IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR LOADING OR DISCHARGING GRAIN, COALS, BALLAST, OR OTHER MATERIALS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Holdsworth, of Kingston-upon-Hull, Fruit
Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
LOADING OR DISCHARGING GRAIN, COALS, BALLAST, OR OTHER MATERIALS,"
Sealed the 23rd November 1869, and dated the 28th August 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Holdsworth at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 28th August 1869.
I, JOHN HOLDSWORTH, of Kingston-upon-Hull, Fruit Merchant, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR LOADING OR DISCHARGING GRAIN, COALS, BALLAST, OR OTHER
MATERIALS," to be as followaws, that is to say :--
This Invention has for its object the simplification of the modes or
methods of loading or discharging various materials, such as grain, coal,
ballast, &c., by a peculiarly constructed "skip," wagon, or other vessel,
by means of which the material operated upon is transferred to the
Price 8d1

page_text: desired locality with great facility, and, if required, without subjecting it
to an excessive concussion, as is the case when tip wagons or ballanced
tubs are used for a similar purpose.
In order to effect these objects I construct the "skip or vessel (which
may be made of iron, wood, or any other suitable material wholly or in
part) used for transferring the material from one place to another with
a bottom, which while sufficiently tight to hold the material in it while
being raised or lowered is capable of being detached from the sides of
the skip when required, when the material will fall out by its own
gravity. Thus for some purposes I construct the skip as follows:-The
bottom, which may be of any desired size or shape, but which for the
purpose of illustration I will suppose to form a parallelogram, is pro-
vided with two straps (one on each of the shorter ends) provided with
suitable guides, and which are carried up the sides or ends of the skip,
and are connected by means of short chains to a cross bar attached to
the chain of a crane or other hoisting apparatus. Across the top of the
skip a bar is fitted to the sides of the skip to which a rope or chain is
attached (or it may be attached to the sides without the intervention of
the bar), this rope either being held by hand or made to act at any
desired length of travel or movement at which it is intended to act.
The action of this arrangement is as follows:-Supposing the skip
to be placed on the ground the weight of the sides will keep them
sufficiently close to the bottom to prevent the material from escaping
between the bottom and the sides. When the skip is full it is raised by
means of a crane, the chain of which is attached to the cross piece in
connection with the bottom, as herein-before described, and thus the
tension acting upon the bottom and not upon the sides keeps the joint
between them sufficiently tight. By adjusting the length of the rope
connected to the sides, as herein-before mentioned, to any required
length, when the skip is lowered to a corresponding distance this rope
becomes taut and prevents the sides from decending any further, when
by continuing to lower the chain attached to the bottom the sides and
bottom are separated and the material falls out.
A barge suitably fitted in accordance with this arrangement may be
brought alongside a vessel or wharf, and each skip hoisted up separately
and discharged, as herein-before described, thus obviating the labour of
filling the skip from the barge: As the opening for the discharge of the
contained material is at the bottom the skip may be lowered until only

page_text: just above the spot where it is required to be placed, so that when the
material (such as coal, &c.) is allowed to run out of the skip it is not
damaged by falling from a distance, as is the case when discharged in
the ordinary manner. By this ineaus also the material may be dis-
charged on every side of the bottom of the skip (or only partially so as
may be desired), and thus distribute them more evenly than in the usual
manner, and save the labour of trimming in the ship's hold or on a wharf
or other place where the discharge or deposit is required. In order to
facilitate the exit of the material the bottom may be hinged or partially
attached to one of the sides, when that side being held up at the bottom
will be canted on one side, or the bottom may be made sloping from the
centre, or pyramidel or curved, so as to effect the same purpose; or the
bottom may be made to slope from one side to which it may be hinged,
and the rope connected to the top of the opposite side, so that the
contained material will be discharged on one side only. Again, when
the bottom attached to the hoisting apparatus is raised it is drawn up
against the sides into its place, and thus the closing of the skip is made
to be self-acting.
A similar arrangement or contrivance of skip may be made of such
dimensions as to fit into barges or other vessels in such a manner that
the barge will be divided in its length and breadth into sections, each
section being complete in itself, and fitted as herein-before described.
Or this apparatus may be so constructed as to sit upon the framing of the
railway or other truck, and thus constitute the body of the truck, but
which body is capable of beiug lifted off bodily and discharging its
contents at any required place, as herein-before described.
D
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Holdsworth in the Great. Seal Patent Office
on the 26th February 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, JOHN
HOLDSWORTH, of Kingston-upon-Hull, Fruit Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing late the Twenty-eighth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,

