IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING SEMOLINA AND FLOUR
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Gustav Adolph Buchholz, of Regents Park, in
the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVED
MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING SEMOLINA AND FLOUR."
Sealed the 9th August 1870, and dated the 21th March 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Gustav Adolph Buchholz
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 24th March 1870.
I, GUSTAV ADOLPH BUCHHOLZ, of Regents Park, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING SEMOLINA AND FLOUR," to
be as follows:—
The object of this Invention is to convert grain by a kind of shearing
action into semolina or into flour. This I effect by passing the grain
between cutting surfaces somewhat resembling in arrangement the upper
and lower stones of flour mills. The runner will by preference take the
place of the bed or lower stone.

page_text: It consists of a disc cast with a hollow boss to receive the central shaft
to which it is keyed. The upper face of this disc is fitted with concentric
rings having on their face tangential or diagonal ribs and furrows forming
cutting edges of any suitable section. The ribs of the innermost ring will
by preference show in cross section a figure like ratchet teeth, deepening
gradually from the boss outwards. The chief annular cutting surfaces
will be formed of steel and put together in segments, and their edges
will be bevilled to allow of rings of iron or cast steel formed with a
dovetail section and also faced with cutting ribs to hold down the segment
picces in their place, these rings being themselves made fast to tho
disc which carries them by screws or their equivalent. The outermost
ring I prefer to form with furrows that will provide receptacles for
the semolina as it is cut by the ribs and act as channels for discharging
it uncrushed from the mill. The disc thus formed and fitted I place in
a case, leaving it free to run therein, and over the disc I apply a second
disc similarly provided with a cutting surface, and I fit it so as to close
the casc.
This disc is slightly concaved on its face, and a large central
opening or eye is provided through which the grain is fed to the mill.
The ribs of the operating surface of this disc are also arranged tangen-
tially or diagonally but in a reverse direction to those of the runner, and
thus the meeting of the ribs of the upper and lower discs will cause the
shearing action desired. In place of ribbed and furrowed rings or
segments I may use steel blades set edgewise, and spaced out by filling
pieces so as to produce the tangential arrangement above explained.
These may be held in place by being slidden over rebated annular ribs
carried by the discs.
0
In order to remove from the bran any adhering portions of the grain
I submit the bran to a similar mill having, say, only one ring of cutting
surface on each disc, such ring being made with finer ribs, and by
passing the bran through this mill semolina of a finer quality will be
produced.
To convert the grain into flour it will be necessary to form the cutting
surfaces with finer ribs than is required for the semolina mill, but in
other respects the construction of the flour mill will be similar to that
above described.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Gustav Adolph Buchholz in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 23rd September 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GUSTAV
ADOLPH BUCHHOLZ, of Regents Park, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy, in the
thirty-third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Gustav Adolph Buchholz, Her
special licence that I, the said Gustav Adolph Buchholz, my exccutors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Gustav
Adolph Buchholz, 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, usc, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING SELIOLINA
AND FLOUR," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Gustav Adolph Buchholz, 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 Scal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Gustav Buchholz, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures. marked thercon (that is
to say) :-
The object of this Invention is to convert grain by a kind of shearing
action into semolina or into flour. This I effect by the use of an
arrangement of machinery wherein the grain is passed between cutting

