IMPROVEMENTS IN APPA- RATUS POR CLEAVING AND EXCAVATING PIT COAL AND ROCK OR EARTH
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Victor Désiré Delahaye, Civil Engineer, 7, Cauchoise
Street, at Rouen, France, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPA-
RATUS POR CLEAVING AND EXCAVATING PIT COAL AND ROCK OR EARTH."
Sealed the 21st August 1863, and dated the 27th February 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Victor Désiré Delahaye
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 27th February 1863.
I, VICTOR DESIRE DELAHAYE, Civil Engineer, 7, Cauchoise Street, at
Rouen (France), do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLEAVING AND EXCAVATING PIT COAL AND
ROCK OR EARTH," to be as follows:-
My Invention has for its object the more regular, rapid, and economical
execution of the cuttings required to be made for the separation of the mass
of pit coal and rock or earth intended to be excavated. For this purpose I
employ a carriage and travelling tool combined with suitable guiding apparatus,
as herein-after described.
The apparatus consists of a frame or frames adjustable as to height or length
with the two ends, capable of being caused, by the pressure of a screw, to hold
firmly against the top and bottom or partition walls of a mine or other
cavity to be excavated. The frames form guides for slides worked by means
of a lever and ratchet and a pulley with a cord round it, such slides having
connected to them, by means of suitable cross framing, the carriage for the
travelling tool, which carriage is supplied with holes for the insertion of a

page_text: forked bar or bars, by means of which the carriage may be worked as required
along the cross framing, friction rollers being applied to the carriage in order
to facilitate its motion thereon.
By means of the foregoing arrangement of apparatus the operations of the
workman will be made to consist in guiding the travelling tool, which will 5
work after the manner of a plane, whereby he will be relieved from the more
trying operation of working as usual with a pick.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Victor Désiré Delahaye in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 26th August 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, VICTOR
DESIRE DELAHAYE, Civil Engineer, 7, Cauchoise Street, at Rouen, France,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Victor Désiré Delahaye, Her special license that I, the said Victor
Désiré Delahaye, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Victor Désiré Delahaye, 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 CLEAVING AND EXCAVATING PIT COAL AND
ROCK OR EARTH," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Victor
Désiré Delahaye, 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 Victor Désiré Delahaye, 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-

page_text: My Invention of "Improvements in Apparatus for Cleaving and Excavating
Pit Coal and Rock or Earth" has for its object the more regular, rapid, and
economical execution of the cuttings required to be made for the separation
of the mass of pit coal and rock or earth intended to be excavated, and for
5 boring holes therein. For this purpose I employ a carriage and travelling
tool combined with suitable guiding apparatus, as herein-after described.
The apparatus consists of a frame or frames adjustable as to height or length
with the two ends, capable of being caused, by the pressure of a screw, to
hold firmly against the top and bottom or the partition walls of a mine or
other cavity required to be excavated. The frames form guides for slides worked
by means of a lever and ratchet and a pulley with a cord round it, such slides
having connected to them, by means of suitable cross framing, the carriage for
the travelling tool, which carriage has holes in it, for the insertion of a forked
bar or bars, by means of which the carriage may be worked as required along
the cross framing, friction rollers being applied to the carriage in order to
facilitate its motion thereon.
By means of the foregoing arrangement of apparatus the operations of the
workman will be made to consist in guiding the travelling tool, which in some
kinds of excavating operations will work after the manner of a plane, whereby
he will be relieved from the more trying operation of working as usual with
a pick, and in the operations of boring the tool will be readily turned as
required.
Having thus stated the nature of the said Invention, I will proceed to
describe more particularly in what manner the same is to be performed, by
reference to the accompanying Drawings, in which is represented the apparatus
above referred to.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figures 1 to 18 represent apparatus adapted for cutting or boring in a
horizontal or nearly horizontal direction, and Figures 19 to 22 represent
apparatus adapted for boring in a vertical or nearly vertical direction.
In Figures 1, 2, and 3, C and C¹ are two guide frames, one of which C¹
is formed of iron, being capable of sliding within the wooden frame C. The
iron frame C¹ has notches formed in it, as shewn, for the reception of the
projecting spurs h, h', which are kept in the notches as required by means of
springs. These parts are shewn detached on an enlarged scale in Figures 8
and 9, and serve as means for regulating the length of the vertical frames as
may be required. The two frames C C', C C', are fixed against the partition
walls of a mine, or, in case of need, against pieces of wood suitably placed in

