A NEW METHOD, BY MACHINERY, OF PREPARING FLOUR FROM ALL KINDS OF GRAIN AND POTATOES, POR MAKING STARCH, BREAD, BISCUITS, AND PASTRY
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
BOWLES, of 61, Moorgate Street, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS our present Majesty Queen Victoria, in and by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Her Palace at
Westminster, the Fifteenth day of September last, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, did give and grant unto me, the said Frederick Bowles, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Frederick
Bowles, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and
themselves, or by my and their deputy or deputies, servants, or agents, or such
others as I, the said Frederick Bowles, my exors, admors, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, and exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Colonies and Plantations abroad, and
also in the Isles of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, my Invention, by
communication, of "A NEW METHOD, BY MACHINERY, OF PREPARING FLOUR FROM
ALL KINDS OF GRAIN AND POTATOES, POR MAKING STARCH, BREAD, BISCUITS, AND
PASTRY;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said Frederick Bowles, by an instrument in writing under my band and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six. calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being had thereto, will more fully appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Frederick Bowles, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the figures and letters marked thereon (that is to say) :-
The scientific principle upon which my system operates is,―
First, gluten or fibrin is the base of farinacious fermentation, and is
indispensible for good bread; and the more gluten auy quantity of dough
contains the more perfect is the bread. (See Chaptal; Dictionary Technological
of Arts and Trade; and the works of Monsieur Thinard.
Second, potatoes, rice, and maize contain no gluten, and will not make
bread unless well mixed with gluten or matter which does contain it. (See
Chaptal; Baker's Manual).
Third, the farine or fecule of potatoe is very nutritive, and in general all
farine is identical as alimentary substances. The residue of potatoes is equally
very nutritive; for, independently of the parenchyme, it contains when dry
seventy-five per cent. of farine which has not been extracted. (See Vanquelin.
Cadet devaux) in his Collections on the Province of Charante, and Monsieur
Ganal in his Memoirs to the Chambers.
Fourth, the tearing or breaking off the envelopes of the small globules which
contain the farine, and reducing it to an impalpable state, gives it the power
of absorbing. more water than in its natural state. (See Berzelius, and the
Dictionary of Industm)

page_text: whether by the new machine PL', 6, or by the chemical means which will
hereafter be described, to render it at least as perfect for bread as the flour of
wheat, and cause it to absorb water sufficient for that purpose.
Fourth, to prepare the residue of potatoes by chemical means, if the raw
residue be not employed, in order to prevent its drying or giving out its
carbon. Such residue I reduce to flour by means of the new cylindrical
machine PL, 7, which is equally applicable for every sort of flour. With
the products thus obtained I make bread and sea biscuits. First, the gluten.
when fresh derived from wheat flour, or the mucilaginous substances -from
rice, maize, &c, also in a fresh state, or a mixture of both. The gluten
and mucilaginous substances when joined to wheat, barley, rice, or maize, or
other flour, or with the farine, or even the residue of potatoes, prepared as
hereafter described, are to be combined in proportions according to the quality.
of the bread or biscuit I wish to obtain. If I employ fecule mixed with the
residue of potatoes I can dispense with preparing my fecule, the moisture
carried in the residue being counteracted by the dryness of the feculc.
First, I also obtain a remarkably superior white loaf by mixing one half of
gluten taken from wheat flour and all the starch without fermentation, and
adding sufficient flour to make dough. Second, by mixing starch, extracted
in the same way from rice, and maize or wheat, and adding best wheat flour
in nearly equal proportions, calculating the dry weight of starch. Generally,
by my process, I mix together the moist residues of the several grains after
the separtion of the starch, and make bread or biscuit by joining the nutritive
portions, whatever they may be, whether they have gluten or not, which may
be dry enough to absorb the excess of humidity of the residues of the various
sorts. If the matters which I employ have little or no gluten I then put
into the dough a greater quantity of gluten obtained from wheat flour,
observing, in making these mixtures, that the dough always contains enough
for a good panary fermentation, at least ten per cent. mixed flour. In mixing
the gluten and mucilages moist with the flour of rice, with maize, or with the
dried prepared fecule, or with the dry residue of potatoes, prepared as will be
hereafter described (and I easily effect the drying of the gluten and other
residue of grain by means of the drying stove, as described PL, 1), by
avoiding all fermentation of the residues, and passing the whole through a
cylindrical mill, PL, 7, I obtain very good flour of various qualities, which
being well stove-dried are of long preservation. I can also, for the purpose
of drying the gluten alone, without addition of other matter, and without its
being fermented, throw it into boiling water before subjecting it to the dryer
or stove, and after reducing it to flour make the mixture as before indicated..

