IMPROVEMENTS IN HYDRAULIC OIL PRESSES
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Louis Rudolph Bodmer at the
Office of the Commissioners of. Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th
February 1862..
I, LOUIS RUDOLPH BODMER, of 2, Thavies' Inn, in the City of London, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
HYDRAULIC OIL PRESSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements upon and modifications of
the hydraulic oil presses, for which Letters Patent were granted to me bearing
date the 20th day of December 1855, No. 2886.
The object of the present improvements, which are applicable to all vertical
hydraulic presses, is to economise labor and time in the working of the press,
and to dispense with the bags or wrappers for the seed or other oleagenous
matter, such for instance as the cocoa-nut, from which the oil is to be extracted
by pressure... The seed holders may be of the usual shape, so as to produce
cakes of a trapezoidical form, but I prefer to make them cylindrical, as this
form reduces the cost of construction of the press, and greatly facilitates the
manipulation of the same, and also, because the cylindrical form offers the
smallest surface for friction.
As in the presses patented as above stated, I prefer to construct them with
only two pillars instead of four, as is generally the practice, and unless other-
wise desired, I confine the number of seed holders to two, but one, two, or
more seed holders may be used..

page_text: The seed holders are made in the form of hoops or rings of wrought iron,
but in place of being plain cylindrical rings, as in my former press, they are
furnished with a number of holes, orifices, and passages, to allow of the escape
of part of the oil. When arranged for two seed rings the press is fitted with
an upper and a lower tray, one for each ring, the lower tray rests upon the
press ram, and is guided in its upward and downward motion by two brackets
reaching to the pillars. The upper tray is bolted to guide brackets which fit
upon the pillars, and which rest on collars or hoops on the pillars. The head
of each tray is made to project beyond the body of the tray, and is made of
such a diameter as to fit loosely into the seed rings; this head or top of the
tray may be furnished with a grating surmounted with a perforated plate, and
the gratings made open at both ends to facilitate the cleaning out of them from
time to time; or instead of the grating and perforated plate the projecting part
of the head may be perforated with a number of small holes or slots. The
lower part of the tray is enlarged and formed into a groove with a spout for
holding and discharging all the oil expressed from one seed holder. In front
of the press two tables are fixed, one on a level with the surface of the lower
tray, and the other on a level with the surface of the upper tray. The seed
rings which rest on the tables are filled in the following manner:-A stout
mat of cow hair, or other suitable material, is placed at the bottom of the ring,
which is then filled with the seed, and a second mat placed on the top of the
seed. The lower ring is pushed into the press directly over the lower tray, in
which position it is supported by a platform suspended from the upper tray
made with an aperture sufficiently large to allow the head of the lower tray to
pass through. The upper ring is pushed in in the same manner and rests on
a similar platform suspended from the pillars, or otherwise. When both rings
are in the press, the ram is allowed to enter the lower ring and to press the
seed against the bottom of the upper tray, against which the ring rests. When
the resistance of the seed becomes equal to the combined weight of the ring
of the upper tray and of the platform, which are connected together, they will
begin to rise, and the head of the upper tray will penetrate into the upper ring
and press the seed against the head of the press against which the upper ring
rests. At a certain pressure the oil will begin to flow; that part at the top of
the rings escaping through a number of little holes into a groove turned into
the surface of the ring, and from thence downwards through a number of
holes drilled through the body of the ring, and into the groove in the tray, and
through the spout into suitable receivers. That portion of the oil escaping
from the bottom penetrates through the perforated plates in the head of
the tray, and runs between the grates and downwards into the same groove

page_text: through the spout to the receiver. When the oil has ceased to flow the ram
is allowed to sink and the two trays with the lower platform, and the lower
ring will return into their former position, whereupon the rings are at once
withdrawn from the press, placed over apertures on one side of the tables, and
a second set of rings is immediately pushed into the press and the ram again
allowed to rise. The oil cakes and mats which have become fixed in the upper
part of the rings are then forced out by means of a hydraulic ram, or by means
of rack and pinion or other suitable mechanism. Double presses may be
constructed on the principle above described, or two presses placed side by
side, in which cases one single set of tables may serve for both presses.