Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 5th Apr., 1888
Complete Specification. Left, 28th Dec., 1888
Complete Specification Accepted, 29th Jan., 1889
JAMES WHITE Merchant & Miller 4 Henry Street Belfast do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows :-
A process for manufacturing White and Yellow flaked Maize or Indian Corn: the
process includes first the extraction of germ and husk of the grain and then cutting
it up by means of fluted rolls and other machinery into blocks or grits the size which
would pass through about No. 12 wire cloth, then purified by air currents and sieving,
subsequently softened by water or steam and passed through smooth rolls with great
pressure applied to them and squeezed into very thin Hakes which are afterwards
dried.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A Process for Manufacturing Flaked Indian Corn, either White
or Yellow.
I JAMES WHITE of 4 Henry Street Belfast, Merchant and Miller, 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 consists of a process for manufacturing flaked Indian corn, either
white or yellow. My process is as follows. I first remove the greater part of the husk
and germ of the corn, and I then cut up the corn into blocks or grits of a size
which would pass through about No. 12 wire cloth. The removal of the husk and germ
of the corn can be effected in any ordinary and suitable method. The method I
prefer is to pass it between two discs with suitable fluting, one disc being stationary
and the other running at about 500 revolutions; this breaks up or splits the corn
into two or three pieces; it is then passed on to a rotary sieve having one centrally
fixed excentric. This sieve contains two sheets of perforated zinc, or it may be
wire gauze of suitable perforations or meshes, which grades the broken corn from
the discs into two sizes, the coarser of which is subjected to a strong air current,
whereby the greater part of the husk and germ released by the action of the discs
is removed. The cutting up of the broken corn into blocks or grits can best be
effected by passing it on to a pair of horizontal rollers, suitably fluted, running at
a differential speed of three to one. After the grain has been cut up into blocks
or grits as above described I purify it by means of air currents. This is done by
passing the blocks or grits through a purifier having a sieve covered with suitable
wire gauze and vibrated by excentrics and having air currents above and below the
Rieve to remove the remainder of the husk and germ. I next pass the blocks or
grits between one or more pairs of smooth rolls which exert great pressure upon them
and thereby squeeze or flatten them into very thin flakes. The grits are fed to the rolls
by means of an endless travelling band, or they can be allowed to fall between the
rolls from a hopper, or any other suitable arrangement for supplying them to the rolls
can be adopted.
The flakes are subsequently dried, and this I effect preferably by passing them
through an inclined cylinder of suitable size. This cylinder has shelves projecting
from its inner periphery, these shelves being placed. at such an angle that the flakes are
raised in their passage from head to tail of the cylinder about one third of the
diameter and then fall gently down on to the next shelf and so on from shelf to shelf.
At the same time hot air is blown among the flakes as they fall, which is supplied from
a furnace at one end of the cylinder and is blown by a fan into an air duct which runs
from end to end of the cylinder and has holes or outlets from which the hot air is
directed among the flakes as they fall.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
The process of manufacturing flaked Indian corn, which consists in first breaking
the corn and removing the greater part of the husk and germ; in then cutting up
the corn into blocks or grits; in then purifying these blocks or grits and next squeezing
them into very thin flakes, and in then drying the flakes substantially as herein before
described.