[Illustration]

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF PRACTICAL INFORMATION, ART, SCIENCE, MECHANICS, CHEMISTRY, AND MANUFACTURES.

NEW YORK, DECEMBER 28, 1867.

Vol. XVII.--No. 26. [NEW SERIES.]

$3 per Annum [IN ADVANCE.]

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Contents: (Illustrated articles are marked with an asterisk.)

*Improvement in Hulling and Cleansing Hominy

Nitro Glycerin

*Hisert's Adjustable Cultivator Tooth

Remedy for Cold Feet in City Cars

Getting Your Money Back

Patent Claims

Pending Applications for Reissues

The Last Number of Volume XVII

Commencement of a New Volume

A Change at the Patent Office

Obituary

How to Make Intelligent Workmen--Go and Do Likewise

The SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN as a Medium of Business

*Hunt's Improved Steam Packing Piston

The Iron Clads at Sea

*Improvement in Hand Drills

*Improved Method of Securing Cutters on Boring Bars

Tides and Their Causes

The Great Hoosac Tunnel

Horse-hair Snakes--Wonderful Transformation

Man Proposes, but God Disposes

Extraordinary Effects of an Earthquake

Recent American and Foreign Patents

Answers to Correspondents

Business and Personal

Manufacturing, Mining, and Railroad Items

Patent Office Decision

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Improvement in Hulling and Cleansing Hominy.

Many of our readers well remember when "hulled corn" was a standing winter dish. This was corn or maize the kernels of which were denuded of their "hulls" by the chemical action of alkalies, which, however, impaired the sweetness of the food. Hominy is corn deprived of the hulls by mechanical means leaving the corn with all its original flavor unimpaired. Hominy is a favorite dish throughout the country, but is not always entirely free from particles of the outer skin of the kernels. The mill shown in perspective in the engraving is intended to obviate this objection.

[Illustration: DONALDSON'S PATENT HOMINY MILL.]

The corn is placed in the hopper, A, from which it is fed to the hulling cylinder contained in the case, B. The hulling machinery is driven by a belt on the pulley, C, the other end of the shaft of which carries a pinion which gives motion to the gear wheel, D. This, by means of a pinion on the shaft of the blower, E, drives the fans of the blower. On the other, or front end of the shaft which carries the gear, D, is a bevel gear by which another bevel gear and worm is turned. The worm rotates the worm gear, F, in two opposite arms of which are slots that carry pins projecting inwards, which may be moved toward or away from the center. This gear wheel turns free on the shaft that carries the pulley, C, and is intended for opening, by means of the pins in the arms and levers, a cover in the bottom of the hopper and a valve in the bottom of the hulling cylinder. Coiled or bent springs return these levers or valves to place when the pin which moves them has passed.

A wrist-pin on the gear, D, forms a crank which is connected to a bar at the rear end of the sieves, G, pivoted to an arm at H, by which the sieves have a shaking or reciprocating motion as the machine operates. The blower drives out the hulls and the motion of the sieves with their inclined position insure access of the air to every portion of the hominy.

It will be noticed that the connection of all the parts is absolute. The motion of the sieves, the speed of the blower, and the action of the inlet hopper valve and the delivery hulling valve are always exactly proportioned to the speed of the hulling cylinder, whether fast or slow. The upper or feed valve opens upward and has a downward projecting lip that shuts into a recess in its seat which insures security against leakage from the hopper to the hulling cylinder during the intervals of its being raised; a great advantage in hominy making, as no grain ought