IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON- STRUCTION OF SAPETY CAGES AND HOISTS FOR RAISING AND LOWERING WEIGHTS IN MINE AND OTHER SHAFTS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Timmins, of Runcorn, in the County of
Chester, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF SAPETY CAGES AND HOISTS FOR RAISING AND LOWERING
WEIGHTS IN MINE AND OTHER SHAFTS."
Sealed the 13th July 1860, and dated the 20th January 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Timmins at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th January 1860.
I, JOHN TIMMINS, of Runcorn, in the County of Chester, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF SAFETY CAGES AND HOISTS FOR RAISING AND LOWERING WEIGHTS
IN MINE AND OTHER SHAFTS," to be as follows:-
The chief objects of this Invention are to prevent cages and hoists falling in
the event of the hauling rope breaking, and to remove the possibility of over
winding the rope. The cage is made somewhat of the usual form with guides
for sliding over the conducting rods, and it is covered at top with an elastic
steel plate. From the upper side of this plate project lugs to which are
loosely jointed a pair of coupling rods fitted with studs at their upper ends for
the purpose of entering the eye of the hauling rope and holding it secure
between them. These rods are furnished with lateral projections, which if
the cage is raised too high will by passing up through a stationary taper guide

page_text: be respectively pressed forward, whereby the parting of the rods and the
consequent disengagement of the cage from the rope will be effected. The
lugs to which these rods are jointed are connected to the steel plate forming
the cover of the cage by screws and nuts, and the steel plate is so connected
to the frame of the cage as to allow of its having a slight independent vertical
motion at the moment of putting the strain upon the hauling rope; attached
to the under side of the steel top is a bracket pieco having two pendent slotted
ends made to receive respectively a hook shaped lever. These levers are
keyed respectively to one of a pair of horizontal shafts situated one to the right
and the other to the left of the centre of the cage. On the ends of these
shafts are mounted catches, situate in the vertical planes of the conducting or
guide rods on the opposite sides of the cage or hoist. When tension is put
on the hauling rope the steel top will yield thereto, and the bracket piece
rising with the steel top will pull over the hook shaped levers, and thereby
rock the horizontal shafts to which they are attached and throw down the
catches clear of the guide rods at which time the cage or hoist will be free to
be raised or lowered; but should the rope break the steel top will suddenly
assume its normal figure and thereby rock the catch shafts and throw the
catches into contact with the guide or conducting rods and arrest the descent
of the cage. To prevent the coupling rods parting when not in a vertical
position, a slotted safety plate is rivetted to the metal eye of the hauling rope,
which plate when its slot is not in a line with the ends of the rods will form a
stop to their lateral movement.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Timmins in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
20th July 1860.
TO ALL TO-WHOM-THESE-PRESENTS-SHALL COME, I, JOHN
TIMMINS, of Runcorn; in the County of Chester, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Timmins, Her special license that I, the said John
Timmins, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said John Timmins, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and, no others, from time to time and at all times

page_text: 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 THE CONSTRUCTION OF SAFETY CAGES AND HOISTS FOR RAISING
AND LOWERING WEIGHTS IN MINE AND OTHER SHAFTS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John Timmins, 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 is 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 John Timmins, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
The chief objects of this Invention are to prevent cages and hoists falling
in the event of the hauling rope breaking, and to remove the possibility of
over winding the cage. The cage I make somewhat of the usual form with
guides for sliding over the conducting rods, and I place over it a cover formed
of an elastic steel plate, which during the hauling up or lowering of the cago
will yield to the drag of the weight which it assists in suspending, but in case
the hauling rope should break will throw into action a set of catches which
will gripe the vertical conducting rods and hold the cage in suspension. The
coupling of the cage or hoist with the hauling rope is effected through the
intervention of a jointed or expanding hook, the tongue of which enters the
metal eye of the hauling rope. Lateral projections are formed on the coupling
hook for the purpose (in the event of the cage being raised too high) of being:
pressed upon by the ends of a stationary taper guide, and causing the hook. to
open and release the eye of the hauling rope.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 is an end view; Fig. 2 a front view;
and Fig. 3, a partial cross section of a safety cage fitted according to my
Invention.
'
a, a, is the cage consisting of a wrought iron framing constructed after the
usual manner, and covered in with thin boiler plate iron. On the top of the
cage is a cover b, made of thin sheet puddled steel extending over the whole
of the cage top, and along two of its opposite edges.
place by passing screws c, c, c, through elongated bolt
and screwing theui fast to the boiler plate covering.
This cover 6 I secure in
holes made in the cover,
By this attachment the