page_text: give and grant unto me, the said John Holdsworth, Her special licence
that I. the said John Holdsworth, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Holdsworth, 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 APPARATUS
FOR LOADING OR DISCHARGING GRAIN, COALS, BALLAST, OR OTHER MATERIALS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Holdsworth,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be perforined, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Holdsworth, do hereby declare
the nature of the said.Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
skip,"
This Invention has for its object the simplification of the modes or
methods of loading or discharging various materials, such as grain, coal,
ballast, and such like materials, by a peculiarly constructed "
waggon, or other vessel, by means of which the material operated upon
is transferred to the desired locality with great facility, and, if required,
without subjecting it to an excessive concussion, as is the case when tip
wagons or ballanced tubs are used for a similar purpose.
In order to effect these objects I construct the "skip" or vessel, (which
may be made of iron, wood, or any other suitable material wholly or
in part) used for transferring the material from one place to another
with a bottom, which while sufficiently tight to hold the material in it
while being raised or lowered is capable of being detached from the
sides of the skip when required by reason of the sides being held, sup-
ported, or retained suspended by a check rope or chain, when the
material will fall out by its own gravity. Thus for some purposes I
construct the skip as follows:-The bottom, which may be of any desired
shape, but which for the purpose of illustration I will suppose to form a
parallelogram, is provided with two straps, bars, or rods (one on each

page_text: of the shorter ends) working in suitable guides. These straps, bars, or
rods are carried up to the sides or ends of the skip, and are connected
by means of short chains to a cross bar attached to the chain of a
crane or other hoisting apparatus, so that the whole weight of ths skip,
wagon, box, or other vessel and its contents when charged is supported
thereby, and the two parts of the vessel, namely, the sides and bottom,
are raised together, and they will fall together to any requisite extent
so long as no check or retardation is put upon the downward movement
of the portion forined by the sides or surrounding frame, as when such
check takes place the weight of the bottom and the contents thereupon
cause the bottom to leave the sides, either uniformly all round or upon
one side more than the other, and thus causes the contents of the skip,
bucket, waggon, or other vessel to be shot out or delivered thereout of
in a manner corresponding with the shape or form of the bottom and
the manner in which it is hung, suspended, mounted, or fitted to the
sides or surrounding frame by which the vessel is formed or completed.
Across the top of the skip a bar may be fitted to the sides thereof, to
which a rope or chain is attached (or it may be attached to the sides
without the intervention of the bar), this rope either being held by hand
or made to act at any desired length of travel or inovement at which
it is intended to act.
The action of this arrangement is as follows:-Supposing the skip
to be placed on the ground the weight of the sides will keep them
sufficiently close to the bottem to prevent the material from escaping
between the bottom and the sides. When the skip is full it may be
raised by means of a crane, crab, or winch, the chain of which is
attached to the cross piece in connection with the bottom, as herein-
before described, and thus the tension acting upon the bottom and not
upon the sides keeps the joints between them sufficiently tight. By
adjusting the length of the check rope or chain connected to the sides,
as herein-before mentioned, to any required length when the skip is
lowered to a corresponding distance, this rope becomes taut and pre-
vents the sides from descending any further, when by continuing to
lower the chain attached to the bottom the sides and bottom are
separated and the material falls out.
A barge suitably fitted with skips or other vessels in accordance with
this arrangement may be brought alongside a vessel or wharf, and each
skip may be hoisted up separately and discharged, as herein before

page_text: described, thus obviating the labor of filling the skip from the barge.
As the opening for the discharge of the contained material is at the
bottom the skip may be lowered until only just above the spot where
it is required to be placed, so that when the material (such a coal, &c.,
is allowed to run out of the skip it is not damaged by falling from a
distance, as is the case when discharged in the ordinary manner from a
bucket, basket, or other vessel from which it has to be tipped. By this
means also the materials may be discharged on every side of the bottom
of the skip (or only partially so as may be desired), and thus distribute
them more evenly than in the usual mauner, and save the labour of
trimming in the ship's hold or on a wharf or other place where the
discharge or deposit is required. In order to facilitate the exist of the
materials from one side or end of the vessel only the bottom may be
hinged or partially attached to one of the sides or ends partially, or be
loosely attached by a chain, when that side being held up the bottom
will be canted on one side, or the bottom may be made sloping from the
centre, or pyramidal, or curved, so as to affect the same purpose; or
the bottom may be made to slope from the side to which it may be
hinged, and the rope be connected to the top of the opposite side, so
that the contained material will be discharged on one side only, in
manner before described. Again, when the bottom which is attached
to the hoisting apparatus is raised it is drawn up against the side into
its place, and thus the closing of the skip is made self-acting.
A similar arrangement or contrivance of skip may be made of such
dimensions as to fit into barges or other vessels in such a manner that
the barge will be divided in its length and breadth into sections, each
section being complete in itself, and fitted as herein-before described.
Or this apparatus may be so constructed as to sit upon the framing of a
railway or other truck, and thus constitute the body of the truck, but
which body is capable of being lifted off bodily for discharging its
contents at any required place, as herein-before described.
In applying my Invention to railway trucks for the purpose of forming
wagon bodies for transporting coal, ores, and other materials I prefer
to make the bodies deeper than usual in proportion to the breadth or
width of the truck, and in some cases to apply or fit to such bodies
constructed according to this Invention upon the same truck or frame,
as being more economical for the purpose of transporting the material
as well as more convenient for loading up a ship, barge, or other vessel,

