IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OR MANIPULATION OF FLOUR."
Year: 1878

page_text: "
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Wylde at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd July 1878. A communication from
abroad by Messieurs Smith Brothers, of Milwaukee, in the State of Wisconsin.
SAMUEL WYLDE, of Runcorn, in the County of Chester. IMPROVEMENTS IN
AND RELATING TO MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OR MANIPULATION OF
FLOUR." A communication from abroad by Messieurs Smith Brothers, of Mil-
waukee, in the State of Wisconsin.
This Invention consists of apparatus,—
1st. To granulate grain.
And, 2nd. To sort out the granulated stuff into its component materials.
As to granulating I dress my stones peculiarly. I divide the circumference of
the face into (say 20) equal parts; I then take a templet or "stick" composed of
an eye board fitting on to the bolt in the eye, and a long stick shaped like the
furrows on the stone; I place the edge in turn against each of the 20 points of
division, and draw out the furrows with a pencil on both sides of the "stick; " I
now take off this stick and put on another, and after placing the "land stick "
against the marks so formed I place the second stick against the land stick, remove
the latter, and thus scribe out the intermediate furrows, making 40 in all. In
doing this I observe the following directions :-
In cutting in the furrows rough them out, then go to work on the face of the
stone, which is comparatively small, and will not take near the time and labour
that it would have taken before the furrows were cut in; get the face true and
then place
smooth, but by so doing the furrows become narrower and shallower;
the sticks on and pencil them over, cut them in the required width and depth, and
make them just as smooth and true as you can, paying as much attention to the
smoothness of the furrow as to the face.

page_text: For smoothing the face and furrows I use the emery or corundum wheel or stone,
but where such is not at hand I use a buhr block or sandstone. I dress or crack
the stone very light. Soine millers use the smooth stone altogether, using sand
and water to keep the grain of the stone open, but this will not keep the stone in
as good order as the use of the mill bill. I put in about fifty cuts to the inch, and
so light that they appear to be fine knife cuts scarcely discernable, and only cut
where the red staff has left its mark.
The stone must be kept well down at the eye, the land being cut down at that
point till about five thicknesses of drawing paper can pass between it and a
straight edge placed across the stone from land at each skirt. About four and a
half to five inches from the skirt there is an elbow in the furrows, and at this point
the surface of the land rising gradually from the eye is about the thickness of an
ordinary sheet of paper below the height at the skirt. This will leave four and a
half or five inches of grinding surface at the skirt; from this grinding surface to
the eye make it a true incline. The object of this dress, which has very little land
near the eye, is to carry the grain rapidly away from the eye where the least
surface and motion exists to the skirt where the surface and motion is greatest.
Here the draft is reduced nearly equal to the centrifugal force, so as to retard the
grain in its passage and oblige it to pass over the grinding surface.
The effect is as follows:-The grain as it passes in at the eye is rapidly dis-
tributed over the face of the stone, which prevents it from wallowing at the eye
and on the bosom of the stone, and prevents its pulverizing. As the grain passes
along and up the incline of the furrow it rolls the grain out of the bran, but
will not pulverize it as it passes over the land; thus it gradually granulates it
until it arrives at the clbow, where all is obliged to pass over the land or
grinding surface, and is reduced to a uniform size, and the bran brushed or cleaned
out.
In trucing up the furrows I use a sinall red staff about eight inches long. The
slope of the furrow, that is, from the deep side to the land must be a true incline,
not concave nor convex, nor must there be a shoulder at the feather edge, but
must run out smooth and even with the land; have no high or low spots in the
furrow.
In laying out the dress I generally manage to put the furrows upon as many
joints in the stone as possible, this leaves the lands clear of them, it is better in
the furrow than the land.
The flour leaving the skirt of the stone now falls down spouts into a hopper,
where it is fed down a slide with expanding furrows into a long sieve or silk kept
reciprocating or shaken by means of eccentrics or cranks on shafts at each end, or
other means, as desired. This sieve gradually slopes down to the other end where
the contents that could not pass through and were not drawn off fall into a spout
and are carried off.
A brush on a revolving belt can be made to brush the lower side of the sieve
or silk, so as to keep it clear, or other of the numerous well-known means can be
used.
The flour falling through the silk falls into a trough with a screw or carrier
for discharging same. Through louvres in the sides of this trough, or in any other
convenient way, air is freely admitted under the silk. A trifling distance above
the silk a series of longitudinal troughs are placed with similar or adjustable slope,
and agitated in a similar manner. These troughs are preferably V shaped, and are
spaced a little distance apart. The chamber in which these troughs are situated is
kept practically air-tight above, and connected by a series of holes at the top with
an exhausting fan.
The mode of action of this portion is as follows:--The flour falling on the silk
in an even layer is carried down to the lower end, the brush keeping the meshes
open, the flour of a certain grade of fineness drops through. The fan drawing the
air through the sieve draws the stive, bran, and lighter particles up, but as the

page_text: current of air passes the top of the troughs it expands laterally, and its speed
being lessened the heavier particles drop into the troughs, from which they are
delivered at the lower end. What cannot fall through the meshes and is too heavy
to rise to the troughs, falls off the silk at the lower end and is carried off.
By this means at one operation the flour is separated into four distinct materials,-
(1). The stive and a little bran.