AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR GRINDING, KNEADING, WASHING, AND OTHER LIKE PURPOSES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Carr, of New Ferry, in the County of
Chester, Glue Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MACHINE
Sealed the 19th December 1862, and dated the 24th June 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Carr at the
. Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th June 1862.
I, THOMAS CARR, of New Ferry, in the County of Chester, Glue Manufac-
turer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
MACHINE FOR GRINDING, KNEADING, WASHING, AND OTHER LIKE PURPOSES," to be
as follows (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates to those mills or machines known as "edge runners,"
and to that description of them in which the pan is rotated. It consists in
driving or rotating on its axis one or each of-the- "edge runners," as well as
the pan, but by a separate driving gear, so that the former acts independently
of the latter, and a greater or less speed can consequently be given them than
they would acquire from the mere rotation of the pan, while at the same
time they are left as much at liberty as the ordinary "edge-runners". are to
be freely raised by any substance they are unable to reduce, which would thus
pass below them without stopping or injuring the machine.
This Invention also consists of suspending in some cases the stones or edge

page_text: runners in such a manner, that they are thus prevented from coming into
immediate contact with the pan itself, or when empty of resting on it, being so
supported that they can be gradually raised or lowered at pleasure, so as to
increase or diminish, as required, their proximity to the pan.
The periphery of the edge runners or the surface of the pan, or both of them,
may now, if a more cutting motion is desired be fluted, or otherwise grooved or
furrowed, or instead knife edges, or spikes, or teeth, or hooks may be inserted
as found most appropriate to the material to be treated.*
This Invention further consists in the application, where required, of a lever
or its mechanical equivalent, acting by means of weights or springs on the said
edge runners in such a manner as to be readily adjustable, for the purpose of
augmenting or lessening to any required degree, the pressure on the materials
operated upon. It will be readily seen that a machine constructed
according to this Invention, comprises the respective advantages without
the characteristic defects of two distinct machines, namely, those pertaining to
the ordinary horizontal millstones and the edge runners, since it can be made
to have nearly all the frictional, scrub, and grinding power of the former, with
the non-liability to injury and capability of acting on large-sized materials
peculiar to the latter, while it is free from the defect ordinary edge runners
have of occasionally pressing some materials into a cake-like mass.
This machine will be much safer, more convenient, and equally effective
for grinding many substances; which are now commonly ground by horizontal
millstones; for kneading purposes also, such as for dough, putty, and other
like material, it will be found useful, also for mashing and pulping roots
for cattle, sugar-making, and other purposes, and especially for washing
purposes, such as washing and pulping rags, and other papermaker's stuff,
fleshings, and glue pieces for glue makers, which it can be made first to wash,
and subsequently press nearly dry. For the latter purpose, namely, washing,
it is believed the application of "edge runners of any description is
entirely new..
"

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Thomas Carr, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas
Carr, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Carr, 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 MACHINE FOR GRINDING, KNEADING, WASHING, AND OTHER LIKE PUR-
POSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas
Carr, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one 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.
1
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Carr, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to 'be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):-
This my said Invention relates to those mills or machines known as edge
runners, and to that description in which the pan is rotated; and consists in
driving or rotating on their axles one or both of the edge runners as well as
the pan,
but by a seperate driving gear, so that the former acts independently
of the latter and a greater or less speed can consequently be given them than
they would acquire from the mere rotation of the pan, while at the same time
they are left as much at liberty as the ordinary edge runners are, to be freely
raised by any substance they are unable to reduce, passing below them without
stopping or injuring the machine.
This my said Invention also consists of suspending (in some cases) the
stones or edge runners in such a manner that they are prevented from coming
into immediate contact with the pan itself, or when empty of resting upon it,
being so supported that they can be gradually raised or lowered at pleasure,
so as to increase or diminish as required their proximity to the pan. The
periphery of the edge runners, or the surface of the pan, or both of them,
may, when a more cutting action is required, be fluted, or otherwise grooved

