IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CLEANING AND DECORTICATING GRAIN AND SEEDS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CLEANING AND
DECORTICATING GRAIN AND SEEDS."-A communication from abroad by
Adolphe Rousseau, of Rue St. Sebastien, Paris, in the Empire of
France.
Sealed the 16th February 1864, and dated the 3rd September 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd September 1863.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CLEANING AND
DECORTICATING GRAIN AND SEEDS," to be as follows:-
Many attempts have been made, but hitherto without success, to apply
the apparatus employed in mills for cleaning grain or seeds to the decortica-
tion of such grain or seeds. Now this Invention has for its object the
construction of a compact and simple arrangement of apparatus, which may
be employed for these objects. This apparatus consists of a vertical column
гPrice 8d1

page_text: or outer casing of perforated metal made slightly conical, the perforations
being sufficiently small to prevent the grain from passing through them.
Inside this casing work a series of short vertical cylinders or drums set one
above the other. The uppermost drum of the set is constructed with a
rasping surface, the periphery of the next drum is covered with plates of
metal cut like a file, and the third or lowest drum is provided with helicoidal
grooves or channels on its circumference. A small space is left between the
outer casing and the working or rubbing cylinders to allow of the grain
passing down between them, and being submitted successively to the action
of the several drums or cylinders. Rotary motion is communicated to the
drums by means of gearing from any suitable motive engine. The grain to
be operated upon is thrown into a hopper above the apparatus, from which it
is fed forward by a rotating screw; and in order to damp the grain during its
forward passage, and thereby facilitate the removal of the husk, a water
chamber is provided between the hopper and the box in which the screw
rotates, into which a rotating bucket wheel dips for the purpose of throwing
water on to the grain as it is fed forward. When operating upon maize it
should be steeped before supplying it to the apparatus. As a modification
of the above only one rubbing cylinder or drum may be employed having a
rasping periphery, the two lower cylinders being replaced by a series of vertical
beaters mounted on the central shaft. The descent of the grain is regulated
by sliding shutters, and at the bottom of the rotating drums are arms or
scrapers for sweeping the grain operated upon into the next compartment.
A blower is mounted underneath the cylinders aud on the same shaft for
winnowing the grain as it leaves the apparatus. Instead of mounting the
apparatus vertically it may be set horizontally, which arrangement will be
found more suitable for operating upon oleaginous grains than the vertical
arrangement. In this instance the outer casing is made in two parts hinged
together, and the rubbing cylinder nearest the feed is provided with scrapers
to conduct the grain properly into the spiral grooves of the next cylinder.
In this instance that part of the casing covering the first cylinder is not
perforated. In this arrangement the grain or seed to be operated upon on
arriving at the end of the last or grooved cylinder passes up through an
opening in the outer casing communicating with an exit air pipe leading from
an adjacent blower. By this means any extraneons particles which have
failed to pass through the casing will be separated from the grain.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 3rd March 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 666, Chancery Lane, in tho
County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 AND DECORTICATING GRAIN AND SEEDS,"
being a communication from abroad by Adolphe Roussenu, of Rue St. Sebas-
tien, Paris, in the Empire of France, upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what mauner 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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):-
Many attempts have been made, but hitherto without success, to apply the
apparatus employed in mills for cleaning grain or seeds to the decortication of
such grain or seeds. Now this Invention, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, has for its object the construction of compact and simple
apparatus,
may be employed for these objects. The first arrangement
I will describe consists of a vertical casing of perforated metal divided into
chambers by transverse partitions, in which are openings regulated by valves
for discharging the grain or seeds from one chamber to the other, the perfo-
which

page_text: rations in the metal being made sufficiently small to prevent the grain from
passing through them. Within the chambers work a series of short vertical
cylinders or drums set one above the other. The uppermost drum of the set
is constructed with a rasping surface, the periphery of the next drum is
covered with plates of metal cut like a file, and the third or lowest drum is
provided with helicoidal grooves or channels on its circumference. A small
space is left between the outer casing and the working or rubbing cylinders to
allow of the grain passing down between them,and being submitted successively
to the action of the several drums or cylinders. Rotary motion is commu-
nicated to the drums by means of gearing from any suitable motive engine.
The grain to be operated upon is thrown into a hopper above the apparatus,
from which it is fed forward by a rotating screw; and in order to damp the
grain during its forward passage, and thereby facilitate the removal of the
husk, a water chamber is provided above the box of the propelling screw,
into which chamber a rotating bucket wheel dips for the purpose of raising
and discharging water on to the grain as it is fed forward. When operating
upon maize it should be steeped before supplying it to the apparatus.
As a
modification of the above only one rubbing cylinder or drum may be em-
ployed having a rasping periphery, the two lower cylinders being replaced
by a series of vertical beaters mounted on the central shaft. The descent
of the grain will be regulated, as in the arrangement above described, by
sliding shutters; and in both arrangements near the bottom a blower mounted
underneath the central shaft will serve to winnow the grain as it leaves the
apparatus. Instead of mounting the apparatus vertically it may be set horizon-
tally, which arrangement will be found more suitable for operating upon
oleaginous grains than the vertical arrangement. In this instance it is pre-
ferred to make the outer casing in two parts, whichare to be hinged together.
The rubbing cylinder nearest the feed is provided with scrapers for pressing
forward the grain, in order that it maycome within reach of the helical blades
of the next cylinder. In this instance that part of the casing covering the first
cylinder is not perforated. The grain or sced to be operated upon on arriving
at the end of the last cylinder passes up through an opening in the outer casing
communicating with an exit air pipe leading from an adjacent blower. By
this means any extraneous particles which may have failed to pass through
the meshes or perforations of the casing will be separated from the grain.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 is a front elevation, partly in section,
of the first-mentioned apparatus; Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken through
the middle of the same; Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken in the line 1, 2,
of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a sectional plan taken in the line 3, 4, of Fig. 2; and

