IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING CORN -
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, of
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris,
Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING CORN
- QAD" A communication
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Armand le Comte
de Fontaine Moreau at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 18th August 1854.
I, PETER ARMAND le Comte DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of 4, South Street,
Finsbury, London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING
CORN AND OTHER DRY SEED" to be as follows:-
The Invention communicated to me consists in the use of closed metallic
chambers, serving as tubular granaries or receptacles for the seed, rendered
impervious to moisture and atmospheric influence by a covering at top,
hermetically closed, affording thereby the means of frequently ascertaining the
degree of humidity within. The corn or seed having an excess of moisture is
previously dessicated.
These tubular granaries, which may be laid under ground, or partially or
wholly above, consist of a metallic case, preferably constructed of sheet iron,
covered outside with a coat of hydraulic or other cement, and if necessary with

page_text: a coat of preservative varnish. When employed under ground, the bottom of
the trench or pit in which the chamber is placed is covered with hydraulic
cement, or mortar of hydraulic lime, and, if damp, with a layer of bitumen,
and on these rest the case of iron or other metal, before mentioned. Around
this case a coat of bitumen or other waterproof substance should be applied,
if the case be of thin sheet iron, to stop the joints. The casing is then
surrounded with a bed of hydraulic or other cement, to prevent the oxidation
of the iron, and also to withstand the weight and thrust (when a single
chamber only is employed) of the surrounding soil. When several tubes of
a cylindrical form are laid parallel and contiguous, the triangular interstices
only are filled with the cement.
The chambers are closed with an iron lid or plug, with a pad of leather,
caoutchouc, or gutta percha introduced between the parts in contact; and by
an inner cover, adapted to the neck of the chamber, hermetically secured.
SPECIFICATION in pursuanco of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 17th February 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
ARMAND le Comte DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of 4, South Street, Finsbury,
London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, Her special license that I, the
said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine
Moreau, 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 of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING
CORN AND OTHER DRY SEEDS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain

page_text: 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 Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine
Moreau, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say:-
The Invention consists in processes and mechanical contrivances for pre-
serving grain and seed.
Figures 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6, Drawing I., represent sections of subterranean,
partly subterranean, and surface store rooms (silos).
Figures 7 to 12, Drawing II., represent the apparatus for drying grain.
Figure 1 is the section of a subterranean store room, complete. A, A, A,
is the interior, made of sheet iron; C, C, C, C, C, the envelope, made of
beton or other kind of masonry; M, M, M, the earth which surrounds it, and
in which the store room is inserted.
Figure 2 shews the details of the upper part of the store room, and of its
orifice for admitting or extracting the grain. A, A, is a cast-iron or stone
stopper let into the neck A', A', which is of the same substance as the stopper;
E, E, washer, of leather, caoutchouc, or gutta percha; B, B, lid, the lower
edge of which rests in a groove D, D, made round the neck of the iron bottle,
and is fixed in with a mastic or cement impermeable to the air. K, K, is an
examining tube, the upper part of which only is represented with its mouth
closed by the stopper K'. c, c, c, c, is the beton envelope; M, M, the earth
thrown up; 0, 0, the surface of the soil, either with or without a layer of
bitumen.
Figure 3 represents two store rooms, constructed as before described, and
placed beside each other, half under ground. M¹ shews the slope of the
embankment of earth formed by the excavation of the earth. The other
letters represent the same parts as in Figure 1. D, D, are pipes for carrying
off the water which may penetrate.
Figure 4 is a horizontal section of the said store rooms, in which the same
letters refer to the same parts.
Figures 5 and 6, a longitudinal and transverse section of surface store rooms,
placed on the ground floor of a house, of which X, X, represents the side
walls, and Y, Y, the ceiling, which serves to spread the grain upon. A layer of

