Improvements in or relating to Apparatus for Cutting, Equalizing, and Blending Teas.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Aug., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 22nd Apr., 1893-Accepted, 25th Aug., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Apparatus for Cutting, Equalizing,
and Blending Teas.
· The WaygoodD-TUPHOLME GROCERS' MACHINERY Co. LTD. Falmouth Road,
London S.E. Manufacturers of Tea, Coffee and Grocers' Machinery, and BEESTON
TUPHOLME of Falmouth Road, London S.E. Engineer do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows:-
We employ the usual cellulated rollers & paralell steel knife with cutting surface
in contact with the periphery of the said cellulated rollers. The said paralell
knife is fixed on a fulcrum pin or axis having a lever with spiral spring and
adjusting screw giving the required pressure on the cutting knife so that any
harder substances than tea such as nails, stones, etc. coming in contact with the
cutting knife exerts sufficient pressure to open or cant the knife about " and by
the means of a lever attachment is brought in contact with one or more cams or
eccentrics on the said roller spindle which quickly opens further this said knife
sufficiently to allow nails or stones to pass.
The said knife is then brought instantly back into position by means of the
tension exerted by the aforesaid spiral spring. The tea having been equalized by
passing thro' the aforesaid mill is conducted into a suitable mixing cylinder having
three or more canted wings or discs fixed at a tangent and in addition to these said
wings or discs we have secured on or around the axis or shaft in the centre of this
said cylinder two bayonet sided trihedrons with bases abbutting by means of which
together with the aforesaid canted wings in a few revolutions of the said cylinder
a perfect blending of the various tens is obtained and to facilitate the emptying of
the said cylinder simultaneously with moving the belt on to the loose pulley to stop
the cylinder we employ a pawl which coming in contact with a suitable projection
on the door partly slides it open, and instead of the mixed tea being precipitated
into a drawer as is usual we have one or more receiving hoppers and troughs into
which the tea gently glides and is removed. therefrom with a suitable sheet steel
scoop, which is made to fit casily the aforesaid trough. To prevent the dust
escaping when the cylinder is first discharged we have a suitable flap or fall door
to each of the aforesaid troughs. With the large mixers we employ one or more
discharge troughs on either side. When the cylinder refilled with tca,
simultaneously with moving the belt a pawl comes in contact with a suitable
projecting piece on the aforesaid revolving cylinder door which automatically
closes the same.
Dated this 24th day of Avgust 1892.
THE WAYGOOD-TUPHOLME GROCERS'
MACHINERY CO., LIMITED,

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Apparatus for Cutting, Equalizing,
and Blending Teas.
THE WAYGOOD-TUPHOLME GROCERS' MACHINERY CO. LIMITED and
BEESTON TUPHOLME of. Falmouth Road, London, S.E. Engineers, 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 :-
We employ the usual cellulated rollers and parallel steel knife with cutting
surface in contact with the periphery of the said cellulated rollers as shown and
set forth in the drawings accompanying the Specification Fig. 1. The said parallel
knife A is fixed on a fulcrum piu B or axis having a lever C with spiral spring D
and adjusting screw E giving the required pressure on the cutting knife A so that
any harder substances than tea such as nails, stones, wood etc. coming in contact
with the cutting knife exerts sufficient' pressure to open or cant the said knife A
about one sixteenth of an inch whereby the pawl F which is attached to the vertical
handled lever C pivotting at point slides down the fixed cheek Y until the
rectangular shoulder K of the said lever F comes in contact and engages for a
quarter of a revolution with one or other of the revolving cams G G on the roller
spindle H which instantaneously opens wider the aforesaid knife sufficiently to allow
nails or stones to pass.
The above apparatus may be applied to a second cutting roller and knife as
shown in Drawing 1 but with the addition of spiral spring L which holds the
bottom pawl F up to its work on cheek Y.
The said knife is then brought instantly back into position by means of the
tension exerted by the aforesaid spiral spring D.
