AN IMPROVED PROCESS AND MACHINERY FOR REDUCING CEREALS OR OTHER SUBSTANCES TO FLOUR OR POWDER."
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake,
"
& Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, for the Invention of
AN IMPROVED PROCESS AND MACHINERY FOR REDUCING CEREALS OR OTHER
SUBSTANCES TO FLOUR OR POWDER." A communication from abroad by
Van Buren Ryerson, of the City and State of New York, United States of
America.
Sealed the 1st September 1876, and dated the 28th June 1876.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th June 1876,
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "AN IMPROVED PROCESS AND MACHINERY FOR
REDUCING CEREALS OR OTHER SUBSTANCES TO FLOUR OR POWDER." A communi-
cation from abroad by Van Buren Ryerson, of the City and State of New York,
United States of America.
This process, when applied for example to the reduction of grain into flour, is
distinguishablo from all previously known processes or methods in this respect,
namely, that instead of crushing the kernels between revolving grinding surfaces or
pulverizing them by causing them to impinge with great violence upon or against
a resisting surface, or reducing them to powder by the process of percussion, I
cause the kernels to be rubbed upon each other as the result of a rotary movement
induced by a succession of eddies or reactionary air currents in opposition to the
direction in which the grains or particles of grain are at high velocity moving,
whereby eack kernel or particle of matter composing it having a rotary motion on
its own axis given to it at the same time that it has a motion around a fixed
centre, is rubbed upon or against other kernels or particles of matter having a
similar motion, and thereby each layer of matter composing the kernels of grain,
from the outer integument to the core, is successively unrolled and not crushed,
torn, or broken as in all previous processes of milling involving the operation of
tearing by grinding, bursting by impact, or pulverizing by percussion.
I have shewn in the Drawing the machinery to be employed for carrying this
Invention into practice. Figure 1 is a side elevation of a machine constructed
according to this Invention; Figure 2 is a plan of the said machine; Figures 3, 4,
and 5 are a side clevation, transverse section, and plan of parts of the same;
[Price 6d]

page_text: Figure 6 is an end elevation of the said machine; Figure 7 is a horizontal section
of bolting and conveying apparatus forming part of tho said machinery; Figure 8 is
a vertical section; and Figure 9 a transverse section of the same.
Like letters indicate the same parts throughout the Drawing. A, A1, A2, repre-
sent a series of circular metallic cases each about three feet in interior diameter, all
connected by suitable pipes of communication as herein-after explained, and each
suitably supported by a pedestal base upon a common bed-plate. The interior
arrangement and construction of the several cases is the same, and a description of
one is a description of all of them.
B represents a shaft which extends through the central axis of the vertical side-
plates of each case, and is mounted in suitable journal bearings C, surmounting
supporting columns or standards. As each shaft requires a driving pulley D, which
must be so located that the driving belt will not interfere with any other one, the
standards for supporting the bearings for the shafts may be located as shown in
the plan or top view Figure 2, or in any other preferred manner which will enable
the driving power to be most conveniently applied to each of the shafts.
Each shaft B carries a disc E set in a vertical plane midway between the two
walls of the case to which it belongs. The outline of this disc is shown in Figures
1 and 3, and has a figure which results from cutting the disc in four radial lines
equi-distant from each other to the depth of five inches, more or less, from the edge
toward the centre, and then removing segments of the disc, commencing at a point
ten to twelve inches, more or less, measured on the periphery, and extending on a
This construction
curved line to the bottom of the next preceding radial cut.
gives to the discs the "spider" form shewn in the Drawing.
The portions of the disc which are concentric with the inner periphery of the
case are provided with sections of a rim or web a, a, a, a, of a width with a suitable
The
allowance for clearance, adapted to the distance between the sides of the case.
surface of these sections of rim, except at the sides (which are left of full thickness
for a distance of an inch or more), is "dressed" with a series of notches as shewn
in dotted lines in Figures 1 and 3. The object of not having the ratchet-like
surface extend from side to side is to prevent the grain as it is being reduced to
flour from being thrown against the sides of the case, and thus the sections of rim a
are provided with side pieces to stop off the channels which would otherwise be
formned by the dressing, as seen in full lines in Figure 3.
