A NEW METHOD OF ARTIFICIALLY CURING AND PRESERVING THE BERRIES OF COFFEE BY A DRYING APPARATUS
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
RICHARDSON BANKS, of Great George Street, in the City of Westminster,
Architect, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria did, by Her
Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of
October, One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, give and grant unto
me, the said Robert Richardson Banks, my exors, adiñors, or assigns, Her
especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Robert Richardson Banks, my exors, adññors, and assigns, or such others as
I or they should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend my Invention of "A NEW
METHOD OF ARTIFICIALLY CURING AND PRESERVING THE BERRIES OF COFFEE BY A
DRYING APPARATUS," within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and
Man, and also in Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, in such
manner as to me, the said Robert Richardson Banks, my exors, adññiors, and
assigns, or any of them, shall in his or their discretion seem meet, and that I,
the said Robert Richardson Banks, my exors, admors, and assigns, shall
and lawfully may have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and
advantage from time to time coming, growing,, accruing, and arising by reason
of the said Invention, for and during the term of years therein mentioned, to
have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said license, powers, privileges, and autho-

page_text: rities therein-before granted or mentioned to be granted to me, the said
Robert Richardson Banks, my exors, admors, and assigns, for and during and
tnto the full end and term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters
Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be complete and ended;
provided always, and the said Letters Patent are upon the express condition,
that if I, the said Robert Richardson Banks, should not particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and
cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advan-
tages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become
void, anything therein-before contained to the contrary thereof in any wise
notwithstanding.
NOW KNOW YE, 'that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Richardson Banks, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following instrument in writing, and the
Drawings therein referred to.
The accompanying Drawing of a coffee store and barbacue shows the
arrangements for artificially curing and preserving coffee after it has passed
through the process of pulping and washing, by causing air to circulate round
it, and be diffused through it, passing either upwards or downwards, as the
case may be, and by causing external air to come in contact with it, and to act
upon it; also by conveying away, by means of the air so circulating, moisture
and gaseous or vaporous matters generally from the coffee; also by heating,
when required, the air, before it is brought into contact with the coffee, either
naturally or by a heating apparatus placed in a separate chamber from that
which contains the coffee, and called an air chamber; also by ascertaining and
regulating the quantities of moisture conveyed away from the coffee by the
means above mentioned; also for preserving coffee which has been cured by
causing from time to time currents of fresh air at its natural temperature to
pass and be diffused through it.
In the accompanying Drawing Figures I. and II. represent a coffee
store, with an air chamber underneath the floor, and drying platforms above a
it. In the air chamber there are two openings, with valves for the
entrance of air, viz, one for the admission of air at its natural temperature,
and another for the admission of heated air. At the opposite end of
the store there is an opening under the roof for the egress of vitiated

page_text: air, which communicates by a descending flue with a ventilator placed
under the floor of the pulping house adjoining. By means of the ventilator,
which is here shown to be an Archimedes' screw, the air is withdrawn from
the interior of the store, and a partial vacuum is therein created. To supply
this vacuum, when the store is closed the external air is made to enter by the
openings to the air chamber, and to pass upwards through the perforated floor
of the store, carrying off the moisture with which it becomes impregnated, and
is firstly brought into contact with and made to pass through and about the
coffee on the floor of the store, and secondly in contact with, through, and
about the coffee on the perforated floors of the drying platforms above, as
represented in the Drawing, and lastly the air is discharged into a second
air chamber under a perforated draining platform in the pulping house, as also
shewn in the Drawing, and having no other means of escape is impelled
upwards, and made to pass through the draining platform, and the wet coffee
placed thereon, thus also evaporating and drying off the surface moisture
before the coffee is removed into the store for the purpose of being cured.
The temperature of the air which is admitted into the air chamber, and made
to act on the coffee, may be regulated at pleasure, equalized, and kept at any
uniform standard by the valves at the openings for the admission of air at its
natural temperature, or heated, or both, as may be required. The arrange-
ment above described, and illustrated by Figures I. and II. on the accompanying
Drawing, is adapted for an air-tight store, and for the application of artificial
heat.
II., the air in
made to pass
Figure III. on the Drawing shews a modification of the above arrangement,
by which in warm weather the heat which is or may be acquired without
artificial means, or from the surfaces exposed to the sun in the interior of the
store, more especially when it is constructed of iron, may be rendered
available for the purpose of curing the coffee in the store.
In this case, by
merely shutting the valves represented open in Figures I. and
the interior of the store heated by contact with its surfaces is
downwards through the coffee on the drying platforms and floor, and is
discharged directly from the air-chamber by the ventilator, whilst the supply
of fresh air enters by the opening under the roof of the store, or by any other
openings above the floor that may exist. This last arrangement is applicable
to any previously constructed store, no matter how open above, provided there
be an air-tight space underneath the floor for the air chamber.
Figures IV. and V. shew the method of applying direct solar heat to the
curing of coffee on external platforms or barbacues. In this case the coffee is
spread over a perforated surface raised some distance above the ground, and

