AN IMPROVED PROCESS TO BE USED IN THE DRESSING OF PADDY OR ROUGH RICE
Year: 1827

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JONATHAN
LUCAS and HENRY EWBANK, both of Mincing Lane, in the City of London,
Merchants, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Tenth day of March, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-seven, in the eighth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said Jonathan Lucas and Henry
Ewbank, His especial licence, that we, the said Jonathan Lucas and Henry
Ewbank, our exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Jonathan Lucas and Henry Ewbank, our exors, adññors, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times here-
after during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His said Majesty's Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, our Invention of "AN IMPROVED PROCESS TO BE USED IN THE
DRESSING OF PADDY OR ROUGH RICE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso, obliging us, the said Jonathan Lucas and Henry Ewbank, by-an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal
of one of us, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of our said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar

page_text: months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto_had, will more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Jonathan Lucas and Henry Ewbank, for one of us for the other, do hereby
declare that the full and true particulars of our aforesaid Invention of an
improved process to be used in the dressing of paddy or rough rice, and the
manner in which the same is to be practised, performed, and carried into
effect, is herein-after fully described and set forth, that is to say:-
It consists in certain improvements in and upon part of the process for
which Henry Ewbank aforesaid, party hereto, obtained Letters Patent from
His late Majesty King George the Third, which said Patent was dated at
Westminster the Ninth day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and nineteen; and a Specification of the said process
was duly inrolled by the said Henry Ewbank in the High Court of Chancery
on or about the Eighth day of April, in the same year, as by reference thereto
will more fully and at large appear.
In that said last-mentioned Specification it is amongst other things recited
that in order to dress 'the said paddy or rough rice, or strip it of its shells or
husks, so as to render it fit for culinary purposes, it is first to be screened or
sifted through a wire screen, adapted to the size of the grain, to separate it
from any dirt, sand, or other extraneous matter, when it is to be transferred to
a pair of millstones for the purpose of shelling it or removing the external
rough husk. After leaving the stones the rice is separated from the chaff or
outer húsk, when it' passes to the mortars to 'be beaten. It further recites
that rice has also an internal skin or pellicle, which, although very thin,
requires to be removed before it is fit for culinary use, and which is not at all
touched or effected by the above process, but must be rubbed off and removed
by triturating the rice by pestles in certain mortars in a manner and by certain
means and machinery therein fully described and ascertained. The rice;
having been sufficiently triturated in 'the said mortars, is next to be passed
through 'a sloping and revolving screen, having its wire cloth of three
degress of fineness, the highest and finest part of which lets out 'the "düst
or flour of the rice, the next the broken or small rice, and the third
or "last division the shelled "whole rice, the rough grains, if any, being
discharged at the bottom to be returned 'to the stones again. The
screened rice so separated by this last process is next to be conveyed to the
brightening or polishing machine, therein particularly described as consisting
of an internal and external cylinder or cones placed concentrically in a per-

page_text: pendicular or inclining direction; such external eylinder or cone consisting of
a frame. covered within with very fine wire cloth, and kept stationary or per-
mitted to revolve; while the internal cylinder or cone is covered with. sheeps
skins with the wool upon them stretched upon close, boarding, or other fit
material, and made to revolve rapidly within the external cylinder or cone, to
the end that the grains of rice which are admitted at the top between the two
cylinders or cones may be brushed and rubbed, and carried forwards by the
wool of the sheep skins against the external wire cloth, by which all the dust
adhering to them is removed and they become brightened and polished by the
time when they reach the bottom of the machine where they are delivered, and
lastly exposed again to the action of a wind.fan which completes, the process
by driving off any light chaff which may have remained mixed with the rice.
And whereas the said above-described process is such as has been used and
practised in the United States of America, and which the said Henry Ewbank
and his assigns since the granting of the aforesaid Patent have successfully
applied for the purpose intended; but by various experiments, and trials made
by the said Henry Ewbank in conjunction with the said Jonathan Lucas, now
his copartner in the said Patent granted to him as aforesaid, they have by
their joint study, labor, and experience invented and found out that paddy or
rough rice may be better and more effectually dressed or cleansed and rendered
fit. for culinary and edible purposes by certain alterations, amendments, and
improvements of the process described in the aforesaid Patent, granted to the
said Henry Ewbank, or in the Specification thereunto appertaining, which he
caused to be inrolled in the High Court of Chancery as aforesaid. Now these
presents witness, and the said John Lucas and Henry Ewbank hereby declare,
or one for the other of them, by and with the consent and approbation of the
other, that the Invention and improvement, for which they have jointly solicited
and obtained His Majesty's said Letters Patent of the Tenth day of March now
last past, are particularly described, ascertained, and set forth as follows, that is.
to say: In the first place the paddy or rough rice is to be treated in precisely
the same way as was described in the aforesaid Specification of the said Henry
Ewbank, or in any other way that will cleanse it and remove this external
shell or husk, and put it into a fit state for introduction into the mortars which
we still retain in our improved process; but instead of beating or triturating
it therein until the inner skin or pellicle is altogether detached from the grain,
and then screening it and passing it to the brightening or polishing machine
for finishing. it, as described in the aforesaid Specification of the former Patent,
we now submit it to a new and improved process for the more effectual dressing
and cleaning it, because the inner pellicle, not being of a nature to break off or

