IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CLEANING AND DECORTICATING, REDUCING, OR GRINDING GRAIN AND SEEDS
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin Powley Alexander, of 14, Southampton Buildings,
in the County of Middlesex, Consulting Engineer and British and Foreign
Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR CLEANING AND DECORTICATING, REDUCING, OR GRINDING
GRAIN AND SEEDS." A communication from abroad by Ambroise Millot, of
Zurich, in the Republic of Switzerland.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwin Powley Alexander at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 26th July 1879.
EDWIN POWLEY ALEXANDER, of 14, Southampton Buildings, in the County of
Middlesex, Consulting Engineer and British and Foreign Patent Agent. " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CLEANING AND DECORTICATING,
REDUCING, OR GRINDING GRAIN AND SEEDS." A communication from abroad by
Ambroise Millot, of Zurich, in the Republic of Switzerland.
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of machinery
or apparatus for cleaning and decorticating reducing or grinding grain and seeds.
The grain and seeds to be operated upon are supplied to a hopper and directed
between a pair of crushing rollers by the aid of a grooved distributing or feed roller,
the feed being regulated by an adjustable slide. The crushing rollers are by
preference of cast iron, smooth on the surface, and are capable of being set or
adjusted towards or from each other by suitable adjusting screws acting upon the
sliding bearings of one or both the spindles of the said rollers, thereby regulating
their crushing action. The crushed grain is removed from the surfaces of these
rollers by scrapers, as is well understood, and descends along a passage leading to a
chamber containing two decorticating or reducing discs placed vertically, one of
such discs being stationary and fixed to the framing, whilst the other rotates, being
mounted on a horizontal driving shaft which is adjustable longitudinally in its
bearings by means of adjusting screws in order to vary the distance between the
acting faces of the said discs, thereby enabling them either simply to decorticate or
remove the outer shell or husk from the grain or seed, or to grind or reduce the
same to a more or less fine state of division as may be required. Both these discs

page_text: are formed with grooved teeth or projections of cast iron or other hard and durable
material, disposed at convenient distances apart in concentric circles, the teeth or
projections in any two consecutive circles being so arranged that a radius line drawn
through the middle of the tooth in one circle shall just touch the commencement of
a tooth in the next circle, the several teeth in the different circles breaking joint
with each other. The base or lowest surface of each disc is grooved radially, such
grooves being continued along both sides and top of each tooth. The teeth or
projections in the rotating disc travel along the intervals or spaces between the
teeth or projections in the stationary disc, but without being in actual contact
therewith, the amount of clearance being regulated, as hereinbefore described,
according to the result to be obtained. Wings or vanes are provided at or near the
centre of the rotating disc, which by centrifugal force not only disperse the crushed
grain and direct it between the first ranges of teeth or projections, but operate as a
ventilator by drawing in cool air through one or more apertures made for that
purpose in the side of the casing or chamber, which air by passing along the intervals
between the several teeth or projections effectually prevents overheating. The
effect of these wings or vanes is further increased by a series of projections formed
on the periphery of the rotating disc.
The cleaned, decorticated, or reduced produce escapes by a discharge spout at the
bottom of the chamber or casing containing the operating discs.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Edwin Powley Alexander in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th January 1880.
"
EDWIN POWLEY ALEXANDER, of 14, Southampton Buildings, in the County of
Middlesex, Consulting Engineer & British & Foreign Patent Agent. IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CLEANING AND DECORTICATING, REDUCING,
OR GRINDING GRAIN AND SEEDS." A communication from abroad by Ambroise
Millot, of Zurich, in the Republic of Switzerland.
The said Invention consists of a peculiar construction, arrangement, and combina
tion of machinery or apparatus for cleaning and decorticating, reducing, or grinding
grain and seeds; also of the employment of peculiarly toothed operating discs & the
use of pivotted adjustable bearings for the journals of the bruising rollers.
By the said improved apparatus I obtain complete reduction of the grain or seeds
to pure grits without heating the same whilst sparing the husk or covering of the
grain, and producing as little grist as possible. This is accomplished by first slightly
bruising the grains between two cylinders or rolls turning parallel to each other,
then reducing them between two grooved discs furnished with teeth, which are also
grooved, the effect of which is not to cut, rend, or pulverise the grains but rather
to peel or decorticate them, and afterwards to open them without pressure and to roll
and rub them slightly, whereby the bran is preserved in sufficiently large fragments
separate and detached from all particles of grain.
