IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED FOR EFFECTING OR PRODUCING THE PRESSURE ON LINSEED, RAPESEED, 02 ANY OTHER OLEAGINOUS SEEDS, OR SUBSTANCES FROM WHICH OIL CAN BE EXPRESSED, FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXPRESSING OIL FROM THE AFORESAID SEEDS OR SUBSTANCES
Year: 1823

page_text: TO
,1, HN TIALL
the younger, of Dartford, in the County of Kent, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
5 at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of April now last past, did, for
Himself. His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Hall, His especial licence that I, the said John Hall, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Hall,
my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed,
AN INVENTION OF AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MACHINERY TO
BE EMPLOYED FOR EFFECTING OR PRODUCING THE PRESSURE ON LINSEED, RAPESEED,
02 ANY OTHER OLEAGINOUS SEEDS, OR SUBSTANCES FROM WHICH OIL CAN BE
EXPRESSED, FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXPRESSING OIL FROM THE AFORESAID SEEDS OR
SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said John Hall, by an instrument in writing under my
and and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said
nvention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
ame to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
wo calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited
etters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunte had, will
ore fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the
John Hall, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained by the following Specification thereof in writing, reference at the
same time being had to the annexed Drawings, that is to say :-
The annexed Drawings consist of seven different Figures, and which said
Drawings are marked Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4, Fig. 5, Fig. 6, Fig. 7, and
I would here remark, that in all the said Drawings I have used the same
letters or figures of reference to denote the same thing wherever the same has
been found expedient.
Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 are sectional Drawings, taken longitudinally through the
eistern or oil press, the plane of the section being in the dotted line a, b, in
Fig. 3 and in Fig. 5. The sides, ends, and bottom of the said oil press, as
seen in Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, are denoted by the letter c, c, c, &c. The
shape and form of this press differs but little from that of other oil presses in
common use, and will be easily understood from an inspection of the several
Drawings herein-before referred to. In this press, I expose two or more bags
of the seed from which the oil is to be expressed at the same time, but in the
Drawings I have shewn four, that is, there are two bags of seed at each end
of the press, as shewn at A and B, in Figs. 1 and 2. Previously to putting
the bags containing the seed into the press, each of the said bags is inclosed
or folded up in an envelope of leather and hair cloth, exactly similar to the
envelopes of leather and hair cloth in common use in oil mills. I need not,
therefore, be more particular in describing either the construction or use of the
said envelopes. The space between the dotted lines 1 and 2, in Figs. 1, 2, 3,
and 4, indicates the space in the longitudinal direction of the press
occupied by the bags of seed and their envelopes. Two bags of seed, with
their envelopes, are placed between two cast iron blocks d, e, and d, e, as
shewn in Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4. These blocks being somewhat similar to those
in common use in oil mills, their construction, and the manner of employing
them, will be clearly understood by any oil-press maker without further
description. In Fig. 1 the blocks e, e, are shewn in the situation they would
occupy before they are at all pressed forward against the seed bags, and in
Fig. 2, the said blocks e, e, are shewn in the situation in which they would
be found after they have been forced against the seed bags, or after the con-
tents of each seed bag has undergone a sufficient quantity of pressing. The
pressure is relieved by drawing the blocks e, e, back from the situation they
occupy in Fig. 2, and placing them nearer each other, as in Fig. 1. I
Figures 1 and 2, i, h, and g, f, represent a side view of the instruments