page_text: such a manner that the centre lines of the frames may be in a plane parallel
to that of the cutting to be executed, and at a convenient distance therefrom.
The solid fixing of the frames in this position is effected by means of tightening
screws V turned by levers K. Each frame carries at the upper part of its
wooden portion C a small barrel t, capable of being moved as required by the
disc and lever B and the ratchet wheel A, furnished with a click A'. The move-
ments of these barrels regulate those of the slides G, G', on their respective
frames. In Figures 12, 13, and 14 is represented detached, on an enlarged
scale, the form of the slide G belonging to the frame which is nearest to the
front of the cutting part of the apparatus. It will be seen that this slide has
a grooved head furnished with a link with a hexagonally formed end n.
The slide G' of the second frame has two small rollers r, r, instead of these
parts. Figures 10 and 11 are two horizontal sections at different levels of
the vertical frames, showing the mode of constructing such frames. In
Figures 4 and 5 are represented two views of the cross frame or guide a,
which will be seen to consist of a square piece of wood armed at one end with
an iron strap b, carrying a hexagonally formed socket, in which the corre-
spondingly formed end of the link n is inserted and fixed therein by means of
a key passing through b and n. The other end of the guide terminates in a
square rod g, passed between the rollers r, r, of the slide G¹. By means of
this arrangement the axis of the guide may be caused to move in a required
plane, and its several positions therein may be regulated as required. On the
guide a is placed the tool carriage, represented in Figures 6 and 7, and on an
enlarged scale and more in detail in Figures 15 and 16. It is composed of
two carrying pieces f,f, united by bolts s, s. The guide is embraced horizontally
with a slight amount of play by the vertical sides of the carrying pieces f and
vertically by the four friction rollers g, g. The carrier is worked by means
of a handle M. Each carrying piece f has three holes, marked in the Drawing
(Fig. 15) 1, 2, 3; these holes have a diameter corresponding with that of
the handle of the tool; they are arranged so as to throw back the tool to a
sufficient distance from the axis of the guide to prevent it from coming in con-
tact with the vertical frames in its movement. It is to be observed that holes
Number 1 are intended for executing a vertical cutting against the partition
wall of the opening, holes Number 2 for horizontal cutting, and holes
Number 3 for making cuttings against the left partition wall. The handle of
the tool represented in Figures 6 and 7 is formed by a hollow tube m, which is
inserted in the two holes of the carriage, and connected thereto by a projecting
ring and a key P.
In order to complete the apparatus there is placed at the back of the

page_text: carriage on the guide the mechanism for providing an elastic check, repre-
sented in Figures 17 and 18. This checking apparatus consists of a stop V,
acted upon by a helical spring enclosed in a box E, covered at the sides by
two plates of thin iron, which embrace the guide and serve to fix the stop by
means of the pin x. When it is desired, instead of cutting a notch, to bore a
bole, the pin B, which would prevent the turning of the tool, is removed, and
there is fitted on the handle, by means of the pressing screw a, the socket u,
which terminates in the star wheel E. The box E likewise carries at its side
the fingers, and thus by the working of the apparatus is obtained the
rótation of the tool as required for boring.
I proceed now to describe the second form of apparatus above referred to
for boring vertically, or nearly so, which is represented in Figures 19 to 22.
The guide a' is fixed in the position required; this guide, like the frames
herein-before described, is capable of being varied as to its length; for this
purpose it has a cylindrical hole formed in the direction of its axis, in which
slides the iron bar b', perforated with a series of holes, and the desired length
of the guide is obtained by inserting a pin in one of the holes. The tightening
screws serves to fix the guide a' firmly in its required position. The
carriage and the mode of rotation of the tool are the same as in the preceding
case. The guide a¹ carries at its upper part a small pulley p', over which
passes a cord connected to the carriage; this cord is wound upon the little
barrel t, which is fixed, by means of two keys s¹, to the most convenient part
of the support a¹. This support a" is constructed in a manner similar to the
guide a', and is fixed in any convenient position. In consequence of the
relation between the diameter of the barrel t' and the radius of the handle m',
the workman may easily raise the carrier notwithstanding its weight. The
means adopted for stopping the barrel each time the carrier arrives at the
end of its course is as follows:-The axis d' of the barrel is turned round, and
on this axis is fixed the ratchet wheel K¹; the eye of the handle is round like
the axis, so that these two parts may turn freely the one on the other. The
stopping is caused by means of the bolt v¹¹, solid with the handle, and kept in
contact with the wheel k¹ by means of a spring. The mode of adjusting the
tools with the handle m is shewn in Fig. 23, which indicates the manner in
which the tool, terminating in a pyramidal tail, may be firmly connected when
inserted in a box of corresponding form, such as that presented to it by the
handle. In order to change the tool, it is sufficient to press on the end of
this tool by means of a driver introduced into the mortice made in the handle
for this purpose. I have represented three different forms of tool. The form
I is intended for making notches or cuttings and holes in hard rock ; the

page_text: form II is intended for making notches or cuttings in softer ground; and
the form III is intended for boring holes for mining purposes in the same
rocks or earth.
The operation of the workman is simple; it consists in the case of boring,
of imparting to the carrier an alternate motion parallel to the guido; in the
case of making notches or cuttings, the workman has besides to change the
position of the guide as the work proceeds.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I hereby declare that what I claim as
of my Invention is,-
First, the combination of parts forming apparatus adapted for cleaving and
excavating rock or earth so as to form cuttings or excavations in a horizontal
or nearly horizontal direction, as herein-before described.
And, secondly, the combination of parts forming apparatus adapted for
boring rock or earth in a vertical or nearly vertical direction, as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Victor Désiré Delahaye, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
VICTOR DESIRE DELAHAYE. (L.B.)