The edges of the radial cuts in the disc plates E are furnished with beaters b, b, b, b,
which are of the same width as the sections of the rim a, and have their faces
similarly dressed. The inner periphery of each case is provided with a stationary
ring of steel c, whose width is equal to the distance between the sides of the case,
and whose surface is ratchet-dressed as shown in Figures 1, 3, and 5.
It will be observed, however, that the angle of the dressing is the reverse of that
which belongs to the dressing on the sections of rim a, a, a, a, so that the disc plate
in revolving always moves away from the radial faces of the dressing-scores in the
ring c.
It will now be understood that the cereal to be reduced to flour is to be supplied
to the first mill in the series from a suitable source of supply, in quantity to be
regulated by the capacity of the apparatus and the judgment of the miller. The
grain is introduced on both sides of the disc E at the same time through pipes F, at
a point near the centre of the disc, and the several mills composing the series are in
communication with each other by means of pipes G, G¹, leading from one to the
other from both sides.
The operation of this machinery or apparatus is as follows:-All of the discs E in
the series are made to revolve within these cases at a very high velocity and at a
I have found that the first disc
rate progressively increasing throughout the series.
should be revolved at the rate of from about seventeen hundred to two thousand
revolutions per minute, the second disc at the rate of from about two thousand to
twenty-five hundred revolutions per minute, and the third disc at the rate of from
about twenty-five hundred to three thousand revolutions per minute. If there is

page_text: an additional number of mills in the series the speed of rotation of such additional
mills should be increased in about the same proportion.
Between
The effect of the rotation of the first disc in the series is to drive the air in front
of the beaters b, b, b, b, at the same rate of speed as that of the said disc c.
the dressed fabrics of the sections of rim a, a, a, a, and the dressed surface of the
stationary ring c, there is a broken annular space, varying from half an inch to an
inch and a half in thickness, and in width equal to the distance between the sides
of the case.
The rapid rotation of the beaters b, b, causing a rotation of the central
body of air in the case produces a reactionary effect upon the belt of air lying
between the path of revolution of the sections of rim a, a, and the broken surface
of the ring c.
This belt of air, if it were not confined by the circular rim of the
case, would be moved at a high velocity in tangential lines in a direction the
reverse of that in which the disc is revolving, but being confined by the circular
rim, it is caused to revolve circularly in a direction the reverse of that in which
the beaters revolve. The importance of the dressing on the inner surface of
the ring c will now be understood. It is not for the purpose of performing tho
function which is performed by the dressing on the stones of a grinding mill, but
its purpose is to present a succession of surfaces radial, or nearly so, to the circle in
which the belt of air revolves, against which the current of air impinging shall be
broken up into eddies or whirlpools, which, while severally revolving on their own
axes, have also a path of revolution around a common centre.
The grain to be reduced to flour, so soon as it enters the mill A, flies outward
toward the periphery of the case; here it is taken up by the revolving belt of
whirling air eddies, and each grain or particle of matter composing it is rotated
violently on its own axis, and thereby its exterior surface is rubbed against the
surfaces of other grains and particles, and by the attrition of the grains or particles
of matter upon cach other the substance of the kernel is reduced to flour.
1
The sections of rim a are from ten to twelve inches, more or less, in length, and
are concentric with the interior periphery of the case. It is important that the
sections should as long as possible, and, except that it is indispensible that space
for the passage of the grain outward from the centre toward the periphery of the
cas should exist, it would be well to have the peripherial rim of the disc E con-
tinuous instead of broken into sections. And this feature of construction of tho
said disc distinguishes the revolving discs which I employ from the revolving discs
employed in mills heretofore known for reducing rocks and ores, inasmuch as the
grain, during the process of reduction to flour, is practically upheld by the sections
of rim a, and kept within the influence of the revolving eddying air current above
mentioned.
