Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Dec., 1886.
Complete Left, 29th Aug., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 30th Sept., 1887
I THOMAS MEACOCK of No. 158 Soho Hill Handsworth in the County of Stafford
Mechanical Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this Invention to be as
follows:
My invention relates to hydraulic lifts and presses and consists essentially of the
arrangement hereinafter described of hydraulic cylinders and rams or pistons
encircling a central displacement cylinder with ram or piston this arrangement admits
of two or more of the encircling cylinders and rams or pistons being available for
balancing by hydraulic pressure the constant moving parts such as the ram and cage
of direct acting lifts or dredger bucket or any other constant suspended load in the
case of cranes and hoists the remaining two or more of the encircling rams or pistons
being available for raising the loads. This arrangement facilitates any number of the
encircling rams or pistons being admitted to pressure at one time preferably in pairs
only two rams or pistons being put to pressure for light loads and more for heavier
thus using water in proportion to the load raised. For effecting this object I adopt a
specially designed valve either of the plug or slide type under control of a single hand
lever or cord as hereinafter described the several respective admissions to pressure
being effected by moving the lever or cord in one direction and any or all of the rams
or pistons being put to exhaust either separately or conjointly by moving the said
lever or cord in the opposite direction or other equivalent motion. The movement of
the valve controlling lever or cord may be effected by tappets so as to automatically
control the travel of the lift or hoist.
The pressure of the water in the central displacement cylinder is increased in pro-
portion to the number of the encircling rams or pistons put into operation the
cylinders of the balancing rams or pistons return their contents to the source of supply
during each descent of the constant load and where the moving parts descend loaded
one or more pairs of the lifting rams or pistons can also be made to return their
contents to the source of supply.
In the case of direct acting hydraulic lifts of considerable height of lift the varying
weight of the constant moving parts due to varying stages of immersion in the
'

page_text: cylinder is by this invention accurately compensated by means of a counteracting head
of water acting upon the encircling rams or pistons. In some cases I prefer the use
of mechanical agencies for this purpose, and as all the moving parts are external
weights moving over a drum or drums are readily adapted to this purpose. In some
cases I prefer to accomplish the compensation partially by head of water and partially
by mechanical agencies.
The relative stroke or run out of the encircling rams or pistons and the load raising
ram (which latter is raised by the circulation of the contents of the central displace-
ment cylinder when the pressure is increased by the movement of the encircling
rams or pistons) can be in any desired ration for instance the encircling rams may
have a stroke of one twelfth of the run out of the lifting or moved ram in which case
they would travel at one twelfth the speed in feet per minute. The encircling rams
or pistons and central displacement ram or piston may either be quite independent of
the lifting or moved ram or may surround the same to suit the requirements and con-
venience of wells or sites for lifts and hoists. In some cases I prefer to balance the
weight of the constant moving parts partly by hydraulic pressure and partly by
weights fixed to moving encircling rams or pistons.
My invention is also applicable to hydraulic presses and facilitates an increasing
pressure being brought to bear upon the material being pressed the pressure of the
contents of the displacement cylinder being increased according to the number of
encircling rams or pistons put into communication with it.
When I employ pairs of plug valves I arrange them so that a lever actuates a cam
and the said cam operates in succession on the several valves hence any required
number of encircling cylinders can be brought into operation. In using slide valves
an analogous arrangement for operating at pleasure any number of the encircling
cylinders is employed.
Dated this Tenth day of December 1886.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Hydraulic Lifts and Presses.
I THOMAS MEACOCK of No. 158 Soho Hill, Handsworth in the County of
Stafford, Mechanical Engineer do hereby declare the nature of my Invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My invention relates to hydraulic lifts and presses and consists essentially of the
arrangement hereinafter described of hydraulic cylinders and rams or pistons
encircling a central displacement cylinder with rain or piston; this arrangement
admits of two or more of the encircling cylinders and rams or pistons being available
for balancing by hydraulic pressure the constant moving parts, such as the ram and
cage of direct acting lifts or dredger bucket or any other constant suspended load in
the case of cranes and hoists; the remaining two or more of the encircling rams or
pistons being available for raising the loads. This arrangement facilitates any number
of the encircling rams or pistons being admitted to pressure at one time preferably in
pairs, only two rams or pistons being put to pressure for light loads and more for
heavier thus using water in proportion to the load raised. For effecting this object
I adopt a specially designed valve either of the plug or slide type under control of a
single hand lever or cord as hereinafter described, the several respective admissions
to pressure being effected by moving the lever or cord in one direction and any or all
of the rams or pistons being put to exhaust either separately or conjointly by moving
the said lever or cord in the opposite direction or other equivalent motion. The
movement of the valve controlling lever or cord may be effected by tappets so as to
automatically control the travel of the lift or hoist.
