IMPROVEMENTS IN MILLS FOR GRINDING, SPLITTING, PULVERIZING, AND CRUSHING GRAIN, BONES, BARK, ORE, AND OTHER HARD SUBSTANCES; AND FOR GRINDING PAINT AND OTHER SOFT SUBSTANCES; AND FOR SHELLING OR REMOVING THE SKIN FROM RICE AND OTHER GRAIN; AND IN MACHINERY FOR GIVING ROTARY MOTION TO MILLS, THRASHING MACHINES, AND ANY OTHER MACHINES REQUIRING ROTARY MOTION
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CROSSKILL, of Beverley, in the County of York, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Sixth day of August, in the fourteenth year of Her said Majesty's reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said William Crosskill, my exors, adñiors,
and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said William Crosskill, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, and every of
them, by myself, himself, and themselves, or by my and their deputy or
deputies, servants, or agents, or such others as I, the said William Crosskill,
my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner
as to me, the said William Crosskill, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or
any of them, should, in my or their discretions, seem meet, my Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MILLS FOR GRINDING, SPLITTING, PULVERIZING, AND CRUSHING
GRAIN, BONES, BARK, ORE, AND OTHER HARD SUBSTANCES; AND FOR GRINDING
PAINT AND OTHER SOFT SUBSTANCES; AND FOR SHELLING OR REMOVING THE SKIN
FROM RICE AND OTHER GRAIN; AND IN MACHINERY FOR GIVING ROTARY MOTION TO
MILLS, THRASHING MACHINES, AND ANY OTHER MACHINES REQUIRING ROTARY MOTION

page_text: TO BE COMMUNICATED BY ANY HORSE OR OTHER ANIMAL;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, that I, the said William Crosskill, shall
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her said 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, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Crosskill, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are described and ascertained,
with the aid of the Drawings annexed hereto, by the words, letters, and figures
following (that is to say) :-
My claim is, first, for three improvements in the arrangement and construc-
tion of grinding mills, which act by means of grinding plates, composed of
metal, revolving excentrically with reference to each other. Stones or other
grinding substances may be used instead of metal, for the grinding plates.
These improvements are as follows:-First, an improved mode of adjusting
the distance of the grinding plates from each other by means of a lever and
set screw, as shewn in Figures 1 and 2 of the Sheet Number 1, by which
means also, when any hard or foreign substance gets between the grinding
plates, they open without manual aid, and discharge it without injury to
themselves or the mill.
a, a, Figure 1, Sheet 1, represents a section of a grinding mill which acts
on the substances to be ground by means of the grinding plates b, b, b, b, set
excentrically with reference to each other, and both of which revolve. The
lower grinding plate is fastened, by means to be described in the next part of
my claim, to the upright shaft c, c, c, which rests on the step d, and is caused
to revolve by the pinion e, or by a strap and pulley, or by any other convenient
means. The shaft is free to move perpendicularly as the step d is raised or
lowered, and by this means the grinding plates are brought nearer to or further
from each other as required.
The step & rests on a lever j, which is moved by a link g, in connexion with
a stellyard h, on which can be hung a weight i. It will now be seen that
when the end of the stellyard to which the weight is hung is pressed down-
ward, the lower, grinding plate is raised nearer to the upper one, by means of
the link g drawing up the lever j, the step d, and the shaft c, to which the
grinding plate is attached. To regulate the distance at which the grinding
plates are to work apart, a set screw fis attached to the mill frame, against

