IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR DRESSING OR SIFTING GROUND WHEAT OR OTHER GRAIN
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Julius Allmann, of Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Consulting Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR DRESSING OR SIFTING GROUND WHEAT OR OTHER
GRAIN." A communication from abroad by Messieurs Nagal and
A
A5
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Julius Allmann at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 5th March 1870, pursuant to the 9th Section of
the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JULIUS
ALLMANN, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Consulting
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR DRESSING OR SIFTING GROUND WHEAT OR OTHER GRAIN,"
(communicated to me from abroad by Messieurs Nagal and Kœmp,

page_text: Consulting Engineer, of the City of Hamburg,) and have petitioned
Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria to grant unto me, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for
the same.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Julius Allmann, 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 and accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
The said Invention relates to the dressing machines which are
employed in the manufacture of flour, as, for example, in the manu- 1
facture of wheaten flour wherein the bran and other offal arc seperated
from the mcal or ground wheat, and the flour is seperated or sorted
into different degrees of fineness, and the said Invention relates more
particularly to the class of dressing machines wherein "silk reels"
are employed, but may be also applicable in cases wherein other
material than silk is employed to cover or line the rcel or sifting
cylinder. The said silk reels have hitherto been ordinarily formed of a
polygonal shape in cross section, the flat sides being covered with silk
gauze, as is well understood, and the axes of the said reels have had a
*considerable inclination, so that when the said reels have been caused 2
.to revolve and the meal has been fed into the upper end of the reel the
portions not passing through the silk have travelled towards the lower
end by reason of such inclination. During the rotation of the aforesaid
reel the meal has to a great extent remained in masses rising and falling
on one side and on the bottom of the reel, so that a small portion only 2
of the circumference of the reel has been utilised at one time, and in
order to keep the meshes of the silk open it has been necessary to
impart a shaking motion to the reel, or to cause the silk to beat against
fixed bars, the durability of the silk being thereby much lessened.
In constructing a dressing machine according with the present 3
Invention the silk reel is made of a circular shape in cross section, and
is arranged with its axis horizontal or nearly horizontal. In the centre
line of the said reel is mounted a shaft which carries a fan consisting of
a number of vanes or beaters, which are arranged around the centre of
the said shaft, and are each curved spirally partly around the central 3
axis of the said shaft, that is to say, supposing one of the said vanes to be
extended, say, for example, to six times its proper length, it would make
about one turn spirally around the said central shaft. The silk reel or

page_text: sifting cylinder is caused to revolve as is usual, and at the same time
the inner fan shaft carrying the vanes is caused to revolve, but at a
quicker speed; the said vanes being fixed at such a distance from the
centre of the shaft as that they may revolve as close as may be desired
to the interior surface of the said reel without coming into contact
therewith. The meal is introduced at one end of the reel, and by the
action of the revolving vanes is distributed to a greater or a lesser extent
over the entire inner surface of the reel, and the particles of flour by
reason of the centrifugal action of the vanes and of the currents of air
produced by the said vanes are quickly discharged through the meshes
of the silk gauze.
In order that the said Invention may be better understood, I have
supplied to accompany this Specification a Sheet of Drawings made to
a scale of about one and one quarter inches to the foot, and having
letters of reference marked thereon, similar letters indicating corre-
sponding parts in the various Figures.
Referring in this place to the said Drawings, Fig. 1 represents a
longitudinal sectional elevation of the improved dressing machine;
Figs. 2 and 3 are cross sections of the same, also in elevation, and
Fig. 4 is a sectional plan of the casing of the machine with the reel and
fan removed.
In the said Figures a is the silk reel, is the inner shaft, and c, c, are
the aforesaid vanes. The frame of the said reel is in this example
formed of four "tee" iron ribs d, d, which are attached to end drums
which are connected by means of arms with the hollow gudgeons e, e,
which are suitably formed and turned to revolve in the pedestals or
bearings ff. Between the said tee iron ribs are fitted wooden frames
composed of longitudinal pieces 9 connected together by transverse
ribs h, so curved as that the inner surface of the reel may be cylindrical
) in form. The silk or gauze is attached to the inner curved surfaces of
the said frames, the said frames being capable of being readily removed
when repairs are required. On the inner shaft b are fixed the metal
discs i, i, which carry the vanes c, c, the said vanes being formed or bent
to a spiral curve, as has been before mentioned, in order that the said
5 vancs may have a screwing or propelling action on the contents of the
real so as to cause the meal to travel towards the end opposite from that
at which it has been introduced. The said vanes are preferably formed
of steel or sheet iron, but any other suitable material may be employed.

page_text: The central or fan shaft 6 passes through the hollow gudgeons e, e, and
is mounted in the bearings or pedestals j,j, so that the fan and the
silk reel may revolve independantly of each other either in the same
direction or in contrary directions, the said fan revolving at a quicker
rate than the reel, as, for example, the said fan may revolve at six
times the speed of the said reel. Pulleys k and I are fixed on the fan
shaft and on one of the gudgeons e, on which straps operate to effect
the said revolutions of the fan and of the silk reel. The meal is intro-
duced through the spout m, and falling into the revolving reel is drawn
into the range of action of the fan and is carried round by the vanes of
the said fan, and is thrown against and distributed over the interior
surface of the reel by the centrifugal force imparted to the particles of
meal and to the currents of air in which the said particles are suspended,
and by reason of this action the finer particles are rapidly eliminated,
as has been before mentioned, the coarser particles being propelled
towards the bran delivery end of the machine by reason of the aforesaid
screw or spiral form of the vanes. The reel is covered with cloth or
gauze varying in fineness at different portions of the length of the said
reel so as to seperate the meal into different qualities of flour and offal
as is usual, partitions n, n, dividing the outer casing into as many
seperate receptacles as may be desired. The flour and offal are or may
be discharged into sacks through delivery spouts or shoots o, p, q, r,
the fine flour being either collected in two qualities from the spouts o
and p, or in one quality from the spout p, the screws delivering the
flour to the said spouts, or entirely to the spout p if the spout o be
closed. The bran is discharged at r, and the middlings and other
intermediate qualities at the spouts q, q, q, as is usual. It has been
found that when the aforesaid revolving vanes are employed in manner
as described a shorter reel and a lesser area of silk or gauze covered
surface may be employed than is usual, and also that an increased
quantity of work is done by the machine. The action of the said vanes
and of the currents of air resulting from the action of the fan also tends
to keep the meshes of the silk clear, and therefore the herein-before
mentioned shaking motion or the beating of the cloths is not required,
the durability of the reel and of the said cloths being thereby increased,
and the noise of working being much reduced.

page_text: understood that I do not wish to confine the extent of the said Invention
to the precise details herein described and shewn in the Drawings; but
that I claim,―
First. Mounting the revolving reels or sifting cylinders of such
machines as aforesaid in or nearly in a horizontal position in contra-
distinction to the inclined positions of the ordinary reels.
Secondly. The employment in connection with a revolving reel of an
inner revolving shaft carrying vanes operating substantially in manner
as herein-before described.
And, lastly. Curving the said vanes substantially as and for the
purposes as herein-before described and as illustrated in the attached
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Julius Allmann, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Second day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
JULIUS ALLMANN. (L.S.)
Signed by the said Julius Allmann,
in the presence of
EDWARD K. DUTTON,
Agent to the Petitioner,
Manchester.