IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS USED IN THE TREATMENT OF GRAIN TO PRODUCE FLOUR
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Martin Benson, of No. 9, Southampton Buildings, London,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS USED IN
THE TREATMENT OF GRAIN TO PRODUCE FLOUR." A communication from
abroad by Oscar Oexle, of Augsburg, in the Empire of Germany, Civil
Engineer.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Martin Benson at the Office
"
IMPROVEMENTS IN
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th April 1879.
MARTIN BENSON, of No. 9, Southampton Buildings, London.
MACHINERY AND APPARATUS USED IN THE TREATMENT OF GRAIN TO PRODUCE
FLOUR" A communication from abroad by Oscar Oexle, of Augsburg, in the
Empire of Germany, Civil Engineer.
My improvement relates to passing currents of air between grain aspirators,
separators, smutters, middlings purifiers or bran separators, so as to separate the
dust and impurities from the air before it reaches the exhauster, by which less
labor, more convenience of handling, economy in space, and more safety against fire
is obtained.
The complete machine or machines in one form are essentially composed of
middlings purifiers, dust room, vacuum chamber, exhauster, and an air and dust
separator or filter composed of woollen cloth, or any other known suitable material,
with the requisite connections for uniting the various parts of the machine or
machines together.
The main objects of my improvement is the filtering process for retaining all the
light particles of foreign matter floating in the currents of air in the dust room, and
only let the clean air escape through the meshes of the filtering cloth or material
into the exhauster.
Heretofore all the exhaust pipes of the various aspirating machines have been
placed in direct communication with the exhauster; instead of this I place between
the exhauster and the machines or machines a filtering medium and chamber, which
returns the dust and light impurities drawn out of the material by the currents of
air produced by the exhauster, and thereby cause nothing but the clean air to
escape through the filtering material to the exhauster.
The accompanying Drawings represent different views of the machine,

page_text: Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional elevation of the machine, including the dust room
vacuum chamber, and a middlings purifier.
Fig. 2 is a top view of the machine showing a portion of the top of the vacuum
chamber removed, which exposes a part of the filtering cloth; and
Figs. 3 and 4 represent views of a machine or series of machines arranged together
with the middlings purifiers situated above the dust room and vacuum chamber.
The purifiers may be arranged on the floor of a building, and the dust rooms and
vacuum chambers arranged under the floor supporting the machine or attached to
the ceiling of the story below the machine, as shown in Fig. 3.
The following is a description of the working of the improvement:-
The current of air passing from the machine or machines A. through the exhaust
pipe B, and separates and carries with it all the light impurities to be separated
from the grain material passing through the machine A This air current is drawn
through the connecting pipe B into the dust room C, which I prefer to make at its
lower end in the shape of hoppers. In some arrangement of inachines at the
bottom of the hopper or hoppers is placed a conveyor or scraper cell D for collecting
all the fine particles settling down in the dust room, which is carried off through
the dust pipe E; the dust pipe is provided with an air tight valve to prevent the
ingress of air. The filter frame is covered with a woollen cloth or any other
suitable known material, and is suitably supported by four straps for receiving a
reciprocating percussive motion, which is produced by a revolving cam or thumb on
the outside of the casing, making about 3 to 10 revolutions per minute. The out-
side parts of the filtering frame and a space between the frame and the sides of the
dust room are tightly closed with a similar cloth composing the filter, so that no
air can escape into the vacuum space or chamber g without passing through the
cloth. The reciprocating percussive motion is imparted to the filtering frame, as
before stated, by revolving cams or thumbs in such a manner that the thumb pieces
are released from the filtering frame when it is suddenly thrown or forced in the
opposite direction by a spring or springs or their mechanical equivalents, by which
the percussive motion of the filtering frame is produced. The vacuum space g
forms a continuation of the dust room, and on its cover the exhauster h is situated.
The exhauster may be placed in any relative position to the vacuum chamber, or a
short distance from it if required. The air, as before stated, passes from the
machine A through the exhausting pipe B into the dust room C, and then through
the filtering medium or cloth i into the vacuum chamber, from which it is
exhausted pure and clean by the exhausting fan h. The middlings purifiers A
may be a grain aspirator, separator, smutter, or any other known suitable machine
for purifying grain or grain particles.
I do not confine myself to the use of a single dust room, vacuum chamber, and
filter frame combined with one machine, one, two, or more shaking filter frames
in one or more dust rooms in combination with one or more aspirating machines
may be used in the same combination of machines as shown in Figs. 3 and 4 for
purifying grain and grain particles by exhausters.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Martin Benson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 17th
October 1879.
MARTIN BENSON, of No. 9, Southampton Buildings, London.
"IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS USED IN THE TREATMENT OF GRAIN TO PRODUCE
FLOUR." A communication from abroad by Oscar Oexle, of Augsburg, in the
Empire of Germany, Civil Engineer.
