IMPROVED ⚫ APPARATUS FOR CLEANING GRAIN OR SEEDS AND REDUCING THE SAME TO MEAL OR FLOUR
Year: 1867

page_text: 'LETTERS PATENT to Jonah Hadley, of the City Flour Mills, Upper
Thames Street, in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVED
⚫ APPARATUS FOR CLEANING GRAIN OR SEEDS AND REDUCING THE SAME TO MEAL
OR FLOUR"
Sealed the 24th March 1868, and dated the 21st December 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jonah Hadley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st December 1867.
I, JONAH HADLEY, of the City Flour Mills, Upper Thames Street, in the
City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CLEANING GRAIN OR SEEDS AND REDUCING THE SAME
TO MEAL OR FLOUR," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates, firstly, to a novel arrangement of machinery for
removing smuts, dirt, and other impurities from wheat and other grain or
seeds. Within a vertical cylinder I mount a central shaft which is driven from
a rigger at the top, and this cylinder I fit with a series of double cones formed
of wood or other suitable material and having roughened or grating surfaces;
these surfaces may be conveniently produced by covering the cones with sheet
827

page_text: iron, in which holes are punched and the protruding metal left standing.
The cones thus formed are arranged one below the other on the central
shaft and as near together as may be, and in the cylindrical case I form
chambers corresponding in form with the cones to receive them and allow
them a sufficient clearance to revolve freely therein and permit of the passage
of grain between the fixed and rotating surfaces. The grain fed in at the top
of the case finds it way down from cone to cone, and by the friction to which it
is subjected on its downward passage any dirt and extraneous matters
adhering thereto will be rubbed off, while the smuts will be crushed and bo
discharged as dust from the case. In this machine I provide a blast of air or
an exhaust which will drive or carry off any dust and light particles con-
tained in the grain. For regulating the vertical position of the cones in
the case the step for the central shaft may be carried by a regulating screw,
the turning of which will raise or depress the cones as required. In some
instances I may find it desirable to introduce a blast of air into the case and to
provide the periphery of the case with adjustable gates or outlets for
discharging the dust as it is formed by the action of the friction surfaces.
The Invention, relates, secondly, to an arrangement of apparatus which is
especially adapted to act upon mixed wheat, and will assort the cleaned grain
according to size and pass it to crushing rollers, from whence it will be
delivered into the centrifugal mills to bo there reduced to meal or flour,
The corn having been cleaned (or it may be cleaned and decorticated) is run
onto a riddle or screen of peculiar construction; this riddle is provided with
two or more screening surfaces, the first or uppermost of which will allow all
the seed to run through under the action of the shogging or endway motion of
the riddle, while the broken straws and other matters of larger dimensions
will be kept back and delivered out at an end or side spout; through the
next screening surface the smaller grains will pass and the larger grains will be
arrested. This assorted grain is delivered by a side spout to a pair of crushing
rollers; these rollers may be plain or grooved, and it is preferred that they
shall run at unequal surface speeds to ensure the drawing in and crushing
of the grain. The grain of smaller size is in like manner discharged down a
shutetoa similar pair of crushing rolls. Instead of employing the riddleabove
described for assorting the grain a cylindrical separator may be used for
assorting the grain for the crushing rollers. The crushed grain from each
pair of rollors is received into a hopper connected with a centrifugal inill in
which the reduction of the grain to meal or flour is completed; this mill
consists of two, three, or more pairs of discs connected together by coupling

page_text: bars and mounted on a central vertical shaft one above the other, the whole
being enclosed in a cylindrical case. Or single discs may be used with bars
projecting froin one or both sides thereof. The upper one of each pair of discs
has a contral opening through which the crushed grain or partially formed
meal is fed to the space between the discs, and below each pair of discs is a
conical hopper for conducting the meal to the discs below. A rapid rotary
motion being given to these discs the crushed grain fed to them will be thrown
outwards, and beating against the coupling bars will be rapidly reduced to
meal. In escaping from the periphery of one centrifugal apparatus it will be
conducted to the one below, and so on throughout the series, when the grain
reduced to the form of meal or flour will be discharged through a shute at
the bottom of the mill. It may be found desirable to remove by exhaustion
or a blast the finer particles of the flour as soon as formed, and for this purpose
the case must be provided at different levels with gates or ports for the
withdrawal of the flour.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jonah Hadley in the Great Seal Patent Office ou the 20th
June 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JONAH
HADLEY, of the City Flour Mills, Upper Thames Street, in the City of
London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Jonah Hadley, Her special licence that I, the said Jonah
Hadley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Jonah Hadley, 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 for
"IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CLEANING GRAIN OR SEEDS AND REDUCING THE SAME TO
MEAL OR FLOUR," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Jonah Hadley, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing.

page_text: under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain 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 Jonah Hadley, do hereby declare the
nature of tho said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention relates, firstly, to a novel arrangement of machinery for
removing smuts, dirt, and other impurities from wheat and other grain or
seeds.
In the accompanying Drawing I have shewn in sectional elevation at
Fig. 1 the machine which I employ for this purpose. It consists of a vertical
wire cloth or perforated metal cylinder within which is mounted a central
shaft fitted with a series of cones arranged one below the other on the
central shaft and as near together as may be convenient. The number of
these cones may vary as thought desirable, and they may be made either
as single or double cones (both of which forms are shown in the Drawing).
lu the cylindrical case I form conical chambers to receive the cones.
These chambers are made of such diameter and form with respect to the
cones as to afford a sufficient clearance for the cones to revolve freely
therein and permit of the passage of grain between the fixed and rotating
surfaces.
A, A, is a vertical cylinder of wire cloth or perforated sheet metal secured
between top and bottom plates B, C. Made fast to the under face of the
bottom plate C is a step bearing a to receive a vertical shaft D which projects
upwards through the top plate B and enters a bearing carried by a standard b
which is secured by bolts to the top plate B. Keyed to the shaft D are the
cones E, and rotary motion is given to the shaft by a band from a prime mover
passing over a pulley d keyed to the upper end of the shaft. Surrounding the
cones are metal cases F which are made fast to the cylinder. The cones may
be formed of wood covered on their upper face with roughened or grating
surfaces, or they may be made of cast iron with grooved working surfaces,
as shewn in the sectional plan view, Fig. 2. When the cones are made of
wood their upper and roughened working surfaces may be conveniently
produced by covering the coues with sheet iron through which holes have

