Iм- PROVEMENTS IN FLOORS FOR MALT KILNS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Lloyd Wise, of Chandos Chambers,
Adelphi, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of “Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN FLOORS FOR MALT KILNS."-A communication from
abroad by Louis Herrmann, of the City of Dresden, in the Kingdom
of Saxony and Empire of Germany.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Lloyd Wise
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 10th June 1875.
I, WILLIAM LLOYD WISE, of Chandos Chambers, Adelphi, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FLOORS FOR MALT KILNS," (a communi-
cation to me from abroad by Louis Herrmann, of the City of Dresden,
in the Kingdom of Saxony, and Empire of Germany,) to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is to combine in the floors of the malt
kilns a high degree of efficiency in their two chief requirements, namely,

page_text: abundant air passage and durability under the weight and manipu-
lations of the attendants in loading and unloading the kiln, and in
turning the malt during the process of drying. These two essential
conditions for the best results in practice are attained by means of a
wire fabric produced and applied in the shape of hurdles of peculiar
structure, forming the subject of the present Invention. It involves
the use of two dissimilar sizes of wire, those preferably adopted in the
manufacture being known by the trade designations of No. 12 and No. 2
wire gauge. The first of these constitutes, as it is were, the warp of
the fabric, each such wire being at regular intervals bent into the form.
of an eye, the inner diameter of which equals that of the coarser No. 2
wire. This coarser wire may be termed the weft of the fabric, it con-
sists of straightened rods, upon which the warp wires of a convenient
uniform length are strung in a manner forming large hurdles. These
hurdles are afterwards joined laterally and in direction of their length
in a peculiar manner herein-after described, producing a continuous
even surface of any required extent in length or width.
The eyes of the warp wires are previous to their combination into
hurdles subjected to a lateral pressure so as to indent and interlock the
lapping wires of each eye to the amount required for contracting the
spaces between the straight parallel portions of these wires to one-
twentieth of an inch nearly, which is equal to about seventy-five wires
and spaces for each lateral foot of hurdle. This amount of space
between the wires provides an abundant passage for hot air, and while
permitting the sifting of roots of the grain, the malt grains will neither
jam into nor fall through these rounded spaces.
Having described the manner of combining the warp wires with the
heavier weft wires to form a hurdle of the improved fabric I will now
proceed to describe the improved methods of joining these hurdles to
form a kiln floor of any required size without presenting a single
obstruction or vulnerable place on the entire surface of the wire
structure.
After the operations of bending and pressing the eyes of a series of
warp wires of a uniform length the ends of these wires are prepared
for the final interlocking of two hurdles by shearing through the end
eyes. The remaining halves of eyes on the abutting ends of two hurdles
will interlock in the manner of the solid eyes, and after the insertion of

page_text: a weft wire present no indication of this joint upon the surface of the
fabric, and in nowise impair its great strength. The end hurdles or
sections of a series connected in the above manner may be prepared of
wires of any suitable number of eyes to adapt the whole to a given
length of kiln, or 'the ends may be sheered off or trimmed to length in
any other convenient manner.
My foreign correspondent has in practice adopted the use of three
hundred and twelve warp wires for each hurdle, making these of a
uniform width of fifty inches, and varying only the width of the outside
series of hurdles to make up any required total width of kiln floor.
The straight weft wires are cut to a uniform length, exceeding the
effective width of the hurdle about two inches, and after forcibly
drawing the strung warp wires together laterally by means of suitable
clamps they are confined securely between collars held in place upon
the projecting ends of the weft wires by means of recesses. The
distance between these recesses serves as an accurate gauge for
uniformity in the lateral compression of the hurdles. Both recesses in
each weft wire are in the same plane, and this plane must conform with
the top surface of the hurdle so that when two hurdles or series of
hurdles are placed side by side the projecting ends of the weft wires
may, together with their collars, be interposed under the warp wires
until the latter are brought into the required level and close contact for
perfect uniformity of the surface. The overlapping ends of the weft
wires form a very efficient support for the contiguous edges of the
hurdles.
An entire kiln floor constructed of the improved wire hurdles and
joined in the manner herein described, is so rigid and self-contained as
to require no special means of fastening upon the very simple sup-
porting structure.
This consists preferably of a series of transverse
iron beams, upon which rest longitudinal bearers of flat bar iron.
These bearers run parallel with the warp wires of the hurdles, and are
so divided as to present a narrower space under every longitudinal joint
in the wire fabric, thereby providing increased support for the edges of
the several series of hurdles.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Lloyd Wise in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 12th November 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
LLOYD WISE, of Chandos Chambers, Adelphi, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of June, in the year
f our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Lloyd Wise, Her
special license that I, the said William Lloyd Wise, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Lloyd Wise, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FLOORS FOR MALT KILNS," (a
communication to me from abroad by Louis Herrmann, of the City
of Dresden, in the Kingdom of Saxony, and Empire of Germany),
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Lloyd
Wise, 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 William Lloyd Wise, do hereby
declare 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 Sheet of Drawings
therein referred to (that is to say)
The object of this Invention is to combine in the floors of the malt
kilns a high degree of efficiency in their two chief requirements, 3
namely, abundant air passage and durability under the weight and

