Improvements in Machinery for Cutting and Boring Coal, Stone, and other Hard Substances.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 17th Jan., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 17th Nov., 1893-Accepted, 17th Feb.; 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Machinery for Cutting and Boring Coal, Stone,
and other Hard Substances.
We, THOMAS HEPPELL of Leafield House, Chester-le-Street in the County
of Durham, Mining Engineer and WILLIAM PATTERSON and JOHN GEORGE
PATTERSON both of 9 Front Street, Tynemouth, in the County of Northumberland,
Engineers do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to improvements in machinery for cutting and boring coal
stone and other hard substances.
Our improvements are more especially applicable to means for increasing the
rigidity of the cutter bar during its working and for this purpose we employ &
tubular bearing or sleeve of a length somewhat less than that of the cutter bar
within which the cutter bar is designed to revolve or work.
The sleeve or tube by one application is arranged to rest and work in bearings
provided on and at the extreme end of the machine which may be mounted on a
trolley or the machine itself may be mounted on wheels to effect a similar result.
A cutter bar placed as described at the end of the trolley can cut its way up to
the extreme end of a place.
The machine itself may consist as is usual of the requisite shafting and wheel
or other friction gearing driven by applied power of any convenient description.
Thus the cutter bar fitted with cutters or knives towards its extremity and with
boring knives at its extremity is caused to revolve within the tube or sleeve
through the wheel or other gearing and the sleeve serves to support the bar
almost up to its extremity and as the feed motion applied by hand or machine
power feeds forward the cutter bar it also feeds forward the tube or sleeve so as to
keep the cutter bar in all positions well supported by the sleeve. In this manner
the distance between the cutters and the nearest bearing on the cutter bar may be
regulated and kept constant.
The position of the cutter bar so arranged within the machine may be varied
by the use of adjustable screw or other sliding blocks containing the bearings so
that the tool can be made to act on the coal or stone in any desired position.
To facilitate the moving of the tool from one end or side of the machine to the
other the sleeve bearings may be placed if desired in blocks carried on the ends of
radial levers mounted on the machine or trolley so that the racking or turning over
of the levers may bring over the tool to the required position where it can be
securely held by stop catches keeps or equivalent devices."
A cutter bar and sleeve arranged as above.described may be used in combination
with a vertical or other shaft or adjustable tool carrier and in any required
positions and may be driven or worked by any power for which purpose flexible
shafting will be found specially suitable in confined spaces.
Dated this 16th day of January 1893.
A. CRAWHALL CHAPMAN,
3, St. Nicholas Buildings, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Patent Agent.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Machinery for Cutting and Boring Coal, Stone,
and other Hard Substances.
We, THOMAS HEPPELL of Leafield House Chester-le-Street, in the County
of Durham, Mining Engineer and WILLIAM PATTERSON and JOHN GEORGE
PATTERSON both of 9. Front Street, Tynemouth, in the County of Northumberland,
Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
This invention relates to improvements in machinery for cutting and boring
coal stone and other hard substances.
Our improvements are more especially applicable to means for increasing the
rigidity of the cutter bar during its working and for this purpose we employ a
tubular bearing or sleeve of a length somewhat less than that of the cutter bar
within which the cutter bar is designed to revolve or work.
We will fully describe this arrangement with reference to the accompanying
drawings in which
Figure 1 shows a plan view of the apparatus comprising our invention, Figure 2
being a side elevational view (shown partly in section) of the same.
Figure 3 is a sectional elevation showing the cutter bar in its sleeve bearing and
in the following description like marks of reference designate like parts.
Referring to the drawings, it will be observed that by way of example we show
our invention applied to a tool carrier adapted for use in underground workings;
the tool carrier consists of a cross-bar a with gripping plates a at either end, the
wrench-screw a being for the purpose of securing the cross-bar in position in a
working place between for example two coal walls.
Mounted on the cross-bar a aud adapted to slide thereon is a tool carrier casting 3.
This casting may vary in design but as shown in the drawings it consists of a pair
of divergent hinged or clasp bearings marked c c, c cat either side of the casting.
These bearings carry the cutter bar sleeve d within which the cutter bar 4 works.
