IMPROVEMENTS IN SMUT MACHINES, AND IN MACHINES FOR CLEANSING AND PEELING GRAIN AND SEEDS
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by François Antoine Edmond Guironnet
de Massas at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 16th April 1863.
I, FRANÇOIS ANTOINE EDMOND GUIRONNET DE MASSAS, of Hoxton, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SMUT MACHINES, AND IN MACHINES FOR
CLEANSING AND PEELING GRAIN AND SEEDS," to be as follows:-
In my improved machine a drum having a rough surface, and capable of
rotary motion, is fitted within a slightly inclined fixed casing having on its inner
surface three sets of brushes of graduated strength or hardness; the first or
hardest set consists of wires surrounded by or combined with bristles, each
cluster of wires having a cluster or number of bristles round it; the next or
softer set is of French whisks or other fibre, and the third or softest set of cocoa-
nut fibre or other fibre softer than the second set. Between the second and
third set is a surface of wire gauze. I mostly have this arrangement of brushes
and wire gauze on the lower portion of the inner surface of the casing, while
on the upper portion thereof is only a set of brusbes of the first description
(wire and bristle) combined with or having next to it a wire gauze surface.
For smut machines the whole inner surface of the casing may be fitted as just
described for the upper portion, that is, with the wire and bristle brushes
and the wire gauze. The wire gauze on both upper and lower portions is
composed of wire of angular section, and so disposed that the weft instead of
the warp may be in the direction of the length of the casing. The shoot, feed

page_text: passage, or lower part of the hopper, through which the grain is fed in, is com-
posed of or fitted with inclined gratings, cages, screens, or riddles, or perforated
plates of different or graduated gauge of opening or interstice; the uppermost
allows the grain to pass, but prevents the stones or large impurities from
entering the casing; the lowermost, being over the passage by which the
ligneous portions or impurities are driven from the casing, allows the dust to
escape while the grain falls into the casing of an archimedean feed screw; that
is to say, the stones roll down the first grating or screen while the grain falls
through the interstices, and the grain slides or rolls down the second grating,
cage, or screen, while the dust escapes through its interstices. A pipe for
conveying water to damp the grain or seeds is carried horizontally through tho
shoot or the feed passage which leads to the archimedean screw; such water
pipe extends across the whole width of the said shoot or feed passage, and is per-
forated with orifices (preferably arranged in cross rows) through which the
water drops on the grain while the latter is falling; the excess of water escapes
through holes in the feed way or casing of the archimedean screw.
grain or seed is carried along the machine by the rough surface of the
revolving drum, it is subjected to the successive action of the brushes when
three sets are used, the first set peel off the skin, and the others rub and polish,
thus removing the ligneous portions and dirt, and leaving the bran. The grain
or seed, in travelling to the end of the machine, passes between the air escape
pipe of a fan, and the entrance of the exit passage of the dirt and ligneous
portions; a grating through which the remaining dust escapes may be in the
said exit passage.
As the