AN IMPROVED MODE OF OPERATING TRIP HAMMERS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, of 16, Castle
Street, Holborn (City), London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED MODE OF OPERATING TRIP HAMMERS."-A communication.
Sealed the 24th April 1855, and dated the 27th October 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux
Bellford at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 27th October 1854.
I, AUGUSTE EDOUARD LORADOUX BELLFORD, of 16, Castle Street, Holborn
(City), London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF OPERATING TRIP HAMMERS" to be as
follows, viz. :-
The nature & intention of the Invention is a new and improved mode
of operating trip hammers, & I put in practice & perform the same in
manner following:-I apply to the trip hammer in its general construction
& use the means of increasing its natural power, & of regulating the
amount of such power from time to time, by a ready mode of adjustment.
The particular construction & arrangement of the apparatus is thus:-The
hammer & its shaft are raised by cams set on the driving shaft, & acting

page_text: on a cross head working on guides, after the manner of other trip hammers.
But in my improved construction I apply a cylinder having an air-tight piston
passing through its length, such piston being made the actual rod of the
hammer, & which it carries at its lower extremity. The cylinder is open at
its upper end & closed at its lower, but allowing its piston rod (which, as
aforesaid, is also the rod of the hammer,) to pass freely through it in an air-
tight stuffing box, & thus forming an atmospheric engine. The action of
the apparatus is thus:-When by the operation of the cam the hammer is
raised, a vacuum of sufficient rarity for the purpose required is formed in the
lower portion of the cylinder, and when the hammer is released by the action
of the cam by which it was raised, it descends with a force compounded of
that which is due to its gravity & the height of its fall, taken together with
that of the natural atmospheric pressure. Thus, if the vacuum previously
formed be a perfect one, but in cases when it is required to moderate the force
of the blow to be delivered by the hammer, then, simultaneously with the use
of the piston in the cylinder, in preparation for the blow to be delivered, I
admit a regulated quantity of atmospheric air to enter the cylinder, following
the rise of the piston, and which on the descent of the hammer reduces the
valve of the vacuum described as being formed in the first case, and counter-
acts the rate of descent of the hammer by the amount of such reduction, and
thus by the amount of resistance presented the force of the blow is moderated.
Such adjustment of its force, by the admission of atmospheric air below the
piston, I effect by the aid of ordinary slide valves formed at the sides of the
cylinder, & which are put in motion at pleasure, admitting such volume of
air as the required intensity of the blow may render necessary.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 26th April 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTE
EDOUARD LORADOUX BELLFOBD, of 16, Castle Street, Holborn (City), London,
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her

page_text: reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, Her special licence that I, the said
Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF OPERATING TRIP
HAMMERS," a communication, upon the condition. (amongst others) that I, the
said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, should particularly. describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say: -
The nature of my Invention consists in providing the rod of the hammer
with a piston fitting to a cylinder, which is so constructed and furnished with
valves, that the air may be excluded therefrom or admitted thereinto under
the piston in such manner and in such degree as to control the force of the
blow at the pleasure of the operator, and to increase the force of the blow
without an increase of the weight of the hammer. My Invention is illustrated
in the accompanying Drawing, in which,―
Fig. 1 is a vertical section of my "atmospheric trip hammer;" Fig. 2 is a
front elevation of the same.
Fig. 3 is a horizontal section of the cylinder C, showing the arrangement
of the valves.
Fig. 4 is a vertical section of the cylinder C, in a different plane to Fig. 1.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several
Figures.
A is a guide frame, similar in character to that employed for other trip
hammers, supporting the anvil B and the cylinder C, which occupies a vertical
position, with its axis directly over the centre of the anvil. The cylinder has
an open top, but is closed at the bottom, and furnished with a stuffing box D,
for the rod E of the hammer F and piston G to work through. It is provided

page_text: near the bottom, in front or on either side, as may be most convenient with
an opening a, see Figs. 1 and 3, which is furnished outside with a spring
valve b, which will be closed by excess of pressure on its outer, and opened by
excess of pressure on its inner, side; and near the opening a it has another
opening c, which is fitted with a flap valve d, opening by excess of pressure on
its outer, and closing by excess of pressure on its inner, side, and also with a
slide valve e outside. The conditions of the valves 6 and e are controlled, in the
manner to be presently described, by a small shaft i, which works in a journal
box j outside the cylinder, and is furnished with an eccentric f opposite the
valve b, with a lifting stud g opposite the slide valve e, and with a handle h.
The hammer and its piston are raised by a double cam H, H, on the driving
shaft I, acting under a cross head J, working on the guides k, k, in a similar
manner to other trip hammers. In working the hammer, when it is desired
to give the full force of the blow, the shaft i is placed in the position shown in
Figs. 1 and 3, leaving the valve 6 free of the eccentric f, and leaving the slide
valve closed; and then the air, having been all or nearly all expelled from
the cylinder below the piston by the descent of the hammer, causes a vacuum
to be formed below the piston by the ascent of the hammer; and hence, when
the hammer is set free by the cam, the pressure of the atmosphere above the
piston gives force to the blow. But when it is desired to give a more moderate
blow, the shaft i is turned by the operator, who holds the handle h to such a
position as to open the slide valve e by means of the lifting stud g, and increase
the pressure of the spring on the valve 6 by means of the eccentric f, and
then, during the ascent of the piston, a certain quantity of air passes the
valve e, and opening the valve d, as shown in Fig. 4, enters the cylinder, and
then, according to its density, either partly or wholly neutralizes the effect of
the atmospheric pressure above the piston, or creates a resistance to the descent
of the piston by its own gravity. It will now be understood that by properly
regulating the opening of the valve e and pressure on the valve b, the force of
the blow may be very perfectly regulated, or the hammer may be arrested in
its descent before striking.
Having thus described the nature of this Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be carried into effect, I wish it to be understood
that what I claim as secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is, attaching to the stem or rod of the hammer a piston working in a
cylinder which is open at the top and closed at the bottom, and is provided
with valves, or their equivalents, substantially as herein described, by which the
air can be excluded therefrom or admitted thereinto under the piston, for the

page_text: purpose either of adding the whole or such part of the pressure of the atmo-
sphere as may be desirable, or of creating resistance to the weight of the
hammer in giving the blow; but I wish it to be understood that I do not
confine myself to the precise arrangement of valves which I have described, or
to any particular arrangement of such devices.
In witness whereof, I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this 20th day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1855.
A. E. LORADOUX BELLFORD. (L.S.)