page_text: the foot of which the end of the lever j is pressed by the action of the weight i,
and if the screw be advanced downwards it prevents the lever j being raised
beyond any required point. By raising or lowering the screw, therefore, the
minimum distance to which the weight presses the lower grinding plate towards
the upper one can be regulated with the greatest ease and nicety.
The lower grinding plate being held in its position by the pressure of the
weight i acting on the step of the vertical shaft, such pressure should be
sufficient to effect the grinding of the substance to be ground without a sensible
alteration in the relative position of the grinding plates, unless any hard
foreign substance or other obstruction causes an undue resistance to the
working of the mill, when the lower grinding.plate, the vertical shaft, and the
step are forced downwards, the weight rises, and the substance or obstruction
is thrown from between the plates, after which the weight brings the lower
grinding plate to its proper working position.
The self-adjustment of the working distance between the grinding plates is
best effected by the means above mentioned, but a weight and pulley or a
spring or other similar means may be substituted for the link, steelyard, and
weight above mentioned.
Secondly, an improved method of fastening the grinding plates to the mill
by means of studs or pins, as shewn in Figures 1 and 3, Sheet 1, so that they
can be very easily taken out or replaced by others when the mill is required
to.grind different substances.
Figure 3 is a plan of the back of a grinding plate; and z, z, are projecting
studs, as shewn in Figure 1. The backs of both plates are turned true, and
the bottom one rests on a metal plate y, y, which has two holes in it to
receive the studs, and which is keyed on to the upper end of the vertical
shaft c, as shewn in Figure 1. The top grinding plate is also fastened by
means of similar studs v, v, to a metal plate a, a, and the end of the studs
v, v, have small holes in them, through which pins are passed to prevent the
grinding plate dropping down. The plate a, a, is free to revolve, and both it
and the upper grinding plate have a hole through the middle to receive the
substance to be ground.
To change the grinding plates, it is only necessary to remove the top of the
mill, which can be done immediately after taking out the four screws at
w, w, w, w, Figure 2, at w, w, as shewn in Figure 1, when the bottom grinding
plate can be lifted out, the top grinding plate loosened by taking the small
pins out of the studs v, v.
Thirdly, as it is in many cases convenient to communicate the revolving
power to the upper grinding plate, and let the lower one be driven round by

page_text: the rubbing of the substances to be ground, I also claim an improved method
in such cases of causing the bottom grinding plate to rest on a ball, as shewn
in Figure 4, so that, when from any inequality in the wearing parts of the
mill the top grinding plate ceases to be perfectly horizontal, the bottom
grinding plate adjusts itself to the proper position.
A, A, in Figure 4, is a section of part of the frame of a mill; b, b, is the
bottom grinding plate, which is laid on a flat metal plate c, and prevented
moving sideway on the frame by a bead, as shewn in the Drawing. On the
bottom of this plate ca ball d is fastened, which rests on a hollow cup at the
end of a spindle i. This spindle may either be screwed, as shewn in the Draw-
ing, and adjusted in height by turning the handle f, or be regulated by a lever,
as claimed in the first part of my Specification. The plate c, and with it the
grinding piate b, b, turns in any direction with the ball d; and thus the plate b, b,
not only revolves very easily, but will also adjust itself to the surface of the
upper grinding plate, should this lose its correct horizontal position by reason
of any of the working parts of the mill wearing away. By means of these
improvements, excentric mills, which have been disused on account of their
liability to break and get out of order, can be made so as to be easily adjusted
and managed, and the advantages arising from this form of construction made
practically useful.
The second part of my claim is for an improvement in the mode of
applying the power of horses or other animals to giving rotary motion to
machinery.
Figure 1, Sheet 2, is a plan, and Figure 2 an elevation, of the machine,
which acts by a new mode of applying that system of wheel work known as
the planetary motion.
are fastened to
a, a, represents a strong frame of wood or iron to be fastened down to a
good foundation; on this is bolted an annular wheel b, b, in the toeth of which
those of the revolving pinions c, c, work. These pinions c, c,
the upright shafts i, i, which pass through the framework d, d. The poles e, e,
are secured to this frame d by bolts or otherwise, and on the tops of the vertical
shaft i, i, two wheels f, f, are keyed, which are in gear with the central pinion g.
This pinion is fastened to and puts in motion the shaft h, which passes through
a cylindrical hole in the centre of the frame d, d, and which may either be
continued upward or downward, or give motion to a horizontal shaft by means
of bevil wheels, as shewn in the Drawing.
The horses pull the poles e round the centre h, carrying round with them the
frame d, d, the wheels f, f, the pinions c, c, and the vertical shaft i, i. The
teeth of the fixed annular wheel b, b, then cause the pinions c, c, to revolve on

page_text: their own axes, and this motion being communicated by the shafts i, i, to the
wheels ff, combined with the motion of the whole, frame round the centre
shaft, causes the wheels ff, to drive the centre pinion g and shaft with much
greater velocity than would be obtained if the frame d, d, and wheels f,f, and
e, e, were stationary, and the annular wheel b, b, moved round.
The mode of communication from a fixed annular wheel, as at 6, 6, by means
of a pinion, as at c, which works also into a pinion attached to the centre shaft,
is not new; but the addition of the wheels ff, on the upper ends of the
vertical shafts i, i, and making them, instead of the pinions c, c, give motion to
the centre pinion g, by which means much more speed is gained, is the
improvement which I claim.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and scal, this Fourth
day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-one.