page_text: manipulations of the attendants in loading and unloading the kiln, and
in turning the malt during the process of drying. These two essential
conditions, for the best results in practice, I attain by means of a wire
fabric produced and applied in the shape of hurdles of peculiar structure,
forming the subject of the present Invention. It involves the use of
two dissimilar sizes of wire, those preferably adopted in the manufacture
being known by the trade designations of No. 12 and No. 2. wire gauge.
The first of these constitutes, as it were, the warp of the fabric, each
such wire being at regular intervals bent into the form of an eye, the
inner diameter of which equals that of the coarser No. 2 wire. This
coarser wire may be termed the weft of the fabric; it consists of
straightened rods, upon which the warp wires of a convenient uniform
length are strung, in a manner forming large hurdles. These hurdles
are afterwards joined laterally and in direction of their length in a
peculiar manner, herein-after fully described, producing a continuous
even surface of any required extent in length or width.
The eyes of the warp wires are, previous to their combination into
hurdles subjected to a lateral pressure so as to indent and interlock. the
lapping wires of each eye to the amount required for contracting the
spaces between the straight parallel portions of these wires to one-
twentieth of an inch nearly, which is equal to about seventy-five wires
and spaces for each lateral foot of hurdle. This amount of space
between the wires provides an abundant passage for hot air, and while
permitting the sifting of roots of the grain, the malt grains will neither
jam into nor fall through these rounded spaces.
The Invention will be more fully understood upon reference to the
accompanying Drawing, in which similar letters refer to like parts in
the several views, of which Figure 1 is a sectional view of the improved
fabric at natural size.
Fig. 2 is a plan of the same, shewing also the manner of joining the
hurdles in the direction of their length.
Fig. 3, illustrates the method of interlocking the ends of hurdles in
the direction of their width.
Fig. 4 is a sectional side view; and Fig. 5, a sectional end view
representing the manner of resting the improved wire fabric upon the
supporting beams and intermediate net irons.

page_text: Having in the foregoing amply described the manner of combining
the warp wires a, a, a, with the heavier weft wires b, b, to form a hurdle
of the improved fabric, I will now proceed to describe the improved
methods of joining these hurdles to form a kiln floor of any required
size without presenting a single obstruction or vulnerable place on the
entire surface of the wire structure.
After the operations of bending and pressing the eyes of a series of
warp wires of a uniform length the ends of these wires are prepared
for the final interlocking of two hurdles by shearing through the end
eyes in the manner shewn at c in Fig. 3. It is readily evident that the
remaining halves of eyes on the abutting ends of two hurdles will inter-
lock in the manner of the solid eyes, and after the insertion of a weft
wire present no indication of this joint upon the surface of the fabric,
and in nowise impair its great strength. The end hurdles or sections of
a series connected in the above manner may be prepared of wires of any
suitable number of cycs to adapt the whole to a given length of kiln,
or the ends may be sheared off or trimmed to length in any other con

page_text: An entire kiln floor constructed of the improved wire hurdles, and
joined in the manner herein-above described, is so rigid and self-
contained as to require no special means of fastening upon the very
simple supporting structure. This consists, preferably, of a series of
transverse iron beams I, I, Figs. 4 and 5, upon which rest the longi-
tudinal bearers i, i, of flat bar iron. These bearers run parallel with the
warp wires of the hurdles, and are so divided as to present a narrower
space under every longitudinal joint in the wire fabric, thereby
providing increased support for the edges of the several series of
hurdles.
I do not broadly claim as of the present Invention the combination
of the bent warp wires with the straight weft wires, nor on the other
hand do I confine myself to any particular number or gauge of wire;
but what I claim as novel and original, and secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
1. As an improvement in floors for malt kilns, the combination of
bent warp wires a, a, recessed weft wires b, b, and collars e, e, to form
hurdles, in the manner and for the purpose described.
2. The combination of the divided and interlocking end eyes of
two abutting hurdles with a weft wire b, as and for the purpose set
forth.
3. The combination of the projecting ends of weft wires b, b, of one
hurdle with the outer warp wires a, a, of the other hurdle for giving
a reciprocal support to the edges of contiguous hurdles, in the manner
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Lloyd Wise, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-