IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE REDUCTION OF GRAIN
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Arthur William Lovell Reddie of the Office for Patents
66 Chancery Lane in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent for an
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE REDUCTION OF
GRAIN." A communication from abroad by Henry Ferdinand Saint Requier,
of Paris, in the Republic of France
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Arthur William Lovell
Reddie at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd February
1882.
ARTHUR WILLIAM LOVELL REDDIE of 66 Chancery Lane in the County of
Middlesex Patent Agent.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE REDUCTION
OF GRAIN." [A communication from abroad by Henry Ferdinand Saint Requier
of Paris in the Republic of France]
The object of this Invention is to provide simple and efficient means for the
gradual reduction or granulation of grain, such as wheat, or what may be called a
dry and cold system that is without moistening the grain, or the development of
great frictional heat, as is the case when mill stones are employed.
It is well known that much time and labour are expended in properly assorting
the floury and branny particles and in remedying the evils resulting from the
crushing of grain by stones.
The milling apparatus now to be described treats the grain rationally and scien-
tifically according to its natural structure, its molecular cohesion, its chemical
composition, and the toughness more or less great of its several skins.
The result is that after the granulation is effected the remaining processes are
greatly simplified The apparatus consists of two or more railially grooved metal
tables or discs keyed upon a vertical spindle and driven at a high speed. The upper
part of the spindle is capped by a grease box the upper surface of which is coned
and forms with a cover by which it is surrounded, a channel for the passage of
the grain to be reduced. The cover is fitted with an adjustable hatch or sliding
A

page_text: tube by which the feed from the hopper above it may be regulated; a hand wheel
serving to raise or lower the adjustable hatch or sliding tube as required.
The lower part of the spindle rests in a footstep and is also enclosed by a grease
box above which is keyed the pulley by which the spindle and its horizontal
grooved metal tables, are driven.
Surrounding the periphery of each of these rotating tables is a series of steel
blades presenting a continuous line of perpendicular cutting edges to the grain as
it is hurled against them by the centrifugal action of the grooved plates onto which
it is fed. Tho steel blades are so arranged in sets, or groups, as to form angular
openings between the sides and cutting edges of the several sets of blades; thus
affording a rapid clearance of the reduced grain.
The uppermost circle or crown of cutting blades is carried by the cover of the
apparatus, in the centre of which the feeding device already referred to is situate.
The grain divided or reduced by the first set of blades drops onto a fixed funnel
which delivers it onto the second rotating grooved table of finer gauge, by which
it is again dashed against a similarly arranged circle or crown of blades set rather
close together than the blades in the first circle. By them it is still more finely
divided and after undergoing if necessary a third subdivision of parts, it falls into
shoots for collection in any desired manner.
It should be observed that fixed cones surrounding the spindle above each
rotating table serve to deliver the grain on to the said tables at a certain distance
from the centres thereof.
Pipes for the admission of currents of air drawn in by a fan are passed through
the casing which encloses the above described apparatus and serve to direct these
currents through the divided grain as it falls from the cutting blades, thereby
carrying off light particles and dust.
A screen of wire gauze or its equivalent, prevents small pieces of grain from
being carried away with the dust, and suitable chambers are provided for collecting
the dust and waste particles. Man-holes are formed in the outer casing for the
inspection of the interior of the apparatus and for fixing and adjusting the circles
of cutting blades. By properly spacing the blades and adjusting the angle at
which they encounter the grain thrown off from the rotating tables, the cutting
effect of the blades may be varied according to the nature, size, or hardness of the
grain under treatinent

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Arthur William Lovell Roddie in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 3rd August 1882.
ARTHUR WILLIAM LOVELL REDDIE of the Office for Patents 66 Chancery Lane
in the County of Middlesex Patent Agent "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
THE REDUCTION OF GRAIN." A communication from abroad by Henry Ferdinand
Saint-Requier of Paris in the Republic of France
The object of this Invention is to provide simple and efficient means for the
gradual reduction or granulation of grain such as wheat, on what may be called a
dry and cold" system, that is, without moistening the grain or the development
of great frictional heat as is the case when mill stones are employed.
"
It is well known that much time and labour are expended in properly assorting
the floury and branny particles and in remedying the evils resulting from the
crushing of grain by stones. The mill stone requires great power, does little work
and does it badly, it also requires a moistening of the grain which is injurious to
the conservation of the flour, and it needs much looking after and hand labour.
Moreover the friction between the stone produces so great a heat that the primary
elements of the flour are modified by the volatilization in steam of a large part of
the nitrogenous substances which are the most valuable part of the grain. Finally
the milling operation thus conducted produces such a sludgy mass of flour and
bran that the subsequent operations are in a measure necessitated by the mischief
resulting from this crushing system.
In the first operation of grinding by mill stones more than fifty per cent, of the
available power tends only to produce an injurious result. In the second operation
both power and time are needed not only to rationally assort the flour and the
bran, but also to remedy the vandalisms committed during the first part of the
working.
The milling apparatus now to be described treats the grain rationally and scien-
tifically according to its natural structure, its molecular cohesion, its chemical
composition and the toughness more or less great of its several skins.
By the aid of this apparatus a progressive granulation of the wheat is effected
on a dry and cold system, the cost of maintenance is lessened, and hand labour is
done away with. Similarly fifteen times more work is accomplished for whereas
with twenty horse power five pairs of stones can deal with four hundred kilos per
hour, the present cutting apparatus can deal with six thousand kilos, working under
similar conditions.
No change is wrought in the condition of the alimentary constituents of the
whent the most valuable matters are preserved as well as the others in all their
integrity. The result is that after the granulation is offected the remaining processes
are greatly simplified.
DESCRIPTION AND OPERATION OF THE APPARATUS.
Fig: 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents a vertical section of the machine
which will serve to readily explain the operation of cutting or reduction.
Fig: 2 shews the arrangement of the blades of steel and of the grooves in the
tables, and Fig: 3 is a diagram on an enlarged scale of two groups of cutting
blades.

