AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SIFTING OR SCREENING
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Edmund Albrecht, of Radnor Place, Hyde
Park, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of
"AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SIFTING OR SCREENING."
Scaled the 17th October 1860, and dated the 24th April 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Edmund Albrecht
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th April 1860.
I, CHARLES EDMUND ALBRECHT, of Radnor Place, Hyde Park, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SIFTING OR SCREENING," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of an improved revolving sifter or screen in which,
instead of having to open and close a door for admitting and discharging the
matters to be sifted or screened, or admitting and discharging them through
the ends, an opening constructed without door or slides is provided, which
opening serves both for feed and discharge, its arrangement being such that
the matters to be operated on will not be ejected through it when the screen
is turned in one direction, but will be ejected through it when the screen is
turned in the contrary direction. For this purpose, instead of having the
wires, bars, or perforated surface continuous all round. forming a complete
cylinder, propose to construct a sifter or screen in which the continuity of
the wires, bars, or perforated or openwork surface is interrupted at one part
in such manner as to present or form the required opening, one part or end of
the wirework or openwork being carried a certain distance within the other,
I

page_text: that is, nearer to the centre or the axis of rotation, leaving a suitable space
between the parts. This opening, which has no door or slide, serves both for
admission and discharge of the matters to be operated on, so that the
screen can be constructed with closed ends or side pieces (i. e. the discs or
plates, between the which are the wirework bars or openwork), and it may
be mounted and enclosed in a suitable casing furnished with feed hopper and
with a drawer or tray to receive the dust or substances separated during the
sifting, which drawer may also receive the matters when discharged after
sifting, or may rest upon a slab or board furnished with a spring which is
kept down by the drawer when in place, but which when the drawer is with-
drawn forces the slab into an inclined position to discharge the sifted matters
ejected thereon. When the matters to be sifted or screened are fed into the
screen, and rotary motion communicated to it in one direction, they cannot
escape, but will be duly sifted or screened, and the dust or separated
particles that pass through the interstices of the screen will fall into the
drawer beneath or into a suitable receptacle. When the matters are sufficiently
screened, and it is desired to discharge them, the direction of rotation is
reversed, and the contents will fall through the opening.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Edmund Albrecht in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 24th October 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
EDMUND ALBRECHT, of Radnor Place, Hyde Park, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Edmund Albrecht, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
Edmund Albrecht, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Charles Edmund Albrecht, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter 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
"AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SIPTING OR SCREENING," upon the condition

page_text: (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Edmund Albrecht, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or ono
of their hands and seals, 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 Charles Edmund Albrecht, 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 tho
following statement thereof, reference being bad to the accompanying Draw-
ings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My Invention consists of an improved revolving sifter or screen, in which,
instead of having to open and close a door for admitting and discharging the
matters to be sifted or screened, or instead of admitting and discharging them
through the ends, an opening constructed without door or slides is provided,
which opening serves both for feed and discharge, the arrangement of this
opening being such that the matters to be operated on will not be ejected
through it when the screen is turned in one direction, but will be ejected
through it when the screen is turned in the contrary direction. For this
purpose, instead of having the wires, bars, or perforated surface of the screen
continuous all round so as to form a complete cylinder, I construct an
improved sifter or screen according to my Invention, in which the continuity
of the wires, bars, or perforated or openwork surface is interrupted at one
part in such manner as to present or form the required opening, one part or
end of the wirework, openwork, or surface being carried a certain distanco
within the other, that is to say, nearer to the centre or to the axis of rotation.
a suitable space being left between the parts, which constitutes the required
opening or mouth. This opening has no door or slide, and serves both for the
admission and the discharge of the matters to be operated on. Hence the
screen can be constructed with closed ends or side pieces, that is, discs or
plates, between which are the bars, wires, or openwork, and it may be
mounted and enclosed in a suitable casing furnished with a feed hopper and
with a drawer or tray to receive the dust or substances separated during the
sifting, which drawer or tray may also receive the matters when discharged
after sifting, or may rest upon a slab or board furnished with a spring, which
is kept down by the drawer when in place, but which, when the drawer is
withdrawn, forces the slab into an inclined position to discharge the sifted
matters ejected thereon.

