IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE TREATMENT OF GRAIN AND FLOUR
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Arthur William Lovell Reddie of the Office for Patents
66 Chancery Lane in the County of Middlesex Patent Agent for an
Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE TREATMENT
OF GRAIN AND FLOUR Communicated to him from abroad by Henry
Ferdinand Saint Requier of Paris in the Republic of France
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Arthur William Lovell Reddie
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th July 1882.
ARTHUR WILLIAM LOVELL REDDIE of the Office for Patents 66 Chancery Lane
in the County of Middlesex Patent Agent "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO
BE USED IN THE TREATMENT OF GRAIN AND FLOUR" [Communicated to him
from abroad by Henry Ferdinand Saint Requier of Paris in the Republic of
France]
The object of this Invention is to produce an apparatus in which the several
operations of sifting and cleaning of grain, the gauging of the grains and meal
of corn, and the bolting of flour may be effected with greater precision than
beretofore.
The apparatus consists of a long metal framework formed of two end plates
connected together by horizontal bars of angle iron. These bars are held together
so as to prevent flexion by external rings of angle iron placed at suitable distances
apart. The framework is surrounded with wire or silk gauze of varying mesh
according to the particular operation for which the apparatus is to be used. Inside
the cylinder thus formed a number of helicoidal blades or partitions are arranged
in such a manner as to form with the horizontal bars a series of pockets or com-
partments in which the material under treatment is raised by the rotation of the
apparatus to fall again at the proper time into the compartments formed by the
next set of helicoidal blades or partitions, by which means the material under
treatment is gradually worked along the whole length of the cylinder.
The material to be treated is introduced into the cylinder at the centre of the
one end plate through a hollow axle secured to the end plate, and the coarser

page_text: particles pass out at the centre of the other end plate and through a hollow axle
connected therewith. These axles turn in suitable bearings containing endless
screws which are connected to the end plates and turn with the cylinder, and by
which a regular flow of the material to and from the cylinder is ensured.
Motion is communicated to the cylinder through a gear wheel on one of the
hollow axles from any suitable prime mover.
In order to support the cylinder at various points in its length suitable rollers
are provided on which the external rings rest.
For convenience the gauge may be made removable from the cylinder and means
are provided by which it may be readily placed in position when required, and by
which the requisite tension especially in the case of silk gauze may be more
effectually obtained than with the ordinary means. The novel means consists of
rings of metal to be fixed to the drum and to the tissue provided with studs round
which laces are passed. By means of these laces the tissue may be drawn quite
tight with great facility.
In an apparatus constructed as above described the central axle which usually
forms part of such apparatus and causes great inconvenience is avoided and the
necessity for placing the cylinder in an inclined position to ensure proper working
is obviated.
It will be understood that suitable receptacles are provided as usual to receive
the siftings from the cylinder.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Arthur William Lovell Reddie in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th January 1883.
ARTHUR WILLIAM LOVELL REDDIE of the Office for Patents 66 Chancery Lane
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent " IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO
BE USED IN THE TREATMENT OF GRAIN AND FLOUR" Being a communication to
me from Abroad by Henry Ferdinand Saint-Requier of Paris in the Republic of
France
The object of this Invention is to provide an apparatus which will admit of
being used by a slight modification either for sifting or assorting grain and
bolting meal.
In the accompanying drawing Fig: 1 shews in longitudinal section the improved
apparatus contracted in length for the convenience of illustration and Fig: 2 is a
cross section of the same.
It consists mainly of a skeleton cylinder of iron mounted horizontally upon
hollow trunnions and covered with wire gauze or silk according to the use to
which the apparatus is to be applied.
The grain or meal to be treated is delivered to the cylinder through one of the
hollow trunnions from a fixed hopper or supply tube A, and the residue from the
assorted or sifted grain or meal is delivered to a fixed discharge hopper or tube C
connected with the hollow trunnion at the opposite end of the machine.-B is a
transverse girder of cast iron, which supports the feeding end of the cylinder, and
to it the hopper A is secured. D is a similar girder which supports the delivery
end of the cylinder, and also the discharge hopper or tube C.-These girders carry
plummer blocks E in which the hollow trunnions of the cylinders are free to turn.
