IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR SEPARATING, DRESSING, DRYING, AND MIXING
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Francis Joseph Drechsler, of Eden Works, Eden Street,
in the County of Middlesex, Agricultural Engineer, for an Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR SEPARATING, DRESSING, DRYING, AND
MIXING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Francis Joseph Drechsler at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th April 1881.
FRANCIS JOSEPH DRECHSLER, of Eden Works, Eden Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Agricultural Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR SEPARATING,
DRESSING, DRYING, AND MIXING."
The first part of my Invention consists of a hopper with vertical sides, with a
bottom inclined from the top of one side to near the bottom of the opposite side,
where there is an opening of the width of the hopper. This opening is closed by
two flaps held by a bar on their inner and upper edges, which are carried by
bearings in the two opposite sides of the hopper. One of these flaps overlaps the
other, and is held by a spring lever and rack on the outside of the machine, and is
the feed regulator, and the opposite flap is provided with a lever resting with its
further end in a grooved friction roller mounted on a crank at one end of the driving
shaft, held down by a spring in its simplest form, or it is provided with a throw
mounted on its under side, and a connecting rod connecting it so as to keep it in
constant motion, by which it is made a self-acting feeder. In order to keep back
the coarser matter from the rest, to agitate, to break up light lumpy matter, and
to assist the action of the feeder and the blast and sieves when any, I place a
screen, covering the bottom of the hopper over, resting freely between two upturned
ends of two flat bars, one end resting on the upper end of the bottom of the hopper, .
and the other end resting on two rollers on the self acting feeder flap, by which the
sieve receives an oscillating motion. Several of these hoppers may be placed side
by side, or constructed in one body with one common self acting feeder shaft, and
with independent feed regulator shafts for mixing purposes. The second part of
my Invention consists of a blast arrangement, consisting of a drum enclosing fans,
a blast passage with seed funnels, tailings and blast regulator, and seedguard. The
D
.

page_text: fans I make preferably of sheet iron, two in one piece, with ends twisted onto
round spokes radiating from the central boss, through which the driving shaft is
made to pass.
In the lower line of the blast passage, and just under and parallel
with the feeder, I make a V shaped channel or funnel, into which the seed drops
through and onto the upper end of the first sieve situate below it and hereafter
described.
Close to this funnel and feeder, to the lower end of the blast passage, I place a
hinged flap turned up, by raising which more or less vertically up to the blast it is
made to regulate the "tailings." On this same funnel, between it and the fans, I
place another flap turned down, which, when raised up more or less, turns the blast
away from the falling seed; and from the lower opening of this funnel another
light flap is hung, so as to check the seed in its flow over the first sieve. To avoid
subsequent cracks, resulting from the shrinking of wooden bodies, and the conse-
quent mixture and loss of time and valuable matter, I by preference use solderable
sheet metal for the hopper sides and drum, wired and soldered together, without
the use of wood in the smaller sizes in the main part of the body, and with a
wooden skeleton stand, into which this body is made to fit to pack away, and also
to receive a stationary screen; and for larger sizes, or for greater strength, I first
make a wooden skeleton frame for the full size of the machine, into which I first
fix the sheet iron panels forming the sides of the hopper and blower, onto and into
which again I solder, or rivet and solder, and fix the other parts of the machine.
Under this, into the lower part of this wooden frame, there is a space reserved for
the following sieve-arrangement:-
The third part of my Invention consists in the sieves being made to work on
rollers, and in being provided with small oblong square cut blocks of a thickness
in proportion to the amount of rise required and hereafter described, fixed under
the sieve on one or both sides of the rollers as required, so that by giving motion
to the sieves the vertically cut ends of the blocks strike these rollers and rise onto
the top of them, and then come back and fall again, causing the sieves to jump
more or less one way or the other as desired, and vibrate so as to clear the meshes
and impel anything therein either up, through, or onward, in a simple and easily
workable manner. Each sieve is provided with a projecting pin or stud on the
middle and upper side of a cross end rail, and with a corresponding socket on the
under side of the opposite end rail, so as to connect, interchange, or superpose the
sieves, as the case may be. Everyone of these pins has also room for the end of a
connecting rod, onto one of which this rod is connected to a throw mounted on
a shaft under the fan drum parallel to the fans, which shaft receives motion from
the fan shaft crank by another connecting rod and crank. By reason of the forward
throwing action of the sieves, these latter may be placed less inclined, or with the
lower end of the under sieve higher above the ground, leaving more room for
the seed or corn on the floor near the foot of the machine, or for a shoot to run it
further out and save some shovelling, or for a box into which the clean seed may
fall. And again, by the same and the general design and arrangement of sieves,
the total height of the body is also lower and easier to work, with proportionately
larger hopper and sieves than is usually the case.