The pressure of the air within the case A, induced by the rotation of the disc E,
causes the material which has been operated on by the first mill or member in the
series to be conveyed through the discharge pipes G, G', into the next mill in the
series, and from this it is conveyed into the next mill, and so on throughout the
series; the material being operated upon by each successive mill in the same
manner as by the first one in the series, with the exception that the velocity at
which the disc revolves in each succeeding mill exceeds considerably the velocity
with which the disc of the next preceding mill revolves, and consequently the grain
which is in process of reduction into flour is, by the combined force of pressure
from the one member of the series and suction from the next member, delivered to
each progressively throughout the series under an increased pressure.
The ring c having a ratchet-formed inner periphery presenting a succession of
radial surfaces as above described accomplishes in a satisfactory manner the result
of creating, when the disc is revolving, a great number of whirls or eddies; but the
same result can be produced by causing air to be forced into the case in jets through
a succession of openings entering the circular rim of the mill radially, so as to break
up the continuity of the revolving belt of air between the inner periphery of the
circular rim and the revolving disc, and this arrangement would be a modification
of the mechanical means above described for employing my process.

page_text: I have described my process, and the machinery applicable for working the same,
with especial reference to the conversion of cereals into flour. It is evident, how-
ever, that the same process and machinery may without substantial change be
employed for reducing into powder various other substances and materials.
By the process above described I am enabled to convert wheat into flour with a
set of three of these mills, such as described, at the rate of from sixty to ninety
bushels per hour, and as the flour when it is discharged from the last mill in the
series is perfectly cold (thereby demonstrating that the operations of percussion or
impingement which develop heat have not in any material degree been involved in
my process), I am enabled to discharge the flour while under pressure directly into
an apparatus for bolting it. An arrangement for this purpose is shown in Figures
7, 8, and 9 of the Drawing. The flour is under a very high degree of pressure
thrown through the discharge pipe G into the bolt H; the air, after it enters the
bolt, expands, and drives the flour through the meshes of the bolt into the chamber
I, and thence, by the aid of a suction fan J, the air is carried off. The specific
gravity of the flour being greater than that of the air in the chamber I, causes it
to fall down upon an endless conveyor K, by which it is carried away and discharged
in the usual manner. The bran is also discharged from the bolt and collected as in
other flouring mills. An examination of the bran as it comes from the bolt will
show that the outer covering of the kernel of wheat or other grain has been
stripped off and rolled up.
Having thus fully described the said Invention as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, and the manner of performing the same, I wish it understood
that I claim-
First. The herein-described process for reducing cereals to flour by the use of
machinery as above described for creating a current of air and breaking it up into
a great number of eddies, which whirl around their own axes and revolve around a
common centre, whereby the kernels of grain or particles of matter composing them
within the mill are taken up by such current and made to revolve similarly, and by
the attraction of their surfaces upon each other are reduced to flour in the manner
above specified.
Second. The combination with the circular case of a milling machine of a revolving
disc, having radial beaters and provided with sections of a rim, which sections are
concentric with the inner periphery of the rim of the case, for the purpose of up-
holding the grain and confining it practicably while it is being reduced to flour
the space existing between the path of revolution of the sectional rims of the disc
and the interior periphery of the case, as above described.
Third. The combination of the said revolving disc with the case of a milling
machine, the inner periphery of whose circular rim is formed with a ratchet-dressing,
or equivalent succession of abrupt faces, as above described and for the purposes set
forth.
Fourth. The combination of machinery for reducing cereals to flour, with suitable
machinery for bolting flour, whereby the flour is discharged from the mill under
pressure directly into the bolt, as above specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-six
Witness,
HY. JA. NOONE.
W. ROBT. LAKE. (L.S.)