The pressure of the water in the central displacement cylinder is increased in pro-
portion to the number of the encircling rams or pistons put into operation; the
cylinders of the balancing rams or pistons return their contents to the source of
supply during each descent of the constant load and where the moving parts descend
loaded, one or more pairs of the lifting rams or pistons can also be made to return
their contents to the source of supply.
In the case of direct acting hydraulic lifts of considerable height of lift, the
varying weight of the constant moving parts due to varying stages of immersion in
the cylinder is by this invention accurately compensated by means of a counteracting
head of water acting upon the encircling rams or pistons. In some cases I prefer
the use of mechanical agencies for this purpose and as all the moving parts are
external, weights moving over a drum or drums, are readily adapted to this purpose.
In some cases I prefer to accomplish the compensation partially by head of water and
partially by mechanical agencies.
The relative stroke or run out of the encircling rams or pistons and the load
aising ram (which latter is raised by the circulation of the contents of the central
lisplacement cylinder when the pressure is increased by the movement of the

page_text: encircling rams or pistons) can be in any desired ratio; for instance the encircling
rams may have a stroke of one twelfth of the run out of the lifting or moved ram in
which case they would travel at one twelfth the speed in feet per minute. The
encircling rams or pistons and central displacement ram or piston may either be quite
independent of the lifting or moved ram or may surround the same to suit the 5
requirements and convenience of wells or sites for lifts or hoists. In some cases I
prefer to balance the weight of the constant moving parts partly by hydraulic pressure
and partly by weights fixed to moving encircling rams or pistons.
My invention is also applicable to hydraulic presses and facilitates an increasing
pressure being brought to bear upon the material being pressed the pressure of the
contents of the displacement cylinder being increased according to the number of
encircling rams or pistons put into communication with it.
When I employ pairs of plug valves I arrange them so that a lever actuates a cam
and the said cam operates in succession on the several valves, hence any required
number of the encircling cylinders can be brought into operation. In using slide
valves an analogous arrangement for operating at pleasure any number of the
encircling cylinders is employed.
I will now describe with reference to the accompanying Drawing the manner in
which my invention is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents in vertical section and Figure 2 in plan my arrangement of
hydraulic balancing and lifting rams encircling the cage ram of a direct acting
passenger or goods lift; Figure 3 represents the lift complete together with the
raised cage at its full height drawn to a smaller scale. This invention embodies or
combines the requirements of an economical lift of the kind described the parts of the
said lift being constructed and operating in the following manner. The weight of
the ram and cage is nearly balanced by the pair of rams A, A¹ (see Figure 2) and the
load is raised, friction of the parts and the want of balance of the ram and cage are
overcome by the pair of rams B, B' (see Figures 1 and 2). The varying weight of
the cage ram G is compensated by means of the overhanging weight chains C, C (see
Figures 1 and 2) connected to the central cylinder E and passing over the pulleys
represented. It will be seen by an examination of Figure 2 that the two pairs of
rams A, A and B, B' surround a central ram D which is of equal capacity to the
full stroke of the cage ram G and on both pairs of surrounding rams A A¹, B B¹
being put into communication with the pressure main through the connections herein-
after described the central cylinder E is made to travel up the_ram D the water in
the said cylinder E being displaced through apertures F (see Figure 1) to protrude
the cage ram G the water displaced from the central cylinder E passes into the
annular space between the cage ram G and the cylinder in which it works and the
said displaced water by acting upon the bottom of the ram G raises it and the cage G'
as illustrated in Figure 3 the several parts after the cage has been raised to its full
height having the respective positions represented in the said Figure 3. The balancing
rams A Aare in direct communication with the supply main H (see Figure 2), when
the stopcock I is opened, by means of the pipe connections J which do not pass
through the controlling valve K and upon each ascent of the cage ram G the pair of
rams A A' borrow their contents from the source of supply to return the same upon
each descent of the said ram G. The pair of lifting rams B B' are in communication
with the controlling valve K pressure being admitted to them for each_ascent of the
cage ram and they are put into communication with the exhaust main L to permit of
the descent of the cage ram G.
The circulating column of water in the cylinder E is kept fully charged by means
of a small cock, not shown in the Drawing, which cock is arranged to admit pressure
water automatically should the stroke or travel of the said cylinder E be affected by
leakage.
Figure 4 represents in vertical section; Figure 5 in plan and Figure 6 in elevation
drawn to a smaller scale, a lift to which a modified arrangement of my hydraulic
balancing and lifting system is applied. In Figures 4 and 5 the balancing and lifting
mechanism of the lift only is shown but in Figure 6 the parts represented in Figures

page_text: and 5 together with the lift ram and lift and the connections are shown. This
arrangement is especially applicable to lifts worked from tanks or low pressure
mains.
