A NEW OR IMPROVED GENERAL CONSTRUCTION OR ARRANGEMENT OF. MECHANISM FOR WEIGHING THE DROSS SEPARATED FROM THE LARGE OR ROUND COAL DELIVERED IN THE GROSS OR MIXED STATE AT PIT HEADS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Hines at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 9th June 1877.
JAMES HINES, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Manager of
the Glasgow Branch of the Firm of Henry Pooley and Son, Weighing Machine
Makers. "A NEW OR IMPROVED GENERAL CONSTRUCTION OR ARRANGEMENT OF.
MECHANISM FOR WEIGHING THE DROSS SEPARATED FROM THE LARGE OR ROUND
COAL DELIVERED IN THE GROSS OR MIXED STATE AT PIT HEADS."
This Invention relates to a new or improved inode of actuating the discharging
door of, and hanging the hopper for receiving and weighing the dross, on carrying
centres and fulcrum levers at the bottom of the dross receiving and conducting
angled shoot, below the angled riddle or screen which delivers the large or round
coal which does not pass through it, into the railway waggons or other removing
vehicles below; and further, to an arrangement of connecting rods and bell-crank
levers for connecting the first centre hopper hanging levers to a large spring weighing-
machine indicator, or divided dial and index pointer, such as used for spring
balances and other weighing machines. And the nature and novelty of the
Invention consist, first, in hanging the said dross-receiving hopper at its two ends
or sides by links to the front horizontal arms of two bell cranks or three-armed
levers, with steel fulcrum centres in each, and carried on steel fulcrum bushes in
forked brackets secured to the side frames of the screen. These bell cranks are
connected by a cross spindle or by a transverse rod or rods through one or two of
their arms to make them rigid, and act as a lever hanging and balancing or weighing
frame counterbalanced by weights on one or both horizontal arms, opposite to
that to which the hopper is hung, to balance it and its fittings in its norinal empty
state; and one or both bell cranks are connected at the top of the vertical arm or
arms by a long light pulling rod or rods connected to one arm of a horizontal boll
crank, carried on a stud bracket fitted with steel centre points, secured to any
suitable support at the distance below the pit head where the recording dial is
desired to be placed, and a second rod from the other arm of this horizontal bell
crank is led away at right angles to the first rod, and connected to the pendent arm
of a second and vertical bell crank, carried on a fulcrum bracket fitted with steel
centre punched points fixed just below the spring indicating mechanism and dial

page_text: hung at the pit head above, and which has its drawing spear or spring rod directly
connected by a long light drawing rod to the horizontal arm of the said vertical
bell crank below it, all so that when the dross from each hutch, emptied on to the
screen, is delivered into the hopper it is weighed down, and, through its carrying
levers and connecting rods and bell cranks, pulls round the index pointer to an
extent proportionate to the weight of the dross in the hopper, indicated truly on
the divisions on the dial in hundredweights and quarters, or pounds if required, so
that the exact weight of dross delivered from each hutch can be written down
at once from observation.
The dross receiving and weighing hopper is preferably of a V shape, open at the
top, with the discharging door formed right across the lower part of one side, and
hinged to the upper part of the same side and closing against the lower edge of the
opposite side; and it is opened and shut by a new or improved arrangement of a
two-armed lever of the first order, fulcrummed in front of the middle of the door to
a bracket projecting down from the upper part of the hopper, having the front
short arm of the lever projecting towards and connected to the door by a short link,
both nearly straight in a.line with the fulcrum joint of the lever, when the door is
closed, so that the weight of the long arm of the lever in its lowest or nearly
horizontal position with a very light weight on it holds the door quite close with
great power, and yet is easily opened by the raising of this long arm of the lever
by a long cord attached to it and led up to the man's hand at the pit head, so as to
empty the dross into the railway or other waggon below as soon as he has taken
down the weight recorded as before stated.
The centre levers hanging the dross hopper or scale may be connected by one
forked rod, or by two rods with a horizontal cross head or bean, which in either
case is connected by a central rod to the first horizontal bell crank; or otherwise,
the two rods might be directly connected to two horizontal bell cranks coupled
through one length of the rod lending to the vertical bell crank below the spring
indicating dial; and all these bell cranks would be fitted with fixed centres and
oscillating links connected to the long coupling rods.