page_text: mewhat an
ale pressure upon the oil bags; these cams, as shewn in the Figures, are of
which I shall herein-after call cams, and which are employed for producing
elliptical or oval shape. In Fig. 1 the circles k and j represent
the ends of the axles upon which the cams h and i are firmly fixed, and in
Fig 2, and represent the opposite ends of the same axles, upon which
cams gandi, which are fixed upon the upper axle k, shall be at right angles
the cams g and are similarly fixed in such a manner that the two
to each other, that is, the longer diameter or axis of the elliptical figure of the
cami, in Fig. 1, is in a vertical position, whilst the longer axis of the elliptical
10 figure of the cam g, in Fig. 2, is in a horizontal position. The cams h, in
Figure 1, and f, in Fig. 2, are relatively to each other in the same position
as the last-mentioned cams.
The cams g, i, f, h, are of cast iron or other
metal, but I prefer making them of wrought or cast iron. Their shape and
dimensions will be clearly understood by an inspection of the Drawings, as in
15 Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. When the cams are brought into the position, as
shewn in Fig. 1, they admit of the blocks e, e, being drawn back from the
seed bags. In that position the seed bags may be put into or taken out of
the oil press. It will be easily understood, that if the seed bags are placed
in the press, as at A and B, and a rotary motion be given, with sufficient
force, to the cams i and h, by the axles j and k, that the opposite ends of each
of the said cams will be brought into contact with and tend to separate the
two blocks e and e from each other, and force them against the seed
bags A and B, until the longer axis of the cams become horizontal. In
Fig. 5, k and j represent two shafts or axles made of wrought or cast
iron; upon the axle k the cams 9 and i are fixed, and upon the axle j
the cams f and h are fixed. In the machine herein described, and
as represented by the annexed Drawings, I employ two such oil presses,
as berein-before described, standing opposite to each other. The cams g and
are made to perform their office in one of the said presses, and the cams i
and h their office in the other. Upon the axle k I fix firmly by wedges or
therwise the lever 1, and upon the axle ; I fix in a similar manner the lever m;
be relative positions of these levers, with that of the cams which they are
mployed to turn, is sufficiently shewn in Fig. 4 by the dotted lines represent-
g the levers I and m as connected with the cams 9 and f. I also firmly
x upon the axles k and j the two wheels p and g, one wheel upon each axle,
that the teeth of the said wheels take into and work in each other, in order
at whenever motion is given to the axles k and j the angular motion of each,
ad consequently of the cams fixed thereon, shall correspond and be equal.
In Fig. 5, C, C, C, C, represents the section of a steam evlinder similar to

page_text: those used in steam engines, with its piston P near the bottom thereof. R,
piston rod working through the stuffing box E, the top of the said piston
being attached to the middle of the cross head D by the key or wedge r.
and F are two iron bars or connecting rods fixed at their upper ends to the cr
head D, by the transverse pins S, S, in Fig. 4; the lower end of the connec
ing rod E is attached to the end of the lever 1, by the crank pin o, as shew
in Fig. 4, and the lower end of the connecting rod F is attached to the oute
end of the lever m by the crank pin n.
Fig. 4 is a side view of the machine, in which C, C, C, C, is the stear
cylinder, P the piston, as represented by the dotted lines near the bottom o
the cylinder; R, the piston rod; D, the cross head fixed upon the top of the
piston rod; S, S, the joints and pins by which the connecting rods E and F are
attached to the ends of the said cross head D. In Figs 3, 4, and 5, G is the
steam cock, by the turning of which steam may be introduced above or below
the piston in the before-mentioned steam cylinder, and thus be made to force
the piston upwards or downwards. In Fig 4 and 5, I, I, is an axle which
passes through the machine immediately below the bottom of the steam cylin-
der, in the direction there shewn, having two handles, H, H, one at each end
thereof; near the middle of the said axle, I place or fix a toothed sector or
segment of a circle J, the teeth of which take or work into the teeth of the
pinion K, and the said pinion K being fixed upon the pin or plug of the
cock G. Fig. 6 is an end view of the said cock at G, and Fig. 7 is a side or
sectional view thereof. In Fig. 7 I have also shewn a sectional view of the
pinion K, as fixed upon the end of the pin or plug of the said cock. From
the circumstance of similar cocks having been used or employed by many
engine makers in the construction of steam engines for the same purpose, and
the construction and application of the said cock being clearly shewn by the
Drawings, and moreover as there are a variety of expedients, such as slides
nd valves, both well known and in general use for regulating the admission
nd for permitting the escape of the steam to and from the opposite ends of 30
eam engine cylinders, and which said expedients, if employed in conjunction
th the said Invention, would answer the same purpose, I need not give a
re detailed account of their constructions or use further than by stating
t the turning of the cock in the machine I am now describing is left to the
retion of the workman employed to attend the oil presses.
rom the foregoing description it will have been understood that steam
e agent which I employ in procuring a sufficient power for working the
esses. It will also have been understood from the aforesaid descrine
rom an inspection of the Drawings, that the operat
2.
35

