IMPROVEMENTS IN FIXING AND STAYING, TELEGRAPH POSTS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Oppenheimer, of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN FIXING AND STAYING, TELEGRAPH POSTS."
Scaled the 13th May 1870, and dated the 16th November 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph. Oppenheimer,
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 16th November 1869.
I, JOSEPH OPPENHEIMER, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN FIXING AND STAYING TELEGRAPH POSTS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists, firstly, in fixing telegraph posts by driving them
into the ground, and the method I propose to adopt is as follows :--
I provide the post with a more or less pointed end or shoe and adjust
it in a vertical position by means of shears or similar apparatus; I then
place a clamp or otherwise fix a projecting collar upon the said post, and
above it adapt a. weight, which being drawn. up by suitable tackla is
allowed to fall upon the aforesaid collar and by successive blows force

page_text: the post into the earth. In order further to support the post laterally
I adapt thereto a plate resting upon the surface of the ground, and
through which it passes, and this plate I secure by spikes or similar
means driven through apertures in the said plate or outside thereof but
projecting over it. The form of apparatus I at present propose consists
of a plate provided with an orifice which is slipped over the pole and.
formed with slots and cavities at right angles thereto. Through these
slots spikes whose sections at their base correspond to the form thereof
and provided with heads are driven. Or instead of this arrangement
the post or a portion thereof may be formed with a part taking the place
of the said plate, and it may also be used for the weight to fall on
instead of the aforesaid clamp.
Another method I propose for fixing telegraph posts is to provide
their lower ends with screws so that by turning the said posts by levers
or other suitable means they will be screwed into the ground. In
combination with this arrangement plates of the character of those
above mentioned may be employed.
My Invention relating to the staying of telegraph posts consists in
the use of a certain construction of anchor to which the usual stay rods
are fixed. For this purpose I employ a link, at the lower end of
which are jointed vanes or flukes which may be folded inward. A hole
having been formed in the ground of about the diameter of the folded
position of the vanes or flukes they are dropped therein below the surface
of the soil, and then when they are drawn upward their tendency is to
expand and fix themselves in the earth. The stay rods may be attached
to these anchors in any ordinary manner,
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Oppenheimer in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 16th May 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
OPPENHEIMER, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth November, One thousand

page_text: eight hundred and sixty-nine, and thirty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Joseph Oppenheimer, Her special license that I, the said Joseph
Oppenheimer, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Joseph Oppenheimer, my 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 FIXING AND STAYING
TELEGRAPH POSTS;" upon the condition, amongst others, that I, the said
Joseph Oppenheimer, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, 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 Joseph Oppenheimer, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, that is to say :-
The first part of my Invention refers to fixing telegraph posts by
driving, and the method I adopt is shewn in one form at Fig. 1, and
also at Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, which are detached views upon a larger scale
of some of the apparatus employed. The post to be fixed is shewn
at a, and may for the present be supposed of wood or of metal con-
structed in any known manner and provided at its end with a shoe b
more or less pointed. This post having been placed in the required
position a triangle or set of "sheers" ċ is adapted thereto, the cap d of
which is provided with a hole about the size of the said post, and by
these means it is retained in a vertical position. To the cap d are
adapted two pullies e, over which cords f pass, one end of each of them
being attached to a weight g which surrounds the post, and the other
ends provided with handles by which the said weight may be hoisted... The
construction of this weight is shewn at Figs. 2 and 3; it consists of a
block of metal formed, with a slot h, h, and through it passes a pin i
kept in place by nuts as shewn. In adapting this weight the pin i is
withdrawn, and it may then be slipped on to the post through the slot h,-