page_text: or furrowed, or instead knile edges or spikes, or teeth, or hooks may be
inserted, as found most appropriate to the material to be treated.
This my said Invention further consists in the application where required of
a lever, or its mechanical equivelent acting by means of weights or springs on
the said edge runners in such a manner as to be readily adjustable for the
purpose of augmenting or lessening to any required degree, the pressure on
the material operated upon.
This my improved machine I call the composite mill, because it comprises
within itself all the respective advantages without the characteristic defects of
two most valuable and well known mills; namely, the edge runner mill, which
it much resembles in appearance, and the horizontal millstones to which in its
principle of action it in some respects bears a still closer affinity. The
ordinary edge runners, as is well known, are placed either in a stationary
pan and caused when working to travel perpetually round its centre, like the
horse does that works them, or instead (as is more convenient when engine
power is used) their axles are stationary, and the pan is driven or rotated
beneath them, which necessarily causes them also to rotate on their axles,
owing to their peripheries resting on the surface of the said rotating pan;
thus their speed coincides with that of the pan, (or more correctly,) the speed
of their peripheries is the same as that portion of the pan's surface that gives
them motion, not wholly so it is true, for owing to their being made of a
cylindrical instead of conical form, they cannot throughout their breadth quite
conform to the varying speed of the pan's surface at different distances from
its centre of rotation, whereby a minute scrubbing action ensues between them,
and so far an advantage is obtained, but only to a very trivial extent. My
composite mill so far resembles the latter of the above mills that it has a pan
rotated by power, and a pair of edge runners which do not travel. Instead,
however, of the latter deriving the power that rotates them second hand from
the pan, I drive them by seperate driving gear in most cases, not, however, in
opposition to the pan, but cause them to rotate in the same direction that they
would have been driven, if acted upon by the revolving pan, but at a greater
or less speed than they would have acquired from it; thus the edge runners
cease to be the mere crushers and squeezers so apt to press the half reduced
material into a cake-like mass, and become instead grinders of a very severe
and formidable description, to which the slow rotating pan acts as a continuous
feeder. Thus my improved composite mill acquires all the frictional scrub
and grinding power of the horizontal millstones, and moreover applies that
power to much better advantage by concentrating it into a focus of great
intensity, instead of diluting its energy by spreading its action over so large

page_text: n working surface as the horizontal stones do; for it must be borne in mind.
that while the entire area of the horizontal millstone has a simultaneous
action rendering indispensable considerable motive power, there is, on the
contrary, never more than an exceedingly small portion of either the periphery
of the edge runners or of the surface of the pan operating at one time on
the material; and this fact, in conjunction be it remembered, with the superior
speed of the said runners to that of the pan, has the effect of bringing the
entire power of the machine to bear with considerable force and to a great
extent with the shattering impetus of a blow on exceedingly small quantities
of the material at once, whereby it is enabled rapidly to reduce it in minute
detail instead of inefficiently rolling over a large mass at a time than it might
have power effectually to reduce..
The second part of this my Invention (without which that previously
explained could not be satisfactorily applied) consists in supporting the
edge runners like upper millstones are, so as to prevent their coming into
immediate contact with the pan itself, or when empty of resting upon it, and
this I do by means of a screw so applied as to be readily adjustable by hand
for raising or lowering the said edge runners, and thereby increasing or
diminishing with the utmost nicety their proximity to the pan according as a
fine or coarse powder is required. By this arrangement I effect a great
saving in power, economically expending it in reducing the material alone,
instead of its being wasted, to a great extent injuriously, as in the ordinary
edge runners, where they and the pan have so great a tendency to mutually
wear out each other, that the machine is almost as hard to drive when empty
as when full. Besides the advantages above explained derived from thus
supporting the edge ruuners, the doing so also renders it practicable where a
cutting or rasping action is required, to flute, groove, or furrow their
peripheries or the surface of the pan, or both of them, or even in some cases
to insert teeth or knife edges, which could not of course be done if the former.
were allowed to rest on the latter.
My Invention further consists in applying weights or springs to the levers
upon which the edge runners are mounted, for the purpose of augmenting or
diminishing to any required degree the pressure imparted by the edge runners
to the material operated upon, instead of relying entirely as heretofore on the
uniform pressure which arises simply from the weight of the edge runners
themselves. This machine is well adapted for such purposes as grinding a
great variety of articles to an impalpable powder, also for munching gorse
and pulping roots; for tempering clay and mortar, and kneading dough and
putty; also for washing fleshings and glue pieces for glue making; also rags

page_text: for paper, hair from tanneries, which it can be made first to wash and sub-
sequently press nearly dry. For the latter purpose, namely, washing, I believe
the application of edge runners of any description is entirely new..
Hereunto I have annexed Drawings in illustration of the practical applica-
tion of the Invention to the construction of several modifications of my
improved. compound mill adapted for various purposes. Like letters and
figures marked on the various parts are used to denote similar parts.
i
Sheet 1 illustrates the application of a full-sized portable band mill, mounted
on a suitable iron frame, having a pan of one foot nine inches in diameter,
and edge runners of ten inches. And in this mill it will be. observed there is
an arrangement for heating the pan by steam or hot air. This mill will be
found exceedingly useful for grinding such. materials as chemicals, drugs,
medicines, spices, herbs, mustard, paints, colors, blacking, alum, cocoa, sugar,
meat for potting, and so forth; also for bruising beans, peas, indian corn, and
other pulse, and for pulping roots and fruit, kneading dough, putty, and for.
other useful purposes. This machine is intended to be worked either. by one
man or two boys, or by motive power engine where convenient. Figure 1 is
a plan or top view; Figure 2 is a side elevation; Figure 3 is a partial
sectional end elevation, and Figure 4 is a sectional plan of the framing taken
on a line from A to B (Figure 3).
On Sheet 2 is represented a half-sized portable hand mill, having a pan. of
about one foot two inches in diameter, and edge runners of about seven inches
diameter. Figure 5 is a plan; Figure 6 is a side elevation; Figure 7. is a
front half sectional elevation of the machine. This compact and portable
mill I have designed for the use of apothecaries, retail chemists, druggists,
grocers, and other persons, to be used in place of the ordinary pestle and
mortar, which it greatly surpasses in efficiency, while it can be emptied and
cleaned with equal facility. It has no cast-iron frame as the last described
mill; but is simply mounted complete and ready for work on a mahogany or
other suitable platform, that it may be placed on a table or counter occupying
a space of about two feet square. The annular pan and edge runners I formed
of Wedgewood ware or other suitable substance readily cleaned. The lever
frames carrying the edge runners have their fulcrums on the main driving
shaft, which admits of their being elevated and thrown back from the pan
without altering the tension of the driving bands. And the pan is secured to
the revolving support by two small clips and a thumb screw, so that it can be
readily removed when required to be emptied. The pressure is applied to the
edge runners by adjustable spiral springs instead of weights.
Sheet 3 illustrates one of my improved compound mills to be worked by a

page_text: horse or small engine, having a pan of four feet, and edge runners of one foot
ten inches in diameter. This mill is shown with the pan and edge runners
sharply grooved, so as to give it a cutting action for fibrous materials; or it
may be constructed simply plain, for grinding friable substances. When
grooved, as shown in the Drawings, it is admirably adapted for munching
gorse, to be used as food for cattle, the stems and thorns of which by the
action of the machine, so constructed, will be thoroughly broken up without
making the material too pasty or choking itself. It will be also found equally
well suited for grinding locust beans, linseed cake, bark, and myrabolums, for
tanners, and other useful purposes. When the surfaces are plain, it is
suitable for operating in large quantities on all the articles enumerated above,
for the full-sized hand mill, and is also well adapted for shelling palm nuts,
crushing malt for mashing, grinding seeds for extracting the oil therefrom;
grinding indigo, bone ash, boiled bones, gypsum, chalk, spent lime (for looting
for gasworks, old. bricks for mortar, coal, charcoal, blacking for moulders),
ashes, soda asb,. alkilis, bicarbonate of soda, bronze powder, blacklead,
manganese, cobalt, sulphur, loam, fuller's earth, dried clay, grains, and other
substances.
"
Figure 8 represents a top view or plan; Figure 9 is a side elevation; and
Figure 10 is a partial sectional front elevation of the mill; Figure 11:
represents an enlarged or full-sized sectional profile of the periphery of one
of the edge runners; and Figure 12 is a like profile of the bottom of the pan.
Figure. 13 (Sheet 4) is a side elevation; Figure 14 (Sheet 5) is a plan
or top view; and Figure 15 (Sheet 5) is a partial sectional front elevation of
a large mill having a pan of six feet,, and edge runners of three feet diameter,
to be driven by steam or other motive power. This differs in no respect from
the last described mill, except in its increased size, and in the addition of
gearing to the runners, to increase the driving power for operating upon
larger quantities of material. Its increased size, however, makes it better.
adapted for tempering such bulky materials as mortar or clay, especially the
latter, where it will effect a great saving in labour, by rapidly compelling the
crude clay, fresh dug from the bank, to absolve and become intimately united
with the amount of. water required to make it sufficiently plastic, besides
breaking any stones that may be contained in the clay.
This mill is further especially adapted for the reduction of stubborn
materials, as ores, such as zinc, tin, lead, and so forth; also for minerals,
such as: coporolites, baryta, gold quartz, calcined flint, sillica, spa, shale,
cmery, plaster of Paris, cement, earths, and the material from which are
made crucibles, china, glass, and so forth.
: ;

page_text: Figure 16 (Sheet 6) is a side elevation; Figures 17 & 18 (Sheet 7) are
a plan and partial sectional end elevation of one of my improved machines,
particularly adapted for cleaning fleshings for glue making, rags for the
manufacture of paper, hair from tanneries, and other purposes. The edges of
the pan of this machine are vertical instead of sloping. In this modification
of my improved machine I prefer to use only one edge runner, and the
weighted lever I use. to diminish in place of increasing the weight exerted by
the runner, by partially counterbalancing it, so as to reduce the pressure on
the material, if required, to only a few pounds. In other respects the machine
is precisely similar in arrangement to the herein-before described mills.
This apparatus, when used as a used as a washing machine, will be found to
thoroughly cleanse the rags or other materials operated upon by gently squeez-
ing and scrubbing them, and when the water is let out through a plug-hole
formed through the side, and protected by a grid, will press them nearly dry, by
which means the dirty water being in each case entirely removed before fresh is
introduced, it will ultimately, after a few repetitions, come from them nearly
pure, leaving the materials in a similar state, by which a great saving will be
effected both in labour and water. When required for grinding, this washing
machine can be at once converted into a mill, by simply changing the fulcrums
of the weighted lever, due provision being made for that purpose, by converting
the lever into one of the second order, thus increasing instead of diminishing
the pressure exerted by the runner. The pan of this mill will also be
observed is also shown with a steam jacket or hot air, that is, when the
material operated upon is to be kept hot, or to be boiled or evaporated,
as well as ground, kneaded, and mixed. Heating the pans would be also
found greatly to increase and accelerate the action of acids in reducing
materials submitted to them, such as vitriol with coprolites, raw and calcined
bone, shoddy, glue waste, and other substances, while it would have but little
effect on the cast-iron pan.
a (Sheet 1), iron framing, upon which is mounted C, edge runners;
D, driving pullies; E (Sheet 1), driving pully on hand mill; E' (Sheets 4
& 5), driving pinion gearing into E³ (Sheets 4 & 5), spur wheels on the shafts
of edge runners; F (Sheet 1), a V-grooved pulley on the driving shaft that
rotates the pan by a band working over G, a V-grooved pully on the axle of
the pinion; H, a pulley on the shaft, which carries the pinion for rotating K,
the revolving pan; L, levers upon which the edge runners are mounted;
M, adjusting screw for regulating the pressure to be exerted by the edge
rollers, and their proximity to the pan; N, weighted lever to increase or
diminish the pressure of the edge runners.

page_text: I would here remark, that this my improved composite mill has all the
grinding power of the millstones in an immensely intensified form, and applied
in the most economical manner. It is not limited like they are to small sized
materials, neither has it a similar tendency to become hot by friction, nor to
be choked by pasty material, nor, what is still worse, to become cut and
damaged by the accidental introduction of steel, or other hard substances;
but that it is, on the contrary, as free as the ordinary edge runners are to be
harmlessly raised thereby, like the latter too, it does not, as most mills do,
spontaneously eject the material after a momentary action thereon, when,
perhaps, only partially reduced, and it is equally capable of operating upon
solids in conjunction with free liquids; and that in short, as I have before
stated, it posses the united advantages without the respective defects of the
common edge runner mills and the horizontal millstones.
Having now fully described and ascertained the nature of this my said Inven-
tion, and the several modes I believe the same can be best carried into practical
effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the precise
dimensions or relative proportions of the several parts herein-before described,
as it will be readily seen that these may be considerably varied without
departing from the Invention; I also wish it to be understood that I do not
claim the rotating of the pan, nor the manner of doing so; but what I do
claim as new and as my Invention is,―
.
3
First, driving the edge runners independent of the revolving pan, either in
opposite directions to it, or at a greater or less speed, and in such a manner as
not to interfere with the rising of the edge runners when encountering a sub-
stance too hard for them to crush, as herein-before described and set forth, or
any mere modification of the same.
Secondly, I claim the carrying of the edge runners independent of the pan,
instead of their always resting upon it, and also the adjusting of their proximity
thereto to any required gauge, as berein-before described, or any mere
modification of the same.
Thirdly, I claim the regulating the exact amount of pressure the edge
runners should at any time be capable of imposing on the material passinġ
beneath them, instead of depending on the uniform weight, as herein-before
described and set forth, or any mere modification of the same.
Fourthly, I claim the furrowing or grooving in some cases of the edges or
peripheries of the edge runners, or the bottom of the revolving pan, or both
of them, or instead, inserting therein knives or teeth, as herein-before described,
or any mere modification of the same.
And, lastly, I claim the general arrangement and combination of the

page_text: various parts of the apparatus, substantially and in the manner and for the
purposes herein-before described and set forth in this Specification and its
accompanying Drawing..
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Carr, have hereunto set my
hand and affixed my seal, this Twenty-third day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
WILLIAM WALKER,
of 44, Castle Street, Liverpool.
THOMAS (L.S.) CARR.