AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR DRESSING AND FURROWING MILLSTONES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Haseltine, of the "International Patent
Office," Southampton Buildings, London, Doctor of Laws, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR DRESSING
AND FURROWING MILLSTONES."—A communication from abroad by Seth
Dean of La Crosse Wisconsin United States of America.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said George Haseltine at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition
and Declaration, on the 22nd January 1873, pursuant to the 9th
Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HASELTINE, of the "International Patent Office," Southampton Build-
ings, London, Doctor of Laws, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR DRESSING AND FURROWING MILLSTONES,"
and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same,
and have made solemn Declaration that it has been communicated to
me from abroad by Seth Dean, of La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States
of America.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Haseltine, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manuer the same is to be performed, in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawing forming a
part of this Specification :—
This Invention relates to an improved method of and apparatus for
dressing and furrowing millstones, and it consists in the employment of
a solid wheel of emery revolving at a high speed for dressing and fur-
rowing the stones, and in a novel apparatus or machine for driving and
manipulating the cutter wheel, as herein-after explained. The object of
the said Invention is the production of a machine by which millstones
may have their furrows sharpened and the glazing removed from the face
expeditiously, and in such manner as to leave smooth clean faces, and
sharp feather edges to the furrows.
It is a fact well known to all familiar with milling, that the furrows
in the grinding stones have their edges worn rapidly away, so that they
require to be frequently sharpened, and also, that the oil contained in the
wheat forms a smooth hard glazing on the stones which interferes with
their proper operation, and requires to be frequently removed. In
dressing the furrows it is desirable that their inclined sides shall be as
smooth as possible, and that the opposite sides shall have sharp
true edges, and also that the flat or level faces shall be as smooth and
true as possible. Various machines have been devised for the pur-
poses of sharpening the furrows and removing the glazing, but up to
the present time they have all failed to accomplish the purposes
satisfactorily. Among other plans that have been tried are those of
using metal picks, revolving metal cutters, and revolving cutters armed
with diamond or carbon points.
By none of these plans can the stones be prepared in such manner as
to make the best quality of flour at once, for after the stones are pre-
pared their surfaces are so rough and irregular that it is necessary to
run from four to eight hundred bushels of grain through them before
they will produce the finest quality of flour.
Another very great
objection to the dimond cutters, which are the ones most in use, is that
they cannot be used to dress down the entire surface, but merely to
"crack" it, as it is technically called. This cracking consists in

page_text: breaking fine lines through the surface so that when the two stones are
set to running again, the dust or particles loosened by the cracking
will take hold and remove the glazing from that portion of the surface
of the stones between the lines.
At the same time however that the dust and loose particles accomplish
this purpose, they wear away the sharp edges of the furrows, and
thus in a measure prevent the very end to be attained. The true way
to dress and sharpen the stones is not by means of cutters acting per-
cussively thereon as heretofore, but by means of a smooth grinding
wheel, acting thereon steadily and continuously, with an abrasive
action, and the only cutter which will answer the purpose in a solid
wheel or disk of emery revolving at a very high velocity. The
employment therefore of a rapidly revolving wheel of emery for this
purpose forms the main feature of this Invention.
In practice the best results are attained by the use of a wheel about
eight inches in diameter, driven at a speed of about twenty-eight
hundred revolutions per minute. A wheel thus driven and applied with
a moderate pressure will cut through the glazing and into the body of
the stone quite easily and with considerable rapidity, and will leave the
surface perfectly even and as smooth as the texture of the stone will
permit. When the faces of the stones are to be dressed or freed from
glaze, I use an emery wheel having a flat face or edge, but when the
furrows are to be dressed or sharpened I employ a wheel having an
edge of the exact size and form of the furrows, and then carry it
while revolving back and forth therein.
By means of the emery wheel I am enabled not only to remove the
glazing and sharpen the furrows with great rapidity but to leave a
surface which permits the stones to be used at once for making the
finest quality of flour. Thus it will be seen that I not only save much
of the labor and expense in preparing the stones, but also obviate the
necessity of running the coarse grain through and save the time required
therefor. As the carnings of a medium-sized run of stones is estimated
at one dollar per hour, the value of the time saved by my method is at
once apparent.
In order to operate my cutter I have devised the machine shewn in
the Drawings, but it is obvious that the said cutter may be driven by
any suitable mechanism

