Improved Butter Drying Apparatus.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 17th Apr., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 17th Jan.. 1895-Accepted, 16th Mar., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improved Butter Drying Apparatus.
I, THOMAS BRADFORD, of High Holborn, in the County of London, Dairy
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to centrifugal drying apparatus applicable for use
separately from or conjunctively with box-churns or butter-making apparatus,
for drying out the moisture with which newly-made butter is charged, by the
agency of centrifugal force; the special object of the invention being so to adapt
a centrifugal drying apparatus adapted to rotate on a horizontal or approximately
horizontal axis as to cause, upon the rapid rotation of the dryer, an induction into
within the latter, through an end thereof, of a current or currents of air for the
purpose of aiding in more quickly extracting the moisture and drying the butter
contained by the dryer, said air by reason of its intimate contact with and
percolation between the butter particles becoming quickly charged with part of
the moisture of the latter desired to be expelled, and carrying off the same as
it is expelled through the periphery of the dryer by the continued rotation of the
cage and by the following air similarly charged.
In drying butter by the use of such means, I use a circular cage peripherally
formed of tinned wire of suitable gauge wrapped around and secured to a suitable
framework and arranged so that the wires, and the spaces between, through which
the moisture and air escape, are situated in a vertical or approximately vertical
plane in the direction of rotation.
One end of the cage I secure to an end plate preferably quite plain and the
centre of which is made fast with the axis of the cage so as to be adapted to
receive motion from the latter and to impart the motion received to the cage.
To the other end of the cage, I apply a loose or removable end plate adapted for
insertion axially into the cylindrical end of the cage and onto the adjacent end of
said axis of the cage, to which it is connected so as to be prevented from dropping
out when the cage is in motion by button-like fastenings adapted to engage with a
groove surrounding the axis.
This loose end is made flat on its inner side and convex upon its outer side, and
through its substance is bored or otherwise made, at a suitable distance from its
centre, a series of holes or openings which are preferably of the peculiar shape
produced by, as it were, gonging perforations therethrough in an inclined direction
in the direction of rotation, so that when the cage is rotated at a high speed by
appropriate gearing, the air impinging upon the convex outer side of the end plate
will be caused, by the suction induced by the rotation and operation of the cage,
to pass freely through such inclined entrance openings into the cage, therein
percolating between the butter particles, becoming charged with the moisture thereof,
and then carrying off said moisture as the air escapes through the wired periphery
of the cage.
I may modify the formation of said air inlets through the cage-end; in one
arrangement I bore the holes through and gouge one side of each thereof down to
nothing on the convex side and in the direction of motion, and also gouge the
alternate holes on the flat inner side exactly opposite. In another modification,
I form scoop-like openings through the cage-end, gouging them down as aforesaid

page_text: on the convex outer side and terminating them abruptly at the other end; or
I can otherwise vary the formation of the air inlets. I may also make such air
inlets in the other end plate of the cage.
In applying the cage to a box-churn fitted with a removable churning roller
driven by high speed gearing, the drying cage may be interchangeable with the
churning roller, and may be driven with the same gearing as that used to actuate
the churning roller.
Dated this 16th day of April 1894.
DAY, DAVIES & HUNT,
321, High Holborn, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.
Improved Butter Drying Apparatus.
I, THOMAS BRADFORD, of High Holborn, in the County of London, Dairy
Engineer, 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 the following statement :-
This invention relates to centrifugal drying apparatus applicable for use
separately from or conjunctively with box churns or butter making apparatus
for drying out the moisture with which newly-made butter is charged by the
agency of centrifugal force, the special object of the invention being so to adapt a
centrifugal drying apparatus adapted to rotate on a horizontal or approximately
horizontal axis as to cause upon the rapid rotation of the dryer an induction into
within the latter through one (or it may be both) of the ends thereof of a current
or currents of air for the purpose of aiding in more, quickly extracting the
moisture from and drying the butter contained by the dryer, said air, by reason of
its intimate contact with and percolation between the butter particles, becoming
charged with part of the moisture of the latter desired to be expelled, and carrying
off the same as it is expelled through the periphery of the dryer by the continued
rotation of the cage and by the following air similarly charged.
The invention is represented on the accompanying drawings, in which
Fig. 1, represents a sectional elevation of a box-churn of the character described
in the Specification of my Patent No. 18825 of 1893 showing (in end elevation)
a drying cage of the nature aforesaid applied thereto as interchangeable with the
churning roller described in such Specification and as driven by the means
actuating such roller.
Fig. 2, represents a sectional elevation of the churn at right angles to Fig. 1.
Fig. 3, represents a plan of a modification hereinafter described; and
Figs. 4, and 5, represent sectional elevations thereof respectively through 1-1,
and 2-2, Fig. 3.
a, represents a circular cage formed of tinned wire of suitable gauge located by
cross bars a', secured to end rims or flanges a³, all being so arranged that the
wires and the intervening spaces through which the moisture and moisture-charged
air escape, are situated in a vertical or approximately vertical plane in the
direction of rotation.
Within one end rim of the cage I secure an end plate a, which may be plain,
or may be formed with through openings as hereinafter described with reference
to the removable end b, and the centre of which is made fast to the axis a', of the
cage so as to be adapted to receive motion from the latter and to impart the
motion received to the cage.
Within the other end of the cage, I apply a removable end plate b, adapted for
insertion axially into the cylindrical end of the cage and onto the adjacent end of
said axis a', of the cage, to which it is connected, so as to be prevented from

page_text: dropping out when the cage is in motion, by button-like fastenings 64, adapted to
engage with a groove a', made in and surrounding the axis at.
The end plate b, is made flat on its inner side, and may be made convex on its
outer side (Fig. 2), and through its substance is bored or otherwise made, at a
suitable distance from its centre, a series of holes or openings 6, preferably in an
inclined direction in the direction of rotation, so that when the cage is rotated at
a high speed by appropriate gearing, (such as that hereinbefore referred to,)
the air impinging upon the outer side of the end plate will be caused by the suction
induced by the rotation and operation of the cage, to pass freely through such
inclined entrance openings 63, into the cage, therein percolating between the butter
particles, becoming charged with the moisture thereof and then carrying off said
moisture as the air escapes through the wired periphery of the cage.
Cross currents of the entering air may be produced by boring some of the
holes 2, through the end plate parallel with its axis and gouging only the outer
side thereof.
In the modification represented in Figs. 3 to 5, the holes 62, are all made parallel
with the axis of the end b, which latter is provided with stretchers, which serve
the two-fold purpose of preventing the lid from warping, and (being undercut
at 6) serve to catch the air and to deflect the same through the holes ³, into
within the dryer cage.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The application to centrifugal drying apparatus of the nature aforesaid, of
means of the nature described of causing upon the rapid rotation of the dryer an
induction into within the latter of a current or currents of air serving to aid in
carrying off the moisture from the butter through the periphery of the dryer.
2. In combination, a circular drying cage of the nature aforesaid and an end
plate or end plates formed with through openings adapted to operate in manner
aforesaid.
3. The end plate b, formed with through openings adapted to operate in manner
aforesaid.
Dated this 14th dox of January 1895
DAY, DAVIES & HUNT,
321, High Holborn, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.