Improvements relating to the Stoning of Raisins and the like, and to Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Nov., 1893-Accepted, 30th Dec., 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by SAMUEL BLAKE BLISS, of Riverside, California,
Horticulturist, and JOHN AIKEN PRESTON, of 256, Purchase Street, Boston,
Massachusetts, Gentleman, both in the United States of America.]
Improvements relating to the Stoning of Raisins and the like, and
to Apparatus therefor.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine Lake & Co., Patent
Agents, 45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
This invention has relation to processes and devices for separating or removing
the seeds or stones from fruit, and has particular reference to raisin seeders 80
called.
tr
"
Heretofore in seeding raisins by implements or machines, it has been common
to so construct the devices that the seeds may be pushed out of the fruit. This
mode has been practised with varying success, but not, so far as I am aware, with
entire satisfaction.
In the practice of my invention I reverse the commonly employed method, and
press the fruit away from the seeds, removing or discharging the latter, and
recovering the former.
I accomplish this end by means of various forms, that which I have chosen to
illustrate herein in order simply to explain my invention consisting of a compression
plate or bed of soft or yielding material, or it may be a plate or bed of metal or
other hard substance provided with a soft elastic or yielding face, which compression
is adapted to co-operate with a grooved, slotted, grated or foraminous bed or base,
in the interstices or openings in which the expelling tongues of another plate or
bed are arranged to reciprocate. Stated in other words, the bed or base may be
composed of two or more parts, one part, which may be termed the "grated" part
being provided with interstices or openings, smaller than the raisin seeds, or of
such form that the raisin seed cannot pass therethrough, and the other part, which
may be termed the "tongued" part, comprising in its construction projections or
tongues fitted within the interstices or openings of the grated parts and adapted to
reciprocate the rein, or to have the grated part reciprocated with respect thereto.
These parts are so constructed and arranged that a raisin may be placed upon the
bed or base (the tongued part being sufficiently withdrawn to leave the interstices
open), and the compression plate brought to bear upon the raisin with sufficient
force to press the fruit into the spaces or openings in the base, and leave the seeds
upon the surface, so that they may be readily removed therefrom. After the
removal of the seeds the tongued part of the base is moved sufficiently to cause
the projections or tongues thereof to eject the fruit from the interstices of the
grated part, so that said fruit may be scraped off or otherwise recovered, all as is
hereinafter fully described and claimed.
Reference is to be had to the annexed drawing, and to the letters marked
thereon, forming a part of this Specification, the same letters designating the same
parts or features, as the case may be, wherever they occur.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of my improved raisin seeder complete.
Fig. 2 is a vertical central sectional view of the same.
Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken on line 3, 3 of Fig. 2.
In the drawings a designates a frame which may be made of metal or any other
suitable material, adapting it to support the several operative parts. b is a com-
pression plate or platen on the forward end of the upper arm c of a lever fulcrumed

page_text: on a rod d supported in the frame. The said compression plate may be composed
of any suitable elastic material to adapt it to the purpose to be presently explained.
As herein shown it consists of a back or foundation of metal and a facing of
caoutchouc or rubber. The lower arm e of the lever aforesaid extends downward
and inward, the inner end being slotted as at f, a crank g on the cam shaft / being
arranged to operate in the said slot and move the lever so as to raise and lower the
compression plate, as will be readily understood without further description. Any
other means for operating the compression plate, however, may be employed.
i is what I term the grated bed which may be made of bars, rods, or plates j,
having openings or spaces k therethrough. The said openings k in the bed i may
be slots as shown, or be round, or of any other desired form.
The bed may have tongues 1 formed on its sides, which may fit grooves m
formed in a suitable part of the frame so as to enable the said grated bed to be
arranged in position on, and supported by, the frame below the compression plate.
Any other suitable means may, however, be provided for maintaining the grated
bed in place.
n designates the tongued bed, which consists of a plate provided with tongues
or projections o of a form corresponding with the openings or interstices in the
grated bed, and fitting therein, that is to say, if the openings or slots in the grated
bed are circular, the tongues on the tongued bed will be of corresponding form,
and so on.
p designates a plate or platen, upon which the tongued bed rests, the said
platen forming a part of, or being connected with, the forward end of an arm q,
pivoted at its rear end upon a rod d.
The tongued bed like the grated bed may have tongues formed on its sides
which may fit into corresponding grooves formed in the plate or platen so as to
enable the said tongued bed to be readily removed and replaced. Other means
may, however, be provided for supporting the tongued bed in place.
The plate p is provided on its under side with a projection which rests upon a
projection on the upper end of the arm e, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, so
that as said arm e is raised and lowered by the operation of the crank g the plate
or platen p and the tongue bed may also be raised and lowered.
ŕ designates levers fulcrumed at their lower ends upon a rod connected with the
frame, and supporting at their upper ends a blade or scraper s. That one of the
levers adjacent to the gear wheel t is provided with a pin or it may be an anti-
friction roll u which extends into a cam groove v, shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1,
formed in the side of the said gear wheel t secured on the cam shaft, so that as
the said wheel is rotated as it may be a pinion t¹ secured on a shaft having
bearings in the frame to which is attached a crank to for the turning of said shaft,
the said levers will be oscillated, moving the blade or scrapers back and forth
across the grated bed, as will be readily understood.
x designates rods arranged in suitable bearings in the frame, and resting at
their lower ends upon cams y secured on the cam shaft. Upon the upper ends of
the rods is a blade or scraper z. a designates springs which are constructed
and arranged to press the rods down upon the cams y.
The construction and arrangement of the parts thus far described is such that
with the blade or scraper z in its most forward position as represented in Fig. 2,
and with the compression plate raised and the tongue bed lowered, a raisin may
be placed upon the grated bed, and the crank turned, when the compression plate
will descend upon the raisin on the grated bed, press the fruit or meat thereof into
the interstices or openings of the bed, leaving the seeds on the grated surface,
the seeds sinking into the soft elastic compression plate when the latter is pressed
upon the raisin. By further movement of the crank the compression plate will be
raised, and the scraper or blades will be moved across the grated bed, scraping
off the seeds thereon from the rear edge of the said bed. While the scrapers
is being moved rearwardly as described, the cams y acting on the rods will
raise the blade or scraper z so that when the blade s arrives at its most rearward

