IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO MACHINERY FOR PURIFYING MIDDLINGS' AND SEPARATING FLOUR FROM OFFAIS;' ALSO APPLICABLE FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Davies at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 1st April 1880.
EDWARD DAVIES, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster.
IMPROVEMENTS IN
AND RELATING TO MACHINERY FOR PURIFYING MIDDLINGS' AND SEPARATING
FLOUR FROM OFFAIS;' ALSO APPLICABLE FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
This Invention has for its object the construction of machinery for sifting,
purifying, and separating middlings, and gleaning flour from offals, and with slight
modification applicable for other purposes, such as separating ores, earths, and other
matters and substances requiring sifting.
A machine constructed according to this Invention consists of a novel combina-
tion of parts by which the desired end is obtained with a small consumption of
power, and reduction of the wear and tare of the various parts to a minimum.
The parts constituting a machine such as may be used for purifying middlings
aro a reciprocating sieve or sieves, covered with suitable silks, placed horizontally
with a slight incline, capable of adjustment, set within a suitable box carried by
framework. The middlings are fed through a hopper with a feeding roller onto
the reciprocating sieve or sieves, which receive their reciprocating motion by the
action of an eccentric, crank, or equivalent appliance. Within the box, and under-
neath the sieve or sieves, there are placed one or more travelling brushes carried by
an endless band or bands running over pulleys carried on spindles which pass across
the box and are borne by bearings secured to the sides of the box. The said
travelling brush or brushes bear on the underside of the silk, and answer two
purposes as they brush the silk, namely, they keep the meshes of the silk clear and
open, and likewise brush the stuff that passes through the silk down the discharge
spouts, which are placed in the bottom of the box. In connection with the machine
I employ a blast or current of air directed under the silk of the sieve or sieves for
the purpose of passing such blast through the meshes of the silk, and so lifting the
light, branny, and other impurities, which are then assisted in passing to and
through an outlet at the bottom, end, or other part of the machine, by another
current of air passing over the stuff that is being sifted and purified. Instead of
employing fans for creating the currents of air I employ blowers of the bellows
type, some of which I fix at the top end, so as to be worked by the reciprocating
movement of the sieve or sieves, or they may be driven or worked from the
driving shaft or other motions that work the sieve. Another blower can also

page_text: be fixed on the top of the machine and worked from a shaft, or by other suitable
means. This blower is for the purpose of creating an exhaust to take away
the impurities as before mentioned. Across the top end and down cach side
of the machine I construct air chambers, into which the air is forced by the
blowers. The air passes out of the side air chambers through perforations and
then under the silk. The whole space of the box under the the sieve can be used as
an air chamber by having slides in the discharge spouts to slide in and out. An
air chamber of large capacity may be constructed by having another bottom or a
partition tho lenght and width of the sieve. Below and at a distance from the
top end there are two pivots, one at each side, that carry the box part of the
-machine, and its lower end is supported by two screwed iron pins working in n
screwed nut, on the bottom end of which are hand wheels, by which the bottom
end of the box can be raised or lowered, so as to give the sieve or sieves any
required dip or incline suitable for the material under treatment. The bottom end
of the box can be raised or lowered without disarranging any of the working parts.
The sieve or sieves aro carried by suspenders fastened in the box. Each end of
the sieve frame is made as nearly as possiblo air tight, so that all the air forced
out of the air chambers may go through the meshes of the silk and through the
substances travelling down the silk.
When the machine is used for other purposes than purifying middlings if
required wire guaze, perforated zinc, or other suitable material is substituted for
the silk. The feed hopper is over the top end of the machine, and is provided
-with-a-feed-roller-and slide_for_regulating the feed. The material under treatment
passes through this hopper onto the top end of the sieve; down--which-it-travels
by_the reciprocating action of the sieve.
In some cases I put a buffer or beater, or buffers or beaters, at the bottom end
of the machine, so as to cause a slight knock on the end of the sieve frame to heep
the substances travelling over the silk on their downward course, which will also
have a tendency to loosen the particles composing such substances, and so enable
the air to act with good effect.
Two or more machines such as before described can be arranged to work in one
frame, so as to deal with two different kinds of middlings or other material at
one and the same time.
A spirit level is placed on the outside of the machine, so that it may be set
true and level, so that the substances may travel down the silk to the best
advantage.
The machine is worked by suitable straps and pulleys and gearing.