page_text: By mixing prepared fecule and the residue of potatoes prepared and reduced
to flour, together or separate, with the flour of wheat, I obtain good flour,
differing in quality according as I employ fecule only, residue only, or a
mixture of the several products of the potatoes. It is only necessary further
to observe on the preceding article (dough) to put in the divers mixtures of
flour, whether gluten which has been extracted or gluten contained in the
wheat flour, that there do exist a sufficient quantity for obtaining a good bread
fermentation (it should amount to at least ten per cent.
MANNER OF EMPLOYING AND OPERATING WITH THE MACHINE.
First, Preparation and Separation of the Starch, PL, 8.-I make the flour
into paste, containing nearly one third its weight of cold water, and place a
lengthened piece of that paste at the bottom of the wood case R, PL 8;
I then place on that paste a moveable roller, fluted or guttered from end to
end, as R, which rolls on its axis; I then open the cock placed in the vat or
tub u full of water, which is scattered over the paste by the spout fixed at
the end of the cock, and by a side motion to and fro it becomes impressed on
the roller or cylinder R", and the water passing over it carries off the
starch across two fine metallic netted cloths in meshes of one hundred
and twenty to the inch, placed at each end of the trough or cylinder
case R', and by two gutters S', the water containing the starch arrives
at the bucket t. The paste being well washed I raise the water filled with
starch and deposit it in a vat or tub. The starch after a first washing is sub-
mitted to a slight fermentation to destroy the little gluten which may remain,
and after another washing it is dryed in a dryer in open air, as M, M, and
finished by hot air, as N", in the general plan PL, designed also for drying
fecule. The extraction of starch can be done separately on each sort of grain,
but it is better to mix the flour which does not contain gluten with the wheat
flour which does, before commencing the operation, in the proportion of one
fifth to one half of the latter, because by such mixture the residue is rendered
more homogeneous; that which remains in the cylinder case R', as also that
on the surface of the depôt of starch, serves for making bread, biscuits, or
pastry, and may also be used with advantage in making dough for vermicelli,
macaroni, &c. I take wheat flour, samoule, or fecule, according as I would
have dough more or less charged with gluten, which I place in a double-
bottomed stove heated by steam, and I move and turn it with a peel or shovel
till the whole has acquired a heat of forty-eight degrees Centigrades; I then
put the gluten on a metal table (bordered) lightly heated by steam, previously

page_text: covered with warm farinous matter, and I knead it, continually adding fresh
warm flour till the paste has a proper consistence; then the paste is worked in
the ordinary way to be passed under the mill. If in lieu of wheat flour or
samoule I add to the gluten the flour of rice, maize, or fecule, I obtain various
products, always containing sufficient gluten, and the water used in the sepa
ration of the starch contains all the saccharine matter of the flour, which is
useful in making beer, &c.
Secondly, Preparation of Fecule, PL', 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).-Having passed
the potatoes under the rasp G' they are carried to the washer D', for the
operation see the general Plan PL, and for the detail 3, 4, 5,) which turns
on its axis, and its under part touching the water contained in the tub. It is
in passing from this in the ordinary feculeries that they are put under the rasp;
but I, designing to use the skins of potatoes to make with the residue whiter
bread, prolong the washing until the potatoes are completely clean; and in
this part of the washing I use an eplacheur or peeler to divide the potatoe
from the skin, PL', 1, 2, 3, Letter E, which has exteriorly the same form as
the first, but in the interior, in all its length, and above the bar round which it
turns, it is furnished with a brush, very full, made of fine iron wire. The skin,
which still carries some portion of the potatoe and fecule, sinks to the bottom of
the tub, and passes under the rasp G. This second washing takes double the
time of the first, and it is in passing from thence that the potatoes are all rasped
and carried by chain cups H to an inclined or sloping sieve, and the water
falling from the different jets divides the fecule from the residue (see Plan 5).
When I wish to employ chemical means for breaking the envelopes or case of
the fecule to reduce it to a fine flowery impulpable state, I submit it to a light
washing in acidulated water, (3 or four degrees) suffices, and one or more slight
rinsings afterwards in clean cold water dissipates all the acidity which it may
have imbibed by the process. I then dry (see the two dryers) either by
conimon open air or by heated air, PL', 1, the general Plan, also by the
details describing that Plan. The dryers are applicable for drying either starch,
fecule, or residue. If I wish to crush the skin or envelope of the fecule I take
the dry fecule and place it in the machine, PL', 6, by the door l, situated on
the circumference (see description by general reference to that machine.
The heat, dry or humid, at sixty-five Centigrades, or above, also effects the
breaking of the envelope.
Thirdly. Preparation of Residue, PL', 7.-After having made the last
washing of the residue of potatoc, and wish to use it in a moist state in making
bread or biscuit, I only pass it under an ordinary pressure, and mix it with the
other materials for making dough, taking care that there is not time for its

