AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR EMPTYING PACKING CASES, BOXES, CASKS, BARRELS, AND SIMILAR RECEPTACLES, ESPECIALLY USED IN THE PACKING OF HOPS, FLOUR, AND OTHER SIMILAR SUBSTANCES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Conradi at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 10th May 1878. A communication from
abroad by Saly Israel, of Berlin, in Prussia, in the Empire of Germany.
HENRY CONRADI, of 8, Lower James Street, Golden Square, in the County of
Middlesex. "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR EMPTYING PACKING CASES, BOXES,
CASKS, BARRELS, AND SIMILAR RECEPTACLES, ESPECIALLY USED IN THE PACKING
OF HOPS, FLOUR, AND OTHER SIMILAR SUBSTANCES." [A communication from
abroad by Saly Israel, of Berlin, in Prussia, in the Empire of Germany.]
The mode of packing the hops in cylindrical receptacles or boxes of sheet iron
by means of hydraulic pressure and rarefaction, offers considerable difficulty of
emptying those boxes when the hop is required for use, as it is so very strongly
pressed in.
By using the ordinary tools, as crow bars or others, to empty these boxes, the
man in charge of this operation takes a considerable time to effect it, and in the
most cases breaks those boxes, which are very expensive.
By means of the apparatus represented in the adjoined Drawing, this operation
can be carried out casily and quickly, either by hand or by motive power, in
about one hour, or one hour and a half, without either breaking or damaging the
boxes.
The apparatus is fixed in a place best suited for this operation, either in a brewery,
mill, or other manufacturing concern. The box to be emptied is placed under and
in the centre of the apparatus in a wooden or any other frame of convenient
material a fixed to the ground, and can be centred, and its position be generally
regulated by the frame through the movable jaws b, b, made of wood or any other
convenient material and the set screws c, c'. By turning the handle of the crank
shaft the apparatus is set in motion.
The crank shaft transmits the revolving motion to the grooved screw spindle,
which, running in a fixed nut, descends or ascends, according to which direction the
handle of the crank shaft is turned. This revolving motion is transmitted by
means of the two bevel wheels d, e, but could also be carried into effect by other
means of gearing.

page_text: To the bottom of the screw is fixed or keyed on a two or more armed cross f
provided with a number of small knives g, g, similar to plough coulters, which, by
their sideway and down or upward motion, loosen and displace the hop or any
other material which may be packed in, and effect in this manner an easy
emptying of the boxes.
The apparatus, as aforesaid, is not only applicable to empty receptacles of any
kind filled with hops, but also for any other material, as flour, packed in casks or
barrels, &c., whereby through different gearing arrangement the forward motion of
the arms can be accelerated or slackened.
The improvements upon which the claims are principally based consists,-
1. In the construction of the apparatus for the purpose of loosening and dis-
placing the hops or other materials which are strongly pressed into appropriate
receptacles, boxes, cases, casks, or barrels, &c., for the purpose of transport and
preservation.
2. In the application of a rotating arrangement of a cross, or disc, or any other
similar disposition, provided with several arms or projecting pieces, called the
rotating plough, mounted or provided with knives for the above-described purpose.
3. In the centring of the cylindrical or otherwise shaped receptacle, box, or
barrel to the framework, which latter is composed of the wooden frame a, the
moveable jaws b, b¹, which are, like the former, made of wood or of any other con-
venient material and of the set screw c, c, the whole as represented in the adjoined
Drawing, and as above described.