IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING STIVE AND SEPARATING DUST AND OTHER SOLID IMPURITIES FROM THE AIR, MORE PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE TO MILLSTONES, MIDDLINGS PURIFIERS, SMUT MACHINES, AND OTHER MILL MACHINERY
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Fyfe Stewart, of No. 26, Mark Lane, in the
City of London, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
COLLECTING STIVE AND SEPARATING DUST AND OTHER SOLID IMPURITIES
FROM THE AIR, MORE PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE TO MILLSTONES, MIDDLINGS
PURIFIERS, SMUT MACHINES, AND OTHER MILL MACHINERY," A communi-
cation from abroad by George T. Smith, of Jackson City, State of Michigan,
United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Fyfe Stewart at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th June 1880.
JOHN FYFE STEWART, of No. 26, Mark Lane, in the City of London.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING STIVE AND SEPARATING DUST
AND OTHER SOLID IMPURITIES FROM THE AIR, MORE PARTICULARLY "APPLICABLE
TO MILLSTONES, MIDDLINGS PURIFIERS, SMUT MACHINES, AND OTHER MILL
MACHINERY." [A communication from abroad by George T. Smith, of Jackson
City, State of Michigan, United States of America.]
This Invention has for its object the construction of apparatus for separating
stive, dust, and other solid impurities from the air coming from millstones,
middlings purifiers, smut machines, and other mill machinery, and for collecting
such impurities in such manner that the ordinary stive or dust room is dispensed
with. The apparatus is howover also generally applicable for purifying currents
of air from dust or other solid impurities suspended therein.
For this purpose the stive trunk, or pipe, or passage, through which the air
charged with dust is made to flow, communicates by two or more branches at its
delivery end with two or more cylinders or chambers of wire gauze or finely
perforated metal or suitable open fabric, which cylinders or chambers are surrounded
by an open casing, and have within them brushes working in contact with their
perforated surface. The branches of the stive trunk have each ath rottle valve or
slide by which the communication with their respective cylinders or chambers may
bo cut off, the operation of the apparatus being as follows:-Assuming that the
[Price 8d.1

page_text: stive trunk has only two branches, each leading to one of two cylinders or
chambers, then the said valves are so arranged and actuated that while the one is
open the other is closed, the positions being regularly reversed after short intervals
of time; also the brushes are so actuated that those of the cylinder or chamber,
which for the time is cut off from the stive trunk, are worked, while those in the
other cylinder or chamber are stationary. Thus the air charged with stive, dust,
or other matter that is blown into the last named cylinder or chamber escapes into
the open air through the fine perforations thereof, leaving within the cylinder or
chamber practically the whole of the solid impurities that were suspended in the
air. When by this operation a certain amount of stive, dust, or other matter has
accumulated on the inner surface of the cylinder or chamber, so that its further
accumulation would impede the passage of air, the positions of the valves aro
reversed so as to admit the air only into the second cylinder or chamber, and at
the same time the brushes in the first cylinder or chamber are worked while those
in the second one are stopped. Thus, while the air is now passing through the
second cylinder or chamber, the surface of the first one is being cleared of the
accumulation of solid deposit, which partly falls down a shoot at the lower end of
the cylinder or chamber, and partly is brushed through the perforations and falls
into the surrounding casing, from which it is also led away by a shoot. When the
first cylinder or chamber has thus been cleared of its deposit the position of the
valves and the action of the brushes is again reversed, and the operation above
described is repeated in the second cylinder or chamber.
