Abstract
IN commerce the difference between one quality of rice and another consists mainly in the proportion of discoloured grains present. Since hand-sorting has never been commercially practicable, the mechanical and electrical method of sifting out the discoloured grains by a machine, described in a paper by A. Seymour in the Electrical Times of June 6, may have far-reaching effects. The machine utilizes the properties of a photo-cell. By. an ingenious mechanical method, the grains emerge from the feeder in a single line at a speed of 5 ft. per sec. and pass under the electric ‘eye’. The perfect grains shoot straight forward into a tube leading downwards to a sack. Discoloured grains cause an electrical impulse through the photo-electric cell; this brings into action a jet of compressed air, which sends them into another receptacle.
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Photo-cell Applications in the Foodstuffs Industries. Nature 145, 1014 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/1451014b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1451014b0