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a side clevation of the said machine in position for
dressing the lower or bed stone; Figure 2 is a plan of the same;
Figure 3 is a vertical section of the said machine in position for dressing
the upper stone, showing the manner in which it is driven from the mill
spindle; Figure 4 is a section on the line v, v, Figure 1; Figure 5 is a
section on the line 2, 2, Figure 4; Figure 6 is a vertical section
shewing the manner in which the machine is driven from the mill
spindle when operating upon the lower or bed stone.
Figures 7 and 8 are two different forms of the emery cutting wheel,
one for dressing the face of the stone, and the other for sharpening tho
furrows.
In proceeding to construct this machine, I first provide an upright
hollow post or arbor A, having a broad base provided with holes to
receive bolts for fastening it to the centre of the millstone.
This post
forms the main support of the machine, and a centre around which the
machine is swung in order that it may be operated upon the different
portions of the stone.
To provide for clevating the post when necessary, and for bringing
it to a true vertical position, I provide its base with set screws y which
bear on the face of the stone, as shown. On the post A. I mount one
end of a horizontal arm or way B which extends radially, and has its
outer end supported by a foot h that bears on the face of the stone, as
shewn in Figures 1 and 3. The arm B is free to move around the post
A over the entire face of the stone, and is provided at its inner end with
a set screw k by which it may be locked rigidly to the post in any
desired position.
On the arm B I mount one end of a long way or guide C which
extends out at a right angle to the arm over and beyond the edge of the
stone, as shown in Figures 1 and 3. In the arm B, which is made
hollow, I mount a longitudinal screw rod F which passes through a nut
on the way or guide C, and has a wheel G applied to its outer end, as
shown in Figure 3, so that by turning the hand wheel the end of
way C may be moved inward and outward on arm B. On the way or
guide C I mount a sliding carriage having in its lower end a transverse
shaft h, on the end of which is mounted the emery cutting wheel J, as

page_text: shewn in Figures 1 and 2. Along the side of the way C I mount a
screw shaft H, which passes through a nut on the carriage D in order
to move the latter back and forth on the way C so as to carry the
cutting wheel towards and from the edge of the stone. On the aim B
I secure two standards i, and mount therein a horizontal shaft B',
provided with a sliding pulley K, and also a bevel pinion U which gears
into a pinion S mounted on the upper end of the centre post A, as
shown in Figures 2, 3, and 6.
The pulley K is kept from turning on the shaft by a spline thercon,
and is provided on one side with a grooved hub into which fits an arm
d secured to the way or guide C. When the way C is moved sidewise on
the arm B, the arm & moves the pulley to correspond, and thereby keeps
it always in line with the other pulleys on the way C, as herein-after
explained. On the shaft ² of the cutter wheel J I secure a pulley,
and in the upper corners of the movable frame D which supports the
shaft I mount two pulleys a, as shown in Figure 1. I then mount
a pulley L on the outer end of the way C, and pass a driving belt A'
around the pulleys K and L over the pulleys a, and under the pulleys/
on the shaft of the cutter wheel, as shown in Figure 1, so that when the
bolt is set in motion it drives the cutter wheel J and the pulley L.
The peculiar arrangement of the belt and pulleys permits the
carriage D to move back and forth on the way without materially
affecting the tension of the belt or its action on the cutter wheel. The
screw which moves the carriage or frame D and the cutter wheel is
provided on its outer end with a pulley Q, which is driven by a belt P
from a pulley O above it, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. The shaft
which carries the pulley O is provided with two bevel pinions M and N,
and is connected by a swivel with an upright hand lever Z, by moving
which the shaft can be adjusted endwise. To the side of the pully L
there is attached a pinion D' which gears with one or the other of the
pinions M, N, according to the direction in which the hand lever is
moved. When the land lever is moved in one direction the pinion M
is thrown in gear, while if the lever is moved in the opposite direction
the pinion N is thrown in gear and the movement of the frame and
cutter reversed; thus it will be seen that by simply moving the lever Z
to and fro the cutter is caused to travel back and forth to and from the
edge of the stone, while at the same time it is revolved at a high speed,
the shaft of the cutter wheel J is not mounted rigidly in the frame D but

