THE CLEANING AND DECOR- TICATION OF WHEAT AND OTHER GRAIN CHIEFLY DESIGNED TO IMPROVE THE MANUFACTURE OF FLOUR
Year: 1885

page_text: "
I, LOUIS GATHMANN of Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of my invention for "THE CLEANING AND DECOR-
TICATION OF WHEAT AND OTHER GRAIN CHIEFLY DESIGNED TO IMPROVE THE
MANUFACTURE OF FLOUR 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 the treatment of wheat or other creased or lobated grain,
and is chiefly designed to improve the manufacture of flour.
According to a method heretofore frequently employed in the manufacture of
flour, the unbroken grain is first cleaned or scoured, then split to release the germ
and foreign substances from the crease, and then bolted, the product remaining after
these operations being subsequently ground.
A disadvantage connected with this method is that a portion of the impurities
contained in the crease are not removed and separated from the grain after splitting,
but remain and become mixed with the flour, and consequently reduce the quality
of the ground product.
The object of my invention is to treat the grain in such a manner that after
splitting the same, the impurities exposed in the crease shall be separated from the
grain prior to subjecting it to the grinding operation, whereby a finer grade of
flour than has been heretofore produced will be obtainable.
My said invention consists in lightly cleaning, or scouring, and decorticating the
grain after splitting, in the manner hereinafter described.
In carrying my said invention into practice the grain which must be as clean as
possible, is first decorticated or hulled by any suitable means without breaking the
kernels; the bran detached from the grain by this operation being separated there-
from. The grain is next split by any suitable means, the split kernels being then
lightly cleaned, by brushing or screening, or other suitable operation, so as to
remove, as far as possible, the germ and impurities in the crease, which were
exposed by the splitting.
The split grains are then subjected to a second decorticating operation to remove
the impurities remaining after the preceding operation.
The material is then subjected to a further separating operation, and, if the
resulting product is to be reduced to flour, it is ground between rollers or discs, or
in any other suitable manner,

page_text: I do not wish to limit myself to the precise series of operations hereinbefore
described, as those preceding the splitting and those succeeding the second decorti-
cation may be varied without departing from the nature of my invention.
Neither do I confine myself to any particular apparatus for performing the
different operations, I prefer, however, that the discs or rollers of the machine in
which the splitting of the grain is effected should have their surfaces prepared with
Bmooth, rounded corrugations.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
The method or process consisting in first splitting and then lightly cleaning the
grain, and then decorticating the same, substantially as, and for the purpose,
described.