CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON AN ENGINE OR MACHINE FOR SEPARATING CORN SEEDS AND PULSE FROM THE STRAW AND CHAFF
Year: 1805

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
LESTER, of Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the the did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of
January, in the forty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said William Lester, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence that I, the said William Lester, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, during
the term of years therein mentioned, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON AN
ENGINE OR MACHINE FOR SEPARATING CORN SEEDS AND PULSE FROM THE STRAW
AND CHAFF;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said William Lester, by an Instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar months after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation
being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Lester, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described
in the Drawings hereunto annexed, and in the following description thereof,
that is to say:

page_text: Figure 1st. The portable horse power that drives the machine occasionally.
Figure 2d. That part of the machine that disengages the corn and seeds
from the straw, and may be worked either by the hand or with the horse
power without that part of the machine which separates the corn from the
chaff (which may be also worked by itself by hand), whereby the straw of
wheat will be left straighter than when passed through the whole machine.
A, A, A, A, the frame. B, the cylinder that rubs out the corn with the
triangular promenent segments. upon the surface working near to the upper
feeding roller and frictors, the space betwixt which is varied by the moveable
segments in the chairs on which the ends of the frictors rest, and which are
raised and lowered separately by nuts and screws C, C, C. D, the feeding
board on which the corn is laid obliquely, the ears foremost, as much as the
state of it will admit, to be worked in by the hands of the feeder thin and
regular. E, the feeding rollers, the lower one fluted, the upper one of wood,
a true cylinder perforated with small round holes about half an inch deep in
those parts of it that works opposite to the connecting parts of the angular
segments upon the cylinder, and which is driven by a brass pinion at the end
working into one of iron fixed on the axis of the lower roller. F, F, F, the
frictors that conduct the straw over the cylinder, and which are raised and
lowered as before described. G, G, G, three wheels of 20 teeth each, the
middle one of brass, which is driven by one of 48 teeth. II, the drum by
which the machine is applied to a horse power, is fixed upon the other hand
of the axis on which the wheel H is fixed, but not seen in this Figure; sce
Figure the Third.
Figure 3d. The winnowing part of the machine connected with Figure
the 2d. I, I, I, the frame which is bolted with 4 iron bolts to Figure 2d,
two of which are seen at J, J, the other two are in a similar position at
the other end, and a large wheel with teeth, which is driven by the wheel G,
on the axis of the cylinder, Figure the 2d, when worked connected with that
part of the machine, but driven by the handles L when worked detached by
the hand. M, the first tumbling rake that takes the straw from the cylinder.
N, a second tumbling rake, which discharges the stone from the machine
driven by three small wheels O, O, O. P, a hopper wherein the corn is put
when worked without that part of the machine Figure 2d. Q, Q, guiding
boards that guide the straw from the cylinder to the first tumbling rake M.
R, R, the ends of 2 concave segments of perforated wood or wire work,
through which the corn falls into the hopper or conductor. S, a hopper, which
has a vibrating motion (similar to the shoc that conducts the corn from the
hopper to the stones in a flour mill), and which conducts the corn and chaff

page_text: to the first wind pipe. T, the corn falling into the brush box V, after passing
which it enters the second wind pipe W, and falls down the screen X. Y, the
box where the wind is generated by the fauners. Z, Z, 2 bevel wheels
with 58 teeth each, driving two pinions with 23 teeth each, which drives
the fanners and the brush. The axis on which these bevel wheels are fixed
had at the end a pinion of 20 teeth, which is driven by the large wheel
with 185, whose axis is the first tumbling rake M.
Figure 4th. The cylinder shewing the angular prominences upon its surface,
which are about three eighths of an inch deep.
Figure 5th, 6th, and 7th. The inside of the frictors.
Figure 8th. The rollers.
Figures 9th and 10th. The chairs, A, B, C, the moveable segments that
support the ends of the frictors.
Figure 11th and 12th. The 2 moveable parts that take out to let in
the axis of the cylinder.
Figure 13th. The cavity that receives the axis of the lower roller.
Figure 14th. The cavity that receives the axis of the upper roller.
Figure 15th. The first tumbling rake with the square part that shakes the
hopper S.
Figure the 16th. The fanner.
Figure 17th. The brush.
Figures 18th, 19th, and 20th. The wire beds that are set against the brush
in the box V, and which are regulated by wedges as the brush wears down.
Figure 21st. The wind box, pipes, and brush box.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Lester, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
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