IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR THRASHING, WIN- NOWING, AND DRESSING CORN, GRAIN, AND SEEDS
Year: 1853

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Parsons at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st July 1853.
(Void by reason of notice to proceed not having been given within the
time prescribed by the Act.).
I, GEORGE PARSONS, of West Lambrook, in the County of Somer-
set, Agricultural Implement Maker, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR THRASHING, WIN-
NOWING, AND DRESSING CORN, GRAIN, AND SEEDS," to be as follows:
The object of this Invention is to combine in one portable machine
(which can be casily moved from place to place when required) the
mechanical arrangements or parts whereby the several operations of
thrashing, winnowing, screening, elevating, and separating corn, grain,
and seeds may be carried on.
The thrashing drum is provided with five benters with tangential
strips, whereby a current or draught of air is produced. The straw is
delivered in the usual way on a shaker, and the corn and chaff, in
falling through the concave or roof to the riddle, is met by a current
of wind generated by one of my patent disc-shaped blowers which
entirely carries the chaff away before it, leaving the corn or grain only

page_text: to fall on the riddle; this is a great improvement, and prevents the
riddles from choking, which is so common in the ordinary modes
adopted. After leaving the riddle it is collected by boards or plates
constructed for that purpose, and delivered in a thin stream the whole
width of the collecting boards before another current of wind generated,
as before described; by this operation a considerable quantity of
light corn and seeds whose specific gravity is less than the full-
grown grains is blown. over a dividing board into a trough or box
attached to it, the heaviest and best grain falling into another trough
provided with an Archimedian screw, which forces it on to an endless
chain of buckets by which it is elevated to the upper part of the
frame work into what I have denominated a separator.
The separator is a cylindrical or conical sieve, or may be made with six
or eight or more or less sides to it (but I prefer the cylindrical or conical
form); it is composed of a wooden or metallic shaft, on which is fixed
an Archimedian screw, the outer edge of which is covered with pierced
metal or wire, the nieshes or interstices of which are nearer together
at the end which receives the grain from the elevator, and are in-
,creased in width either gradually or only at intervals the whole length
of the separator, so that the grains or seeds may be subdivided into
as many samples or lots as may be required, according to the length
and gradations or number of different sized meshes or interstices.
The separator is fixed in a box with partitions to receive the different
samples or lots of grain and seeds, and to each partition or compartment
a sack, or other receptacle may be fixed to receive its contents; a brush
is made to rotate simultaneously with the separator, and fixed suffi-
ciently close to penetrate the meshes or interstices, thereby preventing
any seeds or small corn from remaining in the meshes, and stopping
up or choking them. Motion is communicated to the various parts
from a steam engine or other prime mover in the ordinary manner,
and the whole is mounted on wheels for the convenience of removal.