page_text: Fig. 5 is a plan shewing the arrangement of the arms or scrapers by which
the grain is swept into the discharging shute.
In these Figures E is the outer casing, made throughout of perforated
sheet metal, the elongated openings in which must be sufficiently small to
prevent the passage of the grain or seed through its periphery. This kind
of casing is employed instead of the ordinary punched metal. The upper
conical drum T is formed of segments covered with sheet metal having a
rasping surface; the next one, T, is provided at its circumference with file
cut plates, and the third drum t is covered by a plain sheet of metal having
a certain number of blades c set round it helically in a vertical direction
(see Fig. 2). Between each of these drums are the horizontal partitions S,
in which are orifices s, the extent of the opening of which is regulated by
means of the valves or shutters A (see Fig. 4). These valves are moved
backwards or forwards by means of adjusting screws, which may be worked
by a handle or hand wheel. The supply of grain at the top of the column
may be regulated by an analogous arrangement of valve in order that the
space between the drums and the outside casing may be always nearly full.
When soft or tender grain is to be operated upon the valve A of the top
chamber only is to be thus regulated, while that of the lower chamber is
left entirely open; but for grain which is decorticated with difficulty, such
as maize, the valves of the upper and lower chambers must be uniformly
regulated. Underneath each of the drums T, T, and t, are scrapers R (sec
Fig. 2 and Fig. 5), for the purpose of preventing the grain from remaining
upon the partitions S and passing it through the openings s. The grain, as
it is swept out at the lowest opening s by the rotation of the drum t falls
into a shute u so arranged as to receive a blast of air from a fan or blower
mounted immediately below the chamber containing the drum t. The
blower V is keyed to the central shaft, which is driven by bevil gearing H
below actuated by a band which runs over the fast and loose pullies P, P¹.
At the upper part of the column a damping apparatus may be mounted,
consisting of a box Bin which works a propelling screw C for feeding forward
the grain from a hopper D above. The water which serves to damp the grain is
supplied by means of a kind of small bucketwheel F to a vessel G,from which
it flows in regulated quantity into the box containing the screw C.
Fig. 6 shows another vertical arrangement of apparatus having only one
drum T of construction analogous to that above described, (that is to say)
covered with sheet metal punched like a grater or rasp; the two other drums
are replaced by flat beaters M carried by the drum shaft. This arrange-
ment contains the scraper R and partition S. The opening of the passage a

page_text: which connects the upper part of the column with the lower part may be
regulated by the sliding valve A, which is worked by the screw a.
'The
fan V is placed in the same manner as for the first-described apparatus, the
driving parts being also the same.
The horizontal apparatus represented at Figures 7 and 8 is specially
suitable for the decortication of oleaginous seeds, although it also possesses
the necessary qualities for operating upon cereals. Fig. 7 is a longitudinal
elevation of the machine, the outside drum or casing being removed the
better to shew the construction of the decorticating cylinder, and Fig. 8 is
a vertical section of the same.
The grain or seed to be operated upon is conducted by the pipe A. to the
box B of the propelling screw, into which water is discharged in regulated
quantity (to prepare the seeds by damping) from a pipe C leading from a
vessel D above, the supply to which is maintained by a bucket wheel E (of
similar construction to that described for the previous apparatus) dipping
into and taking the necessary water from a vessel F below. This vessel F
is itself supplied with water by a pipe G, and it is provided with a waste
pipe at G. The seeds, having been uniformly damped, are conducted by
the hopper H to the horizontal casing K, where it is subjected to the action
of the decorticating cylinder I. This cylinder is mounted upon a shaft the
ends of which pass through the ends of the casing K, and it receives its
motion from a band on the pulley P. The decorticating cylinder or drum
is composed of a cylindrical portion I covered with metal plates, some of
which are file-cut, and others formed like rasps; the other part is formed
of a cylinder of sheet metal J, which may be punched or not, and upon which
are formed the helically-arranged blades c. Small scrapers m, fixed to the
end of the cylinder I, force the seeds to pass forward towards the cylinder J.
This cylinder might, like the cylinder I, be armed with file-cut plates set
longitudinally or transversely. The outer cusing K is made in two parts,
the one being fixed to the framing and the other moveable on a hinge; this
casing is made of sheet metal, and is perforated with rectangular apertures,
but the part corresponding to the cylinder I may remain plain, in order
that the action of the decorticator may be the more energetic. On arriving
at the end of the cylinder J the seeds pass through an opening near the
end of the casing K which communicates with the air trunk supplied with
a blast of air from the fan V. The object of this current of air is to remove
from the seeds any portions of husk which may not have passed through the
casing K. These arrangements of apparatus are applicable, as above stated,
not only to the decortication of all kinds of cereals, but also of oleaginous

page_text: seeds; they operate with very great celerity upon different kinds of grain
or seeds, and produce greater or less friction upon them, as will be required
according to their different degrees of hardness.
Having now set forth the nature of this Invention of "Improved Appa-
ratus for Cleaning and Decorticating Grain and Seeds," and explained the
manues of carrying the same into effect, I desire it to be understood that
under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim, constructing cleaning
and decorticating apparatus in the manner above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Third day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON.. (L.s.)