IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLEANING, SIFTING, OR PURIFYING MEAL, GRAIN, AND OTHER LIKE SUBSTANCES
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Bennett, of Cork, Ireland, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLEANING, SIFTING, OR PURIFYING
MEAL, GRAIN, AND OTHER LIKE SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 27th January 1880, and dated the 2nd August 1879.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Bennett at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 2nd August 1879.
WILLIAM BENNETT, of Cork, Ireland. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
CLEANING, SIFTING, OR PURIFYING MEAL, GRAIN, AND OTHER LIKE SUBSTANCES."
My Invention relates to apparatus to be employed for the purpose of cleaning,
sifting, or purifying meal, grain, and other like substances, and consists of improve-
ments whereby the said operation is performed more expeditiously, efficiently, and
economically than, heretofore.
+
In carrying out my Invention I employ any suitable number of sieves in one
chest, the same being arranged the one over-the other. Each of these sieves is so
fitted to the chest as to be capable of being adjusted separately to give greater, or
less fall, as may be required, for the substance to be operated upon. This chest of
sieves, which is suitably pivotted aud supported, has a rotary or oscillating motion
imparted to it by means of two single upright cranks placed at opposite sides of
the chest and deriving their motion from any suitable prime mover or otherwise.
The cranks are also arranged so as to give a greater or less stroke to suit the
particular substance under treatment, and they are maintained in correct position
one with the other by a connecting rod or other suitable means. An air chest is
provided in connection with the apparatus for the purpose of drawing off impurities
in the transit of the substance through the sieves.

page_text: '
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Bennett in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 31st January
1880.
WILLIAM BENNETT, of Cork, Ireland. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
CLEANING, SIFTING, OR PURIFYING MEAL, GRAIN, AND OTHER LIKE SUBSTANCES.'
My said Invention relates to apparatus to be employed for the purpose of cleaning,
sifting, or purifying meal, middlings, grain, and other like substances, and consists of
improvements whereby the said operation is performed more expeditiously, efficiently,
and economically than heretofore.
In carrying out, my said Invention I employ any suitable number of sieves in one
chest; the same being arranged the one over the other. Each of these sieves is so
fitted to the chest as to be capable of being adjusted separately to give greater or
less fall, as may be required, for the substance to be operated upon. This chest of
sieves, which is suitably pivotted and supported, has a rotary, oscillating, or
curvilinear motion imparted to it by means of cranks or their equivalents deriving
their motion from any suitable prime mover or otherwise, means, being provided for
regulating the stroke to suit the particular substance under treatment.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I shall now proceed
more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose shall refer to the several
Figures on the annexed Sheets of Drawings, the same letters of reference-indicating
corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings represents. a front elevation of a sifting
machine constructed according to my said Invention.
Figure 2 is a plan, Figure 3 is a vertical section (taken at right angles to Figure 1),
and Figure 4 is a horizontal section of the said machine. A is a frame within which
is arranged a series of any required number of sieves B, B1, B2, B3, B4, B³, placed
one above the other and forming a chest C, so that the whole may be capable of
motion bodily. The chest C is carried on the cranked portions a, a, of two-crank
shafts D, D, which have, their bearings at a, a, in the frame A, and are coupled
together by cranks b, b, and a connecting rod c.. One of these shafts carries a
driving pulley E for receiving motion from any suitable prime mover, an oscillating or
curvilinear motion being thus, when the machine is in operation, communicated to
the chest C.containing the series of sieves. The material to be operated upon is
supplied to the top sieve B, the bottom or screening portion d of which (as also
of all the other sieves) is made of silk or other suitable 'screening material, and
under the motion of the chest the cleaning, sifting, or purifying of the, material is
effected. Below the silk bottoms d of the sieves are arranged shoots or conduits e
for conducting the fine material which has passed through the top sieve B to the
sieve B below, and conducting the material which has passed through the sieve B'
to the sieve B below, and so on in succession to the bottom sieve B5, whence the
fine or clean material is conducted away by a spout F. The coarse material which
does not pass. through the sieves escapes by a series of conduits G into vertical
passages H terminating in discharge shoots I. The connection of the sieves with
their chest C is effected by means of screw bolts f so arranged as to admit of the
position of each sieve being separately adjusted in order to secure the amount
of fall required to suit the particular substance, under operation. Means are also
provided at g for regulating the throw of the cranks a, a, so as to vary the motion
of the chest as required.
Vertical elevating screws may be provided for raising the material which has
been operated upon, and delivering it into sacks, the said screws being mounted
within suitable casings, and by preference driven from the crank shafts.
Having now described and particularly, ascertained the nature of my said Inven-
tion and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into effect, I

page_text: would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and original, and
therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein before in part recited
Letters Patent is,―
The employment of a series of superposed sieves having a rotary oscillating or
curvilinear motion, the whole being arranged and combined substantially in the
manner and for the purposes herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Bennett, have to this my Specification
set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of January, One thousand eight
hundred and eighty.
WILLIAM BENNETT. (L.s.)