Improvements in Cellular Cylinders for Sorting Grain, Seeds, and the like.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 13th Feb., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 16th Mar.. 1897-Accepted, 1st May, 1897
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Cellular Cylinders for Sorting Grain, Seeds, and
the like.
CHARLES EDWARD MUMFORD Lavenham Hill Lavenham Suffolk Engineer do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The cellular cylinders usually employed for cleaning grain present inside a number
of cells, sometimes punched and sometimes drilled, sometimes straight in to the plate
and sometimes at an angle to the surface.
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The cells when so punched or drilled into metal sheets and made into a cylinder,
present the sides of their pocket to the motion of the grain which is put in at one end
and worked out at the other by gravitation, as the cylinder revolves.
As the cylinders do not when so made, as before described, present their greatest
depths to the grain, I have constructed the plates for such cylinders so that the
indents do present the deeper part of their recess to the grain when the cylinder itself*
is placed at the proper angle or incline for working.
The new cells which are the subject of my invention are constructed as described'
hereafter. They may be either punched or drilled, but I prefer to drill or cut them.
My claim is for the shape and direction given to the holes or cells, when made into
a cylinder; that is to say the cells or cups have a vertical lift, using their greatest
depth, although the cylinder itself is of necessity laid upon the incline, and this object
is obtained by forming the cells at an angle in two directions from the surface of the
plate, so that the incline of the cell compensates for the incline given to the cylinder,
thus making the cells to have a vertical lift when working.
Dated this 12th day of February 1897.
CHARLES EDWARD MUMFORD.
Improvements in Cellular Cylinders for Sorting Grain, Seeds, and
the like.
1, CHARLES EDWARD MUMFORD, Lavenham Hill, Lavenham, Suffolk, Engineer, 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:-
Grain is cleaned from small seeds and like impurities by causing it to travel
along the interior of an inclined cellular cylinder the internal periphery of which
is made with a number of small cells which receive the small seeds or the like and,
as the cylinder revolves deliver them into a tray whence they are removed by a
worm conveyor, while the grain freed from these impurities is delivered through
openings at the lower end of the cylinder. This apparatus which is well known,
requires a special formation of the cells and a careful adjustment of the position

page_text: of the tray which receives the seeds or other impurities delivered from the cells,
and it is to such special formation of the cells and to means of effecting adjustment
of the tray that my invention relates as I shall describe referring to the accompanying
drawings.
Fig. 1 is a part longitudinal section at the lower end of the cellular cylinder.
Fig. 2 is an end view and Fig. 3 is a transverse section.
Fig. 4 is a section on a and Fig. 5 an elevation of part of the cellular circumference
of the cylinder, both these figures being drawn to an enlarged scale.
It will be seen that the cells are of conoidal form punched or drilled in the plate
which forms the circumference of the cylinder in quincunx order. Usually these
cells are so formed that their axes are parallel to the sides of the plates which are
bent to form the cylinder and therefore lie each in its plane of rotation. Now
according to my invention I drill or punch the cells at such an angle to the sides
of the plate, as indicated by the dotted line, that when the cylinder is in its
inclined position the axes of the cells at its ascending side are vertical. They are
thus more effective in catching the small seeds and other impurities and holding.
them until they ascend above the tray into which they deliver them.
The tray T is attached to brackets B fixed on the shaft S on which the cylinder C
freely revolves and with it a spur wheel A gearing with a pinion P on the shaft
of the worm conveyor W. So far the cylinder tray and conveyor are arranged in
the usual way, but according to my invention I fix on the shaft S a toothed
segment E with which gears a worm F having its axis journalled in a bracket G
projecting upwards from the shaft bearing H. On the axis of the worin F there
is a hand wheel K hy which the worm can be turned. On the bracket G there is
a graduated are, and the segment E has a pointer L. By turning the worm F in
the one direction or the other the segment E and the shaft are turned and with them
the tray T raising or lowering its lip t which catches the small seeds and other matters
falling out of the cells as the cylinder revolves in the direction of the arrow Fig. 3.
Having found by experiment- the best adjustments of the tray for various kinds of
grain and impurities and noted the graduations to which the index L points when
these adjustments are made, the operator can readily adjust the tray for future
operations according to the nature of the grain and impurities to be treated.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed 1 would have it understood
that I make no claim to the combination of the toothed segment, worm and hand
wheel with the cellular cylinder but I declare that what I claim is :-
In a cellular grain cleaning cylinder the formation and arrangements of conoidal
cells in quincunx order, the axis of each cell being so inclined to the plane of its
rotation, that when the cylinder is in its inclined working position the axes of the
cells at the ascending side are vertical, substantially as and for the pnrpose set forth.
Dated this 16th day of March 1897.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant..