US795598A - Corn-silking machine. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTED JULY 25, 1905.

L. S. PLEGKENSTEIN. CORN SILKING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED OCT 6, 1904.

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PATENTED JULY 25, 1905.

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CORN SILKING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED 001' 6,1904

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No. 795,598. PATENTED JULY 26,1905.

L. s. FLECKENSTB'IN.

GORN SILKING MACHINE.

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CORN-SILK ING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 25, 1905.

Application filed October 6, 1904. Serial No. 227,419.

.To all 1072 0111, i1 may concern:

Be it known that I, LEONARD S. FLEOKEN- STEIN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Easton, in the county of Talbot and State of Maryland, have invented an Improved Corn-Silking Machine, of which the following is a specification.

' In order to prepare corn as cut from the cob for canning, it is requisite to remove the silk, which adheres to and mingles with it in greater or less quantity. For this purpose various forms of machines have been devised and used. A usual feature of the same is the provision of some form of wire screens through which the corn passes downward, leaving the silk adhering to them. while pieces of cob or other foreign substances are discharged at one end of the screens. In a short time the silk accumulates 0n the screens, so that it clogs them and hinders their effective operation, and it is then necessary to remove the screens for the purpose of washing and thoroughly cleaning them. This usually involves stopping the machine for a greater or longer time and corresponding financial loss. Further, machines of the class referred to having screens that merely reciprocate endwise ordinarily fail to meet requirements.

l have devised a machine which is constructed and operates in a novel and superior manner and involves no arrest of operation for cleaning the screens.

The invention is embodied in the construction, arrangement, and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of the machine. Fig. 2 is aperspective View illustrating the operation of inserting or withdrawing the screens. Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of the compound movement of the screen-holder. Fig. 4: is a plan view of the machine. Fig. 5 is a side elevation, a portion of the side of the screen-holder being broken away. Fig. 6 is a front end view of the machine. Fig. 7 is a transverse vertical section of the machine. Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the means for supporting and adjusting the swinging hanger of the screenholder.

A indicates a stationary rectangular frame having four corner-posts arranged parallel. Within the upper portion of this frame is arranged a movable screen-holder B. The latter is box-like in form, but open at top, bottom, and one end. To the inner and longer sides of the screen-holder B are attached angular cleats 6, (see Figs. 1, 5, and 7,) which are spaced apart vertically and serve to support the screens U. The latter are thus arranged in series one above the other and parallel, but are inclined toward the rear or delivery end of the machine, as indicated in Fig. 5. The screens may be constructed in any well-known or preferred manner. For example, a rectangular frame may be constructed of metal say iron tubesand a wire screen attached thereto, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. One end of each of the screens abuts the closed end of the holder B, and the several cleats b are provided at their opposite ends with vertical flanges c,constitu ting shoulders or abutments against which the rear ends of the screens abut. Thus the screens are held in place during the operation of the machine, but may be easily removed by raising their rear ends above the shoulders c and drawingthe screen rearward, as indicated in Fig. 2. It is obvious that the screens may be inserted by the reverse movement, their inner or forward ends sliding along the cleats c, as will be readily understood.

The screen-holder B is supported and operated as will now be described. Its rear end is supported by a swinging U-shaped hanger D, whose ends are curved outward or laterally and form gudgeons that are journaled in sockets e, forming attachments of right-angular plates E. (SeeFig. 8.) These plates are arranged in guideways, and the horizontal portion is provided with a hole through which passes an adjusting-screw F, the same bearing upon the top of one of the posts of the frame. It is obvious that by manipulation of one of these screws F the angular plates E may be adjusted higher or lower, which will effect a corresponding adjustment of the hanger D and the end of the screen supported therein. The opposite and forward end of the screen-holder B is supported upon a crankshaft G, which has its bearings on the front portion of the stationary frame A about the middle of its height. The attachment of the screen-holder B to the cranks of this shaft is made by means of projecting bars 6, (see Figs. 1 and 4,) the same being attached to the bottom of the screen-holder B or forming part of the frame thereof. The bearings are formed in a well-known manner by means of metal boxes having detachable caps.

