IM- PROVEMENTS IN PREPARING HARD FOREIGN WHEAT FOR MANUFACTURING INTO FLOUR, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR SUCH PURPOSE
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Hauxwell and James
Ryder at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 6th March 1868.
We, GEORGE HAUXWELL, of the City of Durham, Engineer and
Millwright, and JAMES RYDER, of Sunderland, in the County of Durham,
Miller, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN PREPARING HARD FOREIGN WHEAT FOR MANUFACTURING INTO
FLOUR, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR SUCH PURPOSE," to be as
follows:-
It is well known to millers that hard foreign wheat cannot be ground
into flour with advantage unless it has undergone some previous
process to soften the husk or bran and render it tough, so that it will
not grind up to powder with the flour.
Hitherto hard foreign wheat has been prepared for grinding in one
of the following ways; either it has been spread out on a floor and
then watered and sprinkled with a watering can and turned over several
times by hand, or it has been placed in a vessel or apparatus where
it has been immersed in water and thoroughly wetted. In the first
case some portions of the wheat would be made too wet, whilst other
portions were not damped at all, besides the great waste of time which
hand labor necessarily involves, and in the second case the wheat was

page_text: too much wetted, and it required partially drying again by artificial
means before it could be ground, and this, besides the loss of time
occasioned, injured the quality of the wheat.
Our Invention consists in imparting to the wheat by self-acting
mechanical means just a sufficient amount of dampness or moisture
to produce the desired effect, the wheat being at the same time kept
in motion, so that each grain receives its proper amount of moisture
and no more. Hard foreign wheat after undergoing our improved
process will be in a fit state for grinding in a few hours.
The apparatus which we propose to employ for this purpose consists
principally of a vessel or trough (of zinc, sheet iron, or other suitable
material) placed in a horizontal or slightly inclined position. Inside
this vessel is a worm or screw which is caused to revolve slowly by
means of a strap and pulley or other suitable gearing; this worm or
screw revolves in contact or nearly so with a perforated metal plate or
false bottom. At one end of the vessel or trough is a hopper for
introducing the wheat, and at the other is an opening or spout for
the delivery of the same. Close to the hopper is a pipe from a tank
of cold water, the lower end of the said pipe being furnished with a
'finely perforated rose or distributor. This pipe is provided with a
regulating tap, and the hopper is fitted with a valve or sliding door.
Below the false bottom is a waste pipe for carrying off the superfluous
water.
The action of the apparatus is as follows:-The screw being set
slowly in motion the water tap and sliding door are opened, the wheat
will then commence falling into the vessel or trough, and will be evenly
damped by the spray falling through the perforations of the rose, the
action of the screw at the same time carrying the wheat gradually
along towards the opening or delivery spout at the other end of the
vessel, the superfluous water draining off through the perforated false
bottom.
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The operation is thus continuous and self-acting so long as the supply