page_text: been punched,the protruding metal being left standing outwards; the surfaces
also of the cases Fopposite the working surfaces of the coues are to be
similarly roughened, that is, either by being cast with parallel lines of grooving
disposed as shewn on the cone at Fig. 2, or when made of sheet metal by
means of punched holes as above described. The cones it will be seen are
formed with a cylindrical band at their base; this form I adopt as it allows
me to apply to the cones wire or other brushes e, e, at equal distances apart
around the base for acting on the grain as it leaves the cone surfaces and
removing so much of the dirt as is loosened or broken up by the operation of
those surfaces. To enable these brushes to act efficiently on the grain I make
them of sucha radius that in rotating they will sweep round the inner periphery
of the cylinder carrying with them the grain that has passed down between the
concave and convex cone surfaces; but to allow the grain to turn over and
escape therefrom I corrugate the cylinder vertically, and as the grain is
brought opposite the corrugations it will be momentarily relieved from the
clastic pressure of the brushes. Or I fit the cylinder internally with vertical
steel or iron bars having about an eighth of an inch projection and set at (say)
six inches apart. As the grain is carried round by the rotating brushes
it will as the brushes come opposite the bars or corrugations turn over, and
the grain being now subjected to friction in another direction the ends of the
grain if they had escaped the friction of the cones will be brushed and cleaned.
Fitting into the central hole in the top plate I secure a hopper G into which
the corn to be dressed is discharged from a shute H which connects with any
suitable receiver or feed trough. It will now be understood that the grain fed
into the hopper finds its way down from cone to cone, and by the friction
to which it is subjected by the roughened cone surfaces and the rotating
brushes of the series on its downward passage all dirt and extraucous matters
adhering to the grain will be rubbed off, while the smuts, if any, will be.
crushed and be discharged as dust from the case; the germ also and the
beard of the grain will be removed. In this machine I provide à blast of
air or an exhaust which will drive or carry off any dust and light particles
contained in the grain. I, I, shews an arrangement of air trunks cominuni-
cating with the bottom of the case and the side at different levels, as at I', I³,
for the purpose of effecting this ventilation; the arrows show the direction of
the currents. For regulating the vertical position of the cones in the case
the
step which carries the central shaft may be fitted with a regulating bearing
screw, the turning of which will raise or depress the cones as required.
The corn having been cleaned (or it may be cleaned and decorticated in the

page_text: machine just described or in equivalent apparatus) is next to be riddled o
screened, and as the grain is delivered from the riddle or screen it is to be
guided to an arrangement of crushing rollers to prepare it for the machine
which forms the second head of my Invention. Of these rollers I use two
pairs, as shewn in sectional elevation at Fig. one pair being mounted
below the other, the second pair to receive the grain from the first pair;
the grain will thus be twice submitted to the crushing operation. The
rollers may be plain or grooved, and it is preferred that they shall run at
unequal surface speeds to ensure the drawing in and crushing of the grain
for which purpose I make the two rollers of each pair of different diameters,
or I gear them together with spur wheels of unequal pitch. The crushed
grain from the first pair of rollers is received into the bite of the second
pair which further reduces it, and the crushed grain then falls into a hopper
connected with a centrifugal mill, in which the reduction of the grain to incal
or flour is completed. This mill is shewn in sectional elevation at Fig. 4. It
consists mainly of two or it may be more pairs of discs A, A, connected
together by coupling bars a, a, and mounted on a central vertical shaft B;
these coupled discs are placed onc above the other at suitable distances
apart and are enclosed in a cylindrical case C closed by top and bottom
plates C, C. The upper one of each pair of discs has a central opening through
which the crushed grain or partially formed meal is fed to the space between
the discs; into the central opening in the top disc of the first pair projects the
hopper D, which is fed by a shute E, and below this pair of discs is a conical
hopper D for conducting the meal to the discs below. A rapid rotary motion
is given to these discs from a band F from any prime mover passing over a
driving pulley on the upper end of the vertical shaft B, and as the crushed
grain is fed to the discs it will be thrown outwards, and beating against the
coupling bars a, a, will be rapidly reduced to meal. In escaping from the
periphery of the first centrifugal apparatus the crushed grain will be con-
ducted by the hopper D' to the apparatus below, and so on in like manner
if more were included in the series. The grain now reduced to the form of
meal or flour will be discharged through a shute Gat the bottom of the mill
case. It may be found desirable to remove by exhaustion or a blast the
finer particles of the flour as soon as formed, and for this purpose I provide
the case at different levels with gates or ports H, H, connecting with an
exhaust trunk I for the withdrawl of the flour from the case.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improved Apparatus
for Cleaning Grain or Seeds and Reducing the same to Meal or Flour," and

page_text: having explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be
understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim,-
First. The arrangement of machinery above described for cleaning grain
and seeds.
Secondly. The arrangement of centrifugal apparatus for acting upou
crushed grain and reducing it to meal as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jonah Hadley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord
Oue thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
JONAH HADLEY. (L.S.)