IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DRESSING FLOUR
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DRESSING FLOUR."—
A communication from Pierre Bruno Joseph Elie Cabanes, of Bordeaux,
in the Empire of France.
Sealed the 25th April 1856, and dated the 20th November 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th November 1855.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DRESSING FLOUR,
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel construction of apparatus for separating
the flour from the bran, and the different qualities of flour from each other.
To this end, a long sieve, which has a vertical reciprocating motion imparted
to it, is provided to receive the meal from a fixed hopper. Below the sieve,
and connected thereto by rocking arms and links, is a box, which is intended
to receive the flour as it falls through the meshes of the sieve. In the bottom
of this box openings are made to permit of the discharge of the flour through
shutes suitably placed to guide it into proper receptacles. A reciprocating
motion is imparted simultaneously to the sieve and box, by means of a crank
shaft, whereby they are caused to approach and recede from each other

page_text: alternately. Pendent from the lower edge of the sieve frame is a band of
cloth, which forms a kind of air valve, permitting of the access of air between
the sieve and box, when they are at the farthest distance from each other, and
cutting off the supply as they approach. By this means a current of air is
caused to pass upwards through the meshes of the sieve, and force up the
lighter particles of the meal to the surface, and thus the discharge of the fine
flour is greatly facilitated.
The continued reciprocating motion of the box will cause the flour to move
along the bottom of the box to the discharge openings, and this operation will
be further facilitated if the apparatus is set slightly on the incline. If thought
desirable, the flour as it enters the shute may meet a gentle current of air,
produced by rotary fans, which will further assist in freeing the flour from any
light particles that may have come through the sieve. It will be understood
that the flour will, according to its specific gravity, become separated into
different qualities as in the ordinary bolting operation.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed.
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 20th May 1856..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of November, in the year of our Lord.
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DRESSING FLOUR," being a communication from
abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent
Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particu-
larly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention; and in what

page_text: manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
The improved apparatus, which the Inventor designates under the name of
a mechanical sifter or bolter, is composed principally of a sieve suspended in a
box, and possessing therewith two movements; viz, a horizontal and a vertical
reciprocating movement. These two movements have for their object to
separate the ground corn by sifting into two parts, one of which, the lightest,
or particles of bran, rises to the surface, while the other and heavier portion,
constituting the fine flour, passes through the meshes of the sieve, and is
received into several vessels according to the fineness of the meal.
This novel system of bolting also embodies the important application of a
floating cloth, which is adapted to the lower edge of the sieve, in such
manner as to confine the air between the lower surface of the meshes and the
bottom of the box. By this arrangement an upward current of air through
the meshes is produced, which facilitates the desired separation between the
particles composing the meal, by driving up the lighter portions.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is a longitudinal vertical section of
the machine taken in the line 1, 2, of Fig. 2, which is a transverse vertical
section in the line 3, 4, of Fig. 1. Figures 3 and 4 represent some of the
parts detached, on a scale double the size of the other Figures.
The apparatus is mounted upon cast-iron standards A, which are united by
means of iron cross pieces. The two principal parts of the apparatus are the
sieve B, and the box C, upon the bottom of which falls the fine flour previously
to its being discharged into the receptacles D, D', and D. The bottom of the
sieve B is composed of woven wire cloth or its equivalent, and it is divided in
the direction of its length into three parts; the meshes of each part having a
different degree of fineness, which correspond respectively to the quality of flour
intended to escape at the three openings a, a, a, made in the bottom of
the box C, through which the flour passes to the discharge shutes D, D', D'.
E, E, are two blowers or fans, which serve to complete the purification of
the flour, by freeing it fron any dust that it may still contain. The blower
throws a blast of air into two pipes or channels simultaneously, which channels
lead off from opposite sides of the fan case.

page_text: The sieve B, and box C, are suspended at the middle of their length from a
shaft F (see Fig. 2), having three excentric portions b, b', and c, turned down
and forming crank uecks; the two crank necks 6 and 6 correspond in position
or are concentric, but their position and consequently their action is diame-
trically opposed to that of the crank neck c. The crank necks b and b¹ are
embraced by iron collars or bearings d and d', attached to the edges of the
box C, and the central crank neck c is mounted in a collar or bearing e, affixed
to the sieve.
On a rapid rotary motion being imparted to the shaft F, the excentric crank
necks thereof will, by their peculiar arrangement, cause the sieve B and box C
alternately to approach and recede from each other in a vertical direction.
By the same cause, when the excentrics have their centres in the same
horizontal line, the box and sieve will be as near as possible to each other,
and will be displaced horizontally a distance equal to the distance between the
line of centres of the excentrics b and c, a movement which is necessarily
inverse and alternative.
In order that these two movements of the sieve and the box may be perfectly
parallel, or rather that the box and sieve may preserve their parallelism, they
are connected with an arrangement rocking levers G (see Fig. 3), which
have their fulcrums on the framing. These levers are connected respectively
by means of links f, the one end to the sieve B, and the other to the box C.
The pairs of rocking levers G, of which there are three in number, are
jointed through a pendent arm 9, with a wooden bar H on each side of the
machine. This arrangement is best seen in the detached view, Fig. 4, which
represents a section of the sieve and box taken in the line 5, 6, of Fig. 3.
The result of this arrangement is, that whatever may be the movements of
the sieve and box, they must always remain exactly parallel to each other
throughout their whole length.
The sieve B is surrounded at its lower edge by a band of linen cloth I,
which floats freely upon the bottom of the box C. When the apparatus is at
work, and the sieve and box are separated from each other by the action of the
excentrics, the band of cloth I will scarcely touch the bottom of the box C,
and air will freely enter under the sieve; when, on the 'contrary, the sieve and
box approach each other, the band will rest upon the bottom of the box, and
the confined air will be forced through the meshes of the sieve. This result
is one of the most favorable and indispensable for the bolting operation; the
upward passage of the air driving the light parts of the meal up to the surface,
and separating them from the flour, which is by the above-mentioned move-
ments caused to pass through the meshes of the sieve. The flour, when it has

page_text: fallen to the bottom of the box C, is traversed forward by means of the
horizontal vibratory movement of the box to the discharge openings a.
In the Drawing, the sieve and its box C are represented as being set at an
inclination in the direction of the passage of the flour, but the machine might
be made to work with those parts mounted horizontally.
The meal is fed to the bolter by a hopper J, furnished with a roller h.
The driving shaft F is furnished with a driving pulley K, and fly wheel L, and
motion is communicated therefrom to the fan E', by means of the pullies M
and M', and from thence by means of driving bands to the fan E. The guide
roller h, mounted inside the hopper receives its motion from the same shaft
through the pullies N and N¹. It will be understood that the flour will,
according to its specific gravity, become separated into different qualities, as
in the ordinary bolting operation. The refuse portions of the meal (or that
which does not pass through either of the three gauges of mesh forming the
bottom of the sieve B) are moved forward by the reciprocating motion of
the sievo to the further end thereof, whence they are discharged into any
suitable receptacle.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "Improved Apparatus
for dressing Flour," as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, and
explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be under-
stood that I do not limit myself to the use of the mechanical arrangements
shewn in the Drawing for carrying out the object of this Invention, as they
may be variously modified without departing from the nature of the Invention,
which consists in separating the flour from the bran by means of a vibrating
sieve having the movements of a hand sifter, and acting in combination with a
box which encloses it so that upward currents of air are discharged through
the meal which lies on the bottom of the sieve.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twentieth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)