Improvements in or relating to the Preparation of Seeds, and Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Jan., 1896-Accepted, 14th Mar., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to the Preparation of Seeds, and
Apparatus therefor.
We, NILS HJALMAR NILSSON, Doctor of Philosophy, and EMIL TEODOR
THERMENIUS, Engineer, both of Svalöf, Kingdom of Sweden, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
It is a fact long known that the seeds of certain pulses as for instance those of
the clovers and most of the wild species of the genera vicia, lathyrus, medicago, etc.,
offer great resistance to the penetration of moisture from without, this penetration
being the first condition for commencing germination. This property, which has
been called "hard hulledness" consequently diminishes to a great extent the
cultivating value of such seeds, and even makes the use of certain species the
properties of which are, otherwise, very promising, impossible in a regular
culture.
Since it has been found that the obstacle to the entrance of the water in the
above mentioned seeds depends exclusively upon an extraordinarily hard cortical
formation or rather cuticularization of the extremely thin surface layer of the outer
walls of the epidermoid cells, it has given rise to the present invention comprising
an improved means of preparing the said seeds, and a machine for carrying out this
preparation, this machine having proved to be able to give, only by a slight
grinding off or thinning of the seed hull, without damaging the inner parts of the
seed, the same power and energy of germination to the most hardhulled pulse seeds
as that of our other plants of culture. Thus all difficulties in propagating the wild
pulses by seeding are removed, and at the same time it becomes possible to give a
considerably greater cultivating value to one of the most important and most
expensive seeds of the agriculture viz.: the clover seeds.
Figure 1 in the accompanying drawings shows a vertical section of the machine
in question.
Figure 2 shows a plan of the same, the upper part being removed.
The chief parts of the machine are two: a horizontal open bowl E with its
mouth upwards, and a bowl shaped grinding surface D directed downwards. The
bowl E which bas a conical elevation at the bottom and low wings F radiating
therefrom is mounted on the upper end of an upright shaft, jourñalled in and
supported by a suitable frame and by means of a suitable gearing caused to rotate
with a very high speed by hand or machine power. The grinding surface D which
is mounted centrally above the bowl E and in its centre provided with a feed
opening for the seeds arriving from the hopper A through the vibrating shoot B
forms towards its border a bowl shaped excavation, fitted to the size of the bowl E
and to the direction in which the seeds are thrown out from the bowl. This
grinding surface consists of a hard, but in the same time slighting grinding material,
for instance stone, emery or metal. The seeds, thrown out from this grinding
surface, are caught by a casing G provided with a discharge pipe and carrying the
grinding surface. The feeding of the seeds from the hopper A is regulated by a
shutter and the shoot B is by means of a suitable gearing caused to vibrate slightly
in a horizontal direction.
The working of the apparatus may be easily understood from the above
description. The seeds, fed from the hopper A uniformly and in a suitable
quantity by means of the shoot B and the shutter fall upon the conical bottom of
the bowl E which rotates with a high speed. As soon as they have come down in

page_text: the bowl, they are rapidly spread out sideways by the cone, seized by the wings
on the ascending sides of the bowl and taken along by said wings so that they
obtain the same speed as the bowl. In consequence hereof the seeds move along
the wings and are thrown, when arriving at the ends of the wings at the border of
the bowl, towards the grinding surface D above the bowl. The seeds are thrown
against this surface with such a velocity that they obtain the requisite preparation
only in consequence of the living force, which they have when leaving the bowl.
When in contact with the grinding surface, the seeds move along the same towards
its periphery, where they fall down in the casing G and thence through the
discharge pipe. According to the velocity, which the seeds possess when leaving
the bowl, they impinge more or less energetically against the grinding surface.
As this velocity may be easily regulated by changing the rotatory speed of the
bowl E it is evident that the preparation of the hulls of the seed may be exactly
regulated according to the nature of the hulls.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. The preparation of the seeds of hard hulled pulses or the like in order that a
greater percentage of them may be able to germinate, consisting in throwing the
seeds against a rough surface with such a velocity that the seeds, when in contact
with said surface, obtain the requisite preparation only in consequence of the living
force, which they possess, when being thrown.
2. The apparatus for carrying out the process claimed in Claim 1 comprising a
bowl such as E mounted on a rotating shaft above the border of which is placed a
grinding surface such as D so that seeds, fed into the bowl during the rotation of
the same, are thrown against said surface, in consequence whereof their hulls
are ground in a suitable degree substantially as described, and illustrated in the
accompanying drawings.
3. The combination and arrangement of parts constituting the complete apparatus
for treating seeds substantially as and for the purpose described and illustrated in
the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 16th day of January 1896.
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicants.