CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSES FOR THE EXPRESSION OF OIL AND OTHER FLUIDS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Cook at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th July
1868.
I, THOMAS COOK, of Paragon Works, Pitt Street, Old Kent Road,
in the County of Surrey, Engineer and Machinist, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSES
FOR THE EXPRESSION OF OIL AND OTHER FLUIDS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of certain novel and improved mechanical
arrangements and combinations constituting a press suitable for
expressing oil from seed or other oil-yielding substances, and the
following is an example of the manner of constructing and operating
with a press according to this Invention, that is to say, I form a deep
but narrow box with strainers of novel and peculiar construction (as
herein-after described) of the entire width and depth of the said box, the
said box and strainers being only the width of the cake after com-
pression; to the bottom of the aforesaid box I adapted a sliding or false
bottom so arranged as to be capable of being easily removed after the
seed or other oil-yielding substance has been sufficiently compressed to

page_text: allow the compressed residuary matters or cake to be forced out of the
said box into a receptacle below. Above the aforesaid box I place a
steam cylinder of considerable dimensions resting on two or more
columns and fitted with a piston of the ordinary kind, to which is affixed
a piston rod or plunger formed of a flat piece of steel or other metal of
the same size and exactly fitting into the aforesaid box; the said piston
rod or plunger works through a slot formed in the cylinder bottom, and the
said piston rod or plunger should be so arranged that it can be passed into
and through the aforesaid box at the will of the operator. In connection
with this cylinder I employ another and very much smaller cylinder,
which I use separately from the large cylinder for lifting the weight of
the piston or plunger and exerting the first pressure on the substance to
be pressed and forcing out the cake of residuary matters after the oil has
been expressed therefrom. I employ the large cylinder for exerting the
final pressure on the substance, or if desirable I use the large cylinder
only for performing these operations. The strainers which may be made
in different ways and of different materials should invariably be of the
exact size of the box in which they are placed in order that the piston rod
or plunger may be an exact fit between them. The plan I prefer to adopt
in the construction of the strainers is a series of metal laths with a hole
through each end thereof for connecting them together by rods with
screws and nuts on each end, the flat sides of the said laths being in
contact. A small groove is formed from end to end of each of the
said laths on both sides thereof near its front edge, so that when the
several laths are placed side by side the groove in one lath coming
opposite to the groove in the other a hole or channel is thus formed
in which I propose to place a piece of yarn or other suitable fibrous
material to prevent any particles of matter not liquid passing through
the strainers.
An important feature in this Invention consists in exerting the
pressure on the edge of the substance instead of the broad surface
thereof as commonly practised, whereby the substance is of the same
thickness after it is compressed as it was before it was compressed, and
this is effected by the use of a deep but narrow box as before stated.
And I would here remark that I do not intend to limit or confine
myself to the use of steam for exerting pressure on the substance from
which the oil is to be expressed, but reserve to myself the right to use

page_text: The operations of a press thus constructed are as follows:-The piston
being at the top of the cylinder the box is filled with seed or meal.
Steam is then admitted at the top of the cylinder, thereby forcing
the piston or plunger into the box and expressing the oil from the
substance therein through the strainers into grooves formed in the
sides of the box; thence it passes along gutters in the false or sliding
bottom before described, and finally to a suitable vessel or receptacle.
When all the oil has been expressed the pressure is taken off and
the false bottom removed, after which the pressure is again applied to
force the cake of residuary matters out of the box, and the operation is
repeated as before.