AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR USE IN MIXING, WASHING, COLORING, AND SALTING BUTTER
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th January 1877. A com-
munication from abroad by Gauthiot and Chollet, of Paris, France.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent. "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR USE IN MIXING, WASHING, COLORING,
AND SALTING BUTTER."
Various machines have been already devised to carry out the object of the
present Invention, but they have invariably proved of little value for various
reasons, amongst others, for the reason (as in hand kneading) that the butter
becomes beated, and a disagreeable flavour is imparted to it, the nature of the pro-
duct being thus quite altered.
The principle of the machine of this Invention is that of a mixing machine with
a revolving table, but it differs therefrom in that the movements of the revolving
table and that of the fluted roller are independent of one another, the table and
roller being driven by separate gear wheels. By this means butter may be worked
over an extended surface, and the serious inconveniences of heating may be avoided.
Moreover hand labor may be almost entirely dispensed with, because the suc-
cessive operations of spreading, mixing, removing the buttermilk, washing, coloring,
and salting effected by the machine itself for each charge of butter submitted to its
action, three men only being required to produce with the machine as much as
twenty-five men working by hand.
The machine may be constructed of various sizes, according to the quantity of
butter to be worked in a day, and may be driven by hand or power.
The frame may be made of wood or cast iron, and the table or roller either of
wood, metal, or other material, but wood is employed by preference in order that
the quality of the butter may not be affected.
In the accompanying Drawing, Figure 1 is a perspective view of the apparatus
on the side at which the butter is placed in the machine beneath the conical and
fluted roller, Figure 2 being a perspective view at the opposite side where the butter
comes out from the roller.
A, A, fast and loose pulleys turning the conical fluted roller B, by means of
pinion C, gearing with spur wheel D, keyed on the end of the spindle of said
roller. The fast pulley also gives motion to the circular revolving table E, by means
of bevil gear, and a pinion gearing with the ring of teeth F around the periphery
of table E. The roller B is made conical to correspond with the slope of the table
1ל

page_text: E; its height above the table varies, and may be regulated at the end nearest to
the spindle a of the table by means of a nut and screw b, which raises or lowers
the bearing bushes c, and at the other end by a screw b¹, by which the cast-iron
frame which carries the bearings for all the gearing may be raised or lowered, said
frame being connected to the wooden uprights by the bolts d, d, sliding in slots in
the frame. E is the revolving table, made of cast iron, covered with wood; this
wood-covered surface sloping slightly downwards from the centre to the circum-
ference. The table is keyed upon an upright shaft a, supported below in a foot-
step bearing fixed to a cross bar of the wooden frame, and above by a metal
bearing G, which is itself held up by collars e, e¹, on the shaft a, and this bearing
G receives the extremity of the wooden frames H, H, which maintain it at the
proper distance from the upright frame J. K is a groove running entirely around
the table in which is fixed a fence or guard L to retain the butter on the table;
this groove is pierced with holes which pass through the table to allow the butter-
milk and water used for washing to drain off. These waters are received in a circular
trough beneath the table and carried off outside the works; M, M', are scrapers
or guides fixed to the supports N, N₁, by set screws, so that their height above the
table may be regulated. These scrapers serve to turn over and mix the butter, and
cause the butter spread out on the table to pass under the centre portion of the
cylinder. B, O, O, are friction rollers to prevent the tilting of the table, and to
sustain it at the points where pressure is exerted between it and the roller during
the passage of the butter under the roller. P is a metal scraper fixed tangentially
to the roller, causing the butter which may adhere to the roller to fall back on
*the table.
The quantity of butter to be worked (say 2 cwt.) is placed on the table and the
machine put in motion; when the butter is spread out and mixed a cock is opened
on a horizontal water pipe, perforated with small holes, and placed just a little in
front of the roller. The water falls like rain, and the washing is offected at the
same time that the buttermilk is separated. The washing finished, the cock is
then shut, and the butter drained; the color is then added, and lastly the salt
required for salting.
Each of the successive stages of the work requires several turns of the table, and
the workman may easily judge when each is finished. The termination of each
operation is moreover indicated on the machine itself by a bell placed on top of
the vertical shaft of the table, which bell is sounded by a small hammer, which
strikes it at every 20th revolution of the table, this number sufficing for each
operation. An instantaneous disconnecting gear enables the machine to be stopped
at the end of each operation. When the working of the butter is finished it is
removed by hand whilst the table continues its movement, and to do this it is
rolled up into the form of a truncated sugar loaf, and is afterwards wrapped up;
no butter remains in the grooves of the roller nor on the table.