The mechanism for simultaneously reversing the position of the valves and the
action of the brushes after regular intervals of time may be variously arranged;
thus, according to one arrangement suitable for revolving brushes, a shaft driven
from any convenient motor imparts slow rotary motion by suitable gearing to a
toothed wheel on the one end of a lever pivotted to the framing, whose other end
is actuated by a cam on a shaft also driven from the said gearing, the cam being
so formed that during one half of its revolution it keeps the lever with its toothed
wheel in gear with a toothed wheel on tlie axis of the revolving brushes of the one
cylinder whereby these are caused to revolve, while during the other half revolution
the lever is moved over so as to bring its wheel in gear with the toothed wheel of
the second cylinder. The driving shaft also imparts rotary motion to a snail
shaped cam with a sudden drop, against which bears the end of a rod urged by a
spring. The other end of the rod is pivotted to a loose arm on the axis, upon which
the two valves of the stive trunk are fixed at right angles to each other. On this
axis is fixed a ratchet wheel, in gear with which is a pawl carried by the loose
arm. Thus while the cam revolves it slowly pushes the rod so as to move the pawl
over the ratchet wheel, the shaft of which, and consequently also the valves, remain
stationary until the drop of the cam comes opposite the end of the rod, whereupon
the spring throws the rod suddenly back again, and thereby effects the sudden
roversal of the valves.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent nica by
the said John Fyfe Stewart in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th
December 1880.
JOHN FYFE STEWART, of No. 26, Mark Lane, in the City of London.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING STIVE AND SEPARATING DUST
AND OTHER SOLID IMPURITIES FROM THE AIR, MORE PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE
TO MILLSTONES, MIDDLINGS PURIFIERS, SMUT MACHINES, AND OTHER MILL
MACHINERY." A communication from abroad by George T. Smith, of Jackson
City, State of Michigan, United States of America.
This Invention has for its object the construction of apparatus for separating
stive, dust, and other solid impurities from the air coming from millstones,
middlings purifiers, smut machines, and other mill machinery, and for collecting
such impurities in such manner that the ordinary stive or dust room is dispensed
with. The apparatus is however also generally applicable for purifying currents
of air from dust or other solid impurities suspended therein.
For this purpose the stive trunk, or pipe, or passage, through which the air
charged with dust is made to flow, communicates by two or more branches at its
delivery end with two or more cylinders or chambers of wire gauze, or finely
perforated metal, or suitable open fabric, which cylinders or chambers are
surrounded by an open casing, and have within them brushes working in contact
with their perforated surface. The branches of the stive trunk have each a throttle
valve or slide by which the communication with their respective cylinders or
chambers may be cut off, the operation of the apparatus being as follows:-
Assuming that the stive trunk has only two branches, cach leading to one of two
cylinders or chambers, then the said valves are so arranged and actuated that while
the one is open the other is closed, the positions being regularly reversed after
short intervals of time; also the brushes aro so actuated that those of the cylinder
or chamber, which for the time is cut off from the stive trunk, are worked, while
those in the other cylinder or chambor are stationary. Thus the air charged with
stive, dust, or other matter that is blown into the last named cylinder or chamber
escapes into the open air through the fine perforations thereof, leaving within the
cylinder or chamber practically the whole of the solid impurities that were
suspended in the air. When by this operation a certain amount of stive or other
matter has accumulated on the inner surface of the cylinder or chamber, so that
its further accumulation would impede the passage of air, the positions of the
valves are reversed so as to admit the air only into the second cylinder or chamber,
and at the same time the brushes in the first cylinder or chamber are worked
while those in the second one arc stopped. Thus, while the air is now passing
through the second cylinder or, chamber, the surface of the first one is being cleared
of the accumulation of solid deposit, which partly falls down a shoot at the lower
end of the cylinder or chamber, and partly is brushed through the perforations and
falls into the surrounding casing, from which it is also led away by a shoot. When
the first cylinder or chamber has thus been cleared of its deposit the position of the
valves and the action of the brushes is again reversed, and the operation above
described is repeated in the second cylinder or chamber.
