IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF PRESERVING GRAIN
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Gedge, of No. 4, Wellington Street South,
Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of.
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF PRESERVING GRAIN."-A communication
CCI Delegonne of Lille in the Empire of France.
Sealed the 30th November 1855, and dated the 6th June 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Gedge at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th June
1855.
I, JOHN GEDGE, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF PRESERVING GRAIN," a communication from
C. J. Delezenne, of Lille, in the Empire of France, to be as follows:-
I propose to place grain of all sorts, after such grain is (where required) sifted
and dried, into cases, tanks, or compartiments, closed, excepting at a portion of
their bottoms, where metal wire or similar network is placed. The preserving
agents are to be dry air, warm air, and, if need be, air charged with carbonic
acid; the air will be distributed or forced into the cases by means of a venti-
lator, (unnecessary here to describe,) put in motion by hand, steam, or other
power; the air is to be introduced at the bottom of the cases through the wire.

page_text: cloth or other network, and such air will get rid of larvæ or insects. It is
expected that after some months' attention the grain in the cases (such cases
being then hermetically sealed or closed up) will keep for many years in its
perfect, natural, and nutritious state.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Gedge in the Great Seal. Patent Office on the 5th
December 1855..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
GEDGE, of No. 4, Wellington Street South, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors; give and grant unto me, the 'said
John Gedge, Her especial license that I, the said: John Gedge, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns; or such others, as I, the said John. Gedge,
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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF
PRESERVING GRAIN," a communication from C. J. Delezenne, of Lille, in the
Empire of France, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
John Gedge, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Patents
NOW KNOW YE, that Ithe said John Gedge, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be-per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying two Sheets of Drawings:-
As the title of the Invention imports, its object is to preserve grain from the
pressure or attacks of weevils, larvæ; or insects of any description....
In the Drawing, Figure 1, Sheet 1, shews a case or tank för receiving the
grain. B are upper doors in the tank, by which it is filled with grain, whichi

page_text: also serve to allow the renewal of air, and are to be finally, hernietically closed!
C, a door with grooves, whence the grain is withdrawn from the case Dis
the entrance pipe for,air, whence it may traverse or pass through the grain;
E, cast iron open grating receiving the air from the ventilator and carrying it
into the case; H, groove or keyed pipe (in' metal) permitting the entry of the
air into the case or intercepting its entry at pleasure; I (Figure 2) is a valve
or clapper to retain gas below the diaphragm. Figure 2 of the same Sheet
offers to view a story of a granary, supposed to be about twenty yards square,
and containing thirty cases or tanks. Figure 3 shews, in profile, a range of
cases or tanks for three stories in a granary of three stories, being about thirty
yards long by twenty wide.'
In Sheet 2, Figure 4 shews an elevation of a blowing or ventilating appa
ratus, which may be either of dimensions suitable to hand labour, or, for
granaries of larger capacity, and where the ventilation is on a grander scale,
it may be worked by steam! At No: 1 of this Figure is seen the blower;
No. 2, à cold or hot air apparatus, which also produces carbonic acid gas.
oxide of carbon, or azote (the agents employed in this Invention); No. 3;
case or tank (before described) for holding or preserving the corn. A, pipie
conducting the gases to the higher stories. "
J
Figure 5: No. 1'shews the apparatus for the production of gas (without its
its cover); No. 2 'is the cover of No. 41No 3 is a horizontal section of the
tubing and grating in No. 1; No. 4 is a vertical section of the interior of
No. 1; No. 5 is the grain 'tank' (before described); and No. 6 is the metal
grating, divided into: 4 compartments to facilitate its being placed in position,
each compartment being supported by four feet, each being about (in height) the
fifteenth of the whole height of the case, the space under this grating serving
as a reservoir for gas. A is the opening by which the coke is put into the
fire-place; B, the opening into the blower; C, the opening and conduit for
the air and gases into the lower part of the tanks containing the grain;
D, coke furnace; E, fire grating; F, air chamber; G, regulating plate or
register of the fire-place or stove; H, lower door to ash-pit of the apparatus;
I, I, I, conducting tubes for hot and cold air; J, iron pipes for receiving the
gas or gases, and conducting it or them into the cases or tanks; K, valve or
key plate, for allowing the entrance of the air or gases into the tank or shutting
them off; L, valve for preventing the air or gas contained in the receiver from
retrograding into the pipes; N, grooved door for taking the corn out of the
tank; M, metal grating, serving to support or base the grain, without its
cloth; O, upper doors for the entry of the corn into the tanks, and for regu-
lating the quantity of air or gases; P, metal grating, covered with cloth or light

page_text: tissue to retain the grain. By the foregoing it will be seen that I employ a
greater or less number of cases or tanks (such number being regulated by the
capacity of the granary), which tanks may be hermetically closed. At or near
their bottoms are gratings covered with tissue, serving to prevent the grain
from falling through the grating, a blower or ventilator, an apparatus for the
production of gas, furnished with a conducting pipe, carrying air or gas to every
story of the granary, and into each case or tank. The ventilator produces, as
may be required, either cold and dry air, or hot air charged with carbonic
gas,
oxide, carbonic acid, or azote produced by the combustion of coke.
It will be readily understood that by the foregoing means or system the
tanks, after some months of care, may be hermetically sealed, and that the
grain will therein be preserved for an undefinable period; for even supposing
that after the corn is so treated some weevils should remain amongst it, they
would perish in a few days, and their larvæ would never be hatched.
Thus, by the adoption of these improvements in preserving grain, it will be
in tact for a great number of years, neither contracting smells or taste, or
suffering any deteriaration from the insect tribe. In an economical point of
view, this Invention is manifestly advantageous, a single cleansing before its
deposit in the tanks being sufficient, and quantities, however great, can be thus
stored without further treatment or notice after the tanks are once sealed;
they can be moved anywhere singly, and stored after removal without loss:
The cost of the tank is small, and of course the same apparatus serves for
curing the grain for any number or succession of tanks.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Gedge, have heretofore, set my hand
and seal, this Eifth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
W. E. GEDGE,
Harrington Square,
Hampstead Road.
JOHN GEDGE. (L.S.)