My improvement relates to passing currents of air between grain aspirators,
separators, smutters, middlings purifiers, or bran separators, so as to separate the
dust and impurities from the air before it reaches the exhauster, by which less
labor, more convenience of handling, economy of space, and more safety against
fire is obtained.
The complete machine or machines in one form are essentially composed of
middlings purifiers, dust room, vacuum chamber, exhauster, and an air and dust
separator or filter composed of woolen cloth, or any other known suitable material,
with the requisite connections for uniting the various parts of the machine or
machines together.
The main object of my improvement is the filtering process for retaining all the
light particles of foreign mattor floating in the currents of air in the dust room, and
only let the clean air escape through the meshes of the filtering cloth or material
into the exhaust. Heretofore all the exhaust pipes of the various aspirating
machines have been placed in direct communication with the exhauster; instead of
this I place between the exhauster and the machine or machines a filtering medium
and dust chamber, which returns the dust and light impurities drawn out of the
material by the currents of air produced by the exhauster, and thereby cause
nothing but the clean air to escape through the filtering material to the
exhauster.
The accompanying Drawings represent different views of the machine.
Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional elevation of the machine, including the dust room,
vacuum chamber, and a middlings purifier.
Fig. 2 is a top view of the machine, showing a portion of the top of the vacuum
chamber removed, which exposes a part of the filtering cloth; and
'
Figs. 3 and 4 represent views of a machine or series of machines arranged
together with the middlings purifier situated above the dust room and vacuum
chamber.
The purifiers may be arranged on the floor of a building, and the dust rooms and
vacuum chambers arranged under the floor supporting the machine or attached to
the ceiling of the story below the machine, as shewn in Fig. 3.
The following is a description of the working of the improvement:-
The current of air passing from the machine or machines A through the exhaust
pipe B, and separates and carries with it all the light impurities to be separated
from the grain material passing through the machine A. This air current is drawn
through the connecting pipe B into the dust room C, which I prefer to make at its
lower end in the shape of hoppers. In some arrangement of machines at the
bottom of the hopper or hoppers is placed a conveyor or scraper cell D (Figs. 3
and 4) for collecting all the fino particles settling down in the dust room, which is
carried off through the dust pipe E; the dust pipe is provided with an air tight
valve d to prevent the ingress of air. The filter frame f is covered with a woolen
cloth or any other known suitable material, and is suitably supported by four
straps a for receiving a reciprocating percussive motion, which is produced by a
revolving cam or thumb b on the outside of the casing, making about 3 to 10
revolutions per minute. The outside parts of the filtering frame, and the space
between the frame and the sides of the dust room are tightly closed with a similar
cloth composing the filter, so that no air can escape into the vacuum space or
chamber g without passing through the cloth. The reciprocating percussive motion

page_text: of the filtering frame is to keep the filtering cloth free from dust. This recipro-
cating percussive motion is imparted to the filtering frame as before stated by
revolving cams and thumbs in such a manner that the thumb pieces are released
from the filtering frame when it is suddenly thrown or forced in the opposite
direction by a spring e or springs, or their mechanical equivalents, by which the
percussive motion of the filtering frame is produced. The vacuum space g forms a
continuation of the dust room, and on its cover the exhauster is situated. The
exhauster may be placed in any relative position to the vacuum chamber or a short
distance from it if desired. The air, as before stated, passes from the machine A
through the exhausting pipe B into the dust room C, and then through the filtering
medium or cloth into the vacuum chamber, from which it is exhausted pure and
clean by the exhausting fan h. The middlings purifier A may be a grain aspirator,
separator, smutter, or bran separator, or any other known suitable machine for
purifying grain or grain particles.
I do not confine myself to the use of a single dust room, vacuum chambers, and
filter frame combined with one machine, one, two, or more shaking filter frames in
one or more dust rooms, in combination with one or more aspirating machines, may
be used in the same combination machines as shewn in Figs. 3 and 4 for purifying
grain and grain particles by exhausters.
My improved method of separating the dust and air, as hereinbefore described,
may be applied to millstones, that is, the combined use of the dust room, vacuum
chamber, exhauster, and air and dust separator or filtering medium, may be applied
to millstones by attaching the exhaust pipe B to any suitable part of the millstone
casing. I am quite aware that the filtering process has been applied to millstones
for separating the dust and air, but in such cases the dust and foreign matter drawn
from the flour falls back into the millstone or casing and again mixes with the
flour, which does more or less injury to its quality, while by my process the dust
is drawn away from the millstones and separated from the air in the manner herein
before described.
Having now described the nature of my improvement and manner of applying
it to use, what I claim is,-
One or more machines for purifying grain particles in combination with an
exhauster, an intermediate filtering medium, vacuum chamber, and dust room,
provided with a collecting conveyor, substantially as herein before described and
represented.
In witness whereof, I, the said Martin Benson, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this 17th day of October, in the year of our Lord 1879.