AN IMPROVED MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING CORN AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE IN THE STRAW
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Yeldham Betts,. of Coventry, in the County
of Warwick, Corn Factor, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF
AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING CORN AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE IN
THE STRAW."
Sealed the 12th March 1867, and dated the 26th September 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Yeldham Betts at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th September 1866.
I, JOHN YELDHAM BETTS, of, Coventry; in the County of Warwick, Corn
Factor, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING CORN AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE
IN THE STRAW," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to facilitate the harvesting of corn and other
agricultural produce in wet seasons, and thereby to prevent the deterioration
or destruction of grain and other crops from the effects of moisture. To this
end I propose to take the reaped crop in its wet state and stack it, either in
the open air or under cover, but when stacked in the open air I protect it by

page_text: thatch, as heretofore. In forming the stack or rick I insert in or near the
centre thereof a pipe or air trunk pierced with holes on every side, but closed
at top, and I connect with this main or central air trunk branch pipes similarly
constructed. The main air trunk I also connect with a hot air stove or
chamber or other source for supplying hot air, into which stove or receiver
air is injected by means of a force pump, and is there heated while on its
passage to the air trunk, care being taken that the temperature shall not exceed
120°. I propose to use a portable steam engine for working the force pump,
and to avail myself of the steam of the boiler, or it may be the exhaust steam
to heat the blast of air, using for that purpose any well-known and approved
arrangement of serpentine pipes or passages for producing a large heating
surface over which the air is to traverse; or instead of using steam for heating
the air I may employ the gases of combustion when they have passed through the
boiler tubes. A blast of hot air obtained as above indicated being applied
to and dispersed through a stack of corn or other like produce saturated with
moisture, rapid evaporation will be set up, and the stack will be dried in a few
hours, or before mildew or other deterioration has commenced; after injecting
the hot air for the required time I propose to cool the stack by blowing in air
at the ordinary temperature.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Yeldham Betts in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 26th March 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
YELDHAM BETTS, of Coventry, in the County of Warwick, Corn Factor, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the year of: our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Yeldham Betts, Her special licence that I, the said John
Yeldham Betts, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said John Yeldham Betts, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain

page_text: and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man; an Invention for "Ax
IMPROVED MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING CORN AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL
PRODUCE IN THE STRAW," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
John Yeldham Betts, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Yeldham Betts, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
The object of this Invention is to facilitate the harvesting of corn and other
agricultural produce in wet seasons, and thereby to prevent the deterioration or
destruction of grain and other crops from the effects of moisture. To this end
I propose, first, to stack the reaped crop in its wet, moist, or undried state
either in the open air or under cover, taking care, however, when the crop is
stacked in the open air to protect it from the weather by thatch or otherwise
as heretofore. In forming the stack or rick I form a cavity constituting an
air channel in or near the centre thereof, and insert a pipe of, say, ten inches
diameter; or I build up the stack or rick around a pipe or air trunk pierced
with holes in every side or formed of open wood or iron work, but closed at
top, as shewn at A in the Diagram Fig. 1 of the accompanying Sheet of
Drawings. With this main or central air trunk 1 propose in some cases to
connect branch pipes similarly constructed as indicated by the red lines in
Fig. 1 to assist in the diffusion of the air to be admitted to the stack. The
lower end of the main air trunk I connect by means of suitable hose pipe B
with a source for supplying hot air at a pressure sufficient to enable it to
percolate through the stack and drive off the moisture therefrom and at a
temperature not exceeding one hundred and twenty degrees. The manner in
which the blast of hot air is to be obtained may vary according to circumstances,
but the apparatus which I have found to be very convenient for its portability,
and efficient in its action, maintaining at a small cost of fuel a pressure of air
about equal to a column of water twelve inches high, and at a temperature
varying as little as may be from two hundred and twenty degrees, I will now
describe.

page_text: Fig. 2 is a side elevation, partly in section, of a portable steam engine fitted
with a rotary pump or blower for drawing in a large column of air and injecting
it into a heating chamber formed in the smoke box of the furnace, and Fig. 3
is a transverse section of the engine taken through the centre of the heating
chamber. In these Figures C is the body of an ordinary tubular boiler
mounted on travelling wheels, and fitted on the boiler case is a steam fan of a
well-known construction; this steam fan consists of a "silent fan" and a
"steam turbine both mounted on the same spindle. The turbine is supplied
with steam from the boiler through a pipe c, and after acting on the turbine it
is led out of the case to the funnel of the portable engine by a pipe c*. The
fan case, which is situate immediately below the turbine case, is connected by
a pipe d with the heating chamber D formed partly in the smoke box of the
engine; E, E, are pipes with open ends extending through the chamber D, and
forming an extended heating surface over which the air discharged into the
Air is free to enter the fan case at
chamber D by the fan is to be heated.
the open sides thereof, and as a rapid rotary motion is communicated to the fan
through the rush of steam acting upon the turbine a large volume of air will
be injected into the chamber, and by reason of its circulating round the pipes
E, which serve to conduct off to the chimney the gases of combustion, when
they have passed through the boiler tubes, a supply of hot air will be obtained
suitable for injection into the air trunk of the wet or moist stack. The air is:
discharged from the heating chamber D by a pipe d', which is to be coupled
by a hose pipe with the air trunk in the stack, as shewn at Fig. 1, when the
blast is required to be applied; the pressure of the air being now maintained,
the effect will be to establish a thorough ventilation through the stack of corn
or other like produce saturated with moisture, and a rapid evaporation will
consequently be set up, whereby the stack will be dried in from four to eight
hours according to its size and the state of the crop and the weather, and
consequently before mildew or other deterioration has commenced. After
injecting the hot air for the required time I may find it desirable to cool down
the stack by blowing in air at the ordinary temperature; this may be done
by coupling the hose pipe directly with the fan case, instead of allowing the
air to circulate around the heated pipes in the chamber D before being
discharged into the rick.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved Mode
of and Apparatus for Drying Corn and other Agricultural Produce in the
Straw," and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it
to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim

page_text: discharging air into and distributing it through ricks or stacks of agricultural
produce by the means and for the purpose above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Yeldham Betts, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twenty-third day of March; in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
JOHN YELDHAM BETTS. (L.S.)