IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND IN APPARATUS FOR MEASURING AND PACKING SEEDS, GRAIN, AND OTHER ANALOGOUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Martin Clements at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd October 1880.
HENRY MARTIN CLEMENTS, of Canterbury, in the County of Kent, Corn and
Seed Merchant. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND IN APPARATUS FOR
MEASURING AND PACKING SEEDS, GRAIN, AND OTHER ANALOGOUS SUBSTANCES."
My Invention has for its object to provide an apparatus, whereby the measuring
and packing into bags or other suitable receptacles of "semi-fluid" goods, such as
seeds, grain, or other analogous substances, can be performed without waste, and
also with speed and precision.
The apparatus, whereby I effect these objects, consists of a box (by preference
rectangular) of a convenient size and height, standing upon four legs, and constructed
of any suitable material. The back of the box made sloping towards the front
where the operator stands, the bottom edge thereof being in close contact with the
smooth surface of the longitudinal cylinder herein after described. The front of the
box has a closely fitting sliding door to enable the operator to adjust the capacity
of the measures.
The inside of the box is thus fashioned as a rectangular hopper,
with a cylinder slightly protruding thereinto at the bottom.
The longitudinal cylinder extends the whole length of the box, to the sides of
which its ends are fitted, with a close fit, but sufficiently easy to allow it to
partially rotate. The longitudinal cylinder may be made of a single brass casting,
or of any other suitable material, or of any number of pieces fixed together, and
turned smooth and true from end to end, and suitably mounted on an axle or other-
wise. Transversely to the axis of the cylinder, and all in line, any number (by
preference five) of cylindrical holes are bored or cast right through the cylinder,
with a smooth surface. Pistons are fitted to each of these transverse cylinders or
measures, the piston rod to each piston passing downwards, and the outer end of
each piston rod is fitted to a suitable crosshead common to the whole of them.
Adjusting screws, with or without nuts, or with hand wheels, are fitted, whereby the
position of the pistons can be regulated.
In the front of the rectangular box there are as many apertures as there are
measuring cylinders, the centres of the apertures coinciding with those of the
cylinders. These apertures or passages taper towards the front, and are fitted with
tapering conical tubes projecting in front at an angle downwards of about 45 degrees,
cach tube terminating with a short vertical nozzle or delivery tube. To the outside

page_text: of these nozzles I fit a light spring, and sometimes also a damper. The spring is for
the purpose of holding and retaining the paper bag or other article required to
be filled, and the damper is for the purpose of damping gum, or any other adhesive
substance which may be upon the bag, so as to prepare it for immediate closing up
when filled.
At one or both ends of the longitudinal cylinder I fit a suitable handle or handles
whereby such cylinder can be made to oscillate or partially rotate upon its axis to
the extent of about 135 degrees.
From the foregoing description it will be understood that when the longitudinal
cylinder is so placed that the transverse cylinders are in a vertical position, any
seed or other goods placed in the apparatus will fall into the transverse cylindrical
measures and fill them from the pistons upwards, and that the lower the pistons are
fixed the greater will be the quantity of seed each will contain, the capacity being
governed by the position of the pistons. Also it will be understood that when the
longitudinal cylinder is partially rotated so as to bring the upper ends of the
transverse cylinders in contact with dead wood, the communication between them
and the bulk of the seed in the box is thereby cut off; and when the longitudinal
cylinder is still further rotated in the same direction, the seed will fall out of each
measuring cylinder into and fall down its contiguous delivering tube, and thence
through the nozzle into the bag placed to receive it. On moving the longitudinal
cylinder back again by the handle, the then empty measuring cylinders will again
receive a similar quantity of seed, and the process can be repeated at will.
For the purpose of adjusting the respective transverse cylindrical measures to
the requisite capacity, the slide or door is opened previously to the seed being
placed in the box; the measured or weighed quantity of seed or other goods is
then placed in each of the two end measuring cylinders, with the pistons low down.
The cross-head and pistons are then raised by the adjusting screws until the seed
is flush with the top of the cylinders. The apparatus being then adjusted for that
quantity, the slide door is shut and the goods placed in the box in bulk.
I find in ordinary work that five cylindrical measuring cylinders is a convenient
number, but I do not confine myself to that or any other number.
The various kinds of goods that are capable of being measured are too numerous
to mention particularly, but they are all included in the technical designation of
"semi-fluid."