And in order that the 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 explanatory Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 of the Drawings is a vertical section of the improved mill complete;
Fig. 2 is an end elevation and a transverse vertical section (shown in halves respect-
ively); Fig. 3 shows in plan and elevation the form and arrangement of the teeth of
the operating discs; Fig. 4 is a section of the teeth of the said discs when at work;
& Fig. 5 illustrates the adjustable bearings & regulating apparatus of the crushing
cylinders.
The mill receives the grain or seeds to be operated upon in the hopper A, whence
a grooved distributing cylinder B directs them in equal layers between the crushing
or bruising cylinders C & D. In passing between these cylinders the grain is slightly
bruised;
it is then directed by the passage E into the main body of the machine F,
containing the operating discs G & H, between which the fragments of grain
undergo a final operation.
An opening J covered with wire-cloth K allows the exterior air to enter it, being
drawn in and driven between the discs by the vanes or palettes L. These palettes,
which form a ventilator, serve at the same time to scatter the grain which enters
the machine. A number of cleats situate on the circumference of the rotating disc
further assist the ventilator & remove all risk of heating either the ground produce
or the grinding surfaces or discs.
The driving shaft M & the disc G are actuated by the pulley N. The rotary
motion of the feeding cylinder B is transmitted from the driving shaft by means of
pulleys O, and that of the crushing cylinders is transmitted by the pulleys Q, the
shaft M carrying in addition a fly wheel P. In order to obtain a more effectual
bruising or decortication the toothed discs are adjusted towards each other by
means of a screw R acting upon the end of the main shaft. At the opposite end of
the shaft there is provided a stud & counter stud, the latter bearing against a
spring S for imparting the necessary elasticity of pressure at the time of the recoil
of the shaft. This shaft M supported in the middle by the two bushes of the disc
chamber rests near its ends in two bearings in the standards or supports T. The

page_text: whole is mounted on a base or bed plate U. At the bottom of the apparatus there
is a small test opening V, closed by a door, the produce passing out by the
duct W.
According to the nature of the grain or seeds & the kind of work desired to be
obtained the channeling or grooving of the discs should be more or less fine; for
decortication a coarser channeling is required & a greater distance between the
dises; the horizontal position is also preferable for this kind of work. It is needless
to say that in a decorticating machine alone the crushing cylinders are unnecessary
& should be dispensed with.
In order to accurately adjust the bearings of the axle of the crushing cylinder or
cylinders & to permit them to move freely forwards or backwards in a horizontal
direction so as to allow for more or less separation or displacement at the ends of
the cylinders, or of one of them, the following arrangement has been devised
whereby all danger of fracture of the journals or heating of the bearings in cases
where the cylinders may not have been disposed parallel to each other is obviated;
this arrangement is shown at Fig. 5. The bearings are capable of angular adjust-
ment by being provided with round pivots a moving in guide slots. The plan view
in Fig. 5 represents the oblique position of the axis of one of the cylinders & its
bearing. The pressure of the screw which is exerted through the medium of au
india rubber buffer replaces by its elasticity the pressure of an automatic hand
lever.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said Inven-
tion, & the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into effect, I
would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel & original, &
therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the hereinbefore in part recited
Letters Patent is,―
First. The peculiar arrangement of apparatus for bruising, reducing, & decorti-
cating grain and seeds generally, consisting essentially of two operating discs of cast
iron or other suitable material disposed horizontally, vertically, or at any desired
angle, having their opposed surfaces so formed as to present several concentric
circles of conical & prismatic teeth, such teeth being grooved on the face and
carried by or mounted on a base likewise grooved, & employed in combination or
not with crushing or bruising cylinders, as herein before described & illustrated by
the Drawings.
Second. The peculiar arrangement of pivotted adjustable bearings as and for the
purpose herein before described & illustrated by the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Powley Alexander, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Ninth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty.
TAUTAL D AT TV ANTYRD