IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR DRYING AND COOLING GRAIN, APPLICABLE ALSO TO THE MANUFACTURE OF MALT
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
May 1866. A communication from abroad by James Foley, of Montreal,
in the Province of Canada.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR DRYING AND COOLING GRAIN,
APPLICABLE ALSO TO THE MANUFACTURE OF MALT," a communication to me from
abroad by James Foley, of Montreal, in the Province of Canada, to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction, arrangement, and com-
bination of machinery or apparatus for treating grain with a view to the
curing of the same by the processes of desiccation and cooling, which
apparatus is also applicable to the manufacture of malt.
In carrying out this Invention it is proposed to employ a large cylindrical
or polygonal revolving chamber placed horizontally or at a slight inclination.
This chamber is composed of finely perforated plates or wire gauze supported
on a skeleton frame composed of T-iron rings and longitudinal bars. This
revolving cylinder or chamber has no shaft or axis running through it, but is
supported entirely upon external rollers, and derives its rotatory motion either
from such rollers by frictional contact therewith or from toothed gearing. It
is situate either in the upper story of a special building or granary, or in a

page_text: it
of dimensions proportionate to the
cylinder of 12 feet diameter and
floating barge or vessel, and should be
quantity of grain to be operated upon;
60 feet in length will be found to answer well in most cases. The grain is
fed through a central aperture into one end of this cylinder by an elevator, or
may be run therein through suitable spouts from a granary when the
cylinder is situate at a lower level or contained in a floating barge. To the
interior of the feeding end of the cylinder there are attached one or more
spiral blades, forming a screw of any desired pitch for the purpose of moving
the grain along, and in addition to these spirals there are also fitted inside
the cylinder a number of twisted shelves or scoops, which droop or incline
slightly towards the delivery end of the cylinder; the object of these shelves
or scoops is to lift up the grain as the cylinder revolves to allow it to fall
again in the form of a shower, whilst at the same time the inclination of the
shelves or scoops tends to discharge or impel the grain onwards. Theso
shelves or scoops may, if desired, be attached to a skeleton cylinder or framo
revolving inside a perforated surface in lien of being attached to the revolving
cylinder itself; they may also be attached to the delivery end of the cylinder
and extended outwards, so that the grain can be delivered at or near the
centre of the cylinder. Underneath the cylinder are disposed a number of
steam-heating pipes for the purpose of drying the grain, the hot air being
partly confined inside the cylinder by having a jacket or casing on each side
thereof, in which an opening is left at the under side of the cylinder for the
hot air to rise therein, and another opening above the cylinder for the moist
air or vapour evolved during the desiccating process to escape freely either
directly through a louver ventilator in the roof, or through a chimney or
shaft by the aid of exhaust fans.
In the process of drying the grain in the cylinder or revolving chamber
above referred to the grain becomes considerably heated and requires to be
cooled before it can be stored in granaries; this cooling is effected by causing
the grain as it is discharged from the open delivery end of the cylinder to fall
through a considerable space down a vertical cooling shaft, which is closed
at the sides, but provided with an air aperture at the bottom and at the
top, and having a number of inclined perforated or wire gauze shelves inter-
secting or crossing each other inside it. These shelves are to be of varied
form, for example, concave, convex, and corrugated, and 'may receive, if
desired, a vibratory motion in order that complete separation of the grain
may be effected and its descent facilitated. A current or currents of cold or
warm air are caused to pass up this shaft and traverse the grain as it descen is.
The cooled grain is collected in a bin at the bottom of the shaft, and is thence

page_text: discharged ready for storing by an ordinary elevator. When the drying
cylinder is not in an elevated situation; as, for example, when the apparatus
is fitted into a barge, the grain as it is delivered from the cylinder is imme-
diately elevated by an elevator and discharged by it into the top of the cooling
shaft or chamber. In lieu of the cooling shaft above described a rotatory
cooler may be employed, either of a cylindrical or polygonal form; this
rotatory cooler is situate with its axis in a vertical, horizontal, or inclined
position, and consists of an inner and outer perforated or wire gauze casing,
between which cases the grain to be cooled passes, but in order to ensure a
more gradual descent or traverse of the grain a series of spiral shelves made
either continuous or in sections are arranged in the annular space between
the inner and outer casing, along which shelves the grain passes in the process
of cooling. In the central cavity of the cooler a number of fan blowers are
disposed which revolve with the cooler, and when required are also caused
to revolve simultaneously upon their individual axes by having spur pinions
on the axes which gear into and travel round a central spur wheel; by this
means air is blown through the grain and effects the perfect cooling of the
same, or if preferred a current or currents of air may be drawn through the
grain by the aid of exhausting fans outside the cooler. In some cases the
spiral shelves in the cooler above referred to may be attached to a hollow
shaft covered with gauze or perforated metal plates, with a strong current of
air passing through it produced either by a tall chimney shaft or by exhaust
fans. It is also proposed to connect the chimney or vacuum draught to the
top chamber of the discharging elevator, thus making the elevator itself serve
as an asconding cooler. The floors at the delivery end of the building are so
placed as to direct the ascending air currents from the bottom doors and
from the windows of the building through and around the cooler or cooling
shaft and also round the discharging elevator, thus utilizing such currents in
the drying and cooling of the grain.
The same or a slightly modified arrangement of desiccating cylinder in
conjunction with the proper degree of heat will obviously be applicable to the
malting of grain as well as to the drying thereof.