page_text: surfaces somewhat resembling in arrangement the upper and lower stones
of flour mills, the runner however taking by preference the place of the
bed or lower stone.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation of the
improved mill; Fig. 2 is an elevation taken at right angles to Fig 1;
and Fig. 3 is a partial plan or face view of the runner.
The cutting surfaces are contained in a circular box A of cast iron
supported at a suitable elevation on four pillars B, B', secured to a bed
plate; O is an arched bearing piece for receiving the end of a central
shaft D which projects up through the circular box A and carries at its
upper end the runner E; the cover A' of the box is fitted on its under
side with cutting surfaces formed and arranged in manner similar to the
acting surface of the runner. The bottom of the box is cast with a
bearing for the shaft D to work in. The runner E consists of a disc cast
with a recessed face and a hollow boss E to receive the central shaft to
which it is keyed. The recessed face of this disc (see Fig. 3) is fitted
with concentric rings of steel or iron having on their face tangential or
diagonal ribs and furrows forming cutting edges of any suitable section.
The ribs of the innermost ring a will by preference shew in cross
section a figure like ratchet teeth, deepening gradually from the boss
outwards. The chief annular cutting surfaces b, b', are formed of steel
and put together in segments, and their peripherical edges are bevilled
to allow of their being held in place by an under cut lip or flange on the
edge of the disc and by the rings of iron or cast steel a and c, the latter of
which is faced with cutting ribs and also formed of a dovetail section to
hold down the segment pieces in their place. These rings are them-
selves made fast to the disc which carries them by countersunk screws or
their equivalent. The outermost ring I prefer to form with furrows
that will provide receptacles for the semolina as it is cut by the ribs and
act as channels for discharging it uncrushed from the mill; the disc thus
formed and fitted is enclosed in the case A and runs freely therein.
Over this disc I apply the cover A' of the box, which cover forms a
second disc and is similarly provided with a cutting surface and serves
also to close the case. This disc is like the runner slightly concaved or
hollowed on its working face, the hollow deepening towards the centre
and a large central opening or eye is provided through which the grain
is fed to the mill. The ribs of the operating surface of this disc arc
also arranged tangentially or diagonally, but in a reverse direction to those

page_text: of the runner, and thus the meeting of the ribs of the upper and lower
discs will cause the shearing action desired. The eye of the cover is
closed by a cap picce A² which is made fast thereto, and a central opening
is made in the top of the cap picce to admit the bottom of the feed
hopper F; this hopper discharges the hulled grain on to the top of the
central shaft D, which is enlarged and rounded as shewn to facilitate the
distribution of the grain on the runner; keyed to the lower end of the
shaft D is a bevil wheel G which gears into a bevil wheel H keyed to the.
horizontal shaft I; this shaft I is mounted in bearings carried by the
castings I which are made fast to the pillars B'. The shaft I is fitted
with fast and loose belt pulleys J which receive a driving belt for trans-
mitting rotary motion through the gearing just described to the machine.
To insure a delicate adjustment of the runner E with respect to the fixed
dise A' an adjustable bearing pin D' is provided to receive the downward
pressure of the runner shaft D; this pin has a screw thread cut on it, and
its lower end enters a hole in the bed plate; fitted to the screwed pin is a
worm wheel d which is free to turn thereon but supports the screwed
pin, itself being supported by the bed plate; into this worm wheel gears
a worm d¹ mounted in bearings on the bed plate. By turning this worm
the bearing pin through its worm wheel is raised or lowered, and with it
the runner shaft D that bears upon it. I would here remark that in order
to fit the segment pieces b, b', in place it is necessary to provide a wedge.
shaped piece, as shewn at *, Fig. 3, which being the last piece inserted
will force the segment pieces into position, where they will be firmly held
by the rings a, c.
It will now be understood that as the grain falls on to the runner it
will by centrifugal action be carried between the fixed and running
cutting surfaces, where it will be rapidly reduced to semolina by a kind
of shearing operation (the ribs of the two acting surfaces crossing each
other like the cutting edges of shears), and the semolina travelling along
the furrows in the outer segment pieces b' will be discharged out of the
mill through the spout A³.
In place of ribbed and furrowed rings or segments I may use steel
blades set edgewise and spaced out by properly shaped filling pieces, as
described in my Patents dated November Nineteenth, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-two, No. 3113, and the Fourth of September
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, No. 250S. In this way I
can produce the tangential arrangement of cutting edges above explained.

page_text: These blades may be held in place by being slidden over rebated ribs
carried by the discs.
To convert grain into flour by this machine it will only be necessary
to form the cutting surfaces with finer ribs than is required for the
semolina mill, but in other respects the construction of the flour mill will
be similar to that above described.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of " Improved
Machinery for Manufacturing Semolina and Flour," and explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that
under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim,-
First. The runner E, E', provided with tangential cutting edges in
combination with a stationary disc A' similarly provided with tangential
cutting edges, but lying crosswise of those of the runner, such stationary
disc being formed with an eye through which the grain to be operated
upon passes to the acting surfaces.
Secondly. Constructing and mounting the runner E, E', as described
and enclosing it in a box A, A', constructed and fitted in the manner
substantially as set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Gustav Adolph Buchholz, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twelfth day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
G. A. BUCHHOLZ. (L.S.)