IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN PACKING SUGAR OR OTHER GRANULAR OR POWDERED MATERIAL IN CASKS OR OTHER HOLDERS
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Abram Lyle, senior, of Greenock, in the County of Renfrew,
North Britain, Shipowner and Sugar Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN PACKING SUGAR OR OTHER GRANULAR OR
POWDERED MATERIAL IN CASKS OR OTHER HOLDERS."
Sealed the 14th May 1878, and dated the 16th November 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Abram Lyle at the Office.
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th November 1877.
;
ABRAM LYLE, senior, of Greenock, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain,
Shipowner and Sugar Merchant. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN
PACKING SUGAR OR OTHER GRANULAR OR POWDERED MATERIAL IN CASKS OR OTHER
HOLDERS."
This Invention has for its object to bring sugar or other granular or powdered
material, when filled into casks or other holders, into a more compact or dense
condition than that which it ordinarily assumes when loosely thrown or supplied
into the cask or holder, or when shaken by hand, the desired result being obtained
without ramming or compressing processes, which operate unequally, and tend to
injure the grain or its appearance.
The improved apparatus comprises a platform fitted to a low framing, in which it
is guided so as to be capable of a short vertical movement. Beneath the platform
there are placed two or more horizontal shafts, which, when the apparatus is in
operation, are made to rotate by any convenient gearing and motive power. The
horizontal shafts have fixed on them cams, which are shaped spirally or otherwise,
so as to alternately lift up the platform in a gradual manner, and then let it drop
suddenly, the cams all acting together, so that the platform is always horizontal.
The cask or holder is placed on the platform of the apparatus, and the cam shafts
are set in motion whilst the sugar or other material is being filled into it. The re-
peated lifting and dropping of the platform, with the cask or holder on it, produces
concussion in the sugar or other material, and causes it by its own weight and
through the concussive action to become compacted and densified.

page_text: The distinguishing feature of the improved apparatus is the repeated dropping of
the cask or holder, and the details of the mechanism for obtaining this action may
obviously be modified in various ways.
In order to facilitate the removal of a filled cask off the platform, a groove is formed
in the platform to receive a long lever, by means of which the cask can be tilted.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Abram Lyle in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th May 1878.
ABRAM LYLE, senior, of Greenock, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain,
Shipowner and Sugar Merchant. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN
PACKING SUGAR OR OTHER GRANULAR OR POWDERED MATERIAL IN CASKS OR OTHER
HOLDERS."
My said Invention has for its object to bring sugar or other granular or powdered
material, when filled into casks or other holders, into a more compact or dense con-
dition than that which it ordinarily assumes when loosely thrown or supplied into
the cask or holder, or when shaken by hand, the desired result being obtained
without ramming or compressing processes, which operate unequally, and tend to
injure the grain or its appearance.
My approved apparatus consists essentially of a platform or support for the cask
or holder, which platform or support is moved, so as to alternately raise the cask or
holder in a gradual manner, and to drop it suddenly. The raising and dropping
action is repeated continuously whilst the sugar or other material is being filled into
the cask or holder, and produces concussion in the sugar or other material, which
causes it by its own weight and through the concussive action to become compacted
and densified.
The distinguishing feature of my improved apparatus is the repeated dropping
of the cask or holder, and the details of the mechanism for obtaining this action
may obviously be modified in various ways.
In order however that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of explanatory Drawings,
to be herein-after referred to, and representing a practically successful modification
of my improved apparatus.
In these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like
parts wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings is a plan of the apparatus; and
Figure 2 is a corresponding transverse vertical section.
The platform 3 on which the cask or holder is to be placed is of a square form,
with rounded corners in plan, and consists of wooden planks, fixed upon an iron
plate 4, and bound by a rim or edge band 5 of angle iron.
When in its lowest
position (as shown in Figure 2) the platform 3, 4, rests upon wooden bearing pieces 6
fixed upon a cast-iron bed frame 7, which is in the form of an open square or nearly
square frame, the sides and ends of which are of a hollow or box form. The ends of the
bed frame 7 are fitted with bearings for three horizontal shafts 8, 9, 10, the middle one
9 being the first motion or driving shaft, and having on it a spur wheel 11, which
gears with spur wheels 12, 13, on the two other shafts 8, 10. The driving spur

page_text: wheel 11 is loose on its shaft 9, but is formed with a clutch boss, with which there
can be engaged an ordinary clutch 14 on the shaft, the usual forked hand lever
(not shown in the Drawing) being provided for moving the clutch into or out of
gear with the wheel 11. On the two lateral shafts 8, 10, there are formed or fixed four
cams or wipers 15 (indicated by dotted lines in Figure 1), two being on each shaft,
so that the four occupy the corners of a square; and immediately above each of
these cams 15 there is fixed or formed on the under side of the platform plate a
downwardly projecting block 16, the parts being arranged so that as the cams 15
rotate in the direction of the arrows in Figure 2, the curved parts of the cams bear
up against the blocks 16, and raise the platform 3, 4, until the points of the cams
escape past the edges of the blocks 16, whereupon the platform 3, 4, falls or drops
back through the distance it was raised, and strikes and rests on the bearing
pieces 6. This causes the desired dropping concussive action to be imparted to the
cask or holder placed upon the platform 3, 4.
The cams 15 are shown as of a form to lift the platform twice during each revolu-
tion, and it is found in practice that a speed of about fifty-five revolutions per
minute of the shafts 8, 10, (or 110 droppings of the platform per minute) gives
satisfactory results; but this speed may of course be varied in different cases.
The platform 3, 4, is steadily guided in its ascent and descent by means of four
strong pins or studs 17, which are fixed to its bottom plate 4, and which work in
guide sockets 18 formed for them on the bed frame. In Figure 2 one of the guide
sockets 18 is shown as sectioned at the right-hand side, but not at the other. The
four cams 15 are all placed on their shafts, so as to act uniformly together, and so
as to keep the platform 3, 4, horizontal whilst lifting it; and the guide pins 17 also
prevent any appreciable deviation from the horizontal position either whilst the
platform rises or falls.
In order to facilitate the removal of a filled cask off the platform 3, 4, a groove is
formed in the platform to receive a long lever 19, by means of which the cask can
be tilted. This lever 19 is jointed to a staple or eye bolt at the inner end of the
groove, and its end is formed to enter a socket in a lengthening or handle piece 20;
it is also slotted, and has fitted in the slot a leg piece 21, which lies in the slot when
the lever 19 lies in its groove, but which being jointed at its outer end to the lever
19 can be turned downwards and outwards when the lever 19 is raised, and be used
to support the lever and the cask tilted by it, its free end then bearing on the plat-
form. With this arrangement the workman who uses the lever 19 to tilt the cask
can leave it tilted, and proceed to remove or assist in removing the cask.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise details
herein described or delineated; but that what I believe to be novel and original, and
claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is,-
1. The application and use of a platform arranged to rise and drop repeatedly,
and by the concussive action thereby imparted to a cask or holder on it to effect the
packing of sugar or other granular or powdered material, substantially as herein-
before described.
2. The arranging or combining together of apparatus for packing sugar or other
granular or powdered material by concussive action, substantially as herein
described and delineated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Abram Lyle, senior, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eleventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-eight
ABRAM LYLE. (L.S.)