IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR BORING IN ROCK, COAL, MINERAL, SLATE, AND OTHER SIMILAR SUBSTANCES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Martin Macdermott and Arthur
David Williams at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 23rd August 1870.-A communication
from abroad by Ferdinand Vellepigue, of Autun, in the Empire of
France.
We, MARTIN MACDERMOTT, Architect, and ARTHUR DAVID WILLIAMS,
Civil Engineer, both of Scott's Chambers, 25 and 26, Pudding Lane, in
the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR BORING IN ROCK, COAL, MINERAL, SLATE, AND
OTHER SIMILAR SUBSTANCES," the same being the result of a communication
to us from abroad by Ferdinand Vellepigue, of Autun, in the Empire of
France, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to apparatus for piercing or boring holes in
rocks, minerals, or other like substances, whether in tunnels, mines,
quarries, or any kind of working of a like nature, be the same covered.
or in open cutting. And as considered with a view to boring in the
same, the nature of the substances to be pierced offers a great variety of
conditions, as to locality, hardness of material, &c., &c., so that certain:

page_text: substances will yield only or more easily to tools which cut, whilst others
can be penetrated more readily by tools which shatter by successive
blows. This Invention includes apparatus of a novel kind adapted
respectively to each of these modes of action, and capable further of
receiving such varieties in the details and the combination thereof as will
meet the varying conditions under which the holes in question have to
be bored. The following is a description of our apparatus for effecting
the operation of boring by cutting out the hole with an auger:-It
consists, firstly, of a standard formed either of a metal tube of any
suitable section (which is the kind we prefer), or of bars fastened
together, or of a solid metal piece with a longitudinal groove in the
same, or of a wheel trolly, carriage, or frame. This standard carries at
one extremity thereof an oscillating claw working on an axis, by which
it is connected with the standard, and at the other extremity thereof is a
the nut of which is fixed on the said standard, and which screw is
provided at its lower end with a guide washer, which fits inside the tube
and steadies the screw. The screw last described is terminated by a
head having holes or faces to enable it to be easily turned in the nut,
and is surmounted by a steel or iron point, which penetrates the surface
it is in contact with; or for the said steel or iron point we substitute in
some cases a revolving claw in connection with the screw and permitting
the same to turn, or else a claw forming a part of the head of the screw,
the nut in the latter case turning in the standard.
screw,
Our apparatus consists, secondly, of mechanism for acting on the
perforating tool by means of the driving screw to which the same is
attached, which mechanism, herein-after described, is either connected
as to its several parts by a frame, or enclosed within a metal box, the
latter being the arrangement we prefer. The box or frame last men-
tioned is, when the object to be attained is to bore a hole at a fixed
invariable height, attached directly to the standard; or for boring at
various heights with the same apparatus, it, i.e., the box or frame, is
attached to the standard by a moveable clip collar sliding on the said
standard, and which clip collar can be fixed at any point thereof.
The mechanism above referred to as contained within the box, etc., is
composed of a screw and nut capable of turning in the same direction;
the screw is grooved longitudinally, and carries a friction collar with a
conical shoulder, fitting over a similar conical shoulder on the nut, and
having a "feather" within it turning with the screw by means of the