page_text: When the matters to be sifted or screened are fed into the screen, and
but
rotary motion is communicated to it in one direction they cannot escape,
will be duly sifted or screened, and the dust or separated particles that pass
through the interstices, meshes, or perforations of the screen will fall into the
drawer beneath or into a suitable receptacle. When the matters are suffi-
ciently screened, and it is desired to discharge them, the direction of rotation
is reversed, and the contents of the screen will fall through the mouth or
opening.
I now proceed, with reference to the accompanying Drawings, to explain
the Invention, and the mode of carrying it into effect more particularly.
Figure 1 is a vertical section of a sifting apparatus constructed according to
my Invention; Figure 2, a plan with the hopper removed; and Figure 3, a
perspective view of the screen or sifter taken out of its casing; Figure 4 is a
vertical section; and Fig. 5, a plan of the hopper. A is the screen or sifter,
consisting of a number of wires a, a, held between two solid or closed or flat
end pieces, b, b. The wirework, instead of being carried completely round so
as to join and form a cylinder, has its continuity interrupted at one part, as
shewn at c, Figure 1, one portion or end of the wirework being carried within
the other, and leaving an intervening space or opening c. The screen is
mounted on a shaft B, which is carried through orifices in the ends b, b, which
are so attached to the shaft that the screen revolves with it; the shaft rests
on bearings in the sides of a casing or frame D, which encloses the screen.
The shaft is so mounted and arranged that rotary motion may be communi-
nicated to it (and hence to the screen) in either direction; for example, this
may be done by a handle E, as in Figure 2, which is fitted on one end of the
shaft protruding through the corresponding side of the casing D, or rotary
motion may be communicated by any other ordinary means so contrived that
the rotation may be readily reversed. One mode of doing this is by fitting a
crank disc at the end of a driving shaft, supported in the casing, and con-
nected by an arm or rod to a toothed segment or rack in gear with a toothed
wheel on the shaft of the screen, so that on turning the crank handle, reci-
procating motion will be imparted to the rack or segment, and henco rotary
motion to the screen shaft in each direction alternately, there being several
revolutions of the latter for each turn of the driving shaft. F is a feed
hopper, which may be mounted on the frame, as in Figure 1, or may be sunk
in the top, that is to say, it may consist of four boards f,f, sloping inward
and downward towards the screen, and combined together into the shape of a
hopper, as shewn at Figures 4 and 5. f¹, f, are rims to the boards f; G¹, G³,
are trays or drawers for the reception of the separated matters; they may be

page_text: variously contrived; for example, as in Figure 1, the upper drawer G³ may
have a wirework bottom g, so that the small matters separated by sifting may
fall through the wires to the tray G³ beneath the larger matters when dis-
charged being received on the wires g, or the contrivance shewn at Figure 6
may be employed where the lower tray G³ consists of a board, which is con-
nected by a spring h to the side of the frame, but is kept horizontal by the
upper tray G' when in place, but when the particles separated by sifting have
been discharged into G', the latter may be removed, and then the tray G²
will be forced up by the spring into an inclined position, facilitating tho
ejection of substances discharged on it.
But these details may be varied, as may be also the arrangement of the
frame or casing and hopper; and instead of constructing the screen A of wires,
bars, or strips, it may be composed of perforated metal or material, the con-
struction being in other respects similar to that of the screen herein described.
A small plate of metal may be fixed on a part of the outer surface of that
portion of the wires or bars of the screen which constitutes the. inner side of
the opening c for facilitating the feed.
In order to use the apparatus, the shaft is turned to bring the opening c
under the bottom opening i of the hopper. The substances to be sifted or
screened are fed in through the hopper, and will drop through the opening c
into the screen. Rotary motion is then imparted to the shaft B, and thereby
to the screen in the direction of the arrow a, when the smaller or lighter
matters or particles separated by the operation will pass through the meshes
or interstices between the wires of the screen, and will fall into the tray
beneath, while the larger or heavier substances (those which do not pass
through the meshes or interstices of the wires) will remain in the screen, and
will not be ejected through the opening c, so long as the screen is rotated in
the direction of the arrow a, for when thrown, in the course of the revolution,
on to the surface m, they drop on to the surface n, and are thus prevented
from getting out through the opening c; but when the screen has been turned
sufficiently often in this direction, that is, when the matters are sufficiently
screened, the direction of rotation of the shaft B is reversed, and it is turned
in the direction of the arrow y, which is opposite to the direction of the
arrow x, of course carrying the screen with it, whereupon the matters con-
tained in the screen will be at once thrown into and discharged through the
opening c, and will fall into the tray or receptacle intended to receive them.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same may be performed, I declare that it relates to an improved revolving
apparatus for sifting or screening; and that what I claim as new, and con-

page_text: stituting my said Invention, is, constructing the sifter or screen with an
opening serving for both feed and discharge, contrived in the manner herein-
before described, that is to say, constructing the sifter or screen in such
manner that the continuity of its wirework, its perforated surface, or its
periphery shall be interrupted at one part, one portion or end thereof being
carried within the other so as to leave an opening so contrived that the matters
to be operated on will not be ejected through the opening when the screen is
turned in one direction, but will be ejected through it when the direction of
rotation is reversed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Edmund Albrecht, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witness,
CHARLES EDMUND ALBRECHT. (L.S.)
M. HENRY, Patent Agent,
84, Fleet Street, London.