Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 27th May, 1897-Accepted, 3rd July, 1897.
Menominee Street, in the City and County of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin,
United States of America, Manufacturer, 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 :-
My invention relates to dumping trays for malt kilns, and will be fully described
hereinafter.
In the drawing-
Figure 1 is a broken plan of a portion of a kiln floor.
Figure 2 is a cross section of the same.
Figure 3 is a cross section that shows the trays dumped.
Figure 4 is a detail.
A are the trays, which consist each of a frame a that is covered by a perforated
floor b. This floor is about the width of the frame but projects over its edge on
one side while it falls short on the other edge, so that the projecting edge of the
floor on one side can rest upon the frame of its neighbor and be flush with the floor
on the neighboring frame. The floor is secured to the frame by angle pieces c,
and on the short side a space e is left between the edges of the two floors which
serves as an air passage.
At intervals the sides of the tray frames are connected with each other by
castings, B, which are formed with hubs C, which hubs receive the operating shaft
D and also form journals for the tray to turn on the bearings E of brackets F.
These brackets are supported by suitable girders which extend from one side to
the other of the kiln room and each is formed with a semi-circular pocket G, which
is located to one side and below the bearings in the brackets, and this pocket is to
receive a rocker H, which is of crescent shape and is formed with oppositely
pointed flanges h h', the flange h¹ being the heavier.
Each bracket F carries one of these rockers, and each tray journal may be
formed with a lug on its under side for engagement with the adjacent flange h of
each rocker.
The pockets G are of sufficient depth to retain the rockers and permit them to
rock freely without falling out, so that in putting the parts together the rockers
are merely dropped into the pockets, and then the trays put in place, when the
adjacent edges of each pair of trays will rest upon a flange h¹ of one of the rockers,
while the adjacent casting B will rest on a flange h of the same rocker, and thus
the flange h will by pressure on the adjacent sides of the frame from below clamp
them together so that the floors of the two trays will be held absolutely flush with
each other, as shown in Figure 2.
In the end walls of the kiln I merely use a pocket bracket, such as shown at G¹,
Figure 4.
The operation of my device is as simple as it is effective. When the trays are
in position to receive the malt, the pressure of the cross castings on the flanges h of
the rockers throws their front ends up under the two adjacent tray frames, and thus

page_text: clamps the edges evenly together, when the operating shafts are locked together,
but when the shafts are released, then as the tray furthest to one side falls its lugs,
engaging the flanges h of the rockers, draw the flanges h¹ down, and thus relieve the
next tray. The trays are preferably hung out of center.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said in-
vention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The combination in a kiln of a dumping tray having hubbed castings that
form part of its frame, supporting brackets and flanged rockers carried by said
brackets and connections on the trays for operating said rockers, substantially as
described.
2. The combination with hubbed or journaled trays of supporting brackets and
rockers carried by the brackets and adapted for clamping the edges of the trays
together, as set forth.
3. A tray for malt kilns having a floor that projects beyond the tray frame on
one side and does not reach the frame on the other side, substantially as described.
4. The combination in a malt kiln of a series of trays the floor of each tray
projecting over the edge of the tray frame on one side and falling short on the
other, in combination with connections operated by each tray to lock its neighbor
to it, substantially as described.
1000
JENSEN & SON,
77, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Patent Agents.