1851 Great Exhibition: Official Catalogue: Class VI.: Thomas Shore
438. SHORE, THOMAS, City Road. — Inventor.
Patent atmospheric flour-dressing machine.
The usual mode of dressing flour being to brush it through a cylinder clothed with wire, by means of brushes revolving on a spindle or shaft within. The object of this patent is to supersede the use of brushes by means of fans of steel plate, or other suitable material, which, being placed at a certain angle within the cylinder, are found to possess the following advantages:-
The fans being placed at some distance from the wire clothing the cylinders, the ordinary friction between wire and brushes is avoided; whereby the wire is prevented from wearing, and a considerable saving of power effected.
The flour is perfectly separated from the offal, and, being fanned instead of brushed through the wire, it is much more free from specks or greys than flour dressed in the usual method, while the strong current of air to which it is subjected causes an improvement in the quality, and the wire also is kept constantly clear while dressing.
Brushes are a continual source of expense, whereas it is scarcely possible to wear out a set of fans. The case or box which contains the cylinder is furnished with a hole at each end for the purpose of supplying the air required by the fans, which air, when it has been driven, together with the flour, through the wire clothing of the cylinder, is carried off by means of a chimney into the meal-hutch above.
The speed varies from 14 to 16 sacks per hour with an 18-inch cylinder, from four to five sheets being used for flour.