J.P. Smith's Corn Sheller

From The Scientific American, 1869

There are, as our readers are well aware, numerous machines in market for shelling corn, and some of these have justly won a large share of public favor. The corn sheller shown in our engraving has, however, some advantages which we have not met with in other efficient machines, the most prominent of which is its cheapness, the price of single machines being only five dollars. Another great advantage is its simplicity. It has no gearing and there are no parts liable to get out of order. With these essential qualities of success it combines strength, durability, and efficiency.

Its more impoortant working parts are a toothed revolving shelling disk and a segment of a tube with its concavity facing the shelling disk into which the corn is fed. This tubular segment is forced toward the shelling disk by a coiled spring which surrounds the shaft and also certain teeth of the shelling disk described below. The coiled spring above described acts against the outside of this drum to press it toward the shelling disk, and from the inner side of the drum projects a tube which surrounds the shaft, and is made of such a length that its end, when pressed up by the spring, reaches the face of the disk, and thus prevents the too near approach of the hopper to the disk.

The shelling disk is armed with teeth, as shown in the engraving, which, engaging with the ear of corn as it is pressed forward by the hopper, tear off the grains from the cob. Between the drum of the hopper and the tube which surrounds the shaft above described, and which gages the approach of the hopper to the disk, are long teeth arranged concentrically with the shaft and parallel to it; and the concave part of the hopper extending down past these teeth enables them to seize the ear and feed it down, thus bringing all parts of the ear under the action of the shelling teeth.

The end of the tube which limits the approach of the hopper to the shelling disk is notched, so that grains of corn may fall through and not interfere with the action of this feature of the device by their lodgement around the shaft.

The whole is attached to a wooden bench in the manner shown, upon which the operator sits, the shelling disk and its attachments being actuated by a winch.

The inventor states that the machine may be advantageously used for shelling green corn, though it will not accomplish the work as fast as it will shell ripe corn. Patented June 22, 1869, by J.P. Smith, whom address at Hummelstown, Pennsylvania.

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