IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF FARINA
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SNELL, of Northampton Square, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send
greeting,
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West;
minster, the Fourteenth day of January, in the sixth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Snell, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Snell, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Snell, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF FARINA,"
communicated to me by a certain foreigner residing abroad; in which sail
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said William Snell, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Snell, 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 ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
:-
The Invention consists, first, in separating the farina of potatoes, by so
arranging several sieves and machinery that the farina of potatoes may be
repeatedly combined with water and caused to pass successively through such
sieves. And, secondly, the Invention relates to drying farina of potatoes on
surfaces of canvass or other woven fabrics..
And in order that the Invention may be most fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me:-
The potatoes, being washed, are to be reduced by any convenient means to as
fine a pulp as possible. I prefer to use a revolving cylinder with parallel
grooves near together to receive thin plates of steel formed with fine teeth like
saws, the teeth rising just above the surface of the cylinder, such cylinder
revolving quickly at the bottom of a hopper into which the potatoes are
supplied, and the quick revolution of the cylinder rasps the potatoes into fine
pulp, which falls into a trough below; but such cylinder and mode of rasping
potatoes is similar to what has before been used when rasping potatoes, and
consequently formis no part of the Invention. The pulp of potatoes is then to
be treated with water and successively passed through a series of sieves,
according to the Invention.
The first sieve used by me is a rotatory cylindrical sieve, covered with wire
cloth with thirty holes to the inch, and is six feet long and three feet diameter.
The fine pulp of potatoes is regularly fed into one end, together with a constant
supply of clean soft water, the sieve being slightly inclined; the water and
pulp, as the sieve revolves, flows down and through the sieve, the farina withi
some impurities flowing through the meshes of the sieve into a trough below.
The first sieve is connected with a second sieve, similar in all respects to the
first, by means of a cylinder about three feet long, within which are several
projecting arms fixed on the axis on which the sieves and cylinder revolve;
by this means the pulp passing through the cylinder will be beaten and opened,
and the same will then flow on with water through the second inclined sieve,
and the farina and some water will flow into the trough below into which the
farina of the first sieve flowed, the refuse pulp with some water passing off at
the end of the second sieve into a separate trough which conveys it away into
a vat or receiver; the farina with a further supply of. water passing from the
trough, which received it from the first and second sieves, into a third rotatory
cylindrical sieve, which is covered with wire cloth of fifty holes. to the inch-;-

page_text: such third sieve being slighty inclined, in like manner to the first and second
sieves, and the farina and water passing through the meshes of such third
sieve are received into a trough below, which conducts them into a horizontal
sieve placed over a vat; the wire cloth used for such sieve is of seventy holes
to the inch; and in this vat the farina and water are to remain for about three
hours in order that the farina may precipitate, when the water is to be drawn
off with a syphon and fresh water added, and the whole kept well stirred, and
whilst being stirred run off from the bottom of the vat into a second vat
through another horizontal sieve, which is better to be of still finer wire cloth,
and the farina and water are to remain for about three hours to allow of the
farina to settle, when the water is to drawn off by a syphon and fresh water
added, and the whole well stirred and run off whilst being stirred into a third
vat, and strained through a sieve of closely woven silk, and in this vat the
product remains to settle from eight to twelve hours, when the water is to be
drawn off by a syphon and the farina dug out of the vat and spread on canvass
or other suitable woven fabric, stretched on frames, and supported at intervals
with wires or bars; these frames are to be in a well ventilated room, and the
farina allowed to stand for about twenty-four hours to drain and dry. The
farina is then to be broken into a granular state or rough small lumps, and
spread on dry canvass or other fabric, similarly stretched on frames, as above
described, and to be subjected to a temperature of eighty to one hundred
degrees of Fahrenheit, produced in a room by steam pipes or any other con-
venient means, when the farina is to be reduced to powder by means of mallets
and again spread on canvass or other fabric, stretched on frames in a room
heated to one hundred and thirty to one hundred and sixty degrees of Fahren-
heit, and there remain for about twenty-four hours; the farina is then to be
removed into a store room to cool, when the same will be in a proper state
to pack in casks or other cases.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the best means I
am acquainted with for performing the same, I would wish it to be understood
that although I have been particular in describing the exact sieves used by nic,
and the combination of them with suitable troughs and vats for carrying out
the Invention, I do not confine myself to the precise arrangement described,
provided the peculiar character of the Invention be retained, whereby
the pulp of potatoes can be submitted to a successive series of sieves and
washing with water, in order to separate the farina from the refuse product of
the potatoes, as herein described, and also so long as the farina be dried by
spreading it on canvass or other woven fabric, as above described; and I wish
it to be understood that I make no claim to the various parts of the machinery