US250436A - Method of cleaning and hulling grain - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES Err en.

PATENT LOUIS GATHMANN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 250,436, dated December 6, 1881. Application filed April 11, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, LOUIS GATHMANN, of Chicago, in the State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Cleaning and Hulling Grain; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

This invention relates to processes in reducing wheat or other creased or lobated grain.

It is now common in the reduction of wheat to first clean or scour the unbroken grain, then to split it to release the germ and foreign substances lodged in the crease, then to bolt, and thereafter to reduce it by operations not here necessary to mention. While the splitting of the grain successfully exposes the germ and crease impurities, and to some extent detaches them from the berry, the latter effect upon the impurities is not always perfectly produced in the act of splitting. Of course nothing is accomplished in such operation toward the removal of the bull or any portion thereof that was originally embraced within the crease.

The object of my invention is to employ a method whereby the hull or any portion thereof, as desired, may be more equally removed over the entire surface of said hull, including that originally extending into the crease; and also whereby, if-no more is required, the impurities only upon the surface originally confined within the crease may be more perfectly detached preparatory to further reduction.

To this end my invention consists, broadly, in brushing or scouring the grain after it is split, for the purpose eitherof removing the superficial impurities exposed by splitting or removing the bull to a less or greater extent, as may be desired, over the entire surface thereof as it is exposed after splitting. If the grain is properly split, the fracture will be through the crease, and the portions of the bran surface originally hidden within the crease will be fully and equally with other portions exposed upon the fragments; also, if properly split, the fracture through the crease will expose but a relatively small surface of the food substance, and but little of such surface will be loosened in the act of splitting, so as to be readily detached. 1 have found that grain so split may be scoured sufficiently to remove the bull, or less severely to remove a portion of the bull, or still less to remove only the superficial impurities without detaching any considerable portion of thefood substance. It is, of course, obvious that such scouring will take effect in a practical sense equally upon all portions of the bran-surface, and that, therefore, by this method the parts of such surface originally protected or hidden in the crease will be cleaned or removed equally with the rest.

Inordinarymillingitwillbeadvisabletoclean the wheat before splitting it, and my method will in such milling he usually employed, mainly, for the purpose of simply cleaning the surfaces not exposed on the whole or unbroken wheat. This, however, is immaterial to my invention. I do not limit myself by reference to any steps that may precede splitting, or that may follow the cleaning or hulling of the halfkernels or fragments produced by splitting, butonly to the brushing, scouring, or equivalent operation as a step succeeding the splitting of the grain and preceding further reduction; nor isit material to myinvention whether the grain is bolted after splitting and before scouring, as will sometimes be advisable, such bolting or separation not being understood as a partof the reduction of the grain; nor do I limit myself to any particular mode or means for acting upon the split grain for the removal of the hull or of a portion thereof, or of the superficial impurities. I, however, prefer to use a brush grain-cleaner, particularly for the lighter actions desired, and to accompany the brushing with an air-draft to immediately separate the parts detached.

I am aware that it has been customary to split the lobated grain through the crease, and thereafter to submit the split kernels to an airblastortoaboltingaction. Thisobviouslyisnot the equivalent of the method herein claimed, which involves the subjection of the split grain to a positive scouring action, since such mere bolting or blowing is only adapted to take out particles or impurities already detached from the grain, and not to detach them or to in any degree decorticate the grain.

The splitting of the grain may be effected by any of the well-known and approved machines for the purpose, but preferably by the smooth-surfaced corrugated disks or rollers In testimony that I claim the foregoing as now extensively used in splitting and reducing my invention I affix my signature in presence grain. of two Witnesses.

I claim as my invention--- 5 In the reduction of creased or lobated grain, LOUIS GATHMANN. the method described, which consists in splitting the grain through the crease and there- Witnesses: after subjecting the fragments or half-kernels M. E. DAYTON, to a brushing or scouring action preparatory to. F. WV. KASEHAGEN.

0 further reduction, substantially as described.