IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINEBY FOR PULPING AND PREPARING COFFEE
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to David Wilson, of Colombo, in the Island of
Ceylon, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINEBY FOR PULPING
AND PREPARING COFFEE."
Sealed the 4th July 1862, and dated the 9th January 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said David Wilson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th January 1862.
I, DAVID WILSON, of Colombo, in the Island of Ceylon, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
PULPING AND PREPARING COFFEE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for pulping
and preparing coffee. For these purposes, an annular rotating rubbing
surface is employed together with another, and, by preference, a fixed or
stationary annular rubbing surface placed either above or below it. The
rotating rubbing surface is mounted on and carried by an upright axis, to
which rotatory motion is communicated in any suitable manner. The annular
rotating surface moves in a horizontal plane, and the other annular rubbing
surface is fixed in a plane parallel to it. Above these rubbers is fixed a
conical hopper, into which the coffee berries are to be placed, and a constant
supply of water applied to them. In order that the berries and the water

page_text: may descend from such hopper so as to be fed in all directions between the
annular rubbers, there is around the inner edges of the rubbers, and within
the hopper a cone, the apex of which is upwards; the lower or delivering
part of the hopper is thus formed into an annular passage corresponding in
dimensions with the inner edges of the rubbers; hence, as the coffee berries
and water descend in the hopper they pass in between the annular rubbing
surfaces at their inner edges, and are rubbed between such surfaces, and pass
out at their outer circumference, and the matters, as they pass out from
between the rubbers are received in a suitable trough, vessel, or sieve. The
faces of the annular rubbing surfaces may be made flat and horizontal, or
they may be made to incline, or one may be convex and the other concave,
provision being made by set screws or otherwise for correctly adjusting the
two rubbing surfaces in respect to each other, so that they may on the one
hand crush and rub off the pulp, and yet not crush or injure the interior
berries; the upper surface is constructed to rise in case a stone should be
introduced.
These machines are not only suitable for pulping the coffee berries, but
also for removing the parchment and thin skin from the inner berries after
they have been pulped and dried, the only difference in the machines when
being used respectively for the pulping process, and for the process of
removing the thin skins being that the actual rubbing surfaces are changed,
proper rubbing surfaces being used when pulping and other proper rubbing
surfaces used to rub off or remove the thin skins. It may be stated that,
either in pulping or peeling the parchment coffee, the berries may be caused
to be delivered after having travelled the whole or any portion of the circle as
may in practice be found most desirable.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said David Wilson, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
9th July 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DAVID 3
WILSON, of Colombo, in the Island of Ceylon, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, 3.

page_text: the said David Wilson, Her special licence that I, the said David Wilson,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
David Wilson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time.
agree with, and on 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 and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR PULPING AND PREPARING COFFEE," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said David Wilson, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly 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 David Wilson, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for pulping
and preparing coffee. For these purposes, an annular rotating rubbing surface
is employed, together with another, and, by preference, a fixed or stationary
annular rubbing surface placed either above or below it. The rotating rubbing
surface is mounted on and carried by an upright axis, to which rotatory motion
is communicated in any suitable manner. The annular rotating surface moves
in a horizontal plane, and the other annular rubbing surface is fixed in a plane
parallel to it. Above these rubbers is fixed a conical hopper, into which the
coffee berries are to be placed, and a constant supply of water applied to
them. In order that the berries and the water may descend from such
hopper so as to be fed in all directions between the annular rubbers, there is
around the inner edges of the rubbers and within the hopper a cone, the apex
of which is upwards; the lower or delivering part of the hopper is thus
formed into an annular passage corresponding in dimensions with the inner
edges of the rubbers; hence, as the coffee berries and water descend in the
hopper they pass in between the annular rubbing surfaces at their inner
edges, and are rubbed between such surfaces, and pass out at their outer
circumference, and the matters, as they pass out from between the rubbers, are
received in a suitable trough, vessel, or sieve. The faces of the annular rubbing
surfaces may be made flat and horizontal, or they may be made to incline, or