The tea having been equalized by passing through the aforesaid mill falls on to
an endless belt or conveyor I shown in drawing Fig. 2 together with any uncut or
original tea which may be placed in the hopper J with suitable adjustable
feed and is carried into a suitable mixing cylinder K as shown in drawing
Figs. 2 & 3 having 3 or more wings or discs L fixed at a tangent and in
addition to the said wings or discs we have secured on or around the axis or
shaft in the centre of the said cylinder two bayonet sided "trihedrons" M with
bases abutting, by means of which together with the aforesaid canted wings in
a few revolutions of the cylinder a perfect blending of the various teas is obtained
and to facilitate the opening and closing of the sliding door N of the said cylinder
we have attached two parallel racks O. O curved to the radius of the said slide
door and two corresponding spur wheels P. P on to horizontal shafts Q. Q fixed
above and below the said cylinder, on the bottom shaft we employ a hand wheel R
but on the top shaft an ordinary grooved pulley S and endless rope, and with a
suitable hand lever T the said spur wheels are made to engage or disengage in the
curved racks O. O. and thus gently slide back the cylinder door, and is simul-
taneously held in position by lever spring catch U, and instead of the mixed or
bulked tea being precipitated into a drawer as is usual we have one or more
receiving hoppers or troughs V into which the tea gently glides and is removed
therefrom with a suitable shect steel scoop W which is made to fit easily the
aforesaid troughs.
To prevent the dust escaping when the cylinder is first discharged we have a
suitable flap or fall door X to each of the aforesaid troughs. With the large
mixers we employ one or more discharge troughs on either side.
To facilitate the repacking of chests or to convey mixed teas into store bins on
the same floor we employ one or more endless conveying belts Y.
To regulate the delivery of tea into chest Z also to start and stop the said
conveyor we employ a suitable friction clutch A¹ with band lever attachment.

page_text: When it is desirable to be able to discharge the contents of the mixing cylinder
into several store bins with as little handling as possible we prefer to do so in
the manner hereafter stated, but we do not bind ourselves to this or any other
form of apparatus.
To discharge contents of mixing cylinder into any of the several store bins B' on
the floor below as shown on drawing, Fig. 4, we employ a suitable receiver or
carriage C which holds the whole or part of the contents of the said cylinder the
bottom of this carriage having four triangular shaped hinged fall doors D¹, as shown
in drawing Fig. 5, placed diagonally to the walls of the carriage, at the extreme
ends of each of the four conveying points of the said doors we attached cord or
chain E which said chain converges into one cord or chain so that to open or close
the four doors simultaneously, the chain is secured to shaft F' revolving through
the walls of the said carriage this said shaft having a crank handle G and by
winding backward or forward the four doors may be opened or closed, this said
shaft has also check cord or chain H' to prevent overwinding. This said carriage
is then wheeled on tram lines to any of the openings in the floor, moveable lids
being provided. Under this said opening we employ a hopper I', as shown in
drawing, Fig. 6, the four sides of which converge completely to the bottom. In
each of these four sides are arranged suitable sliding doors J1 J1 J1 J1 directly
under and in a diagonal position to hopper I! we place four store bins B¹ secured
together, the four centre angles of the walls of the said bins being placed exactly
vertical with the aforesaid converging points of these sliding doors of the said
hopper so that by withdrawing any of the slide doors J any one of the four bins B¹
may receive the contents of the aforesaid carriage, any number of additional sets
of four bins may be arranged in exactly the same order & manner as herein
described.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. The construction or arrangement in combination of apparatus for cutting,
equalizing and conveying tea into mixing cylinders, the construction of tea mixing
cylinder.
2. An arrangement of cams, levers and springs to automatically pass an substance
harder than tea such as nails, wood, etc.
3. An endless belt to convey the tea into the mixing cylinder and from the
mixing cylinder into chests or store bins together with the friction clutch to
enable the operator to readily control the quantity of tea coming down for
repacking chests.
4. Troughs with flap door and large scoop combination for emptying tea mixing
cylinder.
5. The use of abutting trihedron and three wings for the better mixing and
blending of teas.
6. Method of opening and closing tea mixing cylinder doors.
Dated this 21st day of April 1893.
B. TUPHOLME.
THE WAYGOOD-TUPHOLME GROCERS'
MACHINERY CO. LIMITED,
B. Tupholme,
Managing Director.