page_text: said groove, which it enters, thereby being rendered capable of sliding
longitudinally along the screw. The thrust of the screw acting on the
above-mentioned conical shoulder causes the nut and the friction collar
to adhere to each other more or less firmly, so that one drags the other
with it in its rotary motion. A clip compressor is applied to the nut,
which it retards more or less in its revolution, or stops altogether, the
result being an advance of the screw varying with the resistance. (This
arrangement will be referred to hereafter as a "slip-nut.")
In the Patent dated October 4th A.D. 1869, No. 2878, an arrange-
ment is described for obtaining the same result as by the slip-nut by
passing the driving screw between two worm wheels, to which are
attached two drums, receiving the brake action. We apply this arrange-
ment in some instances to the apparatus forming the subject of this
Invention with the following improvement, viz.,' we suppress the brake
drums, and apply the brake power directly to the worm wheels, which
may be two or more. Also, instead of the slip-nut arrangement
described we sometimes adopt one in which the nut and screw revolve
at different rates; or we use a nut keyed into the metal box referred to
herein, through which the driving screw passes, such screw being
prepared at both ends to receive the same socket, the effect of which
arrangement is, that by removing the key the nut and screw can be
withdrawn together from the box, the auger being then placed at the
end of the screw opposite to that which it before occupied, and the screw
reversed in position and replaced; the boring can then be proceeded
with, thus saving the time required to withdraw the screw by turning it
in the nut. Attached to the collar with conical shoulder already
referred to we fix a pulley, which receives the plate chain of a special
kind, by which the boring part of the apparatus is set in motion. We
use this mode of transmitting the power applied preferably, but we can
also effect the same purpose by gearing in ordinary use. The motor, i.e.,
handle, &c., is attached to another pulley (carrying the before-mentioned
chain) fixed to the standard by another clip collar similar to that already
described, at the part of the standard the most convenient for the
workman. We provide a similar arrangement of chain and pulleys on
the opposite side of the standard, the upper pulley being attached to the
nut through which the main screw works, by which means we are
enabled to withdraw the screw without having to turn the same in its
nut.

page_text: The apparatus consists, thirdly, of a steel auger of a spiral form, which
is let into a socket on the end of the screw, and which has a cutting end
of a form suitable to the nature of the material to be bored.
In the Patent No. 2878, dated October 4th, 1869, already herein-before
referred to, several types of apparatus are described, the object of which
is to bore holes in rocks, &c., and in all these types the handle or other
motor is fixed directly at the end of the driving screw, and consequently
in the same line as the hole to be bored.
But as it is frequently found
necessary to bore holes in a heading or tunnel, either immediately under
the roof, above the floor, or in an angle, where consequently it becomes
impossible to turn the handle more than a fraction of its revolution, one
object of the present Invention is, while supplying other improvements
in rock boring, to furnish apparatus wherein the power applied is
transmitted from some point where the labour of the man who works it
can be fully utilized, to the point above or below the same where it may
be required to bore the hole. When the apparatus is required for
piercing by impact or percussion, as in the case of the harder or
quartzose rocks, we substitute for the screw, auger, and the mechanism
within the metal box already referred to the following arrangement of
parts set within a suitable frame or box:--We have a jumping bar or
chisel, resting-in a cradle forming a spiral guide, sliding or moving
between different guide wheels, which direct its motion, and which are
so arranged that the bar may be removed when required. In connection
with this jumping bar and cradle is a clutch arrangement of special
construction, which seizes and lets go the bar alternately, such arrange-
ment being actuated by springs (which also serve to drive the bar) fixed
at one end to the box or frame, and at the other to the clutch. An
intermittent traction motion is given to the bar and springs by means of
a band or chain working round a pulley, the pulley being driven by a
wheel (chain wheel or other), as in the apparatus herein-before described.
The continuous rotary motion of the chain wheel last referred to is
converted into an intermittent traction motion in the pulley by means of
an escapement of novel construction. The effect of this arrangement is,
that the bar, being held by the clutch before referred to, is drawn back
with its cradle, the grip on the bar increasing as the springs increase in
tension until the escapement already mentioned in the pulley releases
the traction on the springs. The bar, together with the cradle, is then
shot forward by the action of the springs, receiving at the same time a

page_text: rotary motion on its axis by means of the spiral guide mentioned above,
and the springs by their decreasing tension release the bar from the
clutch. The bar being thus entirely disengaged, strikes the rock to be
bored with the momentum it has received without causing any shock to
5 the apparatus. The bar is then seized again by the clutch, and the
operation is repeated continuously.