page_text: one may be convex and the other concave, provision being made by set screws
or otherwise for correctly adjusting the two rubbing surfaces in respect to each
other, so that they may on the one hand crush and rub off the pulp, and yet
not crush or injure the interior berries; the upper surface is constructed to
rise in case a stone should be introduced.
These machines are not only suitable for pulping the coffee berries, but also
for removing the parchment and thin skin from the inner berries after they
have been pulped and dried, the only difference in the machines, when being
used respectively for the pulping process, and for the process of removing the
thin skins being that the actual rubbing surfaces are changed, proper rubbing
surfaces being used when pulping and other proper rubbing surfaces used to
rub off or remove the thin skins. It may be stated, that either in pulping
or peeling the parchment coffee, the berries may be caused to be delivered
after having travelled the whole or any portion of the circle as may in practice
be found most desirable.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews an end elevation of a machine arranged according to my
Invention; Figure 2 sbewз a plan of the machine; Figure 3 shews a longi-
tudinal vertical section of the machine; and Figure 4 shows a plan thereof.
A is the stationary annular rubber which is fixed to the framing of the
machine by screw bolts which act as uprights or pillars for supporting the
fixed rubber A, A, and the correct position of the upper fixed rubber A in
respect to the lower rotating annular rubber B, B, may be adjusted by the
nuts used on such screw bolts. The under rotating rubber B, B, is mounted
on, and it turns with the upright shaft C, which is supported in a step or
under bearing C, and it turns in the bearing C². The shaft C is driven by
means of a toothed wheel D on the driving shaft E, which receives motion
from a steam engine, water wheel, or other power. F is a hopper fixed to the
upper or stationary rubber A, A, whilst the bottom of the hopper F¹ is fixed
to, and carried by the lower rubber B, B, and revolves with it. The rubbing
surfaces of the annular rubbers A, A, and B, B, are capable of being adjusted
by set screws A', B¹, in the parts which carry such rubbing surfaces. The
rubbing surfaces used in the machine may be readily changed, and the nature
of the rubbing surfaces used may be varied according as the machine is for a
time being used for pulping the berries, or for rubbing off the parchment or

page_text: outer covers or skins after the berries have had the pulp removed therefrom,
and have been dried.
In Figure 3, the rubbing surfaces A, B, are shown to be inclined from the
hopper downwards, but this may be varied; and in Figure 5 they are shewn
to be arranged in horizontal planes. In using this machine, the berries with
their pulp on them are fed into the hopper, water being at the same time
supplied to the hopper, so that the berries, pulp, and water pass between the
rubbing surfaces. The pulped berries, together with the pulp and water, are
thrown off from the rubbing surfaces all round the rubbers at their outer
edges, and these matters are received into a tray or trough G, the bottom of
which inclines towards two inclined sieves H, H, which have a constant shaking
or vibrating motion communicated to them-by a cam I on the upright shaft,
which works in a square frame J on the rod K, one end of which rod is fixed
to the beam or bar L, to which the upper ends of the inclined sieves H, H,
are fixed, and the other end of the rod K slides in a fixed bearing. The bar
or beam L is supported by chains M at intervals from projections on the
framing of the machine, and the lower ends of the sieves are also similarly
suspended, or are otherwise arranged in a manner that they may be freely
moved with the beam as it is moved by the excentric.
Figure 6 shews an end elevation; Figure 7, a plan; Figure 8, a longitu-
dinal section; and Figure 9, a plan of another machine, which is for the
most part similarly arranged to that previously shewn and described, but in
the present machine the lower annular rubber A, A, is fixed and stationary,
whilst the upper annular rubbing surface B, B, rotates. The upper parts of
the hopper in this machine are fixed by uprights fixed by screws and nuts to
the framing of the machine.
The arrangements for actuating the moving annular rubber are similar to
what have been above described, and the description thereof, above given, will
apply to the present Figures of the Drawings. Figure 10 shews a section of
rubbing surfaces which are convex and concave. In the present machine the
parts are arranged to deliver only at intervals, and not all round, as in the
machine previously described; for this reason the space between the annular
rubbers is closed at the outer edges of the rubbers by a ring M, which sur-
rounds the annular rubbers, and at the parts where it is desired there should
be places of delivery; then at each place of delivery a portion of the inner
annular rubber is removed, and an inclined shoot or trough is placed under
the opening so as to convey the matters passing from the rubbing surfaces
into one of the inclined sieves H, H. In this machine, as it is shewn, there

page_text: are two points or places of delivery, and the hopper is arranged to supply at
two points only, that is, immediately beyond the places of delivery.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to any
of the mechanical parts separately; but what I claim are the combinations of
mechanism herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Wilson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.