Oliver EvansBorn 13 Sep 1755; died 15 Apr 1819 at age 63.American millwright and inventor who designed the first automatic corn mill, pioneered the high-pressure steam engine (US patent, 1790) and created the first continuous production line (1784). By about age 19, he invented a machine for bending and cutting off the wires in textile carding combs. His ideas for an automatic corn mill began in 1782, but the invention's development was not completed until 1790. The mill used bucket elevators to raise the grain, conveying devices including a horizontal screw conveyor, and a “hopper boy”to cool and dry the meal before gathering it into a hopper feeding the bolting cylinder. Together, this took incoming wheat and delivered flour packed in barrels. |
