IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR REDUCING WHEAT AND OTHER STRAW."
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Garrett, junior, of Leiston Works, Sax-
mundham, in the County of Suffolk, for the Invention of "IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR REDUCING WHEAT AND OTHER STRAW."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Garrett, at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th
April 1865.
I, RICHARD GARRETT, junior, of Leiston Works, Saxmundham, in the County
of Suffolk, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR REDUCING WHEAT AND OTHER STEAW," to be as follows:-
The chief object of this Invention is to render wheat and other hard
straws available as food for cattle, but the Invention may also be applied to
the reduction of straw as a preparation for the macerating process in manu-
facturing the same into paper. Hitherto wheat straw when reduced to chaff
bas, notwithstanding its nutritious qualities being rendered inapplicable to the
feeding of cattle by reason of their refusal to eat a substance of such a hard
brittle character; I have found, however that by subjecting such straw to a
compound crushing and cutting process it may be made as palatable to cattle
as any other kind of chaff. In order to effect this reduction of the straw in an

page_text: economical and expeditious manner I provide a roller of peculiar form, which
I mount so that it will be free to turn in a concave, and fitted with stationary
Into
cutting blades or knives corresponding to the profile form of the roller.
this apparatus the straw to be reduced is fed by hand or otherwise, and by it
the straw will be crushed and reduced to small pieces of any desired average
length. The roller I make of cast iron, preferring to cast it in pieces of the
form of a wedge-shaped wheel or disc. The bevilled sides of the discs have
oblique wedge-shaped ribs, which also project beyond the boss and the
periphery. The concave, which nearly encloses the roller (a sufficient space
only being left for feeding the apparatus), is composed of transverse bars of
steel or iron secured to end plates, and the roller is mounted so as to run just
free of these bars. Between the bars are open spaces to allow of the dis-
charge of the straw from the apparatus so soon as it is reduced to the required
size. The serrated blades or cutting edges are set at an inclination corre-
sponding in degree to, but in a reverse direction to, the inclination of the ribs
on the sides of the discs from a radial line from the axis of the roller. The
action of the apparatus will be to draw the straw as it is fed in between the
wedge-shaped ribs and the knives, and first to crush and then to cut or tear
it into pieces, the same action taking place between the roller and each of the
lines of cutting edges. The straw is also further acted upon while passing
from one serrated blade or cutter to another by the ribs on the periphery of
the roller pressing it against the transverse bars of the concave.
I would remark that the apparatus may be mounted on a separate frame,
and worked by any well-known method as an independent machine; or it
may be attached to the frame of a combined thrashing and dressing machine,
and receive the straw as it is delivered by the straw shakers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Garrett in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 6th
October 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD S
GARRETT, junior, of Leiston Works, Saxmundham, in the County of Suffolk,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her Most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the

page_text: said Richard Garrett, Her special licence that I, the said Richard Garrett, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard
Garrett, 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 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR RE-
DUCING WHEAT AND OTHER STRAW," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Richard Garrett, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Richard Garrett, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
The chief object of this Invention is to render wheat and other hard straws
available as food for cattle, but the Invention may also be applied with advan-
tage to the reduction of straw as a preparation for the macerating process in
manufacturing the same into paper. Hitherto wheat and other hard straws
when prepared as fodder by the ordinary chaff cutter have, notwithstanding
their well-known nutritious qualities, been found inapplicable to the feeding
of cattle by reason either of the refusal of the cattle to eat a substance of such
a hard brittle character, or of its having proved indigestible when eaten; I
find however that by subjecting such straws to a compound crushing and
cutting process they may be made as palatable and nutritious to cattle as any
other kind of chaff. In order to effect this reduction of hard straws in an
economical and expeditious manner I subject them to the action of a crushing
roller of peculiar form mounted in a concave, so that it will be free to turn,
and this concave I fit with stationary cutting blades or knives corresponding
to the profile form of the roller. Into this apparatus the straw to be reduced
is fed by hand or otherwise, and by it the straw will be crushed and reduced
to small pieces of any desired average length.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the improved
apparatus; Fig. 2 is a transverse section on an enlarged scale of the concave,
and shewing the roller in end clevation; and Fig. 3 is a plan view partly in

page_text: section of the roller and one of the cutting blades or knives; A, A, is the
roller, made of cast iron, either in one casting, or composed of a series, of the
form of a wedge-shaped wheel or disc. It is keyed to a shaft B, which turns
in suitable bearings provided for it in the framing of the apparatus. The
bevilled faces of the roller have ribs a, a, set at a slight obliquity, and these
ribs also extend across the. boss and the periphery of the roller. C, C, is the
concave, composed of a skeleton framework of wood which is clothed on the
greater part of its inner periphery with sheet iron, c, c. This sheet iron
clothing is concentric throughout nearly its whole length with the roller, but
at the opening in the concave at C for feeding in the straw to be operated
upon it stands out a little further from the roller to give space for feeding in
the straw. The concave is fitted with transverse bars c¹, between which and
the ribs on the periphery of the roller the straw is bruised or crushed. A
series of these transverse bars marked c² serve as a grid through which the
straw when cut up sufficiently small is allowed to escape, the sheet iron
These bars are composed
clothing being wanting at this part of the concave.
of steel or iron, and are secured to end plates not shewn in the Drawing. D
is a roller driven by a strap from a pulley on the shaft B, and used for facili-
tating the feeding in of the straw, which is supplied to the apparatus by hand
or otherwise as thought desirable; E, E, are the serrated blades or cutting
edges set at an inclination corresponding in degree, or nearly so, but in a
reverse direction with the obliquity of the ribs on the inclined sides of the
roller, or both having the same angle of inclination, or nearly so, when viewed
as in Fig. 1 from a radial line drawn through them from the axis of the
roller. The blades and ribs thus arranged are intended to act as shears, and
cut the straw up into small pieces. The blade E¹³, however, which is the first
that the straw. encounters as it is drawn forward by the roller, is set at a
-different inclination, and acts rather as a scraping than a cutting blade. From
the above description it will be understood that when straw is fed to the
apparatus down the mouth-piece F, and rotary motion is given to the roller in
the direction of the arrow, Fig. 2, the straw will be drawn in between the
ribs (which may be more or less wedge-shaped) and the fixed blades. The
operation will then be first to crush, scrape, and tear the straw, and then to
cut it into pieces of say from one to two inches in length. These operations
will go ou simultaneously, the like action taking place between the roller and
the several lines of cutting edges and transverse bars until the straw is reduced
to sufficiently small pieces for being discharged by the action of the inclined
ribs on the rollers through the grid formed by the bars c. By this means,
not only is harsh straw readily reduced to small pieces as described, but a

page_text: quantity of dust, composed in great part of the siliceous coating of the straw
is removed, thereby leaving the cut product comparatively soft to the touch,
and in every way suitable for fodder.
I would remark that the apparatus may either be mounted on a separate
frame as shewn at Fig. 1, and worked by any well-known method as an inde-
pendent machine, or it may be attached to the frame of a combined thrash-
ing and dressing machine, and receive the straw as it is delivered by the straw
shakers. The blades are secured by bolts to the wooden bars of the concave,
and the bolt holes are elongated to allow of the blades being set up to the
roller to suit the straw under treatment, or to compensate for the wear of the
working part.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of improved apparatus
for reducing wheat and other straw, and explained the manner of carrying
the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part
recited Letters Patent I claim, the means above described for reducing wheat
and other straw.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Garrett, junior, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Fourth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
RICHARD GARRETT, JR. (L.B.)