By referring to Figure 4 it will be seen that in this arrangement the displacement
ram D is movable in place of being fixed as described with respect to Figure 1 and
the central cylinder E is fixed. This arrangement of movable displacement ram D
facilitates the use of the large volume of water requisite to work low pressure lifts
acting upon the balancing pistons A A' and lifting pistons B B¹ for compensating by
means of the head of water (which is equal to the travel or stroke of the pistons
A A¹ B B¹) the varying effect due to immersion and protrusion of the cage ram G.
In the arrangement Figures 4, 5 and 6 the circulating water from the cylinder E
is displaced by the movable ram D through the pipe connection M into the cage ram
cylinder N Figure 6. By an examination of Figure 6 it will be seen that the
hydraulic balance is independant of the direct acting lift and the latter does not
encircle the former as in the arrangement shown in Figure 3.
Although I have shown my improved hydraulic balancing and lifting system as
used in a vertical position yet it may be used in a horizontal or inclined position.
In cases where the supply main water is not of sufficiently low pressure to require
a volume acting on the working piston for fully compensating the varying effect of
the cage ram, light weight chain or chains may be applied in a similar manner to that
shown in Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 7 represents in vertical section and Figure 8 in plan a modified arrange-
ment of the hydraulic balancing and lifting ranis, the said arrangement being suitable
for application to lifts where available space is limited. This modification consists of
the two moving rams A, A¹ encircling the two fixed lifting rams B, B' the said parts
encircling a displacing ram D and cylinder E. The operation of this arrangement is
similar to the two systemis previously described, the cylinder E being raised upon the
ram D on the moving rams A, A¹ being. subjected to pressure water upon the internal
rams B, B¹ and annular external area the annular areas being available for balancing
the constant moving parts and the internal areas facilitating the raising of the
combined lift and load.
Figure 9 represents the application of my invention to hydraulic shears by the use
of which loads of various weights can be raised with a single moving piston marked A.
For example assuming that three pairs of rams are used for operating the cylinder E
and displacing its contents by travelling up the ram D, the first pair of rams will
raise loads say of ten tons; the first and second pairs are available for raising loads
say of twenty tons and the three pairs of rams being subjected to pressure will raise
loads say of thirty tons. A small pipe is connected from the displacement ram D to
the lift piston cylinder A for communicating the circulating column of water.
Figure 10 represents in elevation and Figure 11 in plan an arrangement of my
invention to be applied to wagon or similar hoists where a considerable varying
load is required to be dealt with. In this arrangement the rams A, A' nearly balance
the weight of the platform O and ram G; the rams B B are available for raising
empty or unloaded wagons and the rams (in conjunction with the pairs of
rams A A and B B' are capable of raising the loaded wagon.
In some cases I connect a valve or cock of the construction shown in section in
Figure 12 to each pipe connection P of the respective pairs of lifting rams so that in
lowering the lift with loads it is not necessary to put all the pairs of lifting rams to
exhaust but only sufficient of them to permit the load intensifying the supporting
column of water under the ram G sufficiently to increase the pressure of water in
pairs of lifting rams above the normal pressure of the supply-main. When the pipe Q
is put into communication with the supply main the valve R is lifted off its seat and
permits a free discharge of the water in the pipe P to the source of supply and in
raising light loads the pair or pairs of lifting rams not admitted to pressure upon
ascending or travelling to displace the contents of the circulating column draw their
contents through the valve $ the supply pipe T being connected to the exhaust tank
or reservoir.

page_text: The application of my invention to hydraulic presses by means of which an
increasing pressure can be brought to bear upon the material being pressed by one or
more pairs of encircling rams being subjected to pressure will be readily understood
by the description herein before given reference being had to the accompanying
Drawing.
The controlling valves which I prefer to use for actuating the hydraulic pairs of
lifting rams in the manner and for the purpose herein before described consist of
slides or plugs used in pairs the number of pairs and the arrangement of the same
being specially designed to suit the number of pairs of lifting rams used in
combination.
.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my invention and
the manner in which the same is to be performed I declare that I claim as my invention
of "Improvements in hydraulic lifts and presses ;-
"
The construction and use of a system of hydraulic balancing and lifting cylinders
containing rams or pistons, two or more pairs in number, the said cylinders and their
rams or pistons encircling a central displacing cylinder containing a ram or piston,
the several parts being arranged and operating substantially in the manner herein
before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
Dated this Twenty airth day of Avonat 1887