It will be understood that the corn to be as required for cleaning it.

silked is delivered upon the upper screen at a point adjacent to the closed end of the screenholder B. The shaft G is rotated by power applied thereto in any suitable manner as, for instance, by a belt running upon a pulley g, keyed upon one end of the shaft. It will be seen that the rotation of the shaft'imparts a like movement to the front end of the screenholder B, which rocks or swings upon its pivotal connection with the hanger D. The hanger also swings on its pivots, so that the movement of the rear ordischarge end of the screenholder B is in the arc of a circle. In brief, the movement of the screen-holder is a compound one, it being in part circular and in part a vibratory or rocking one, the entire movement being described in a vertical plane. The effect, as experience has demonstrated, is a highly advantageous one, since the up-anddown and reciprocating and swinging movement of the screen greatly facilitates distribution of corn over and its passage through the screen. It will be seen that the movement of the screens is greatest and the changes from one position to another are most abrupt at the front end of the screen-holder, so that the corn accumulated on the upper screen, where it is delivered from the hopper, is quickly spread out or distributed.

In practice the crank-shaft by which movement is imparted to the screen-holder is rotated about two hundred and twenty-'fi ve times a minute, this speed having been found necessary, or at least the best, for effecting the distribution of the corn and its quick passage through the screen. A rapid and even violent up-and-down and endwise motion of the front end of the screen is thus produced, while the rear end of the screen is moved or agitated but slightly in comparison, so that it is at all times practicable to remove and insert a screen The machine is thus highly effective for its main purpose, while provision is also made for removing and cleaning the screens without arresting the motion of the screen-holder. The ad vantages of this are obvious and require no elaboration. The screens may he graduated in mesh, and in the case of each the corn quickly passes through it, leaving the silk adhering to the wires, while the particles of cob or any other foreign substance of equal dimension pass off over the rear ends of the screens.

A particular advantage possessed'by my machine is the facility with which the screens may be removed for cleaningthat is, for removal of the silk adhering to the-wires. This may be effected without arresting the opera? tion of the machine, since any screen which may have become loaded with silk, so as to require cleaning, may be easily raised at its rear end and drawn outward, as indicated in Fig. 2, while the other screens are left in position and the operation of the machine continues the same as before. The particular screen thus removed is washed and thoroughly cleaned and then reinserted in its place. Another screen may be then removed and cleaned, and so the operation may go on, the removal of the screens and the cleaning thereof being successive as conditions require. The operation of removing and reinsertion of'a screen occupies but a few moments.

The parts of the machine that come in contact with the corn are preferably galvanized, so that they can be easily kept clean and sweet.

My improved machine thus combines the two very important qualities of a movement of the screen-holder which efiects the rapid passage of the corn through the screens and adaptation for convenient and quick removal of the screens individually while the machine is in operation.

The silked corn is discharged on the imperforate bottom (0, arranged horizontally below the screen-holder, and it may be removed therefrom in the usual way. It may be scraped off sidewise into a box-like receiver H, (see Figs. 5, 6, 7,) where it is mixed with brine and ultimately delivered through a valved opening it (see Fig. 7) into a spout or trough 1, containing a spiral conveyer by which it is moved to the discharge-spout 2 (See Figs. 1 and 5.) The conveyer is operated by a rotary shaft J, (see Fig. 6,) which in turn derives rotation from the crank-shaft G through the medium of sproket-gearing K.

What I claim is The improved machine for thepurpose specified, comprising a stationary frame, a screenholder arranged within it and closed at its front end and open at the rear and also at top and bottom, a series of screens arranged one above the other within the said holder, the same being supported as described and adapted to be removed from the open rear end of the holder, and the means for supporting and actuating the screen holder, comprising a swinging hanger connected with its lower rear portion and pivoted on the stationary frame, and a rotary crank-shaft arranged in the front portion of the stationary frame and operatively connected with the lower front end of the screen-holder whereby the front end of the latter receives a rapid up-and-down and endwise movement, and the rear end a comparatively easy oscillating movement, as and for the purpose specified.

LEONARD S. FLECKENSTEIN.

Witnesses:

JOHN C. ANDERSON, WM. H. MENICS.

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