An Improved Product Obtained from Corn or Maize or other Plant Stalks, and a Process of and Apparatus for Making the same.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 21th Nov., 1896-Accepted, 16th Jan., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Product Obtained from Corn or Maize or other
Plant Stalks, and a Process of and Apparatus for Making
the same.
A communication from abroad by MARK WORSNOP MARSDEN, of 432 Chestnut
Street, in the City of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, United States of
America, Engineer.
I, PHILIP MIDDLETON JUSTICE, of 55 and 56 Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, 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:-
Numerous efforts have been made from time to time to utilize corn-stalks (the
stalks of maize) as a prepared and merchantable corn food for stock, but heretofore
without success, and the stalks after the ears have been separated have not only
proved to be a waste material to a great extent, but in many instances have been
an expense, resulting from the necessity of removing and destroying or otherwise
disposing of the same.
In previous efforts in this direction one of the most promising for a long time
consisted in growing the stalks solely for food purposes, cutting them and preserving
them in silos. This has proved to be available ouly to a very limited extent,
because it is adapted only for local use with green fodder, not capable of
transportation, and the land cultivated is available only for feed purposes. Often
the crops must be cut at the time when the services of laborers are most needed for
other farming operations, an expensive pit is required, the material stored is often
spoiled by decomposition, and the food preserved is not capable of transportation
to any extent.
Where it has been sought to utilize the stalks after the ears have been removed,
it has not been uncommon for the farmer to chop them up and feed them to his
stock. This can only utilize the stalks to a very limited extent, as few farmers
can thus make use of their entire stalk product, and even when thus utilized, it is
only a portion of the food constituents of the stalk that are fully available. This
results from the fact that the animals refuse to eat a large proportion of the stalks.
When the stalks have been dried before feeding, the presence of the pith is
extremely detrimental. So far as I am aware, I was the first to discover that the
pith of Indian corn in a dried state has a capacity to rapidly absorb water and
will thus take up many times its own weight, so that the presence of such an
absorbent material in the mouth, when the material is fed dry, rapidly absorbs the
saliva, preventing proper or comfortable mastication, and any partially masticated
pith entering the stomach will absorb the juices which otherwise would aid in
digesting available portions of the stalk. In the practice of feeding chopped
stalks, it is generally sought to render them more palatable by sifting ground corn
or maize over the same, but even in such case, there are portions which the
animals will not eat, which accumulate in the troughs or mangers and become sour
and decomposed, rendering an extraordinary amount of cleansing and attention
necessary to preserve the stables in proper condition. Efforts have been made to

page_text: preserve the cut stalks for future use, but this has been attended with danger and
damage incident to the fact that when collected such stalks will contain as much
as forty per cent. of water and when stored for preservation after cutting, the mass
hecomes heated and moulds, and in some cases, spontaneous combustion has resulted,
destroying the buildings and their contents.
I have succeeded in converting this heretofore practically waste material into a
highly valuable product by separating the main portions of the pith and shell,
breaking up the particles, separating the impurities and finer particles of pith, and
then reducing the entire body of shell to a state and condition in which it is
acceptable and palatable and nutritious to the animal, adapted to be acted upon to
the best advantage by the saliva and juices of the stomach without detrimental
results, and while containing a greater percentage of nutriment than when in its
natural condition, is much less in bulk and commercially in a state best fitted for
preservation, transportation and sale.
Although the invention will be mainly useful for the treatment of maize still it
may also be utilized in connection with the pithy stalks of other edible plants.
For operating upon the stalk to reduce the different parts of the same to the
condition best adapted for use, I have devised a novel apparatus and series of
operations in order to effectively reduce large masses of material. I illustrate in
the accompanying drawing sufficient of this apparatus to enable the series of steps
constituting the process of reduction to be understood.
The cornstalks, as they are brought from the field with or without the leaves
attached, are in the first instance cut into suitable lengths, from one to five inches,
by a cutter A. If desired, the broken leaves may be separated from the stalks.
The divided particles are collected in a hopper B and thence are passed to an
attrition mill C which breaks up the outer fibrous portion or shell of the stalk,
detaching and partially breaking up the pith. The broken material is then
carried to a pneumatic separator D wherein an air current carries up the lighter
particles, mainly pith, but with some portions of stalk, and conveys them to a
screener J, while the heavier particles, mainly shell, pass downward to a blower G,
the air current of which carries them upward to a hopper H. From the hopper H,
the material passes to a second attrition mill C' which also receives the larger and
heavier particles passing from the screener J and breaks and separates the same.
The beavier particles of shell from the mill C¹ pass through conduits 27, 28, to a
blower G¹. The conduit 28, however, also communicates with the bottom of the
separator D, and the upward air current in the latter draws into the same the finer
particles of pith from the conduit 27. The blower G' forces the heavy material
which passes thereto into a hopper M from which it passes through a grinding
mill N, wherein the shell is reduced to the form of meal and discharged into the
bin T. In the screener J, the dust and impurities are separated and discharged
into the bin K, while the fine particles of pith are also separated from the
remaining larger particles, and any particles of shell, and are discharged into the
bin L.
It will be seen that the screener separates the dust and impurities, the sufficiently
fine particles of pith, and the larger particles of pith, and any portions of shell,
discharging such larger portions of pith and shell into the mill C and that if any
particles of pith pass from the mill C in too large a state, they will be carried to
the separator and back to the screener and again pass through the mill, this circle
of operations continuing until the pith is properly reduced. The heat generated
in grinding will generally dry the material but where required the air as well as
the material may be heated by the heater coils F, 29, 39, any necessary preliminary
drying being effected in the hopper B, by the heater coil 8.
The fibrous portion or shell of the stalk thus separated from the pith and other
detrimental matters subjected to the action of air and comminuted constitutes a new
food product, which is in a merchantable, transportable and stable condition, more
capable of being preserved and transported than ordinary cornmeal and containing
nearly ninety per cent. of nutritious matter, as against only about thirty per cent.