The mechanism for simultaneously reversing the position of the valves and the
action of the brushes after regular intervals of time may be variously arranged;
thus, according to one arrangement suitable for revolving brushes, a shaft driven
from any convenient motor imparts slow rotary motion by suitable gearing to a
toothed wheel on the one end of a lever pivotted to the framing, whose other end
is actuated by a cam. on a shaft also driven from the said gearing, the cam being
so formed that during ono revolution it keeps the lever with its toothed wheel in

page_text: gear with a toothed wheel on the axis of the revolving brushes of the one cylinder
whereby these are caused to revolve, while during the next revolution the lever is
moved over so as to bring its wheel in gear with the toothed wheel of the second
cylinder. The driving shaft also imparts rotary motion to a snail shaped cam with
a sudden drop, against which bears the end of a rod urged by a spring. The other
end of the rod is pivotted to a loose arm on the axis, upon which the two valves of
the stive trunk are fixed at right angles to each other. On this axis is fixed a
ratchet wheel, in gear with which is a pawl carried by the loose arm. Thus while
the cam revolves it slowly pushes the rod so as to move the pawl over the ratchet
wheel, the shaft of which, and consequently also the valves, remain stationary until 1
the drop of the cam comes opposite the end of the rod, whereupon the spring
throws the rod suddenly back again, and thereby effects the sudden reversal of the
valves.
Fig. 1 of the Drawings shews a front elevation; Fig. 2, a cross section; and
Fig. 3, a plan of one construction of the stive collecting apparatus according to the
above described Invention.
A is the stive trunk communicating by two branches A', A³, with the lower ends
of two closed wire gauze cylinders B', B, surrounded by a casing C; D', D³, are
brushes carried by shafts E, E, by which they are made to revolve in contact
with the inner surface of the cylinders; F is a flap valve mounted on a vertical
spindle F, by which it is moved alternately from the position shewn in plan, in
which it closes the communication between A and B, into the corresponding
opposite position, in which it closes the communication between A and B¹; G is a
shaft driven by a pulley and strap from any convenient mill shaft or motor, and
driving firstly by bevil gear at G a vertical shaft H, and secondly, by other bevil
gear at Ga shaft I. The shaft H carries a pulley H, which by means of a
strap He drives a pulley K, whose axis is mounted on a lever K' pivotted at K³ to
the framing, and having at its end a pin and swivelling stud K³ engaging with a
revolving cam path L fixed on a shaft L'. The lever K' is also pivotted at the
point K³ to another lever M, having its fulcrum at M¹, and connected at its other
end to a crank arm F on the spindle F¹. The cain L is formed in a well known
manner with a double groove running one into the other at one point, as shown at
the enlarged view, Fig. 4, so that the stud K³ of the lever K' is made to pass over
from the one groove to the other at every revolution of the cam. The shaft L'
receives a slow rotary motion from the shaft I by means of a worm and worm
wheel at 1', so that the cam L only revolves onco while the shaft G revolves a
certain number of times. The axis of the pulley K also carries a toothed wheel N,
and on the shafts E of the brushes D are other toothed wheels N1, N2, with which
the wheel N is alternately put in gear as it is moved over from one side to the
other by the lever K¹.
The lower end of tho spindle F' carries a double arm FS, the ends of which are
connected by rods O, O, to slides O¹, 0, by the movement of which the spouts
P1, P2, in the bottoms of the cylinders B1, B2, are alternately opened and closed.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-The lever K' being in the position
shewn in Fig. 3, the wheel N is in gear with the wheel N, so that the brushes Dº
are being minde to revolve in the cylinder B, removing the accumulated stive from
its surface, the flap valve F being at the same time made to close the communication
between the stive trunk A and the said cylinder, and the slide O' being moved so
as to open the spout P and allow the accumulated stive to be discharged from the
cylinder B into the hopper G. While this is being effected the stive is passing
from A into B¹, whence the slide 02 being closed the air escapes through the
perforations, leaving the whole of the stive in the cylinder. When after a cortain
number of revolutions of the brushes in B, the cam L has performed a complete
revolution the lever K¹ is moved over thereby, so as, firstly, to turn the flap