IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING AND CLEANSING MALT, AS WELL AS ANY OTHER SPECIES OF GRAIN AND SEED INTENDED FOR BREWING, DISTILLING, AND AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES
Year: 1861

page_text: Sealed the 6th June 1862, and dated; the 12th December 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Augustus Tonnar at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th
December 1861.
I, AUGUSTUS TONNAR, of Eupen, (Rhenish Prussia) Brewer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD
OF AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING AND CLEANSING MALT, AS WELL AS ANY OTHER
SPECIES OF GRAIN AND SEED INTENDED FOR BREWING, DISTILLING, AND AGRICULTURAL
PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the drying and cleansing of malt and any
other grain and seed in a more perfect manner than has hitherto been effected
by kilns, frames, or any of the ordinary modes.
The green malt or other matter to be dried and cleaned, when taken from
the airing granary, is poured first into a receiver having three compartments
with openings at the side, and a bottom formed of metallic. network or sheet
iron pierced with holes under which the heat is supplied. The receiver is
connected to a shaft or axis, and is turned until one of its side, openings cor-
responds with a funnel, by which the malt, heated and partially prepared in the
receiver, 'is poured upon the first of a series of discs fixed to a tube connected to a
shaft, which is made to revolve." In some cases the receiver is dispensed with,
[Price 8d.]

page_text: and the malt from the airing granary is passed at once through the funnel to
the discs, which revolve in baskets, the lower part of which are shaped like a
funnel, and composed of metallic network or perforated iron plate. Each cover
of the basket is provided with two openings, having over them metallic network.
The discs have small wings, which jerk the malt, grain, or seeds against par-
titions placed laterally in the baskets, and the damp air escapes through the
network openings at the top.
There are two large ventilating wings for distributing the heated air on the
descending malt and expelling the damp air. This operations is performed in
cach basket, after which the malt or other grain is conducied by a jolting
spout to an elevator, by which the matter is conveyed again to the upper disc
and the operation repeated as often as required.
..When the malt or other matter is sufficiently dry, the upper spout of the
clevator is closed, and a conductor opened through which the malt passes from
the machine.
The lower part of the baskets may be made of sheet iron, and the covers and
sides made of metallic network. In this case the jolting spout is perforated,
and also the bottom of the lower basket for providing the means of sifting.
These arrangements may be still further modified by making the cover, sides,
and a portion only of the lower part of the basket of metallic network or per-
forated sheet iron; in this case ledges or slabs to prevent the waste from falling
on the lower basket.
The jerking or projection of the malt by the centrifugal force against the
partitions in the baskets divides it from the radicles that are still damp, and.
the concussions and also the ventilation expel these radicles and all other
impurities out of the machine through the meshes of the network.
This Invention consists, not merely in the apparatus, which is susceptible. of
modification, but in the peculiar system combining the employment of centri-
fugal force for putting the grain in-motion, for dividing-and-separating from it
the waste; for the distribution of the heat, for clearing away the damp air, and
for the ventilation and sifting.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Augustus Tonnar in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th
June 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTUS
TONNAR, of Eupen (Rhenish Prussia), Brewer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Augustus Tonnar, Her special licence that I, the said Augustus
Tonnar, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Augustus Tonnar, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IXPROVE.
MENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING AND CLEANSING MALT, AS
WELL AS ANY OTHER SPECIES OF GRAIN AND SEED INTENDED FOR BREWING, DISTILLING
AND AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Augustus Tonnar, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Augustus Tonnar, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):-
This invention has for its object the drying and cleansing of malt and any
other grain and seed in a more perfect manner than has hitherto been effected
by kilns, frames, or any of the ordinary modes.
The green inalt or other matter to be dried and cleaned, when taken from
the airing granary, is poured first into a receiver having three compartments
with openings at the side, and a bottom formed of metallic network or sheet
The receiver is
iron pierced with holes under which the heat is supplied.
connected to a shaft or axis, and is turned until one of its side openings cor-
responds with a funnel, by which the malt, heated and partially prepared in the
receiver, is poured upon the first of a series of discs fixed to a tube connected to a
shaft, which is made to revolve. In some cases the receiver is dispensed with,
and the malt from the airing granary is passed at once through the funnel to
the discs, which. revolve in baskets, the lower part of which are shaped like a
funnel, and composed of metallic network or perforated iron plate. Each. cover
of the basket is provided with two openings, having over them metallic network
i

page_text: The discs have small wings, which jerk the malt, grain, or seeds against par
titions placed laterally in the baskets, and the damp air escapes through the
network openings at the top.
There are two large ventilating wings for distributing the heated air on the
descending malt, and expelling the damp air. This operations is performed in
each basket, after which the malt or other grain is conducted by a jolting
spout to an elevator, by which the matter is conveyed again to the upper disc
and the operation repeated as often as required.
When the malt or other matter is sufficiently dry, the upper spout of the
clevator is closed, and a conductor opened through which the malt passes from
the machine.
The lower part of the baskets may be made of sheet iron, and the covers and
sides made of metallic network. In this case the jolting spout is perforated,
and also the bottom of the lower basket for providing the means of sifting.
These arrangements may be still further modified by making the cover, sides,
and a portion only of the lower part of the basket of metallic network or per-
forated sheet iron; in this case ledges or slabs to are provided prevent the
wasic from falling on the lower basket.
The jerking or projection of the malt by the centrifugal force against the
partitions in the baskets, divides it from the radicles that are still damp, and
the concussions and also the ventilation expel these radicles and all other
impurities out of the machine through the meshes of the network.
This Invention consists, not merely in the apparatus, which is susceptible of
modification, but in the peculiar system combining the employment of centri-
fugal force for putting the grain in motion. for dividing and separating from it
the waste, for the distribution of the heat, for clearing away the damp air, and
for the ventilation and sifting.
The manner in which my Invention is to be performed will be clearly
understood by referring to the figures and letters on the accompanying four
Sheets of Drawings.
The
The malt which is to be dried and cleansed by the machine being previously
deposited on the cooling granary, is first placed in the great receiver A,
Fig. 2, divided into three compartments, as indicated by B, Fig. 3.
bottom of the receiver is made of perforated plate iron, or of metallic cloth,
and the heat is brought under it in the space D through the pipe E, provided
with a valve F. The excess of heat from the machine after the moist air has
been sufficiently taken away through the pipe G, arrives equally in the space D
through the opening C provided with a valve. The receiver A moves round
its axis, and is turned until one of the openings in H corresponds with the