page_text: enclosed by sides, which are air tight. Within this enclosed space a partial
vacuum is created by a ventilator; and the air, which is naturally heated by
contact with the upper surface of the coffee, instead of ascending, by virtue of
its rarefaction, is made to pass downwards through the coffee, and to commu-
nicate heat to the whole depth of the coffee with which it is thus brought in
contact, thereby accelerating the drying process.
Although in the foregoing Specification and accompanying Drawing I have,
for the more fully explaining my Invention or new method, described and
represented a particular apparatus, arrangement, or mode of applying my
Invention, I do not claim or confine myself to this nor to any particular appa-
ratus or arrangement of floors and chambers, or either of them, nor to any
particular kind of house or enclosure for carrying on the process, nor to any
particular kind of perforated floor or surface on which the coffee is placed, so.
long as the same is sufficiently pervious to air; nor do I claim or confine
myself to any particular kind of ventilator or contrivance for creating draughts
of air, nor any particular motive power, nor any particular stove or apparatus
for heating air when required, nor any kind of materials for the house or
enclosures within or by which the process is carried on. Any of the ordinary
well-known means, machinery, or materials may be used that are appropriate
and efficient for such purposes respectively. But what I do claim is,―
1st, the new and improved method and process of artificially curing coffee,
after the early processes of pulping and washing, by disposing it on a per-
forated floor, or on surfaces pervious to air placed within or connected with an
enclosed space, and arranged either one over the other, or side by side, as may
be found convenient, and by passing through or around the coffee an artifi-
cially-created current of air, either warmed or of the natural temperature, for
the purpose of curing such coffee.
2nd, the arrangement of a series of such perforated floors or surfaces within
an enclosed space, in such a manner as that a current of heated air, or air at
its natural temperature, shall be made to pass first through or around the
coffee that is nearly or quite cured, and successively through the coffee that is
in a less forward state, and ultimately through that which has just been
washed; by these means gradually and uniformly curing the coffee throughout
its different stages in the best and most economical manner; and I claim such
an arrangement of valves, channels, &c. connected with this arrangement as
that the current of air passing through or around the coffee on any particular
floor can be increased, decreased, or altogether cut off, at pleasure.
3rd, the arrangement of a separate chamber for heating the air, and
bringing air tempered to any and the same degree of heat to act uniformly

page_text: on the whole of each separate description of coffees, so as to cure it
equally.
4th, the arrangement in connection with the others by which the quantity
of moisture withdrawn from the coffee can be ascertained at any time, viz', by
adopting one entrance for the admission of air, and one for its exit, and com-
paring the indications of hydrometers placed in each of these openings.
5th, the method of preserving cured coffee, either in the parchment or in
the clean state, as coffee beans, by storing or disposing it on perforated floors,
and causing artificial currents of fresh air at its natural temperature to pass
through it, either continually or from time to time, as may be found requisite.
And I have given as above the particular Specification of certain arrange-
ments and apparatus for carrying the method into effect, by way of example
and illustration, being those which have occurred to me as the most simple.
and convenient.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nine-
toonth low of Annil One thaneend sight hundred and futur