This roller and block sieve-action may also be applied in various other ways by
reason of its simplicity and easy working, it may be used in the case of round
sieves with horizontal circular motion, or long reciprocating horizontally-acting
sieves, by varying the thickness, length, number, or shape of each block, for the
purpose of agitating, for drying, mixing, or sifting any other ingredients.
And by reason of its simple and effective throwing power, the same roller and
block principle may also be applied to the underside of shooting boards, delivery
racks or bars in various other machines for moving onward such as straw, hay,
bran, flour, chaff, and other such materials.
The fourth part of my Invention consists of means for separating seeds, corn,
weeds, or offal, which are too much alike in weight and size to be separable, simply
on the blowing and ordinary sifting principles, but which differ however in some

page_text: outer conformity, of which I take advantage to separate them by the following:-
At the lower end of the lowest sieve described above I carry the above named
wood or frame further out when it is desirable to dress and completely separate by
one operation, into which I place a paddle wheel like arrangement, so that each
paddle in its revolution is made to pass close by the lower end of the sieve when
its surface lays horizontally, at which time it is made to take up. its share of seed
or corn, and in its rising some of the mixture will by its conformity fall sooner
than others between the paddles, and the rest will be thrown further out as the
paddle turns over to the opposite side from the sieve.
But in order to separate every kind of fine, or big, round, or long, smooth, or
rough seed, corn, weed, or offal, I provide as great a variety of sheets with a surfaco
of a nature to arrest some one kind of the mixtures to separate as it is possible to
find, to correspond with the nature of the mixture, and which this paddle arrange-
ment will make convenient to apply, such as countersunk boards, metal or woven
textile goods, woven raw silks, velvet, or other pile carding, india rubber, finely
grooved goods, such as "pinoleum, wove wire, and other such materials, the open or
perforated ones laid down onto some close sheet and closed up on their under side of
the meshes, according to their nature or requirement, to prevent anything resting in
the meshes, holes, grooves, or between the material and the board or sheet onto
which it may be laid by gumming, glueing, sizing, nailing, or soldering the same
down. And in order to effect a proper, speedy, and timely separation, each paddle
board or screen like frame has a raised flange on three sides, and is left open on.
the fourth and inner side, where a space is also left around the common shaft, open
to the floor. And every paddle or frame is changeable and is made to receive an
independent dipping motion, so as to retain it on a nearly horizontal incline while
it passes upwards covered with seed. And each is also made to have a motion to
and from the common central shaft for the purpose of giving each paddle frame
or sieve like frame a reciprocating motion to shake off some of the mixtures
thereon when in the nearly horizontal position, which motion is imparted by that
of the sieve from which the paddles receive also the seed. As all such surface
separation is naturally slower than that by sieves, I make a sufficient number of
paddles to keep up with the speed of the sieves from which they are fed. But in
some cases either the sieves, or the blast, or both, may be dispensed with, and the
hopper may be made to feed the paddles or surface separating sieves, as they may
be called, directly or by means of a simple dust sieve, in which case I make this
kind of machine a distinct and separate article from the first named blowing and
sifting separator. This paddle wheel turns in the same direction as the fan shaft
from which it receives its motion by means of pulley and straps.
In conclusion, I will now state in regard to my said Invention that in some cases
I provide a flat funnel shaped appendage of the full width of the frame of the
machine at its widest and open part, which is made to be bung to the tail end of
the machine with its mouth under the tailings' regulator flap, which mouth has
also a flap for the same purpose, with the space between the two flaps occupied by
the mouth of the funnel into which the heaviest of the light stuff or tailings
blown out is made to drop down and into a box if desired, and the lighest of all
is allowed to fly further out; or this again may be arrested by a suitable wire frame
hung by a hinge over the whole blast passage and open below.

page_text: 14th October 1881.
FRANCIS JOSEPH DRECHSLER, of Eden Street, in the County of Middlesex.
"IMPROVEMENTS
MACHINES FOR SEPARATING, DRESSING, DRYING, AND
MIXING."
IN
Fig. 1, side elevation of one form of my machine.
Fig. 2, side elevation.
Fig. 3, elevation of straw separator seive.
Fig. 4, plan of sieves.
Fig. 5, end elevation of machine.
Fig. 6, front elevation of machine.
Fig. 7, sectional elevation.
Fig. 8, section of blower and mixer.
