Today in 1903, US Patent 733732 A was issued, an invention of Jacob Mueller, for his “Screen For Hop Separating Machines.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
This invention relates to an improved screen for separating hops from the seeds after they have been separated from their stems by one of the well-known machines used for this purpose, such as the one for which Letters Patent were granted to me, No. 314,116, and dated March 17, 1885, or any other suitable machine; and the invention relates more specifically to a compound screen by which the larger leaves of the hop-scales are separated from the seeds and the smaller leaves from the lupulin or fine gummy particles in a very effective manner in four separate receptacles, so that the seeds and other parts which are not used in brewing processes are separated from the lupulin, scales, and leaves, which permits thereby a better utilization of the hop seeds in the brewing process, as the objectionable parts of the same have been separated and for this purpose the invention consists of a screen for separating hop-scales after they are removed 0 from their stems which comprises an oscillating shaker provided with a bottom screen and conveying-hopper and a plurality of inclined screens arranged below the lower end of the shaker, said screens being of different character and degrees of fineness,so as to separate the hop-scales from the seeds, lupulin, and smaller particles and pass each into suitable receptacles; and the invention consists, further, of certain details of construction and combinations of parts, which will be fully described hereinafter and finally pointed out in the claims.