page_text: The
rough materials separats the store rooms from the soil underneath.
other letters represent the same parts as in Figures 1, 3, and 4.
Figure 7 is the transverse section of the grain kiln.
cylinders of wire gauze, for the passage of grain into the hot-air chamber and
into the cooler.
C, C, C, C, c, c, are
Figure 8 is a plan of the grain kiln. G, G, are lateral furnace doors for
the admission of external air; P, a box to receive the hot grain egressing
from the thermometric box K through the orifice M; O, pulley for the
bucket chain; I, I, funnels or hoppers, to receive the grain egressing from an
upper cylinder of the hot-air chamber or cooler, and conduct it into a lower
cylinder of the same.
Figure 9, elevation of a kiln, shewing the grain receiver P and the bucket
chain Q, Q.
Figure 10, longitudinal section of the hot-air chamber; O, the opening with
the funnel and tube to receive the grain, and conduct it into the cylinder C, C;
Q, Q, the box for containing the bucket chain, Figures 8 and 9.
Figures 11 and 12, plan and section of the thermometric box K, forming the
egress pipe for the grain from the last cylinder of the hot-air chamber. O, the
thermometer; M, vertical cleft, through which slides the shutter M', serving
to regulate the size of the lower opening of the thermometric box; S, the upper
orifice for the escape of the grain in excess; P, the receiving box, from which
the grain is taken up by the buckets.
The Invention may be divided into four distinct processes: first, the employ-
ment of store rooms, rendered inaccessible to atmospheric air and humidity;
secondly, the determining the degree of humidity of the grain before storing
it; thirdly, the ascertaining at any time the degree of dampness of the grain
in the store room and its state of preservation; fourthly, an arrangement of
kiln for drying damp grain.
FIRST PROCESS.-THE EMPLOYMENT OF CLOSE VESSELS OR STORE ROOMS.
The arrangement by which the best results are obtained is that shewn
by Figure 1. It consists of one or several metal tanks, covered with an
envelope of beton or other kind of masonry, with or without the interposition
of a coat of a preserving material, such as varnish, pitch, tar, or calcareous
cements.
The subterranean store rooms, Figures 1 and 2, consist of a metallic vessel,
which may be made of sheet iron, set in an excavation of the required depth
in a suitable piece of ground previously drained, if thought necessary. The
bottom of the excavation is covered with beton or hydraulic lime, upon which

page_text: a layer of bitumen is laid, if the dampness of the ground renders this necessary.
Upon this covering the sheet iron vessel is set, which may afterwards be coated
outside with bitumen, tar, or a varnish of gutta percha, or other analogous
substance. The application of bitumen is indispensable at the points of junc-
tion of the metallic plates when very thin sheet iron is used; the external
envelope is then formed of beton. For better protecting the chambers from
humidity and superincumbent pressure, they may be made cylindrical. The
chambers or tanks having been placed together, as shewn in Figures 3 and 4,
so as to leave intervals between them, are surrounded with an external inclosure
C, C; beton is then poured into each of the spaces left between the tanks, as
shewn at c, c, c, Figure 4, and after it is set forms strong pillars for the support
of the arches. The lids of the metallic tanks are then covered with beton of
the thickness considered necessary to form vaults.
Figure 3 shews means for rendering the vaults thus formed inaccessible to
water. B, B', the external inclosure, raised to the level of the soil and covered
with an impermeable flooring. A constant circulation of air may be obtained
by means of a chimney. The tanks might also be placed under houses,
granaries, or coach houses. The tanks may be closed by a cast-iron plug A, A,
Figure 2, placed exactly above the mouth of the tanks; and a layer of leather,
vulcanized india-rubber, or gutta percha, E, E, Figure 2, may be interposed.
In order to render this closing hermetic, a cover B, B, Figure 2, is fitted
internally to the necks of the tanks by means of a fusible mastic. Figure 2
represents these different arrangements. Figures 3 and 4 represent store bottles
or tanks, partly under ground; D, D, D, D, D', D', are vertical pipes, for carry-
ing off the water from the back of the vaults, and from the earth or material
with which they are covered.
Sheet iron has been exclusively mentioned for the construction of the inner
part of the store room, but it is evident that other material producing the same
result may be employed. The store rooms may be composed of zinc or gal-
vanized iron tanks strong enough to sustain their own weight, or they may be
supported inside either with bricks or wood, which the metal cover will pro-
tect from the external humidity, being protected by a wall of masonry or
beton, as herein-before described. The store rooms may also be constructed of
bricks, stone, or wood, covered externally with an envelope of bitumen alone,
or a mixture of bitumen and asphalte, or bitumen mixed with gravel, sand,
sawdust, straw, hay, or any other substance which can give it consistence and
volume; coarse cloth of hemp, or straw covered with thin layers of bitumen or
tar, may be laid on the internal surface of the bricks, stone, or wood. This
cloth serves to bind all the parts of the envelope together. The trowel should