The first part of my Invention consists of a hopper a with vertical sides, with
the bottom inclined from the top of one side to near the bottom of the opposite side,
as shown, where there is an opening B of the width of the hopper. This opening B
is closed by two flaps c held by a bar d on their inner and upper edges, which are
carried by bearings e in the two opposite sides of the hopper. One of these flaps
overlaps the other, as shown, and is held by a spring lever e and rack f on the
outside of the machine, and is the feed regulator, and the opposite flap is provided
with a lever f¹ resting with its further end in a grooved friction roller g, Fig. 8,
mounted on a crank h on one end of the driving shaft i, held down by a spring K
of the simplest form. In the form of this machine, shown in Fig. 1, 2, & 7, a throw
mounted on the under side and a connecting rod m connecting it so as to keep it
under constant motion by which it is made a selfacting feeder. In order to keep
back the coarser matter from the rest to agitate, to break up light lumpy matter,
and to assist the action of the feeder and the blast, and sieves. When any double
comb. I place a screen n covering the bottom of the hopper over a in Fig. straw
separator in one arrangement, the screen resting freely between two upturned
end of two flat bars, one end resting on the upper end of the bottom of the
hopper, and the other end resting on two rollers on the selfacting feeder flap, by
which the sieve receives an oscillating motion. Several of these hoppers may be
placed side by side or constructed in one body with the common selfacting feeder
shaft, and with independent feed regulator bar or shaft & for mixing purposes.
The second part of my Invention consists of a blast arrangement consisting of a
drum p, enclosing fans p¹, a blast passage r with seed channel 8, tailings and blast
regulator t & t', and seed guard t³. The fans p² I make preferably of sheet iron,
two in one piece, with ends twisted on to round spokes radiating from the central
boss through which the driving shaft is made to pass. In the lower line of the
blast passage and just under and parallel with the feeder I make a seed section
shaped channels into which the seed drops through and into the upper end of the
first sieve, see Fig. 7 & 8, situated below it, and herein after described. Close to
this channel 8 and feeder of the lower end of the blast passage is the hinged
flap or regulator, which by raising more or less vertically up to the blast, is made
to regulate the "tailings" and blast not shown. In some cases, between the
channels 8 and the fans I place another flap turned down, which when raised up
more or less furs the blast away from the falling seed, and from the lower opening
of this channel s another light flap can be hung so as to check the seed in its flow
over the first sieve. I order to prevent crackes occuring from the shrinking of
wooden bodies and the consequent mixture and loss of time and valuable matter,
by preference use solderable sheet metal from the hopper sides and drum, wired

page_text: and soldered together without the use of wood in the smaller sizes, Fig. 8. In the
main part of the body and with a wooden skeleton stand in which the body is made
to fit, to pack away, and also to receive a stationary screen W and for larger sizes,
Fig. 1, or for greater strength, I first make a wooden skeleton frame for the full
size of the machine, into which I first fix the sheet iron pannels forming the sides
of the hopper and blower, and into which again I solder or rivet, or solder and fix
the other part of the machine. A screen can be placed in the hopper, as shown.
Under this, into the lower part of this wooden frame, there is a space reserved for
the following sieve arrangement.
The third part of my Invention consists in the sieves W, W¹, being made to
work on rollers, and in being provided with small oblong square cut blocks of a
thickness in proportion to the amount of rise required, and herein after described,
fixed under under the sieve W on one or both sides of the rollers as required, so that
by giving motion to the sieves the vertically round or wedged shaped cut ends of the
blocks stricke these rollers and rise in to the top of them and then come back and
fall again, causing the sieves to jump more or less one way or other as desired, and
vibrate so as to clear the meshes and impel anything therein either up, through, or
onward in a simple and easily workable manner. Each sieve is provided with a
projecting pin or study on the middle, and upper side of a cross end rail, and with a
corresponding socket on the under side of the opposite end rail, so as to connect,
interchange, or superpose the sieves, as the case may be. Every one of these pins
has also room for the end of a connecting rod, on to one of which the rod is
connected by one end and by the other to a throw mounted on a shaft under the fan
drum parallel to the fans, which shaft receives motion from the fan shaft crank a²
by another connecting rod b² and crank. By reason of the forward throwing action
of the sieves they may be placed less inclined, or with the lower end of the under
sieve higher above the ground, leaving more room for the seed or corn on the floor
near the foot of the machine, or for a shoot to run it further out and save some
shovelling, or for a box or trough into which the clean seed may fall. And again
by the same and the general design and arrangement of sieves, the total height of
the body is also lower and easier to work, with proportionately larger hopper and
sieves than is usually the case. This roller and block sieve action may also be
applied in various other ways. By reason of its simplicity and easy working it
may be used in the case of round sieves with horizontal circular motion, or long
reciprocating horizontally acting sieves by varying the thickness, length, number,
or shape of each block H, and sifter of every kind for the purpose of agitating,
for drying, mixing, or sifting any ingredients, the length of stroke can be varried
by not working in slot on the crank. And by reason of its simple and efficient
throwing power, the same roller and block principle may also be applied to the
underside of shooting boards.