page_text: carbon to be developed; but if I wish to use the residue in a dry state, having
well bleached it by washing in cold water, I pass it by a quick action to the
press, and from it to the dryer, PL. 1, Letters M, N, and thus avoid the
development of its carbon. The quick dry heat will give the same effect
as washing in acidulated water. The residue being quite dry I reduce it to
flour by means of the cylindrical mill PL, 7, which is shewn in the general
reference. The water in the box V may be substituted by a current of cold
air, blown by means of a bellows worked by the mill. The flutings in the
plate K I make in acute angles to those of the cylinder. The mill is appli-
cable for grinding gluten, rice, maize, &c., and by it I obtain flour not heated
in the process of grinding.
This is the whole of my Invention, for which my Patent is sealed for that
part of Great Britain called England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and the Isles
of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man.
REFERENCE TO THE DRAWINGS OR PLANS.
Plan 1-A, case to hold potatoes; a, pipe to convey water; B, trap door
to pass potatoes; C, washing case charged with water; D, the washing
cylinder; E, cylindrical peeler; F, case to catch the peel; G, the rasp; H,
chain cups to take the pulp to inclined sieve; I, inclined sieve; J, washing
tub for the farina; b, gutter for water charged with farina; c, openings in the
gutter to lodge the farina in the tubs; K, jigging tub with holes in the
bottom; L, upper part of the sieve for discharging the residue; M, cold air
dryer; N, hot air dryer with recesses; e, pipe to convey hot air; f, n,
to convey off damp air; O, stove for drying; P, mill to grind farina; Q, mill
to grind corn, rice, &c.; R, machine for extracting starch.
funnel
Plan 2. Fig. 1, longitudinal section of the washer; Fig. 2, transverse
ditto; Fig. 3, longitudinal elevation; Fig. 4, side view. C, conduit to supply
potatoes; D, open view of washing cylinder; m, circular openings through
which they are conveyed to the incline plane; n, incline plane; o, case for
washing; P, flap board to prevent potatoes or water escaping.
Plan 3. The Peeler.-Fig. 1, longitudinal section; Fig. 2, transverse
ditto; Fig. 3, form of the machine; Fig. 4, form of cylinder. E, cylindrical
peeler, shewing the bars with metallic brushes; F, trough to place potatoes
under the rasp.
Plan 4. Potatoe Rasp.-Fig. 1, longitudinal section; Fig. 2, transverse
ditto; Fig. 3, profile ditto; Fig. 4, front ditto. F, trough to supply rasp;
G, hard wood cylinder with tooth plate on its circumference; g, flap to

page_text: regulate supply; r, wooden case to receive pulp; s, cover of iron plate to
prevent the pulp being thrown off.
Plan 5. Metallic Sieve.-Fig. 1, longitudinal section; Fig. 2, form of it
with cover off. a, a, a, wooden rollers carrying an endless chain; b, endless
chain; b, endless ladder or barred slide of two vaucauson chains, the links
united by an iron rod to bale away the pulp; c, compartments of a tray under
the metallic sieve to hold the different portions; d, partition boards; e, trays
separated by metallic frames to agitate and divide the pulp, the liquid portions
being carried from the upper to the lower sieve by a tube; f. f, f, the tube;
9, circular partitions to lodge the pulp on the upper sieven, tray from which
the pulp is carried by the chain cups; i, tube pierced with holes to jet water
over the surface of the upper sieve; j, partitions, between which the endless
ladder and pulp move; K, frames covered by metallic gauze to drain off the
water; 1, conduit, by which the drained pulp is carried off'; 6', trench, by
which the water charged with farina is delivered into the washing tub I;
K, wooden tubs, into which the farina is turned when required for bread.
Plan 6. Bruising Machine.-Fig. 1, transverse section of the outside
cylinder; Fig. 2, longitudinal ditto; Fig. 3, side view of the exterior; Fig. 4,
front ditto. P, hollow cylinder of cast iron, shut at both ends; P, solid roller
of cast iron to turn easy in the cylinder; t, valve fixed on the circumference
to charge it; u, an iron bar from end to end through the two plates; P, bar
to carry the roller P¹ to discharge the bruised or ground matter. N.B.-
When the bar u is withdrawn the holes in the planks are shut by a slide
valve and the cylinder P¹ takes its proper position.
Plan 7. The Mill.-Fig. 1, transverse section; Fig. 2, longitudinal ditto;
Fig. 3, side ditto; Fig. 4, front ditto. 2, a cast-iron cylinder covered with
wrought-iron plate, finely grooved longitudinally to the axis; V, cast-iron box
sliding in a groove a fixed on the mill; y, screw to regulate the position of
the box; K a plate of forged iron having horizontal grooves shutting the
box V; 1, cock to let in cold water into the box V; m¹, cock to let the
water off as it becomes warm; n³, funnel to introduce the matter between
the grooved cylinder Q and the grooved plate K; O, shoot or slide to receive
the matter as it is ground or bruised.
Plan 8. Machine for Extracting Starch.-Fig. 1, transverse section;
Fig. 2, longitudinal ditto; Fig. 3, end ditto; Fig. 4, a section of the case in
which the paste is placed; R, a cylindrical case shut at both ends; R' a
channelled cylinder, receiving an oscillatory motion by a lever worked by hand
or other power; , openings in the lower part of the box; R, openings
furnished with metallic gauze; S', trench to conduct the water charged with