Pneumatic driers

Claim 1

A PNEUMATIC DRIER COMPRISING MEANS TO FORM A STREAM OF RELATIVELY HOT AND DRY DRYING GAS; MEANS TO INTRODUCE INTO SAID STREAM A DIVIDED MATERIAL TO BE DRIED IN THE FORM OF SUBSTANTIALLY DISCRETE PARTICLES; A SUBSTANTIALLY VERTICAL CYLINDRICAL CHAMBER HAVING A LOWER END AND AN UPPER END AND A LATERAL WALL; OUTLET MEANS CONNECTED WITH THE UPPER END OF SAID CHAMBER SUBSTANTIALLY AXIALLY THERETO; A NOZZLE OPENING AXIALLY INTO THE LOWER END OF SAID CHAMBER SAID NOZZLE RECEIVING SAID STREAM WITH SAID DIVIDED MATERIAL INTRODUCED THEREINTO TO PRODUCE IN SAID CHAMBER AN ASCENDING JET OF DRYING GAS WITH SAID PARTICLES IN SUSPENSION THEREIN; A CONVERGENTDIVERGENT INJECTOR UNIT OF THE VENTURI TYPE DISPOSED SUBSTANTIALLY AXIALLY WITHIN SAID CHAMBER AND SPACED FROM THE LATERAL WALL OF SAID CHAMBER TO DETERMINE A SUBSTANTIALLY ANNULAR INTERMEDIATE SPACE BETWEEN SAID INJECTOR UNIT AND SAID LATERAL WALL; SAID INJECTOR UNIT HAVING A CONVERGENT LOWER ELEMENT SITUATED ABOVE SAID NOZZLE, BUT VERTICALLY SPACED THEREFROM, AND A DIVERGENT UPPER ELEMETN SITUATED BELOW SAID OUTLET MEANS TO RECEIVE SAID GAS JET, TO CAUSE SAME TO DRAW GAS FROM THE PERIPHERAL ZONE OF SAID CHAMBER AND THUS TO DETERMINE A DOWNWARD RECYCLING FLOW OF GAS AND PARTICLES IN SAID SUBSTANTIALLY ANNULAR INTERMEDIATE SPACE, AND MEANS TO SEPARATE THE DRIED PARTICLES FROM THE GAS ISSUING FROM SAID OUTLET MEANS.