page_text: be passed over the cloth while hot, and, if necessary, it may be covered with
another coat of bitumen or tar, and then envelopped with beton, as herein-
before described, for the iron. The interior of the store rooms may be con-
structed of porous materials, such as bricks or rough stones, and made imper-
vious, by being covered with bitumen or tar externally, and, if necessary,
internally also. Different kinds of mortars and betons may also be employed,
and in particular Roman cement, for rendering the store rooms impermeable.
SECOND PROCESS.
DETERMINING THE DEGREE OF DAMPNESS OF THE GRAIN.
This may be effected by known processes. It is necessary for the success of
the storing process not to store grain containing more than a maximum of
sixteen per cent. of water.
THIRD PROCESS.-INSPECTION OF THE GRAIN WHEN STORED.
The grain in the store rooms should be examined from time to time, in order
to ascertain the changes which may take place, and be able to remedy them at
once in case of need..
For this purpose, I adapt to the arches or lids of the store rooms sheet-iron
tubes, projecting outside and shutting hermetically by plugs K, K, Figures 1, 2,
5, and 6: Into these tubes a sounding tube can be inserted to any depth, for
the purpose of extracting samples of grain for examination. The tubes K, K,
Figures 1, 2, 5, and 6, may also be prolonged into the interior of the store rooms
by perforated sheet-iron tubes, which cause a circulation of air, and contribute
to produce a general equilibrium in the distribution of humidity. A hygro-
meter introduced into these tubes will show at once the degree of humidity
in the interior of the store rooms. The examining tubes.serve also for
ventilation whilst extracting the grain. They may be fixed in the lids of
the store tanke

page_text: Figures 7 and 8. The trap-door D, Figure 7, when lowered, produces a circu-
lation of. air through the passage F, Figure 7, between the fire-place and the
hot-air chamber A', until the required temperature is attained. By raising the
trap-door and intercepting the passage F, the dampness of the grain let into
the cylinders is drawn through the cinder-box and fire-box and fire-place. The
lateral openings of the furnace.G, G, Figure 8, are shut in the first instance
and open in the second.
The size and number of the cylinders through which the grain passes depend
upon the work required from them, and this remark also applies to the motive
power to put them in motion. The grain egressing from the last cylinder is
carried outside of the drying chamber by the thermometric box K, Figures 8,
10, 11, and 12. This box has an upper orifice S, and a lower egress orifice S'.
The box should always be full up to the upper egress orifice, and the thermo-
meter O, O, Figures 11 and 12, have its bulb constantly plunged in the grain,
so as to shew, in a continuous manner, the temperature of the grain. The
thermometer should be under the eye of the fireman, who, to moderate the
temperature, will only require to intercept the upper communication between
the furnace and the hot-air chamber, or quicken the movement of the cylinders
when the temperature rises above seventy degrees centigrade. An infinite
variety of arrangements may be employed for obtaining this last object, which
consists in the judicious employment of a thermometer for regulating the
temperature of the grain egressing from the kiln. The grain falls into a box
P, P, Figures 8, 9, and 12, from whence it is carried by a chain and buckets
Q, Q, Figure 9, to the cooler, where it is again deprived of part of its humidity,
and at the same time cooled, by passing through a series of cylinders in which
cold air is made to circulate.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not
confine myself to the precise details of construction or mode of operating herein
laid down; but what I claim is,-
First, the peculiar mode of constructing store rooms or chambers, and
rendering them impervious to air and water, for the preservation of grain
and seeds, as herein-before described and referred to in Figures 1 to 6 of
Drawing 1.
Secondly, the mechanical arrangements for inspecting the grain and seeds
when inclosed in the said store rooms, as herein-before described and referred
to in Figures 1, 2, 5, and 6 of Drawing I.
Thirdly, the mode of regulating the desiccation of grain and seeds containing

page_text: too great an amount of humidity before storing the same, by means of a
thermometer, as herein-before described and referred to in Figures 7 to 12
of Drawing II.
In witness whereof,. I, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine
Moreau, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of
February, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
L DE FONTAINE MOREAU. (L.B.)