page_text: These grooves of different size for each table serve to direct the grain or pieces
of grain equally in all directions from the centre towards the circumference and
hurl it uniformly and in a constant direction against the cutting edges of the
blades J, under the influence of centrifugal action. The grooves of the tables are
proportioned in depth and breadth to the degree of reduction required for the grain
under treatment.
Around the peripheries of these tables are arranged crowns or circles of blades J
of fine steel which divide the grain thrown against them by the tables which are
driven at a high speed.-The blades are moreover so arranged as to always present
their cutting edges in a direction to meet the grain as it is thrown from the tables
and they may be set closer together or be spaced farther apart according to the size
of the grain to be treated and the degree of reduction required. K is the cover of
the apparatus which serves to carry at its centre the grain feeding device, and at
its circumference the upper circle or crown of blades J.
The upper part of the spindle A is fitted with the grease box bearing E having
a coned upper surface which is surrounded by a fixed covering plate G leaving a
space or intermediate channel F between the said casing and the coned bearing E,
wherein the grain is equally distributed as it falls from the feed-hopper spout C.
A circular movable hatch or screw slide D serves to regulate the feed of wheat
to the apparatus.
The particles of grain resulting from its first reduction by the upper crown of
blades, are caught by the fixed funnel L and directed by it towards the centre of
the lower grooved table I, by which they are thrown with force against the second
crown of blades J, by which the said particles of grain are cut into still smaller
pieces.
In the lower part of the apparatus are spouts or channels M formed by sloping
parts or surfaces attached to the bed plate of the apparatus N, and by these sloping
-channels the cut wheat is discharged.
It should also be observed that surrounding the spindle immediately above. each
grooved rotating table I are fixed coues O O serving to direct the grain onto the
said rotating grooved tables at a certain distance from their centres.
Pipes pass through the outer casing to admit fresh air which is drawn in by a
fan or its equivalent (not shewn in the Drawing) for the purpose of carrying
off the light and waste particles which are detached from the grain during its
reduction.
The light particles are carried by the exhaust towards the passage R where they
encounter a perforated plate, or piece of gauze, which prevents any bits of the
grain from being drawn off by the fan but which allows of the passage of the dust
and lighter particles which are forthwith collected in chambers specially intended
for their reception. These air channels obviate the clogging of the apparatus by
, the goods under treatment, and prevent a rise in the temperature within the
apparatus, thereby accelerating production.
Doors S, made in the outer casing and the back plate of the funnel L allow the
working of the inner parts of the apparatus to be inspected, and the adjustment or
removal of the crowns of blades to be effected.
At T are formed channels passing through openings in the bed plate for the
removal of the light particles drawn off by the fan and at P are pipes for the
discharge of the cut or reduced grain.
The apparatus having now been described its operation will be readily
understood.
The wheat from the feed hopper pipe C drops equally on to the upper table I
driven at a speed of some one thousand two hundred to one thousand five hundred
revolutions per minute.
The grain thus evenly distributed in the grooves of the table I is guided by these
grooves, and is thrown off with violence at the circumference of the table, there
it immediately encounters the upper crown of blades J arranged as indicated by
the Drawing.

page_text: By this shock the wheat undergoes a first separation into as many parts as it has
struck separate blates-The whole is then collected by the funnel Land delivered
(by the aid of the sloping surface of the cone O) onto and at a certain distance
from the centre of the second table I where the grain already cut into several
pieces undergoes exactly the same treatment it underwent on leaving the upper
table.
The only difference is that in the second operation the blades are so spaced as to
separate or reduce the several pieces of grain instead of having to separate entiro
grains. In the course of this operation of double reduction a certain quantity of
light bran and mill-dust or stive night clog the grooves and deaden the shock against
the blades. To obviate this inconvenience they are withdrawn from the grain as
they are produced and carried off by a strong current of air which precipitates them
into a series of chambers where they are collected.
Having now set forth the nature of the said Invention of improvements in
apparatus for the reduction of grain as communicated to me by my foreign corre-
spondent, and having explained in what manner the same may be carried into
practical effect I wish it to be understood that I clain.
First The employment for the reduction or division of grain of one or more
suitably grooved rotating tables in combination with coned or sloping surfaces for
equally distributing in a whole or divided state the grain upon the said tables, and
groups of knives or blades arranged circumferentially around the said tables in
such a manner as to present the cutting edges of the knives to meet the grain as
it is thrown from the rotating tables by centrifugal action, at the same time
ensuring the free discharge of the cut or divided particles, substantially as
set forth.
Secondly In a centrifugal machine for the reduction of grain the method of
grouping the cutting blades around the peripheries of the rotating tables so as to
meet and cut the grain as it is thrown outwards by centrifugal action, while
allowing the free discharge of the reduced grain thereby avoiding clogging
substantially as described.
Thirdly In a centrifugal machine for the reduction of grain by means of cutting
blades which encounter the grains or pieces of grain as they are thrown from the
rotating tables, the arrangement of air channels and screens in combination with a
fan or its equivalent as and for the purpose specified.
Fourthly In a centrifugal machine for the reduction of grain as above
described the movable circular hatch D in combination with a hopper spout C and
coned bearing block E, and forming together an adjustable feed regulator for the
equal distribution of the grain, substantially as described.
Fifthly The general construction and arrangement of centrifugal cutting
apparatus for the reduction of grain described with reference to Figures 1. 2. and 3
of the Drawing.
In witness whereof I the said Arthur William Lovell Reddie have hereunto
set my hand and seal this Third day of August in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty two.