F and G are circular end plates of cast iron made fast to, or cast in one with,
their respective trunnions, and connected together by parallel bars of angle iron H
which form the skeleton periphery of the cylinder.-I I are bars of iron coiled
helically from end to end of the cylinder, and completing with the parallel bars H,
the skeleton cylindrical framing.
J. J. are rings formed of angle iron, and surrounding the cylinder for the purpose
of stiffening the cylinder and preventing the flexure of the parallel bars H; these
rings bear upon antifriction pullies K mounted in fixed boxes below the cylinder.
The cylinder is covered by wire gauze or silk L and it is driven through a spur
wheel M keyed on to one of the trunnions.
The grain or meal is admitted to the cylinder by the aid of an Archimedean
screw N which rotates with the cylinder, it being situate within a horizontal
portion or continuation of the fixed delivery tube A.-A similar arrangement is
provided for facilitating the discharge of the residium of the assorted grain or
sifted meal an Archimedean screw O attached to the delivery end of the cylinder
being situate in the horizontal portion or continuation of the tube. C.
The cylinder is fitted at its discharge end with radial blades P for lifting the
residium of the operations and discharging the same into the fixed hopper or
discharge tube C.-These blades are preferably carried by the end plate G and a
disc Q which together form a chamber at the extremity of the cylinder.
The disc Q is made fast to the framing and stands in the plane in which the
helical bars terminate, the breadth of the plates P is equal to the width of the
chamber in which they are fixed, and as they are intended to conduct the residium
which enters the chamber into the discharge hoppers C they are made sufficiently
short to clear the hopper in their revolution.

page_text: In order to provide for the facile attachment and detachment of the wire gauze
or silk covering of the cylinder, metallic hoops fitted with studs as shewn at
Figures 3 are attached to the cylinder, and the wire gauze or silk covering pieces
are similarly fitted at their edges with strips of metal carrying studs, as illustrated
at Figures 4
When these pieces are laid around the cylinder, they may be secured in place
and drawn to tension by means of lacing cords passed from side to side around
the studs of the adjacent hoops and strips. This mode of lacing is shewn in
Figures 4.
The action of this apparatus is as follows:-Supposing the cylinder to be
provided with a silk covering suitable for bolting or sifting the fine flour from the
meal, meal is delivered to the cylinder by the Archimedean screw N, which rotates
with the rotation of the cylinder. The meal, as it enters the rotating cylinder,
falls to the bottom, and is retained in the cells formed in its inner periphery by the
intersection of the horizontal bars H, with the helical bars I.
As the cylinder rotates on its axis, these cells carry the meal towards the top,
and discharge it in a shower upon the lower part of the cylinder, and into the cells
next in advance..
By this means the meal is slowly traversed forward, and at the same time every
atom is brought into contact with the covering of the cylinder without any
tendency to slide forward in a mass over the covering. The absence also of a shaft
extending through the cylinder leaves a free course for the falling meal when
emptied from the raised cells. It will be understood that by graduating the
coarseness or fineness of the covering of the cylinder, the material under treatment
will, in the act of bolting or sifting, be separated according to the fineness or
coarseness of the granules or grains.
1
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "Improvements in
apparatus to be used in the treatment of grain and flour as communicated to me
by my Foreign correspondent, and having explained the manner of carrying the
same into effect I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited
Letters Patent I claim:-
First: Constructing the skeleton cylinders of bolting, sifting and assorting
apparatus in the manner and for the purpose above set forth.
Secondly The means above described for covering the skeleton cylinder with
silk or other gauze and securing it at tension thereon.
Thirdly The general arrangement of apparatus as described with reference to
the drawing whereby meal or other material submitted to the action of the
apparatus is brought into contact with the sifting or assorting surface by a
constant succession of vertical down-pours as it is traversed from end to end of
the cylinder.
In witness whereof I the said Arthur William Lovell Reddie have hereunto
set my hand and seal the twenty-seventh day of January in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty three.
ARTHUR W. L. REDDIE. (L.S.)