page_text: and the said post is then situate in the space h*. At k, k, are rings to
which the ropes fare attached. At 1, Figs. 4 and 5 are two semicircular
conical tubes which are placed upon the post a, and are then tightened
thereon by a pair of clamps m which are drawn together by bolts and
nuts n, as seen also in Fig. 1. These arrangements having been made
the ropes are drawn downward, and the weight g is thus raised; it is
then allowed to fall suddenly and strike the surface of the clamp m, and
by a succession of such blows the post is driven into the ground to the
required depth. When the weight descends as above described it tightens
the clamp m if it has any tendency to slip upon the conical half tubes 1,
and the whole thus becomes firmly bound upon the post.
Figs. 6, 7, and 8 shew a modification of this part of my Invention. In
this instance the post is formed in two parts, the one being that which
enters the ground, and the other that which is above it, and the former
is furnished with a surface upon which the driving weight can fall, thus
enabling me to dispense with the clamp and conical tubes previously
described. In Figs. 6, 7, and 8, o is the lower part of the post, a plan view
of which upon an enlarged scale is shewn at Fig. 8; the other detached
views Figs. 9, 10, and 11, shew sections of this part taken at different
lines downward. This part of the post consists of a central boss
provided with wings p, and formed for a certain distance downward with
a cavity g, into which the upper part r of the post is placed. This upper
part may be constructed as in the former case of timber, but in the
Drawing I have represented it as made of metallic tubes joined together
after that method for which Letters Patent were granted to me, dated
November Twentieth, One thousand eight hundred and seventy, Number
3286. The post or a temporary post having been placed in the cavity g,
a triangle is erected as in Fig. 1 to adjust it in a vertical position..
When this has been done a suitable weight is placed upon the post
beneath the joint 8, or in case of a temporary post at any desired elevation,
and is drawn upward and allowed to fall as mentioned in reference to
Fig. 1, but in this instance instead of falling upon the clamp it strikes
the surface t of the lower part of the post and drives it into the ground.
This having been done the post is fixed in the cavity g by any usual
means, the said cavity being made to toper upward for that purpose
as well as to render it free for the introduction of temporary fastening by
wedges, and the post thus becomes permanently fixed in its proper
position. I have above alluded to the sections of the lower part of the

page_text: .
post which I at present adopt, but they may of course be varied, and the
hoss may be cored out lower than the cavity 9 shewn and described:
In reference to this part of my Invention I would observe that it is
desirable not to allow the weight to fall on the bare metal of the lower
part of the post. I therefore place a washer of rope a similar material
on the surface t, by which means a more deadened blow is effected.
Another part of my Invention consists in supporting the post laterally
by adapting thereto a plate resting upon the surface of the ground, and
through which it passes. This is shewn adapted at Fig. 12, and the
details of the said plate at Figs. 13, 14, 15, 16, upon an enlarged scale.
Fig. 14 is a plan view, and Fig. 13 a section of the apparatus. At u is
a plate provided with strengthening flanges v, v*, and through the centre
flange vis formed an aperture through which the post passes. The
flanges are formed T-shape, and have similar formed openings w
extending through them. In applying this apparatus it is in the first
place adapted to the ground, and the post having been placed in the
aperture a is driven into the earth; when this has been done the spikes
shewn at Figs. 15, 16, are driven through the slots 10, the section of the
upper part of the said spikes corresponding thereto, and they are formed
with heads y which abut against the plate. This arrangement as before
stated is shewn adapted to the post at Fig. 12; Figs. 12* shew a pointed
shoe for the metallic post.
My next improvement relates to a construction of anchor for staying
telegraph posts, and is shewn at Figs. 17, 18, and 19. At 1 is a link to
which are jointed vanes or "flukes" 2, capable of folding inward in an
upward direction, as shewn by the dotted lines in Fig. 18. When it is
desired to adapt this anchor a hole is bored in the ground of about the
diameter of the folded flukes, which are then dropped in below the surface
of the soil. The stay rod being now attached to the shackle 3 and
distended the anchor will be drawn upward, but the flukes 2 fixing
themselves in the earth tend to turn upon their centres and expand, an
increased tension thereby securing a proportionately increased hold.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be
understood that I claim as secured to me under the above in part recited
Letters Patent,―
Firstly. Fixing telegraph posts by driving, substantially as described.

page_text: Secondly. The construction of plate, illustrated at Figs. 13, 14,
15, 16.
Thirdly. The expanding anchor, illustrated at Figs. 17, 18, 19.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Oppenheimer, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of May, in the 5
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
JOSEPH OPPENHEIMER. (L.S.)