IMPROVEMENTS IN DRYING FLAX STRAW AND OTHER ORGANIC SUBSTANCES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Telford Macneill, of Mount Pleasant, in the
County of Lowth, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
Sealed the 17th August 1854, and dated the 17th February 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Telford Macneill
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th February 1854.
I, THOMAS TELFORD MACNEILL, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRYING FLAX STRAW AND OTHER ORGANIC
SUBSTANCES" to be as follows:--
ཀ་
I place the flax or other substance in a chamber, into which I drive a
current of warm air, obtained by blowing air over a fire of coke or other fuel
which does not produce smoke. The current of air is produced by a fan or
other mechanical means, and the air and products of combustion are conveyed
through a chamber or chambers, in which is deposited any dust which may
have been carried off from the fire. The heated air and products of combus-
tion then enter the drying chamber, and if not admitted at the top of the
chamber they quickly rise to the top, and spread over the flax or other
substance. They then descend amongst the flax or other substance, abstract-
ing the moisture until saturated or nearly so, when they escape at one or more

page_text: apertures at or near the bottom of the chamber. The escape of the damp air
is facilitated by employing a fan or other mechanical means to draw or exhaust
it out of the chamber.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Telford Macneill in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th August 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
TELFORD MACNEILL, of Mount Pleasant, in the County of Lowth, in Ireland,
Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Telford Macneill, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Telford
Macneill, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Telford Macneill, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time, and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
DRYING FLAX STRAW AND OTHER ORGANIC SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Thomas Telford Macneill, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and scal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office, within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Telford Macneill, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow-
ing statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Drawing, and
to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
I place the flax or other substance in a chamber, into which I drive a
current of warm air, obtained by blowing air over a fire of coke or other fuel
which does not produce smoke. The current of air is produced by a fan or
other mechanical means, and the air and products of combustion are conveyed
through a chamber or chambers in which is deposited any dust which may

page_text: have been carried off from the fire. The heated air and
tion then enter the drying chamber, and if not admitted
chamber they quickly rise to the top and spread over the fla
They then descend amongst the flax or other substan
moisture until saturated or nearly so, when they escape a
tures at or near the bottom of the chamber. The escap
facilitated by employing a fan or other mechanical means
it out of the chamber. Figure 1 of the accompanying Dr
plan of an arrangement of apparatus adapted for the purpo
Figure 2 is a vertical section of the same. The same lett
parts in each Figure. A is a furnace, provided with fire b
b. The furnace and ashpit are furnished with doors, w
lighting the fire. A fire of coke or other fuel which does
is made in the furnace A, and air is blown over this fire by
The air becomes heated, and passes together with the proc
through a long gallery C, having a series of chambers c.
or sparks may deposit. The heated air passes along the flu
the cross passage E, whence it ascends through a grating
into a chamber F, containing the wet flax straw or other
be dried. G is a flue or passage leading from the chambe
H, which exhausts or draws out the damp air from the
heated air in entering the chamber rises rapidly to the
chamber, and as a portion of its heat is expended in ev
contained in the flax straw or other wet or damp substance
the air is reduced. The air thus partially cooled desce
saturated with moisture, or nearly so, in descending through
it is at last drawn out by the exhausting fan H.
By this means the whole or nearly the whole of the be
combustion of the fuel is communicated to the air and car
chamber, from which it does not escape until saturated or lo
The temperature of the air may be regulated by varying
into the furnace, or by regulating the fire. The flax stra
substance may thus be rapidly and economically dried, with
temperature so high as to injure it.
Having now described the nature of the said Inven
manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be und
claim is,
The drying flax straw and other organic substances by m
warm air, obtained by blowing air over a fire into a char

page_text: substance to be dried, and from which chamber the moist air is withdrawn at
the lower part, as herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Telford Macneill, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
THOMAS TELFORD MACNEILL. (L.s.)
AUGUSTUS W. JOCELYN,
J. P. County Louth, Ireland.