Improvements in the Reduction of Grain, and in Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 11tn Jan., 1894
Complete Specification Left. 11th Oct., 1894-Accepted, 15th Dec., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Reduction of Grain, and in Apparatus
therefor.
I, THOMAS BIRкs, of 25
Lancaster, Miller do hereby
follows:-
High Park Street Liverpool, in the County of
declare the nature of this invention to be as
The invention relates more especially to the reduction of wheat into meal and
flour by means of rollers and the object is to so conduct the process and construct
the apparatus that with fewer sets of rollers, the required reduction will be obtained
with less loss of the valuable constituents.
The process consists essentially in subjecting the grain first to a combined
squeezing, cutting and tearing action once or oftener to produce semolina and
afterwards when meal or flour is required to the usual reducing action.
Apparatus under my invention consists essentially as follows:-
For the first and may be second breaks I construct two rollers with longitudinal
serrations or grooves, each serration having a long and a short face. The rollers
are serrated or grooved in the reverse direction to each other, and one roller has a
greater number of serrations or grooves than the other.
The rollers are geared together so as to rotate in opposite directions at such
speed that the serrations or grooves in each roller move simultaneously past a line
joining the axes of rotation of the rollers.
I combine with one or more usually not more than two pairs of rollers as above
described any usual roller or equivalent apparatus for reducing semolina into meal
or flour.
The usual or any suitable purifiers or like appliances are used.
Per pro J. T. KING,
J. Johnson,
Agent.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Reduction of Grain, and in Apparatus
therefor.
I THOMAS BIRKS of 25 High Park Street Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Miller, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :—
The invention relates more especially to the reduction of wheat into meal and
flour by means of rollers, and the object is to so conduct the process and construct
the apparatus, that with fewer sets of rollers the required reduction will be obtained
with less loss of the valuable constituents.
The process consists essentially in subjecting the grain first to a combined
cutting and tearing or shearing action once or oftener to produce semolina, and
afterwards if meal or flour is required to the usual reducing action by smooth
rollers.
Apparatus under my invention consists essentially as follows :-
For the first and usually second and may be subsequent breaks, I construct two-
rollers with longitudinal serrations or grooves each serration having a long and a

page_text: short face. The rollers are serrated or grooved in the reverse direction to each
other, and one roller has a greater number of serrations or grooves than the other.
The rollers are geared together so as to rotate in opposite directions at such speed
that the serrations or grooves in each roller move simultaneously past a line joining
the axes of rotation of the rollers.
When the above rollers are used in the manufacture of meal and flour, I combine
with one or more usually not less than two pairs of rollers as above described, any
usual smooth roller or equivalent apparatus for reducing the semolina produced
into middlings meal or flour.
The usual or any suitable scalpers for the semolina, and purifiers for the meal
and flour or like appliances are used.
The drawing herewith is a full size diagram showing the serrating or grooving of
rollers found to answer well in practice. The roller a is shown with serrations or
grooves eighteen to the inch, and the roller 6 six serrations or grooves to the inch.
The short faces c of the serrations or grooves are radial or nearly so, whilst the
long faces d are tangents to a circle of about nine tenths the diameter of the roller.
The roller b is driven at a speed of about three hundred revolutions a minute and
the roller a, at about one hundred revolutions a minute, so that the teeth of each
roller pass the centre line e simultaneously. It will be evident that the speeds of
the rollers will vary in inverse ratio to the number of teeth in each. For late
breaks the grooving in one roller preferably the high speed roller may be reversed
as shown in Figure 2.
The wheat is moved at high speed by the large serrations so that it is forced
against and across the smaller and slower moving serrations in such manner that it
is cut and torn to pieces by the sharp edges of the smaller serrations.
The semolina produced by my improved process and apparatus may be used or
treated in any desired way.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
:-
First. Subjecting wheat to a combined cutting and tearing or shearing action
once or oftener for the production of semolina, substantially as set forth.
Second. Subjecting wheat to a combined cutting and tearing action once or
oftener for the production of semolina, and afterwards to a reducing action by
smooth rollers for the production of meal and flour substantially as set forth.
Third. In apparatus for the reduction of wheat, rollers serrated or grooved in
reverse or the same directions, one having a greater number of serrations or
grooves than the other, and geared together to rotate in inverse ratio to the
number of serrations or grooves on each substantially as set forth.
Fourth. Apparatus for the reduction of wheat into semolina, meal and flour
substantially as set forth.
Dated the 10th day of October 1894.
J. T. KING,
Agent.