page_text: when the size of the hatchway or opening through which the wagon
body, skip, or vessel containing the coal or other material has to be
lowered. For some purposes I prefer to form the bottom of the skip,
truck, or other vessel like a "buckled" plate," and in other cases bevelled
from end to end like a ridge, or curved or "saddle backed" from end to
end; and when a flat bottom is employed it may be hinged, hung, or
slung loosely to one side of the wagon body, skip, or vessel, so that the
contents thereof may be shot out mainly from one side thereof.
In the accompanying two Sheets of Drawings I have illustrated my
Invention as applied to skips, tubs, bucketts, and such like vessels for the
hoisting, transporting, and shipping of coals, ores, ballast, and such like
materials usually shipped from under or by means of a crane, or from a
derrick, gib, or boom; and I have shewn at Figure 1, Sheet 1, for the
purpose of illustrating my Invention as so applied, a crane with a skip
suspended therefrom, the bottom being suspended from the main or
hoisting chain from the gib end, whilst the sides or frame portion of the
skip is shewn as being checked or held in suspension by a check rope,
the bottom thus being lowered out as far as it will go, by reason of
which the contents are free to escape. The skip is there shewn as of
iron, the bottom being shewn in section and connected to the sides by
the guide rods at each end.
Figure 2 is a front elevation of another skip. A cross beam or yoke
connects the two end guide rods, and by means of a short chain sling to
the main hauling chain, whilst the sides are connected by a hook to the
check rope, and a short chain is shewn for the purpose of limiting the
fall or canting of the bottom on one side.
Figure 3 is another and somewhat similar view to Figure 2, the bottom
of which however is intended to descend and leave the bottom edge of
the side uniformly.
Figure 4 is an end view in section, and Figure 5 is a corresponding
view of a skip with a bottom curved or circular from end to end. It is
shewn lowered in Figure 4 and Figure 5 in contact with the sides.
Figure 6 is an end view in section, and Figure 7 is a longitudinal
section of Figure 6, in both of which the bottom is shewn as being
chained upon one side, as in Figure 2.
Figure 8 is a sectional end view, and Figure 9 a longitudinal section
of a "buckled plate" bottom skip.

page_text: Figures 10 and 11 are similar views of a skip with an angular or ridge
bottom extending from end to end of the skip.
In Sheet 2, Figure 12 is a side elevation of the outer end of a crane
jib, of which Figure 15 is a plan view, and which is here merely intended
to exhibit a convenient mode of fitting or adding to a crane jib for the
purpose of carrying check ropes or check chains over pulleys or sheaves
of larger diameter in the same axial line with the sheave of the main
hauling or lifting chain, and so as to more uniformly effect the checking
action upon the sides of the skip, tub, waggon body, or other vessel; but
the said alteration to the crain jib does not form any portion of my
present Invention, nor is it necessary to the carrying out or putting into
practice thereof.
Figures 13 and 14 show end views of a similar crain jib but with a
skip, buckett, or vessel having different proportions and different forms
of bottom, that of Figure 13 being similar to Figures 8 and 9 in Sheet 1,
whilst Figure 14 is similar to Figures 4 and 5 in Sheet 1, but the depth
of the body in Figure 14 is reduced. Figure 16 is a longitudinal section
of the skip of Figure 13, and Figure 17 is a similar view of the skip in
Figure 14.
In Figures 13, 14, 15, and 16 the proportions are somewhat ex-
aggerated or the relation of the parts distated with a view to show more
clearly the action of the two parts of the skip in relation to each other,
and the end guide rods are in most case shown longer than necessary,
and the top guides in which they work may be placed lower down within
the skip, so as to reduce the length of the guide rods.
I have not in the accompanying Drawings shown any waggon body,
constructed in accordance with this Invention, as from the foregoing
textual description and the illustrations of skips and similar vessels the
construction of waggon bodies on the same principle will be readily
understood, but for the greater convenience of railway coal trucks owners,
and for the purpose of enabling the waggon bodies to be used also for
depôt and siding work, one side of the wagon body may have a
hinged door or flap fitted thereto and fastened with a hanging latch or
hook, as is commonly done in ordinary railway coal wagons employed
tor discharging coals from the side at coal sidings or depots.
Having now described my Invention, and illustrated some of its
applications in the accompanying two Sheets of Drawings, I wish it to

page_text: be understood that I do not intend hereby to claim the construction of
skips, buckets, wagon bodies, or other similar vessels employed for
containing and transporting grain, coal, ballast, and other such materials
from one place to another with a loose or detachable bottom generally,
and irrespective of the mode or method of constructing and using such
vessels and the parts thereof; but I claim is,-
First. The improvements in apparatus for loading or discharging
grain, coal, ballast, or other materials, as herein described.
Secondly. The mode of constructing and working or employing
skips, buckets, wagon bodies, and such like vessels for transporting and
discharging in manner herein-before described grain, coal, and other
materials, as herein set forth and as illustrated in the accompanying
two Sheets of Drawings.
Third. The modes or methods, herein described and illustrated in the
accompanying Sheets of Drawings of constructing vessels for trans-
porting and discharging materiale, as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Holdsworth, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of February One
thousand eight hundred and seventy.
20
Witness,
WILLIAM CROSBY.
JOHN HOLDSWORTH. (L.S.)