page_text: 5
position, the blade z will be raised to its highest position, all as is represented in
Fig. 1. By a further movement of the crank, the cams y will be moved so as to
allow the rods to snap off from the highest to the lowest point of said cams by
the action of the springs a', and so cause the blade to quickly descend and
knock or scrape off the seeds from the blade s if any seeds should happen to
adhere thereto.
After the blade s may have arrived at its most rearward position, and before it
starts to return, the tongued bed will be raised by the means hereinbefore
described, carrying the tongues or projections thereon upward through the openings
or interstices of the grated bed, ejecting the fruit pressed therein so that the same
may be brought to the surface of the grated bed, and so that the scrapers upon
return to its forward position may scrape the fruit or meat of the raisin off from
the front edge of the grated bed into a suitable receptacle which may be placed in
position to receive the same, when by further movement of the crank the various
parts of the machine may be brought to their first mentioned position, and the
operation before described, repeated.
I do not limit myself to the means herein shown for operating the several parts,
but have simply shown one form of machine in which my invention may be embodied,
the essential features of which are the bed with openings of any form into which the
meat of the raisin may be pressed, but which will not admit the seeds, a yielding or
elastic presser bed to press upon the raisin and squeeze the meat thereof into the
openings and allow the seeds to remain on the surface, and means for removing the
seeds and recovering the meat of the raisins.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The art of seeding raisins which consists in pressing the fruit away from the
seeds, removing the latter, and then removing the former, as set forth.
2. A raisin seeder comprising in its construction a bed with openings into which
the meat of the raisin may be pressed, but which will not admit the seeds, a
yieldingly or elastic presser bed for pressing upon the raisin to press the meat
thereof into the openings in the first-mentioned bed, but allow the seeds to remain
on the surface thereof, suitable means for removing the seeds, and means of suitable
character operating in the openings to eject the meat of the raisin therefrom, so
that the same may be recovered, as set forth.
3. A bed for a raisin seeder, comprising in its construction a grated part having
interstices or openings into which the meat of the raisins may be pressed, but which
will not admit the seeds, and a part having ejectors adapted to be reciprocated in
the openings or interstices of the grated part, as set forth.
4. A raisin seeder comprising in its construction a bed or part provided with
openings or interstices into which the meat of the raisin may be pressed, but which
will not admit the seeds, a platen or part provided with a face of soft elastic
material, and a part provided with ejectors adapted to reciprocate in the interstices
of the first-mentioned part to eject material therefrom, as set forth.
5. A raisin seeder, comprising in its construction a soft elastic or yielding com-
pression plate, a bed provided with interstices or openings into which the meat of
the raisin may be pressed, but which will not admit the seeds, and a bed part
provided with ejectors adapted to be reciprocated in the openings or interstices of
the bed to eject the fruit therefrom, and the reciprocating part or scraper constructed
O and arranged to move across the surface of the bed to scrape the fruit and seeds
therefrom, as set forth.
6. A raisin seeder, comprising in its construction a soft, elastic plate for pressing
the fruit away from the seeds, a bed provided with openings into which the meat of
the raisins may be pressed, but which will not admit the seeds, for receiving the
5 fruit, a bed provided with ejectors adapted to be reciprocated in the openings of
the first-mentioned bed to eject the fruit, a reciprocating blade or scraper to

page_text: remove the seeds and fruit from the bed, and a movable blade or scraper adapted
to be moved in juxtaposition to the first-mentioned blade to scrape off adhering
seeds or fruit thereon, as set forth.
Dated this 28th day of November 1893.
HASELTINE, LAKE.& Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.