IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING ACCIDENTS WITH THE BELTS USED FOR DRIVING MACHINERY
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick William Lawson, Mechanical Engineer,
and Edward Gerrard Fitton, Mechanical Engineer, both of Leeds,
in the County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING ACCIDENTS WITH THE BELTS USED FOR DRIVING
MACHINERY"
Scaled the 30th July 1872, and dated the 22nd February 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick William
Lawson and Edward Gerrard Fitton at the Office of the Commis-
sioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 22nd February 1872.
We, FREDERICK WILLIAM LAWSON, Mechanical Engineer, and
EDWARD GERRARD FITTON, Mechanical Engineer, both of Leeds, in the
County of York, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING ACCIDENTS WITH THE BELTS USED
FOR DRIVING MACHINERY," to be as follows:-
66
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
preventing accidents with the belts used for driving machinery.

page_text: The Invention refers to apparatus for putting belts on to pulleys while
the same are in motion, and consists of a wooden staff having a jointed
lever at its upper end, one end of which lever has its fulcrum against
the shaft, the other end is free to move round one side of the pulley
rim. When a belt requires putting on the attendant places the lever
between or within the belt and by means of the staff causes the jointed
lever to move circumferentially along the rim of the pulley; the lever
is so formed as to guide the belt on the pulley. To prevent belts lapping
we put on the shaft tubes which fit loosely; when the belt comes off the
pulley it falls on the tubes, and this being loose the belt is prevented
from lapping around it.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick William Lawson and Edward Gerrard
Fitton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd August 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, FREDERICK
WILLIAM LAWSON, Mechanical Engineer, and EDWARD GERRARD FITTON,
Mechanical Engineer, both of Leeds, in the County of York, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Frederick William Lawson and Edward
Gerrard Fitton, Her special license that we, the said Frederick William
Lawson and Edward Gerrard Fitton, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Frederick William Lawson and
Edward Gerrard Fitton, our executors, 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 for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING
ACCIDENTS WITH the Belts used FOR DRIVING MAChinery,” upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Frederick William Lawson and
Edward Gerrard Fitton, our executors or administrators, by an instru-

page_text: ment in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and
seal of one of us or them, 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 Frederick William Lawson, on
behalf of myself and the said Edward Gerrard Fitton, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
preventing accidents with the belts used for driving machinery.
The Invention refers to apparatus for putting belts on to pulleys while
the same are in motion, and consists of a wooden staff having a jointed
lever at its upper end, one end of which lever has its fulcrum against
the shaft, the other end is free to move round one side of the pulley rim.
When a belt requires putting on the attendant places the lever between
or within the belt and by means of the staff causes the jointed lever to
move circumferentially along the rim of the pulley; the lever is so formed
as to guide the belt on the pulley. To prevent belts lapping we put on
the shaft tubes which fit loosely; when the belt comes off the pulley it
falls on the tube, and this being loose the belt is prevented from lapping
around it.
In andor that Our said Invention may be most fully understood and

page_text: from its forked end corresponding with the radius of the driving pulley
as is shewn in Figure 2. j is a tube mounted loosely on the shaft a;
the belt d when off the pulley b hangs over this tube, and the tube then
remains stationary whilst the shaft a revolves within it; thus all risk
of the belt becoming lapped or wound around the shaft is avoided. The
belt d is put upon the driving pulley in the following manner :-The
lever e is raised by means of the staff y into the position shewn in
Figure 1, its forked end embracing the tube; and its finger h supporting
one side of the belt d. Where a tube j is not provided the forked end of
the lever e may be applied directly upon the shaft a. The lever e turns
somewhat stiffly upon its stud f, so that the lever is readily placed in the
manner in which the Drawing represents. This having been done the
staff g is pushed upwards, so as to cause the lever e to pass around the
shaft a until the finger h comes vertically over the shaft a or nearly so,
the belt then runs on to the pulley, the inclination of the finger h aiding
it so to do. The position of the finger h upon the lever e can be
adjusted to adapt the apparatus to driving pulleys of different sizes, and
the stud can be similarly adjusted to the position which in cach case
is found most convenient. The lever e may be so formed as not to
require an adjustable finger and yet to be able to work with driving
pulleys of several different sizes; such an arrangement is shewn in
Figures 4.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, we would have it understood that we
claim, the apparatus substantially as described for putting belts on to
driving pulleys whilst they are in motion without risk of accident.
We also claim the arrangement substantially as described for sup-
porting the belt when off the driving pulley without risk of its becoming
lapped around the shaft.
In witness whereof, the said Frederick William Lawson, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of August, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two