page_text: the other,
In Figs. 4 and 5
sal two oil presses is performed alternately, that is, nrst in one press, then in
o that whilst the seed is under a state of the greatest compression
the one press by the position of the cams, as before described, the seed bags
the piston is represented at the bottom of the steam cylinder, the ends o and n
and seed in the other press are relieved from all pressure.
the two levers I and in are consequently at their lowest state of depression,
nearly horizontal position, and have produced upon the seed the greatest
the cams g and f. in Fig. 5, have been thereby brought into the horizontal or
degree of compression in the one press, whilst the cams i and h have been
30 placed in the vertical position, by which the pressure has been withdrawn from
the seed in the other press. When the cams i and h stand in this position, the
workman who attends the press removes the seed bags, takes out the oil cake,
refills the bags with seed, and replaces them with their envelopes in the press.
The seed in the opposite oil press having sustained the pressure a sufficient
5 length of time, the steam cock, which by the handles H, H, had been pre-
viously turned to the left hand, as in Fig. 4, so as to admit the steam to
operate on the top of the piston, are now turned towards the right hand, and
the steam being admitted to the bottom, the piston is forced upwards, the
cams i and h in their turn become horizontal, and the cams g and f become
vertical, and in this manner the operation is carried on in the two presses
alternately. Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are drawn to a scale of one inch to a foot.
Figs. 6 and 7 are drawn to a scale of three inches to a foot. In working
his machine I supply the steam cylinder with steam from a boiler. The
team passes from the boiler to the cylinder through a pipe, a part of which
seen at L, in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7, connected with the cock G, and the steam
permitted to escape from the cylinder through another pipe, also connected
ith the said cock, a part of which is shewn at M; and it is necessary for me
state that the dimensions of the steam cylinder, and the dimensions of the
her parts of the machinery, are adapted to the employment of steam having
expansive force of from 40 to 50 pounds upon each square inch of the sur-
e of the piston, and that having actually made use of such a machine as
ein-before described, I have found that when steam of the expansive force
From 40 to 50 pounds on the square inch has been made to operate on the
on of the steam cylinder, it has produced such a pressure on linseed meal
inseed bruised in the well-known manner employed in oil mills, as to
ess more oil in a given time from the said seed, and to leave the oil cake
er and lighter, than could have been done by the ordinary and common
hod of driving wedges. In order to save the labour and time of the
man employed to attend such oil presses as those I have herein-before

page_text: described, I cause the blocks and e, represented in Figs. 1 and 2, to
turning from the horizontal to the vertical position, and this is effected i
drawn back from the seed bags by the action of the cams whilst they a
the following manner, that is to say :-The double red lines v and w, as shew
in Fig. 2, represent leather straps. Above each of the said cams there ar
two such straps exactly opposite to each other, as is shewn by the red line
over the cams i and g, in Fig. 5; the opposite ends of these straps are buckle
round or fastened to pins in both the blocks e and e, as shewn in Figs. 2 and 3
in such a manner that the length of the said straps shall be equal to or corre
spond with the greatest distance to which the blocks e and e can be separated
from each other when in a horizontal position; by this arrangement of the straps
it will be clearly understood, that when the cams are moved from the horizontal
to the vertical position, one end of each of the said cams will come in contact with
the two straps immediately above it, and bend the said straps upwards, by which
means the blocks e and e will be drawn towards each other or back from the
seed bags and their envelopes, so as to admit of the said bags and their
envelopes being removed from the press. I would here explain, that the cams,
as berein-before described, do not make a complete revolution upon the axis on
which they move, but I cause each end of the said cams to move backward and
forward alternately through one quadrant of a circle; that is, the cams are
moved first from the horizontal position in one direction into the vertical
position, and from the vertical back into the horizontal position again in the
contrary direction; for, from the construction of the machine, as shewn in Fig. 4,
and from the circumstance of the cam f and the lever m being fixed
axle j, and the cam g and the lever I being fixed upon the axle k, the angular
motion of both of the said levers and m, and that of the cams g and f
upon the
respectively, will be alike. The end o and n of the levers and m, being
attached to the connecting rods E and F, as herein-before described, will, on
the ascent of the piston to the top of the steam eylinder, be drawn
their positions, as at o and n, through the quadrants o, t, and n, u, as represented 30
by the dotted lines o, t, and n, u; and again by the descent of the piston, the
levers land m will be forced back into their former position at n and o, each
up from
describing the same quadrant of the circle in its descent from t to o, and
rom u to n. I have been the more particular in describing this motion of the
ams, because cams have been used before for the same purpose, but with a $5
ontinuous rotary motion.
In the plan of the machine, Fig. 3, and in the sectional
ewn an apparatus for heating the bruised
bjected to the press.

