Improvements in Middlings Purifiers.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Nov., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 23rd June, 1890-Accepted, 26th July, 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Middlings Purifiers.
I WILLIAM TAYLOR BATES of 73 Commercial Road Liverpool Mill Manager, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention has for its object the improvement and simplification of apparatus
used in the purification of semolina, middlings, and kindred substances in flour
mills.
In carrying my invention into effect I employ suitably shaped funnels, by means of
which I make direct communication for the passage of air between the purifier sieve
and the air chamber or fan, thus dispensing with the intermediate air chamber. These
funnels, or air passages, I prefer to make telescopic and flexible for the purpose of
adaptability but they may be made otherwise, and of any suitable materials. I fix
them, preferably, independantly of the sieve, and make the connection between sieve
and funnels airtight by using cushions of suitable materials. By means of this
arrangement existing machines can be greatly improved and more easily worked.
Dated this 7th day of November 1889.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Middlings Purifiers.
I, WILLIAM TAYLOR BATES of 73, Commercial Road, Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Mill Manager, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to apparatus for purifying middlings, semolina, and kindred
material, and it has for its object certain improvements in such apparatus, whereby
their construction may be simplified and their working facilitated.
The invention may be clearly understood from the following description, reference
being had therein to the acconipanying drawing, in which :-
Figure 1 is a transverse section of a portion of a middlings purifier as constructed
in accordance with my invention.
Figure 2 is a side sectional elevation of the parts shown in Figure 1, the outer
casing of the purifier being removed.
A is the framing of the machine. B is the air-tight air chamber communicating
with a fan or other exhaust apparatus, not shown. C is the ordinary vibrating sieve,
on to which the material to be treated is fed. D is the conveyor trough for receiving
the material which passes through the sieve. The above parts may be of any old and
well known construction.
In carrying my invention into effect, I place, above the sieve, a series of suitably
shaped tubes E, so arranged that the air, passing up through the sieve and the material
thereon, is obliged to traverse the tubes before entering the air chamber. The tubes E
may be constructed of any suitable material, and they may, if desirable, be made
telescopic or flexible for the purposes of adjustment. They are, by preference,
mounted in a fixed manner, so as to be independent of the movement of the sieve, and
their lower ends, which are placed as close as practicable to the sieve surface, may, if
desirable, be formed bell-mouthed, as shown in Figure 2. The tubes may be placed
transversely or obliquely across the sieve, or they may run from end to end thereof.
Each tube (when placed transversely or obliquely) extends across the entire width of
the sieve as seen in Figure 1.
I prefer to form the bottom 6 of the air chamber B with a considerable inclination

page_text: towards the opposite sides of the chamber, as shown in Figure 1. By this means the
dust deposited in the chamber is enabled to slide down the inclined bottom to the sides
of the chamber, where it falls into two troughs 6¹ running from end to end of the
machine and fixed, by preference, to the sieve frame c, so as to be vibrated therewith.
Such vibration causes the dust to travel down to the ends of the troughs, whence it
may be discharged, by any suitable device, to the exterior of the machine. To
prevent the air being drawn into the air chamber past the sides of the troughs 6, I
provide the latter, or the adjacent sides of the chamber, with elastic cushions of any
suitable material, so arranged as not to retard the free movement of the sieve. A
similar device may also be placed at the bottom of the air chamber, as shown at *, for
the same purpose.
The mode of action is as follows:-
The air is drawn, by the action of the fan, up through the sieve and the material
thereon, carrying away from said material the lightest portion thereof "the dust."
The air, with the dust in suspension, passes, with an increased velocity, up the
tubes E. On issuing from the mouths of the latter into the air chamber B, the air
undergoes a large amount of dispersion or expansion, resulting in the deposition of a
large portion of the dust previously carried by it. This dust slides down the inclined
bottom into the troughs as before described. I am thus enabled to eliminate a
large part of the dust from the air before the latter reaches the fan.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
:―
1. In a middlings purifier, the combination with the vibrating sieve C, of a series
of approximately parallel tubes such as E fixed from side to side or from end to end
of the sieve, immediately above the same, and forming restricted passages for the
dust-laden air between the sieve and the superimposed partially exhausted air chamber,
substantially as described and shown.
2. In a middlings purifier, the general arrangement of dust separating and collecting
apparatus, placed above the sieve and worked mainly independently thereof, said
arrangement being taken as a whole, substantially as shown and described.
Dated this 21st day of June 1890.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of Liverpool, Manchester and London, Patent Agents.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of Liverpool, Manchester and London, Patent Agents.