page_text: of nutritious matter found in the cornstalks in their natural condition before the
pith and impurities were removed. As thus utilized, the farmer can obtain from.
the heretofore practically waste and useless material, in addition to the value of
the grain crop, a material which will afford him more profit than would many other
crops grown upon the same acreage. By the process of comminuting the material
and exposing it.intimately to the drying action of the air the saccharose present
in the material is. converted into glucose, and the constitution of the material is
thereby so altered that practically the first stages of digestion are effected before
the material is fed to the animal, so that the action in the stomach is different from
that which results when the material is fed in its natural condition.
While the new food product thus obtained is valuable for use alone, it has
special advantages in combination with other materials, and is better adapted to
thus form a food ration than any other substance; in fact, I know of no other
substance which can be employed as a vehicle in combination with other materials
to constitute a balanced ration for stock. The meal produced by grinding up the
fibrous portion of the stalk contains about one part of nitrogenous food elements
to fifteen parts of carbonaceous food elements, and therefore will effectively
combine with cotton seed meal, or linseed meal, or other materials richer in other
elements needed to make a balanced ration, and being in the form of a meal or
powder, such combination may be readily effected and permanently maintained.
One preparation of food ration consists of-
New corn product
Hominy chop
Wheat bran
Linseed meal
Cotton seed meal
- 210 parts
30
"
30
"
15
"
15
"
In some instances, advantage results from condensing or consolidating the
material under pressure in connection with a binding agent so as to form it into
lumps or particles which require a certain amount of chewing to disintegrate,
which is advantageous as the act of chewing causes a secretion of saliva which aids
digestion. For this purpose, I combine with the meal any desired proportion of
cotton-seed meal, linseed-meal, swill from breweries, or other liquid food, which of
itself is nutritious and digestible, forming a mass capable of consolidation under
pressure in molds into cakes or blocks which may be broken up and fed to the
animals in pieces of such size and solidity as to be readily chewed.
Thus to the proportions of ingredients above specified I may add five parts of
glucose which serves as a binding agent.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion 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. The within described corn product consisting of the dried and comminuted
fibrous portions of maize or cornstalk, separated from the pith and other detrimental
matters, substantially as set forth.
2. A new manufacture consisting of the outer fibrous portion of dried maize or
constalks, ground and mixed with cotton seed or other food material containing
different food elements, substantially as described.
3. A new manufacture consisting of the fibrous portion of maize or cornstalk
ground or comminuted, and combined with a binding agent and pressed in cakes,
substantially as described.
4. The process herein before described of preparing a product from maize or
corn-stalks, consisting in separating the fibrous portions of the stalk from the pith
and impurities, the said fibrous portions being comminuted and subjected to the
action of air, substantially as described.
5. The hereinbefore described method of preparing a product from plants con-
sisting in separating the pith and shell portion and in reducing the latter to a

page_text: comminuted condition and subjecting it to the action of air, substantially as
described.
6. An apparatus for reducing pithy plants in which are combined cutting and
grinding devices, and a separator, and means for forcing and directing a blast of
air through the separator, and a hopper and screener, and conduits whereby the
reduced products are directed to receptacles and the partly reduced products are
carried in circuit until fully reduced in whole or in part, substantially as described.
Dated the 24th day of November 1896.
PHILIP M. JUSTICE.