IMPROVEMENTS IN PACKING SUGAR OR OTHER GRANULAR OR PULVERULENT SUBSTANCES, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR.”
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Naismith Todd at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th December 1879.
JOHN NAISMITH TODD, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PACKING SUGAR OR OTHER GRANULAR OR PULVERULENT
SUBSTANCES, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR.”
This Invention has for its object the packing of sugar in an improved manner,
and so as, whilst getting a comparatively large quantity into a hogshead or other
package of a given size, to avoid injury to the condition or appearance of the sugar;
and the Invention is also advantageously applicable for packing various granular or
pulverulent substances in packages of various kinds or forms.
The Invention comprises two modes of operation, of which one may be found
preferable in some applications and the other in others. In one proposed mode of
packing or compacting granular or pulverulent substances a wedging action is
employed, whilst in the other mode centrifugal force is brought into action for the
same purpose.
In packing sugar in a hogshead by the wedging process, according to ono
modification, the hogshead is placed with its open end uppermost and there is
placed on it a combined cover and hopper, the cover closing an annular space round
the bottom of the hopper. A quantity of sugar is directed through the hopper
into the hogshead, and then a kind of plunger is moved down vertically through tho
bottom of the hopper into the hogshead; this plunger is in the form of an inverted
cone, and descending into the sugar it presses it outwards in every direction, and
to some extent downwards. The conical plunger is withdrawn vertically, a fresh
supply of sugar is introduced, and the plunger is moved down again, and this is
repeated until the hogshead is filled or nearly so. The cover round the hopper
prevents the sugar from rising there as it would otherwise be apt to do.
Instead of the plunger being conical it may be pyramidal or of any other suitable
wedge-like shape, and one, two, or more such plungers may be arranged to operate
in the same hogshead or package. The plunger or plungers may be moved up and
down by means of a vertical screw spindle, or by a rack and pinion, or by an
arrangement of levers, or by means of a cylinder and piston or ram worked by
steam or water or other fluid under pressure.
The operation of packing granular or pulverulent matters by means of centrifugal
force may be carried out in various ways. In the case of a large package like the

page_text: sugar hogshead, the hogshead may be fixed with its open end uppermost in or on
a frame or support mounted on a vertical spindle or shaft to which a sufficiently
rapid rotation can be imparted in any convenient way. The sugar is fed in whilst
the hogshead rotates, and the centrifugal force due to the rotation causes the sugar
to be compacted in the desired manner round the sides of the hogshead. The
packing of the central part may be completed by means of a conical plunger, or in
any other convenient way.
In packing comparatively small packages by means of centrifugal force, according
to one modification, a cylinder or basket carried by a vertical shaft made to rotate
at a sufficient speed in any suitable way is arranged for receiving a series of the
packages round its interior, and these packages are placed with their open ends or
inlets directed towards the central shaft. In the space immediately round the
shaft there is formed a cylindrical compartment, which may be divided radially
into smaller compartments, and from it or them spouts, ducts, or channels proceed
outwards to the packages. The substances to be packed are introduced into the
central compartment or compartments, and the centrifugal force causes them to
pass into and become compacted in the packages.