page_text: steel cover b will be free to work between the fixed cover and the heads of
the screws c, C, C. The length of the bolt holes must be sufficient to allow
of the middle of the cover 6 being lifted, say three or four inches, by the rope
when taking the weight of the cage. The weight, however, of the cage is not
thrown upon the cover b, but upon bolts which pass through it, these bolts
are shown at d, d, they are secured to the steel plate or cover b, by nuts on
the under side thereof, and they pass through the fixed cover of the cage and
-through-a-bar-e-which-extends across the cage to give strength to the upper
part thereof. The bolts are made fast to the cage by nuts or keys or other
suitable means, and between the nuts and the cross bar metallic and india-
rubber washers are placed on the edge bolts d, to ease the sudden pull of the
hauling rope when first put into action by taking the weight of the cage.
Immediately under the top of the cage two cross shafts f, f, are mounted one
on each side of the conducting rods g, g, of the pit, and on each end of these
shafts outside the cage is keyed a catch h, of suitable form to bite into the
wooden conducting rods as shewn at Fig. 4, these catches act in pairs, one
pair on each side of the cage, and thereby serve to sustain the cage at any
required elevation. At about the middle of their length these shafts are each
provided with bent arms or hooked shaped levers i, i, the ends of which pass
through slots made in the pendent ends of a kind of bracket piece k, rivetted
to the under side of the steel plate or cover 6 of the cage. The use of this
arrangement is to release the safety catches h, h, from the conducting rods g,
when the rope takes up the weight of the cage. The tension put for this
purpose on the rope by the winding machinery will cause the coupling chain
or other appliance which connects the rope to the cage to raise the steel
cover b, say three or four inches out of its normal position (but not so far as
to set it or strain it out of its original form) and the rise of this cover will by
reason of its connection with the levers i, i, rock the shafts f, f, and throw the
catches h, h, out of contact with the conducting rods. In case, however, the
rope should break or become disconnected in any way the steel cover will
act as a released spring, and by suddenly returning to its normal position
will throw the catches h, h, into contact with the conducting rods g, and arrest
the descent of the cage. To prevent the engine man from pulling the cage
over, the head gear the expanding hook-or clip 7 is employed, this hook or clip
may form the upper ends of two coupling rods hinged to the top of the cage,
but I prefer to couple the hook to the cage by a chain m, secured to the lugs
of the bolts d, d, as shewn in the Drawings. The expanding hook is formed
of forked side pieces 1, 1, between which hangs a hooked tumbler 2, secured
thereto by a pin 3. The side pieces 1, 1, receive the eye of the bauling rope

page_text: between their forked ends and the book of the tumbler 2 enters this eye and
secures the connection between the rope and the cage. At their lower part
the side pieces and tumbler are provided with horn-shaped projections 4 and 5,
which when pressed together will cause the hook to open and release its hold
on the eye of the rope. This disengagement is effected by the hook being
carried upwards through a taper hole which is formed in a cross piece n at
the top of the conducting rods. This cross piece consists of two plates of iron
bolted to the conducting rods, and between which are screwed two light
castings, the bottom ends of which are put farther apart than the tops, thus
forming the taper hole above spoken of. It will now be understood that if
the projecting pieces are drawn up into this hole through the inattention of
the attendant the further progress of the cage will be instantly arrested
without the chance of accident, the rope being disconnected and the cage left
suspended in the head gear.
This Invention it will be understood applies not only to cages for mines
but also for hoists in other situations, I would remark that when round iron
conducting rods are used the catches are to receive a suitable shape for
gripping them firmly.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of improvements in the
construction of safety cages and hoists for raising and lowering weights in
mine and other shafts, and explained the manner of carrying the same into
effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited
Letters Patent, I claim, the means herein-before described for coupling the
hauling rope with the cage or hoist for disengaging the coupling and for
arresting the descent of the cage or hoist when the same is disconnected from
the hauling apparatus.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Timmins, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Eighteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
JOHN TIMMINS. (L.S.)