page_text: 5
g. 4, are sections placed upon cast iron plates
Q, Q, and Q, Q, which plates I cause to be heated by steam; to this
end I make a hollow cavity or box below each of the said plates, as at
0, 0, Fig. 4, the width of the said cavities being nearly equal to the
diameter of the afore-mentioned iron hoops, and the length thereof being
rather more than twice the diameter of the said hoops, there is sufficient
room upon each of the said plates to place two of the afore-mentioned hoops.
Into the aforesaid cavities 0, 0, from the boiler, which I have already
mentioned, I introduce steam, so as that the plates Q, Q, may be kept
continually hot. The bruised seed, in quantity sufficient to fill two of the
seed bags, is put upon the hot plate Q, withinside of one of the hoops or
pans N, to be heated. V, in Fig. 4, represents a cross bar of iron, which is
used for the purpose of stirring the bruised seed while it remains upon the hot
plate Q, the said bar being continually turned round by one of the wheels T,
ás shewn in Figs. 3 and 4, it's middle being connected with the wheel T by
means of the upright central pin W. The method by which I keep the said
wheels in motion will be clearly understood by examining the Drawing,
Fig. 4, where Y represents a band wheel, to which motion must be given by
any first mover that may be most convenient; the other wheels, spindles, and
straps, such as I have employed, being clearly shewn in the Drawing, as
at U, U, U, U, require no further description. When the bruised seed has
been sufficiently heated, the hoop N, together with the wheel T, which
revolves round the top of the said hoop, in order to give motion to the cross
bar, for the purpose of stirring the said seed, is drawn by the workman back
from the wheel U, from which the wheel T received its motion, until the
bruised seed is brought by the hoop over the two hoppers or holes X, X; a
seed bag having been previously fastened to the lower end of each of the said
hoppers, thus receives the bruised seed as it falls from the hot plate.
I do farther declare, that although I have described the method I employ
or heating the bruised seed, and the apparatus used in that process, as well as
he expedient for charging the seed bags, yet I lay no claim to these as
orming any part of the Invention for which the said Patent has been
granted.
And lastly, I do declare that the said Invention consists in the alternating
notion of the cams which I have herein-before described, and the application
hereof to the purposes herein-before mentioned, in conjunction with and
ffected by the alternating motion of a piston, working in a cylinder similar to
he one herein-before described, wherein the said piston shall be impelled
pwards and downwards, backward or forward, in a vertical, horizontal, or any

page_text: other direction, by the expansive force of steam, the statical pressure of water,
attending the Invention, for which the said Patent has been granted, and
or pressure produced by water in any way whatever. The advantages
which Invention I have herein immediately before described, arise from the
alternating motion of the cams being produced in the manner herein-before
described, that is to say, the cams are alternately in motion and at rest at the
discretion of the workman attending the press; the pressure may be brought
upon the seed as rapidly as he pleases, and be continued as long as is necessary
for producing the full effect; whereas, by the method already in use, and I
believe generally known, of giving the cams a continuous rotary motion, the
time is necessarily very limited during which the bruised seed can be exposed
to the greatest degree of pressure, consequently, either a less quantity of oil
will be obtained from the seed, or a longer time spent in obtaining the greates
quantity which it might be made to afford. On the contrary, by the employ-
nent of the machine which I have described, with the alternating motion,
nore oil can be obtained in a much shorter space of time.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Hall, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Twenty-first day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-three.
Inrol
the same Twenty-first day of June, in the year above written.