Improvements in and relating to Apparatus for Bolting Flour and Analogous Substances, and for Conveying or Elevating the same.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Oct., 1891-Accepted, 5th Dec., 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by JOHN M. FINCH, of Crocket, in the County of
Contra Costa, and State of California, United States of America.]
Improvements in and relating to Apparatus for Bolting Flour and
Analogous Substances, and for Conveying or Elevating the
same.
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 relates to machines for bolting flour and analogous substances and
for conveying or elevating the same.
In the accompanying drawing,
Figure 1 is a vertical transverse section of the machine.
Figure 2 is a vertical longitudinal section of the machine.
Figure 3 is a vertical section of the machine adapted as an elevator.
The same letters of reference represent corresponding parts in all the figures.
A, is a chest substantially air tight, except where openings are formed for feed
and discharge.
B, is the feed opening, and C, the discharge opening for the escape of the
unbolted portion of the chop, or material under treatment. These openings extend
lengthwise of the chest, and should be, approximately, of the full length of the
screen and cylinders, to be described, and are placed in such position that the chop
shall be fed to the first of the series of cylinders, and the tailings or unbolted
portions discharged after it has been subjected to the action of the last of the
series.
Any suitable chop feeder may be employed, that one being preferable which will
most evenly distribute the chop along the length of the cylinder, so that it may have
an uniform subjection to the action of the screen.
D, is a single flat screen formed of bolting cloth placed in front of a series of
rapidly rotating cylinders E E¹, E³, &c., arranged in the same plane axially and
driven in the same direction.
The rotating cylinders, need not necessarily be true cylinders, they may be
solid or hollow, or they may be polygonal or corrugated, bladed, or otherwise
roughened.
The screen D, is placed so as to form a partition between the body of the chest,
in which the cylinders are placed, and a chamber A', into which the flour is
delivered and from which it is discharged at F. The entire chest is therefore
substantially air tight except as to the openings, B, C, and F.
The cylinders in rotating will entrain, that is to say, draw with themselves,
currents of air which form belts of air revolving with the cylinders. As all the
cylinders revolve in the same direction, the air belts at the point of nearest approach
of the cylinders, will be moved in opposite directions. There is sufficient space
between the cylinders to prevent an undue disturbance of these currents, but while
it is difficult to ascertain precisely what takes place as to the currents, the fact is
demonstrated that the chop is thrown against the screen, and almost all the bolting
work is performed on those portions of the screen which correspond to the spaces
between arrow heads, marked a and b.
As the chop passes each cylinder, it receives an additional impulse, the result of
which is, that it is moved along the face of the screen towards the tail.
The strength of the rotating currents depends upou the velocity of rotation of

page_text: I
the cylinders, and they are generated by the rapid rotation of an entirely smooth
cylinder; but by using narrow radial blades, it is thought that the same efficiency
may be attained, with less speed given to the cylinders.
These blades do not act as do those of a rotary fan, to draw in air at the centre
and deliver it tangentially at the periphery, as they are too narrow and too near
'together to produce stich action, and the solid surface to which they are attached,
will prevent the indraft of air; their effect is to roughen the periphery, and
promote the frictional action in drawing the air into rotary belts moving with the
-cylinders.
"
Nor are they intended to act, mechanically, as "chop tossers to catch the chop
and dash it against the screen. The air belt intercepts the chop, and carries it
forward with a centrifugal impulse, delivering it against the screen as it passes from
the influence of one cylinder to another; the flour, as it is sifted through the
meshes, falls by gravity through the still air of the chamber A', while the unbolted
portion of the chop, constantly diminishing in quantity, passes from cylinder to
cylinder, until the coarse particles which cannot pass through the meshes, are
delivered into the tailings spout C.
In the machine illustrated in the drawings, the chop is fed to the lowest one of
the series of cylinders, and in such case its action will be somewhat different from
that as above described appertaining to the subsequent cylinders. As the chop
is fed into the bottom of the chest, the cylinder wallows in the chop, and there the
blades perform the mechanical function of throwing it upwards into the air belt
which surrounds and travels with the next cylinder in the series.
In this case, the bottom underneath the feed opening may be made of a semi-
cylindrical form, and may be composed of bolting cloth through which the flour will
be gifted, before the chop comes to the flat screen D, and be delivered into the flour
spout with the other. As the flour should fall away from the screen D, and not
back through it, it may be placed in any position which will permit this escape.
As the forward impulse, by which the chop is delivered against and carried along
the screen, is.due to the rotation of the cylinders generating the rotary air belts, the
feed may be delivered to the lowest cylinder in the series, and I have now in
operation, machines in which the chop is fed into the bottom and. the tailings
delivered after passing to the topmost cylinder. In this case, the machine acts as
an elevator, as well as a separator, and by multiplying the number of cylinders, the
tailings may be carried as high as may be desired. In such case, of course, shorter
cylinders will be used with a long narrow vertical screen; the relative proportions
being preserved so as to give the necessary amount of bolting surface, whether
the distance travelled up or down, horizontally or obliquely, be much or little.
Baffle strips G, arranged across the screen between the cylinders, are intended to
give inward direction to the current of chop, so as as to bring it more directly into
the action of the rotating belts of air, which gives it continued forward movement
with. fresh impulse, as it passes from one to the other. I have not been able to
ascertain from careful observation, that any part of the chop, after it has left the
first cylinder of the series, penetrates the rotating air belt to come in contact with
the cylinder or blades, but if it should be the case, such particles will be thrown
out, mechanically, by the centrifugal action of the blades. For this reason the
cylinders are placed near to the surface of the screen, say at a distance of three-
fourths of an inch, whereas if the blades acted mechanically to throw the chop the
distance would be quite considerable, dependent largely upon the gravity of the
particles.
While I have given to the best of my knowledge the precise effect produced by
the different parts of the machine, I do not wish to be held to the correctness of
my theories but I stand upon the description of the machine, which is now in
practical operation, as being sufficient to enable persons skilled in the art to construct
and operate it, which can be done whether my theories are correct or not.
I am aware that various devices have been proposed for throwing the chop against
the surface of stationary screens enclosing the chop throwing devices, sometimes in

