AN IMPROVED DESICCATING APPARATUS
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Julien Boilesve, of 4, South Street, Finsbury,
in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention of
"AN IMPROVED DESICCATING APPARATUS."-A communication.
Sealed the 31st May 1858, and dated the 10th December 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Julien Boilesve at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 10th December 1852.
I, JULIEN BOILESVE, of 4, South Street, Finsbury, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the In-
vention for "AN IMPROVED DESICCATING APPARATUS" to be as follows:-
The Invention consists in a drying apparatus constructed of
a number of circular plates A, radiating round a vertical axis B,
and set one above the other. The number and diameter of these
plates are in due proportion to the elevation and width of the whole
apparatus, and can be separated one from the other at a distance of
from twelve to eighteen inches. These plates are made of perforated
sheet iron and metallic cloth, or of sheet iron without perforations;.
or of thin wood, when the substances to be dried are flour, fecula, or
any other pulverable matters.

page_text: When the heated air drawn in the central tube by the effect of a
powerful ventilation has penetrated and surrounded each of the
layers of the several plates of the apparatus, the surplus of the said
heated air rising to the top and finding no means of egress (having
previously shut all apertures at top), dilates at that part (the top),
and
presses off all its weight on the air already impregnated with
water, and which has been expelled from every layer of substance
on the several floors by the ascending current, and consequently the
heated air compels the air impregnated with water to descend, and
forces it to egress from the apparatus by the apertures set on the
circumferences at bottom.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said Julien Boilesve in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 9th June 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JULIEN BOILESVE, of 4, South Street, Finsbury, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of December, in the year
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Julien Boilesve, Her special licence that I,
the said Julien Boilesve, ny executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Julien Boilesve, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED DE-
SICCATING APPARATUS," communicated to me from a foreigner residing
abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Julien
Boilesve, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,

page_text: and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the
same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Julien Boilesve, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being
had to the Drawing hereto annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon (that is to say):
The Invention consists in the construction of an improved ap.
paratus for drying vegetable substances. Figure 1, is a plan, and
Figure 2, an elevation, of the said apparatus.
A, Figures 1, and 2, series of circular plates radiating round
a vertical axis B, and set above each other. There are supposed
to be ten in the apparatus herein-after described. The number
and diameter of the plates is proportionate to the elevation
and width of the whole apparatus, and they must be kept
at a distance of twelve to eighteen inches apart. The plates may
be inade of sheet iron, or of thin wood boards, when the sub-
stances to be dried are flour, fecula, or other pulverizable sub-
stances. D, Figure 2, a sheet iron or wooden rim surrounding the
plates, which have an opening in their centre from two to three feet
in. width, which is provided with plates E, Fig.
having their
upper parts united in the shape of a circle round the axis B, and
forming heat conducting tubes. The lower parts of the tubes E,
descend between the plates, and conduct the substances from an
upper plate to the plate underneath, when the axle B, is set in inotion.
The gatherers F, spread the substance over the plates, and leave it
there the necessary time to evaporate one tenth part of the water
contained in it. The substance then descends to the ninth plate, and
thence upon the eighth and so on successively, until it reaches the
bottom plate, when the desiccating is complete. As soon as the tenth
and upper plate begins to empty on to the ninth plate, a hopper, I,
having a paddle J, set in motion by the shaft K, on which the
gatherers F, are set, is made to supply an equal quantity of substance

page_text: to the empty space, which operation is performed simultaneously by
the whole of the plates of the apparatus.
This motion is effected by the crank arm L, and a horizontal cog
wheel, which communicates with the axis K. The axis K, is kept
vertical by means of collars (not seen in the Drawing), which allow
it to ascend and descend as required. The apparatus is set in motion
by two bevil wheels (also not shewn) set at top or bottom of the
vertical axis B, which motion is regulated according to the time
required for desiccating; that is to say, for the successive falling of
the substances from the ten plates. One of the bevil wheels is fixed
to any part of the axis B, and is made to cog with another toothed
wheel, which transmits the motion to it, and causes it to rotate
according to the number of its cogs. The toothed wheel on the
axis B, has on one part of its circumference a horizontal notch, from
six to eight inches in length and about two inches in depth, which,
by allowing the axis K, to descend, causes all the gatherers F, which
were about two inches away from the substance, to bear close upon
the plates, which continue to rotate, so that all the substance
is spread over every plate by means of the gatherers, and is forcibly
conducted to the extremity of the plate, where, meeting the internal
circle, it is forced obliquely down upon the plate underneath.
.
'
The rakes M, to the number of four, six or eight for every plate,
are set on the permanent shaft N, round the axis B, and their teeth
touch slightly the plates and are set in an opposite direction to the
gatherers F, which spread the substance in even layers. The rakes
form furrows, which turn the substance over in every part, by which
the desiccating operation is assisted. The heat penetrates into the
apparatus, through circular openings at P, made in the support O;
on which. the vertical axis B, is set. As soon as the caloric rises, it
penetrates through every floor, and acts on the extended substance;
penetrates through the layers set on them, and through the furrows
formed by the rakes; every part of the substance is thus exposed to
the action of the heated air, and the ventilation which is going on
forces out of the apparatus the steam as soon as it is formed.
:
I take care to shut all other ingress to the apparatus, except by

page_text: the plate O; and I set close to the ground floor, under the first
plate, a certain number of lateral blades R, R, in proportion
to the quantity of moisture which they serve to condense. When
the heated air drawn in the central tube by the effect of a powerful
ventilator has penetrated each of the layers of substance in the appa-
ratus, the surplus heated air rises to the top, and, finding no means
of egress there, by its expansion forces down the moist air which has
accumulated from the several plates by the ascending current
of air, and causes it to egress from the apparatus through the
apertures on its circumference. The circulation of heated air is
active and powerful during the operation. The same result as
above described can be also obtained by reversing the plates, rakes,
and gatherers. If the substances require cooling, they are
poured into a hopper G, provided with a screw H, and conducted
hence to the place where they are to be kept.
And having now described the nature of the Invention com-
municated to me, and the manner of performing the same, I would
have it understood that I do not confine myself to the precise details
herein described, nor do I claim any of the parts taken separately;
but what I claim as new, and intended to be protected by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
The construction of an apparatus for desiccating substances as
herein-before described and referred to in the several Figures of the
Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Julien Boilesve, have hereto
set my hand and seal, this day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand night hundred and flm ilma
Witness,
H'. GILBEE.
J. BOILESVE. (L.S.)