page_text: in vertical slide E, so that these parts remain in the same relative
position to the pulley of the cutter wheel notwithstanding its adjustment
up and down.
The way C on which the carriage or frame D slides is provided with a
screw C¹ bearing on a block or shoe K', as shewn in Figure 1. This t
brace and shoe form the support of the outer end of the guide or way C.
The way is ordinarily arranged parallel with the face of the stone, but
by turning down the screw C' its outer end may be raised so that as
the cutter wheel is moved outward toward the edge of the stone it will
be gradually-raised. In this way the furrows may be made of decreasing
depth toward the edges of the stone, as is sometinics desirable.
In employing this machine on the lower or bed stone I place the
central post A over the mill spindle, and bolt it down firmly in place,
as shown in Figures 2 and 6. I then pass a shaft T down through the
post A. and pinion S, and connect it to the mill spindle and to the pinions 1
by suitable couplings, as shown. When the spindle is set in motion
it drives the shaft which in turn drives the pinion S and sets the
machine in operation.
When the machine is to be used on the upper or runner stone, the
stone is removed and placed face upward by the side of the bed stone in 2
the usual manner, as shewn in Figure 3. The centre post is then bolted
down in place on the stone, and the pinion S provided with a shaft
T carrying a pulley V. The shaft X is then coupled to the mill spindle
and provided with a pulley W, and lastly the pulleys are connected by
a belt Y. By this arrangement motion is communicated from the mill a
spindle to the machine on the upper stone located at one side.
If the machine is to be used for dressing the face of the stone I
employ a cutter whool having a flat face or edge, but when the furrows
are to be sharpened I use a cutter wheel having a face or edge of
corresponding form; when the machine is in motion the cutter wheel is a
carried along the side of the way c automatically. By adjusting the
screw I the cutter may be raised or lowered as desired, and by swinging
the arm B, and adjusting the screw, the cutter may be caused to travel
over every portion of the stone and in any direction desired.
Having thus fully described the said Invention as communicated to g
me by my foreign correspondent, and the manner of performing the
same, I wish it understood that I claim,—

page_text: First. The herein described method of dressing and furrowing mill-
stones, that is to say, by means of a rapidly revolving wheel of emery.
Second. The combination of the central post A, swinging arm B,
laterally adjustable way C, and the sliding carriage D, provided with the
revolving cutter J, whereby the cutter may be moved in any desired
direction and applied to any portion of the stone's face.
Third. The central tubular post A provided with the pinion S, in
combination with the frame of the machine pivoted thereon, and
provided with the pinion V, as shown and described, whereby the
machine may be driven from the mill spindle.
Fourth. In combination with the sliding carriage D provided with
the rotary cutter J and pulleys a the pulleys K, L, and belt A', arranged
to operate as described, to permit the cutter to be moved back and forth
while in motion.
Fifth. The adjustable shoe K' or equivalent contrivance arranged to
support the outer end of the way C, whereby the way may be inclined,
and the cutter caused to rise as it approaches the edge of the stone, as
and for the purposes described.
Sixth. The support K" or its equivalent provided with a shaft arranged
to be connected to the mill spindle, whereby the machine may be
operated from the spindle when dressing the upper stone.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Haseltine, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of January, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.
Witness,
W". ROB. Lake,
8, Southampton Buildings,
London.
GEORGE HASELTINE. (L.S.)