page_text: separate in flakes or bran like the outer husk, becomes reduced to a state of
powder or flour by the trituration in the mortars; and being of a gummy or
glutinous nature and more-moist-than-in the United States of America
(it may be from the absorption of moisture on the voyage, the humidity.of this
climate, or some other cause), it becomes so sticky before the whole of the
pellicle is rubbed off by the trituration in the mortars that the free motion of
the grain in them is greatly impeded; the effect to be produced is thereby
diminished, the tendency in the grain to break increased, and: the white
color and fine polish, of which the grain by the new process is susceptible;
deteriorated.
We therefore find it highly important to the success of our aforesaid process
that this inner pellicle or skin should not continue mixed with the rice during
the whole process of trituration; and, consequently, instead of continuing
that trituration in one set of mortars until it appears sufficiently dressed 'and
prepared to pass off into the revolving screen, and from thence to the polishing
machine, our improved process, to which the present Patent of the Tenth day
of March last applies, and which we hereby, or one for the other of us, declare
our improvement to consist in, is the use of two or more distinct sets of mortars
with their peslles or stampers, as before described, and in beating or triturating
the paddy when introduced into the first set of mortars, as before described,
for a less length of time, namely, until a considerable portion of the inner
pellicle has been removed, which will take more or less time according to the
condition and quality of the paddy or rice, but will easily be known to any
competent workman by the change of its appearance and its sluggish motion
in the mortars. The rice is therefore to be taken from the first set of mortars
before the glutinous meal begins to adhere to the grain, as indicated by its
motion beginning to be sluggish, and passed through a screen, or wind fan, or
brushing machine, or all or any of them, or be treated in any other mode that
will effectually remove the flour or meal, and then be put into the second set
of mortars, mixing with it for the second trituration a considerable quantity of
the outer husks or chaff as it comes from the stones; from one-fourth to
two-fifths in bulk of it to the quantity of rice in the mortars will be found
serviceable. These outer husks should be dry and as free from dust or rice
flour as they can be procured, and by their roughness tend very greatly to assist
in cleansing and brightening the grains with which they are mixed. The iron
hoop or collar of sheet iron, as described in the previous Patent, need not be
used in the first set of mortars, but will be found very serviceable in the second,
in which the rice remains until sufficiently prepared to be screened again and
påssed to the brightening or finishing machine, as before described, and 'used..

page_text: We do not however limit ourselves to a double trituration, because the state
of the paddy may in some cases be such as to require three or more operations
in the mortars with a screening or fanning between each; and as the object of
our present improvement is to clease and remove the dust or flour, produced
by the reduction of the pellicle and germs of the grains as effectually as
possible, from the mass of rice while under the process of trituration, so if
other machinery be used for the partial dressing of the rice from the inner
pellicle and germs in conjunction with pestles and mortars, so that the rice
when introduced into them is already partly freed from the glutinous flour or
meal, and the action of the grain in the mortars thereby increased, we consider
that as a part of our Invention and improvement, which enables the manu-
facturer to produce a better and more perfect cleaning and preparation of rice,
and with less delay and expence than by any operation we are acquainted with,
or know to be practised.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Ewbank, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand oight hundred and twenty covon