-
able casing will then be lowered. The fire-place will consist of a simple
cylindrical iron stove which will support the sphere and its casing at a suitable
height. It will be provided with a grating, on which coke, coal, charcoal, or
wood may be burnt, and a door will permit the introduction of fuel without
interference with the roasting or torrefaction.
The apparatus will be placed on a cast-iron stand, circular at the back and
square in front, in order to give.it solidity on the side which would have a
tendency to overturn when the sphere was full of coffee. This stand will be
provided with a drawer to receive and remove the cinders. An apparatus
such as above described, containing, say one hundredweight of coffee, may be
easily managed by one person, who may mark the progress of the operation
without fatigue, and when terminated discharge the contents of the sphere by
bringing beneath it a grating provided for the purpose, on which the coffee
will fall through the door opened for that purpose.