Delivery racks or bars in various other machines for moving onwards such as
straw, hay, bran, flour, chaff, and other such materials. Straw and such light
material. I prefer to use the form of sieve as shown in Fig. 3, which is mounted
as in the other sieves, and a second paddle wheel.
The forth part of my Invention consists of means for separating seeds, corn,
weeds, or offal, which are to much alike in weight and size to be separable simply
on the blowing and ordinary sifting principles, but which differ however in some
outer conformity, of which I take advantage to separate them by the following:-
At the lower end of the lowest sieve, described above, I carry the above named
wood or frame further out when it is desirable to dress and completely separate by
one separation, into which I place a paddle wheel like arrangement, so that each
paddle on its revolution is made to pass close by the lower end of the sieve. When
its surface lays horizontally, at which time it is made to take up its share of seed
or corn, and in its rising some of the mixture will by its form fall sooner than
others between the paddles, and the rest will be thrown further out as the paddle
turns over to the opposite side of the sieve. The centre of the paddle is
provided with a saddle 3 mounted loosed on the common shaft 2, said saddle

page_text: weighted below at 4 to hold it in position. But in order to separate every
kind of fine, or big, round, or long, smooth, or rough seed, corn, weed, or offal, I
provide as great a variety of sheets with the surface of a nature to arrest some one
kind of the mixtures to separate as it is possible to find to correspondent with the
nature of the mixture, and which this paddle arrangement will make convenient
to apply, such as countersunk board, perforated metal, or woven uxtile goods,
woven raw silks, velvet, or other pill, carding, india rubber, finely grooved goods,
such as pinoleum, wove wire, and other such materials; the open or perforated
ones laid down into some close sheet and closed upon their under side of the
meshes according to their nature or requirement, to prevent anything resting under
the meshes, holes, grooves, or between the material and the board or sheet into
which it may be laid by gumming, glueing, sizing, nailing, or soldering the same
down. And in order to effect a proper, speedy, and timely separation, each paddle
board or screenlike frame has a raised flange on two or three sides, and is left
open on the inner side, where a space is also left around the common shaft 2
open to the floor such. Every paddle or frame is changeable and is made to
receive an independent dipping motion so as to retain it on a nearly horizontal
incline while it passes upwards covered with seeds, and each is also made to
have a motion to and from the common central shaft 2 for the purpose of giving
each paddle frame or sieve like frame a reciprocating motions to shake off some
of the mixtures thereon when in the nearly horizontal position, which motion
is imparted by that of the sieve from which the paddles receive also the seeds, or
from any other means. As all such surface seperation is naturally slower than that
by sieves, I make a sufficient number of paddles to keep up with the speed of the
sieves from which they are fed. But in some cases either the sieves or the blast, or
both, may be dispensed with, and the hopper may be made to feed the paddles or
surface separating sieves (as they may be called) directly or by means of a simple
dust sieve, in which case I make this kind of machine a distinct and separate
article from the first named blowing and sifting separator. This paddle wheel
turns in the same direction as the fan shaft from which it receives its motion by
means of pulley and straps 3.
In conclusion, I will now state that in some cases I provide a flat funnel shaped
appendage of the full width of the frame at its widest and open part, which is
made to be hung to the tail end of the machine, and its mouth under the tailings,
regulator flap, which mouth has also 2 plaps for the same purpose, with the spaces
between these two flaps and the two just behind occupied by the mouth of the
funnel, into which the heaviest of the light stuff or tailings blown out is made to
drop down, and into a box if desired, and the lightest of all is allowed to fly
further out, or this again may be arrested by a suitable wire frame, or the flap
hinge by a hinge over the whole blast passage and open below over the box. The
seed is fed into the wheel by a trough 6, to which is hinged a shoot 7, said shoot
rising as the paddle revolves, the form of same, as shown, facilitating the action.
One or more shoots are used.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed or put in practice, I
hereby declare that I claim the said Invention, substantially as herein before set
forth and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Joseph Drechsler, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand sicht