IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR DECORTICATING OR HULLING RICE AND OTHER GRAIN
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Bell, of 24, Canwick Road, Lincoln,
Assistant Secretary to Robey and Co., limited, of Lincoln, aforesaid,
Engineers, and John Richardson, of 6, Grantham Street, Lincoln, afore-
said, Engineers' Draughtsman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR DECORTICATING OR HULLING RICE AND OTHER GRAIN."
Sealed the 15th April 1868, and dated the 17th October 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Bell and John
Richardson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 17th October 1867.
We, THOMAS BELL, of 24, Canwick Road, Lincoln, Assistant Secretary
to Robey and Co., limited, of Lincoln, aforesaid, Engineers, and JOHN
RICHARDSON, of 6, Grantham Street, Lincoln, aforesaid, Engineers', Draughts-
man, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR DECORTICATING OR HULLING RICE AND OTHER GRAIN," to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is to construct a strong, simple, and useful
apparatus for decorticating rice and other grain. We employ for this purpose
a drum or cylinder of metal or steel hung on a horizontal revolving shaft, and
a stationary but adjustable concave also of metal or steel. The periphery or
face of the drum or cylinder and also the face of the concave are formed with
small round buttons or knobs cast with the surface, such buttons or knobs
being placed in vertical and horizontal lines, and so disposed that as the faca

page_text: of the drum or cylinder rotates towards or against the concave each vertical
row of buttons or knobs is carried between two similar rows on the face
of the concave. The grain is fed by means of a hopper with an adjustable
slide on to the periphery of the drum or cylinder, and is carried by the
rotation of the drum partially round therewith and between the drum and the
adjustable but stationary concave. By these means the shell or hull of the
grain is removed, and the hulls and grain are delivered at the bottom or side
of the drum or cylinder into a space where they are brought into contact with
a blast produced by a fan which blows off and clears away the hulls, dirt, and
other impurities. Projections of other forms may be cast upon the cylinder
or concave and arranged to operate in the manner described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Bell and John Richardson in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 17th April 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
BELL, of 24, Canwick Road, Lincoln, Assistant Secretary to Robey & Co.,
limited, of Lincoln, aforesaid, Engineers, and JOHN RICHARDSON, of 6,
Grantham Street, Lincoln, aforesaid, Engineers' Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Thomas Bell and John Richardson, Her special licence that we,
the said Thomas Bell and John Richardson, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Bell and John
Richardson, our 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 Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR DECORTICATING OR HULLING RICE AND OTHER GRAIN,"
upon the condition (amongst others), that we, the said Thomas Bell and
John Richardson, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of
us or them, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the

page_text: 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 John Richardson, on behalf of myself
and the said Thomas Bell, 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, that is to say :-
The object of this Invention is to construct a strong, simple, and useful
apparatus for decorticating rice and other grain; we employ for this purpose
a drum or cylinder of metal or steel hung on a horizontal revolving shaft and a
stationary but adjustable concave also of metal or steel. The periphery or face
of the drum or cylinder, and also the face of the concave, are formed with'
small round buttons or knobs cast with the surface, such buttons or knobs
being placed in vertical and horizontal lines, and so disposed that as the face
of the drum or cylinder rotates towards or against the concave, each vertical
row of buttons or knobs is carried between two similar rows on the face of
the concave. The grain is fed by means of a hopper with an adjustable slide
on to the periphery of the drum or cylinder, and is carried by the rotation of
the drum partially round therewith, and between the drum and the adjustable
but stationary concave. By these means the shell or hull of the grain is
removed, and the hulls and grain are delivered at the bottom or side of the
drum or cylinder into a space where they are brought into contact with a blast
produced by a fan which blows off and clears away the hulls, dirt, and other'
impurities. Projections of other forms may be cast upon the cylinder or
concave and arranged to operate in the manner described.
And in order that our said Invention may be most fully understood and'
readily carried into effect we will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto

page_text: It
axis d, which receives a strap, and through it drives the axis e, on which is the
drum e. The drum e' is made of, metal, by preference of cast iron or steel,
and it has projections on its surface arranged by preference in the manner
represented at Figure 4, which is a front view of the drum. f is a concave also
of metal, by preference of cast iron or steel; its interior surface is similar to
that of the drum which is about half surrounded by it; f¹, f, are screw bolts
fixed in the concave and passing through bars on the frame to which they are
secured by lock nuts, so that the bolts f¹ serve both to support the concave
and to adjust it nearer to or further from the drum, as may be required.
will be observed that the projections on the drum pass between those on the
concave. g is a hopper, into which the rice or grain to be decorticated or
bulled is placed, and its escape therefrom into the space between the drum
and the concave is regulated by the adjustable slide g' at the front of the
hopper. In this space by the action of the projections on the drum and
concave the rice or other grain is stripped of its hull or husk; it is caught by
the fixed guard plate h as it is thrown off by the rapidly revolving drum and
directed down the inclined plate i, on which it is evenly spread by the plate k,
which is adjustable. As the rice or grain falls from the plate i it meets the
blast of air from the fan, which blows away the hull or husk, whilst the heavier
grain falls into the guide trough l, which conveys it in a direction opposite to that
of the blast, which so continues to winnow it to a mouth at the front of the
machine where it is delivered.
What we claim is, the constructing machines for decorticating or hulling
rice and other grain with a metallic drum and concave with projections upon
them, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Richardson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
JOHN RICHARDSON. (L.B.)