AN IMPROVED MODE OF AND MILL FOR PREPARING WHEAT FOR GRINDING
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd April 1879. A communication
from abroad by Samuel Potts, of Minneapolis, Henepin County, and Arvid
Parson, of Stillwater, Washington County, both in the State of Minnesota,
United States of America.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent. "AN IMPROVED MODE OF AND MILL FOR PREPARING WHEAT FOR
GRINDING." [A communication from abroad by Samuel Potts, of Minneapolis,
Henepin County, and Arvid Parson, of Stillwater, Washington County, both in the
State of Minnesota, United States of America.]
The object of this Invention is to furnish an improved mill for removing the
germ and the fuz from the kernels of wheat without reducing the kernels or making
any flour, whereby flour better in quality and more in quantity will be yielded
than when the flour is made with the germ and fuz still upon the kernels, and the
amount of low grade flour will be lessened, the principal impurities being removed
before the kernals are ground.
The Invention consists in the mode of preparing wheat for flour making, herein-
after described, that is to say, by removing the germ and the fuz from the ends of
the kernels before grinding, in millstones made of the rock known as hard heads
or boulders, in a mill stone dress formed by boring holes in the face of the stone,
and in the combination with the upper stone or runner of a three armed driver
rigidly attached to the spindle, as hereinafter described.
The stones, as above mentioned, are made of the stone or rock known as "hard
heads" or "boulders," which stone has an open texture, but when faced down and
polished becomes very smooth, and at the same time retains a grit or a cutting
quality. These qualities make it very desirable for this use, as they adapt it to
receive the peculiar dress of this Invention. In the face of the stationary or bed
stone holes are formed of a depth equal to about one third the length of a kernel
of wheat, and of such a size that the kernels of wheat will readily enter them end-
wise. These holes are bored as close together as is possible without breaking the
wall between them, and they are arranged upon lines curved from the eye of the
stone in about the direction the kernels would take in passing outward by the
centrifugal power of the stones. The said holes may be bored irregularly or in
lines straight or curved, and running in any desired direction.
The face of the upper stone or runner is provided with an ordinary dress.

page_text: The spindle passes up through and revolves in a bushing in the eye of the bed
stone. To the upper end of the spindle is attached a three armed driver, the ends
of the arms of which enter notches in the upper stone or runner at the lower end
of its eye.
By this arrangement the runner when properly adjusted will be carried around
with its face exactly parallel with the face of the bed stone.
The runner should be adjusted at such a distance from the bed stone that the
kernels of wheat when upon their sides will be untouched by the runner.
The spindle should be driven by gear wheels as the pull of a bell tends to draw
the said spindle out of a vertical position, and thus tends to draw the runner out
of true.
With this construction as the grain passes through the space between the stones
the ends of the kernels will drop into the holes in the bed stone, tilting them into
such a position that the germ will be cut from one end of the kernels and the fuz
from the other end without making or wasting any flour.
The germs and fuz are separated from the kernel by a revolving screen covered
with wire cloth of a suitable fineness of mesh, and which should be provided with
an air blast to carry off such particles of bran as will not pass through the screen.
The wheat is then ground or made into flour in the usual way.
When the wheat is ground with the germ and the fuz still upon the kernels the
germ becomes crushed and gives a gloss to the stones, causing them to heat, and at
the same time injures the flour. The fuz also being finer than the flour passes
through the screen or bolt with-it,-producing discoloration and injury. All of these
injurious results are avoided by removing the germ and fuz from the kernels before
grinding them.
It may be observed that the kernels in passing from the centre to the circum-
ference of the stones turn end over end, so that the impurities will be removed from
the ends of the kernels without injuring or scratching the bran fibres, which being
thus left intact will not be pulverized by the reducing or grinding stones.