This sleeve will be constructed of sufficient strength or thickness to amply support
the head of the cutter bar whatever the overhang from the bearing may be and for
this purpose the sleeve may be of any desired section whether circular as shown in
the drawings or externally ribbed or otherwise, and in the case of its external
surface being ribbed longitudinally then the ribs would act as "feathers" to guide
the sleeve through the bearing when being fed forward or backward. The main
motion of the cutter bar is a rotary one but it has also to be fed forward as it bores
its head into the coal or other hard substance and it is obvious that as the cutter
bar is fed forward, its cutting head will gradually lose the support of its sleeve
bearing unless provision is made to guard against this. We counteract this
difficulty by providing that the sleeve shall also be fed forward with the cutter bar
so that the sleeve shall serve to support the bar almost up to its extremity whereby
the distance between the cutters and the nearest bearing on the cutter bar may be
regulated and kept constant.
This feed motion may be effected in a variety of ways e.g. as shown in the
drawings by clamping onto the sleeve d an iron U-shaped frame 5 fitted with a
drum spindle 6 operated by a hand wheel 7.
One end of a chain or cord 8 is attached to a lug 9 on the tool carrier casting
and the other end is attached to the spindle 6 so that the turning of the spindle or
drum may wind on the cord or chain and so feed forward the cutter bar and sleeve
aforesaid.
Backward motion of the spindle may be arrested by a ratchet and spring pawl
(latter not shown in the drawings).

page_text: To prevent any reciprocatory motion of the cutter bar in the sleeve, a collar 10 is
pinned to the bar and a flanged collar 11 is similarly shrunk on or secured to the
sleeve; the loose collar 12 bolted to the collar 11 completes the device; the
collar 10 then revolves between the stops formed by collars 11 and 12 which effects
the desired purpose. It will be observed that the bearings cc and c¹ c¹ which carry
the sleeve and cutter bar have hinged covers so that by withdrawing a pin P, the
cover can be lifted or swung over to remove or adjust the sleeve, and if desirable
for "nicking" and similar purposes the bearings cc and c'c' may be made adjustable
by pivotting or hinging them on the sides of the casting so that the cutter bar can
be readily put to work at angles inclined either upwards or downwards. We have
not shown the bearings thus pivotted or hinged because it is obvious that such an
arrangement can be readily designed and adapted if required nor is there any novelty
in thus pivotting a bearing so that it can be utilised in the manner and for the
purpose stated.
A lateral feed motion may be given to the cutters by the arrangement shown in
the drawings in which 13 is a handwheel on a spindle 14 carrying a worm 15
working into a tooth-wheel 16 on a short shaft 17 carrying another tooth-wheel 18
gearing into a rack 19 formed along the length of the underside of the cross-bar a.
The turning of the wheel 13 will thus clearly rack the tool carrier to the right
or to the left as desired through the medium of wheel 18 and its gear with the
rack 19 aforesaid.
The cutter bar head H will of course be fitted with boring and cutting tools of
any approved and known type and in any approved manner, whether arranged
spirally or in parallel order or otherwise.
The cutter bar may be recessed or reduced in diameter within the sleeve so as to
form oil spaces O to facilitate working and to reduce friction between these parts
and a gland and packing may be fitted with advantage at G to prevent access of
dust between the sleeve and cutter bar.
Rotary motion may be given to the cutter bars by coupling onto their ends Ea
universal or other coupling connected to shafting, flexible or otherwise, driven by
power derived from any convenient source.
Though we have shown our invention as applied to a tool carrier which is a very
convenient way of adapting it for the ordinary purposes of "kirving" or "nicking" or
boring holes in underground workings, we wish it to be understood that it can be
applied in many other ways, as for instance by mounting the supporting sleeve and
cutter bar in a bearing on a trolley or wagon the said trolley carrying a motor for
actuating the requisite shafting for driving the cutter bar and we make no claim to
any specific application or combination of actuating mechanism for driving the
cutter bar; the drawings show and the Specification describes one effective method
of applying our invention and therefore
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
:-
1. The improvement in machinery for cutting, "kirving," nicking, and boring
5 coal stone and other hard substances consisting in the combination with the cutter
bar of a supporting sleeve arranged in a bearing and adapted to be fed forward
with the cutter bar so as to maintain a more or less constant distance between the
cutter bar bead and the end of the supporting sleeve aforesaid, substantially as
specified.
0 2. The combination with a shaft a and adjustable tool carrier casting 3 of the
supporting sleeve d and cutter bar arranged and adapted to be operated substantially
as herein set forth.
A. CRAWHALL CHAPMAN,
3. St. Nicholas Buildings, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Patent Agent.