Improvements relating to Feed Hoppers for Meal, Grain, and other Materials.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 27th June, 1898
Complete Specification Left, 23th Oct., 1893-Accepted, 22nd Apr., 1899
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to Feed Hoppers for Meal, Grain, and other
Materials.
We, THOMAS ASHLEY, Junior, Millwright, of Louth, in the County of Lincoln,
WILLIAM HADDON OWEN, Solicitor, of Louth aforesaid, and THOMAS HOSEA
MOTLEY, Farmer, of Grainthorpe, in the said County of Lincoln, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
"
The present invention has reference more particularly to hoppers for deliver-
ing a regular feed of such substances as are most liable, from dampness or other
causes, to paste," or to form a "bridge" in the hopper, and thus interrupt the
feed. The invention is however applicable for facilitating the feed of a great
variety of substances too numerous to mention.
The object of this invention is to maintain the contents of the feed hopper in
constant agitation, so that such contents are not allowed, by their quiescence,
to " paste or to bridge," and become set in the hopper.
66
According to the present invention, the contents of the hopper are kept
agitated in the following manner :-
The hopper, which may be approximately V shaped in cross section, and is
fitted at its outlet with a feed roller, is provided at front and back with endway
moving slides, which operate in conjunction with other slides arranged adjacent
thereto, and reciprocated also endwise in a contrary direction.
In the case of both the back and front of the hopper, a considerable surface
is thus in constant movement in opposite directions, and, in consequence, the
contents in contact therewith are constantly being agitated by the friction.
By this action, in conjunction with the action of the feed roller, an even and
regular feed is ensured.
When this arrangement of slides is adapted to a moving machine, the motion
of the travelling wheels can be utilized to give the required reciprocatory move-
ment. When applied to a fixed machine the motive power which drives the
same may be employed for this purpose.
Dated this 07th day of Tune 1808
Improvements relating to Feed Hoppers for Meal, Grain, and other
Materials.
We, THOMAS ASHLEY, Junior, Millwright, of Louth, in the County of Lincoln,
WILLIAM HADDON OWEN, Solicitor, of Louth aforesaid, and THOMAS HOSEA
MOTLEY, Farmer, of Grainthorpe, in the said County of Lincoln, do hereby
[Price 8d.1

page_text: declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement;
1
The present invention has reference to feed hoppers for meal, grain, and other
materials, and has for its object the provision of means whereby the contents
are kept in a constant state of movement, and prevented from "pasting," caking,
bridging" in the hopper, so as to interrupt the feed.
or
In the accompanying drawing, we have shewn our invention as applied to a
hopper specially constructed to suit roller flour mills.
Fig. 1 is an end view of the hopper, embodying these improvements.
Fig. 2 is a view of the opposite end.
Fig. 3 is a back view.
Fig. 4 is a section on the line X-X of Fig. 3.
Fig. 5 is a plan of a detail, detached.
Figs. 6 are other detached portions, in side view.
The hopper selected for illustrating this invention comprises three endway
reciprocating portions or slides, two at the front of the hopper and one at the
back. It will be obvious, however, that the number of movable parts may be
varied, without departing from the spirit of the invention.
A is the hopper, comprising end portions a, a.
B is the front of the hopper, hinged between the ends u, a. C is the hopper
back, fixed in an inclined position. 1) and E are endway reciprocating front
boards or slides, and F is an endway-reciprocating back portion or slide, which
is also adjustable vertically, to regulate the feed, either automatically or by
hand. G is the delivery roll, rotated at the mouth of the hopper by means of a
pulley or other device.
The endway reciprocation of the boards D, E, is effected as follows;-
H is a crank shaft, mounted in bearings h on the end a of the hopper A (see
Figs. 1 and 3). On the end of the shaft H is a bevil pinion h¹, engaging with
a pinion g¹ on the axle of the roller G. In the drawing, the shaft H is shewn
with two cranks * and ** oppositely arranged, so as to work the crank
rods and e, to which they are respectively connected, in opposite directions.
The rods d and e are attached to the boards D and E so that the reciprocating
movement given to the former by the cranks is imparted to the latter, which
are thereby caused to move to and fro endwise in opposite directions in the
guiding slots with which the end portions a a of the hopper are provided.
The pinions and g₁ are of different sizes, so as to provide for driving the
shaft Hat a lower rate of speed than the roller G, which, in delivering and dis-
tributing some materials from the hopper, has to be driven tolerably fast.
Upon the shaft H is a second pinion 2, which engages a pinion i on a short
shaft I, which is mounted in a bearing (see Fig. 1), and is provided with a
crank. The rotation which the crank shaft I receives through the pinions h
and is utilized to reciprocate the rod f, which is connected at one end to the
crank and at the other to the board F of the hopper, which board F is thereby
also caused to reciprocate. This board F is carried by a rod f¹ at its back (see
Fig. 5), which rod is loosely threaded thro' the ends of lever arms jį (see Figs. 5
and 6) fast on the rod J. This rod J is mounted between the ends a a of the
hopper, and is capable of being rocked by means of the lever arm ¹ carrying
the set screw j³.
It will thus be seen that the portion F of the hopper is capable of sliding
endways on the supporting levers ; j, and is also capable of adjustment vertically
to regulate the space between its lower edge and the distributing roll G, through
which the material from the hopper is delivered.
The board or slide F is kept from falling below the elevation desired by means
of the set screw 12, which is arranged to bear against a projection on the fixed
portion C of the hopper.

page_text: The automatic adjustment of the height of the slide F, to increase the dis-
charge, and thereby assist in moving the contents of the hopper, is effected by
the hinged portion B of the hopper, to the hinge rod 6 of which is fixed the lever
arm b (see Figs. 2 and 3). This lever 61 bears against the end k of a double
armed lever K, pivotted near its middle to the hopper end, and the other end
of the lever K underlies the arm 3, which is fast on the end of the rock shaft.
It will thus be seen that the depression of lever 6 tips the lever K on its
pivot, and thereby lifts the arm on the rod or shaft J, and, by means of the
latter, lifts the slide F. The depression of the lever b¹ is, in practice, effected
when the hinged hopper front B becomes overweighted by the contents of the
hopper, so that by this means, the discharge may be automatically increased
immediately the hopper becomes over-full by reason of the "bridging" or
"pasting" of the contents.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said in-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is;-
1. The hopper for delivering meal, grain, and other materials, constructed,
arranged, and operating substantially as described with reference to the accom-
panying drawing.
2. In hoppers constructed and arranged as hereinbefore described means for
operating the endway reciprocating slides substantially as set forth with reference
to the accompanying drawing.
D
001
1
1000