IMPROVEMENTS IN THRASHING MACHINES
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Hughes Milner at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th June 1863.-A communication from abroad by William Roberts,
21, A'Beckett Street, Melbourne, Machine Maker.
I, THOMAS HUGHES MILNER, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian,
North Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THRASHING MACHINES," a communication from
abroad by William Roberts, 21, A'Beckett Street, Melbourne, Machine
Maker, to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to the arrangement and construction of the actual
working details of machines used for thrashing and separating wheat and other
grain from the straw.
Under one modification or system of arrangement the machine consists of
the ordinary rectangular framing enclosed at the sides and top, and supported
on wheels for the convenience of transport. To a cylinder or drum on the
main driving shaft are fitted the beaters which form the first portion of the
present Invention. These beaters are formed by preference of steel plates cut to
correspond to the length of the drum. Transverse slots or openings are formed
in each plate which extend across the plate in a diagonal direction. These
plates are then bent upon a suitable template so as to cause them to take a curved
figure or swell extending upwards from the longitudinal margins of each plate.
They are fixed upon the drum by screws passing through the longitudinal
edges, and they are so arranged that the diagonal-slots in the contiguous beaters

page_text: tend to the right and left, or in opposite directions. The beaters are fitted a
short distance from each other on the drum, which when complete presents an
undulatory surface formed by the curvature of the beaters. The number of
beaters preferred for each drum is eight, but this number may be varied if
required. The concave or breast plate which is arranged beneath the beaters
consists of two curved end pieces, on which are arranged the reed pieces-
formed of open wirework and the bars which form the curved surface of the
breast plate. This surface is formed of a reed piece fixed at the part where
the corn enters, then a smooth bar, next a reed piece, then a bar, and then
the last reed piece.
This arrangement is followed by a series of bars extending round the
concave of the end pieces and up to the part where the corn passes beyond
the action of the beaters. From this point the corn is subjected to the action
of a series of fanners to cleanse it from dust or other impurities, it then falls
into a cylindrical separator which separates the sinaller grains of wheat from
the larger. This separator consists of a cylindrical frame on which wire is
wound in such manner as to leave interstices of about one-sixteenth of an inch
between the contiguous wires, so that the larger grains are retained and fall
out at the end of the cylinder into a shoot where they are subjected to the
action of a fan before falling into the receiving sack. This machine is also
furnished with a secondary separator for separating the grain from the white-
heads or chaff, and so as to prevent any waste whatever. This separator is
arranged at the lower part of the machine, and whatever grains remain in the
whiteheads these pass through the separator to be again subjected to the action
of the machine.
With these several improvements the operation of separating grain from
the ear is effected with great facility, at the same time avoiding any breakage
of the grain or waste of material, and with a rapidity about double of that of
other approved machines.