page_text: funnel or hopper J, by which the warmed malt prepared in the receiver runs
into the machine, and falls on the plate iron disc or sheave K, Fig. 2. The.
discs or sheaves K are fixed by the rings L to the tube R, fixed itself on the
axis M, by means of the cast-iron pieces Q, as indicated in Fig. 2. There are
five similar sheaves on the same axis at equal distances from each other, and
turning in five funnel-formed baskets N, Figs. 1 and 2, the lower part of
which, as well as the upper part of the top basket are composed of metallic
cloth, or of perforated plate iron. The covers O of the lower baskets are
made of plate iron, and have two openings P, Fig. 6, covered with metallic
cloth. The sheaves K are put in motion by the axis M, and are provided
with the small wings S, Fig. 5, which serve to project the malt or other
produce against the lateral partition of the baskets, whilst the ventilation
that results from it drives the moist air through the openings P. Small iron
plates T fixed under the sheaves serve to separate the malt whilst descending
into the baskets, and the large ventilating wings U serve to distribute in an
equal manner the heated air on the malt that descends, and so drive away the
moist air which collects in that part of the baskets. The same operation is
repeated in each basket, after which the malt is conducted by the spout or
hopper V to the elevator W, which brings it again to the upper sheave K.
As soon as the malt is sufficiently dried, the valve X is lifted in the direction
marked by the dotted lines, and this compels the malt to fall into the tube Y,
through which it is carried to any place near the machine. The machine may
be composed of a greater number of baskets, and their dimensions vary
according to the locality and the work to be produced. The baskets N, which -
are independent from each other, are eccentrically suspended by the rods b,
Fig. 1 (in form of hinges), at the supports C of the machine; their vibrating
or shaking motion, which is to make the malt descend in the baskets, and to
cleanse it, requires to be stronger on green malt with its, radicles than on the
drier malt from which the radicles have been removed, and this force is
regulated by placing the eccentric thumbs e which produce the shakings at
different depths by means of the screw E, which brings, as desired, the axis a
up and down, so as to make, as necessity requires, the points m correspond
with one of the three thumbs, Fig. 1. The projection of the malt by the
centrifugal power against the lateral partitions of the baskets makes the
radicles separate from the grain, whilst the vibration, as well as the ventilation
expel the same, as well as all other impurities out of the machine through the
metallic cloth.
The machine is made entirely of iron, and placed in a narrow space of
brickwork or masonry supporting a plate-iron roof or cover, whilst in the

page_text: lower masonry of it is a small oven for coke. The heat is applied to the
machine through the tube R, Fig. 2, from whence it passes through the
openings a under the sheaves into each basket. The degree of heat is
regulated by the damper or valve q, Fig. 2, for allowing a more or less rapid
dessication, and to appropriate the same exactly to such qualities of malt as
required to produce the different sorts of beer, or as required for other
purposes. The machine is put in motion by the pulley fixed on the shaft g
Fig. 1 and 2
The conical pair of wheels i, i, transmit the motion to the
principal shaft M, whilst the conical wheels, k. transmit it again to the
vertical shaft bearing the thumbs e and the wheels 1. 1, to the elevator W.
The hopper V, Fig. 2. suspended in the arm W, receives the motion from an
eccentric n fixed on the shaft g. All the parts of the machine that require to
be greased or oiled are at the outside of the masonry. If instead of coke it is
desired to heat with coal, wood, or turf, and that a chimney becomes necessary,
the said chimney is passed through the chamber of the heated air, in order to
give off in it the heat of the smoke and of the other products of the com-
bustion. Any kind of dried heat gathered in a chamber established for that
purpose in the masonry may be used in the machine.
This Invention does not merely consist in the machine, but in the combined
system, in which is employed vertical centrifugal power to bring the grain in
violent motion, to divide it and separate the impurities, and in the distribution
of the heated air, the driving off of the air impregnated with moisture, the
ventilation and the sifting, thus forming a combined whole, the effect of which
is to dry and cleanse simultaneously in a short time each grain of itself
identically and regularly, and to draw off the air that has become moist, in
such a manner that the bulk forms a homogeneous mass, of which each single
grain is the sample.
Having thus described the nature and particulars of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be understood
that I claim. the system and arrangement of machinery or apparatus for drying
and cleansing malt and other produce, as herein described and illustrated in
the accompanying four Sheets of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Augustus Tonnar, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this. Sixth- day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
AUGUST TONNAR. (L.S.)