page_text: the form of screens surrounding a bladed cylinder, in whole or in part, and in others
the screens were flat, and placed face to face, so that the chop was thrown first
against one and then against the other, thus passing down in a zig-zag course from
top to bottom. But in all these machines the action of chop throwing was purely.
mechanical, and the currents of air, where developed at all, were intended to pass
through the meshes with the flour, neither of which actions is contemplated in my
machine. In the machine in which rotary brushes or fans were employed between
two screens, they necessarily revolve in opposite directions, and any rotary current
which might be generated, would be in opposite directions, counteracting one
another, and incapable of producing continuous forward movement along one screen
as in my machine, in which the movement of the chop under treatment is due to the
rotation of all the cylinders of the series, in one and the same direction.
Any suitable cloth cleaning device may be employed for keeping the meshes of
the cloth open by sweeping or jarring the screen.
Instead of a single chest and a single cloth, a series of compartments may be
formed end to end, by intermediate partitions and cloths of different grades and 'the
unbolted residue of the first may be delivered to the bottom of the next compart-
ment, and the work of separation continued on cloths of different texture, as far as
it is desired to continue it.
-
The cylinders may be driven by an open belt, extending from a pulley on the
shaft of one to a pulley on the shaft of the next, and so on through the series to
give them motion in the same direction.
It will be noticed that the action of this machine is dependent upon the influence
of a series of air belts which surround, and are generated by the rapid rotation of a
series of cylinders. This movement of the mass is not dependent upon the nature
of the surface opposite to the cylinders, and will take place, if that surface is solid
instead of being reticulated. If solid, the material will be passed from cylinder to
cylinder, and the machine will operate to carry the entire mass, instead of only the
unsifted residuum. In this case, therefore, the machine will operate as an elevator,
or as a conveyor, according to its vertical or horizontal position.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. In combination with a casing provided with a feed opening at one end, and a
discharge opening at the other, a series of cylinders having rotation in the same
direction, and arranged in proximity to one of the sides substantially as set
forth.
2. In combination with a casing provided with a feed opening at one end, and a
tailings discharge opening at the other, a series of cylinders having rotation in the
same direction, and a single screen placed in front of the cylinders, substantially as
Bet forth.
3. In combination with a casing with a feed opening at one end, and a discharge
opening at the other, a series of bladed cylinders having rotation in the same
direction, and arranged in proximity to one of the sides substantially as set
forth.
4. In combination with a casing provided with a feed opening at one end and a
tailings discharge opening at the other, a series of bladed cylinders having rotation
in the same direction and a single screen placed in front of the cylinders, substan-
tially as set forth.
5. In combination with a casing provided with a feed opening, a tailings discharge
opening, and a flour discharge opening, a series of cylinders having rotation in the
same direction, a single screen placed in front of the cylinders and forming a
partition between the chamber in which the cylinders operate, and another
chamber into which the flour passes, and from which it is discharged, substantially
as set forth.
6. In combination with a casing, and feed and tailings discharge openings at

page_text: opposite ends, a series of cylinders having rotation in the same direction, a single
screen placed in front of the cylinders, and baffle strips along the screen, substan-
tially as set forth.
7. In combination, with a casing provided with a feed opening at the bottoni,
and a tailings discharge opening at the top, a series of cylinders placed one above
the other and having rotation in the same direction, and a screen placed in front of
said cylinders, substantially as set forth.
8. In combination with a casing provided with a feed opening at the bottom and
a tailings discharge opening at the top, a series of cylinders rotating in the same
direction, the lower one of said cylinders being constructed with radial blades, and
a screen placed in front of said cylinders, substantially as set forth.
9. In combination with a casing provided with a feed opening at the bottom and
a tailings discharge opening at the top, a series of cylinders rotating in the same
direction, the lower one being constructed with radial blades, a screen H, placed
under the lower cylinder, and a screen D, placed in front of the series of cylinders,
substantially as set forth.
Dated this 6th day of October 1891.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.