US4682A - Improvement in machinery for crushing sugar-cane - Google Patents

Description

A. STILLMAN.

cane Mm. No. 4,682, Patemed Aug... 8,1846.

NiTE STATES PATENT @ri-ICRC ALFRED sTILLMAN, oF NEW YORK, N. Y.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 4.682, dated August 8, 1846.

To all whom; it may concern Be it known that I, ALFRED STILLMAN, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Mills for Crushing Sugar-Cane; and Ido hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the principle or character thereof which distinguishes it from all other thingsbefore known,'and of the manner of making, eonstructing, and using the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a vplan of the sugar-mill with my improvements added, Fig. 2, a longitudinal elevation thereof, and Fig. 3 a longitudinal vertical section of the same.l

The same letters are used in all the figures I to indicate like parts.

The usual method of crushing` cane is to pass it between rollers arranged with two on one' horizontal plane, and a third making pressure on and between them, and as the cane is of a spongy texture the moment it is relieved from the pressure of the rollers it expands and takes' up much of the saccharine matter by suction and capillary attraction, and to avoid this difficulty a second set of rollers have been combined with the first set to recrush the cane after it has passed from the first -but experience has demonstrated that this will not do, for after the cane has been erushed by passingbetween the first set it forms a very thin layer, which, if passed to the second 'set'in that condition, will be ground or cut through by the pressure of Vthe rollers, instead of being simply erushed or squeezed to throw out the saccharine matter. To obviate this difficulty is the object of my invention, which consists in so connecting the two sets of rollers as to cause the erushed cane to pass to the second set in aconsiderable body or thickness, to prevent the rollers from cutting or grinding it through, by so combining the two sets of rollers as that the cane shall be presented to the second set in a body much thicker than when delivered by the first set.

In the accompanyi ng drawings, A represents the frame-work, properly adapted to the working Vparts and resting on a proper foundation of masonry; B B1 the two bed, and C the top, rollers composing the old sugar-mill, driven by the shaft D of the top roller, in the usual manner. .As the erushed cane, which is fed in bya belt, E, passes from this first set of rollers, it

is delivered onto a curved metallic plate, a,

hung on. journals in the standards b I), so that its forward edge shall rest on the bed-roller B' to catch all the cane, and from this it is forced termed ,a 4'contracting-chute, which, as the' thin cake or sheet of erushed cane passes down, V

narrows it up and gives to the mass the required thickness to be operated upon by the second set ofrollers. This contracting-chute, instead of being made in two parts, may be made in one,

as represented in Fig. 1, and hung on journals at the lower end. The thick body of erushed cane is carried up on the endless apron d and delivered onto an inclined chute, f, which directs it to the bite of the seeond'set of rollers, consisting of a bed and top rollers, F G, driven by a cog-wheel, H, on the shaft of the bed-roller F, gearin g into a corresponding cogwheel, I, on the shaft of the upper roller, C,

of the first set. From the last set of rollers the cane, thoroughly erushed and squeezed,

is carried off by an apron, g. vThe rollers of I each set are geared together to move with equal velocities by cog-wheels li, in the usual manner. The first apron, E, is carried by .bands consisting of a series of endless chains,

i, passing around and in the groove of pulleys k on'the shaft of roller B, and a corresponding pulley, Z, on the shaft of the roller around which the apron passes, and the apron f is carried in like manner by like bands, m, from a pulley on the shaft of the roller F.

For the' purpose of making pressure on the cane as it passes between the two sets of rollers, thenpper boxes, a n n n,-of the upper rollers of the two sets are connected' by means of rods o, that pass through holes in the frame, to springs p, and secured below them by-wedgekeys q and washers, the npper ends of these rods being provided' with screw-nuts.

The springs p are made of wood, either of one or two pieces, andif of one piece only, the ends bear against projections a" r on the under part of the bed-plate of the frame, and if of two, the two halves are kept at the required distance apart by pieces of wood or any other material between their ends, the upper surface of the upper half being round, to allow sufficient play to the ends.

I have contemplated other modes of applying the principle of my invention-snch, for instance, as giving to the second set of rollers a motion so much less than the first set as to cause the cane in passing from the first to the' second set to accumulate in sufficient quantity to pass between the rollers of the second set in a much thicker mass than when delivered from the first set; or the second set of rollers may be placed at right anglesv to the'first set,

so that what forms the width of the mass as it comes from the first set of rollers shall become the thickness between the rollers of the second set; or, instead of the inelined sides of the narrowingchute of the inode first described, intermediate rollers may be used sufficiently far apart to narrow the mass and give the required increase of thickness for passing to after it has been Crushed by the first set of rollers, to the second set in a body much thicker than when it left the first set, the more effectually to express the saccharine matter and to prevent the second set of rollers from cutting through the mass, the whole being effected on the principle Substantial] y as herein described.

ALFRED STILLMAN.

` Witnesses: HENRY L. HOWLETT, V EDwD. C. SToRM.

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