IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING AND LOWERING TRUCKS IN MINE AND OTHER SHAFTS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Houdaille, Engineer, of Boulevard de
Strasbourg, 23, à Paris, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING AND LOWERING TRUCKS IN MINE AND
OTHER SHAFTS.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION_left by the said George Houdaille at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 8th December 1875.
I, GEORGE HOUDAILLE, Engineer, of Boulevard de Strasbourg, 23,
à Paris, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
** IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING AND LOWERING TRUCKS
IN MINE AND OTHER SHAFTS," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to machinery or apparatus for raising loaded
trucks in mine shafts and lowering empty trucks therein.
My improved apparatus acts on the known principle of reciprocating
rods raising or lowering loads hooked to them stage by stage inter-

page_text: mittently and successively, and consists chiefly in the arrangements
whereby the alternate and successive hooking and unhooking of the
trucks is effected. The mine shaft is divided into two rectangular
compartments side by side, the one in which the loaded trucks are
raised and the other in which the empty trucks are lowered. The
arrangements in those being similar I will describe them for one, that is
to say, that for raising the loaded trucks. I divide the shaft into a
number of stages in height each somewhat less than the stroke of the
reciprocating rods by cross beams on which are mounted vertical
spindles, preferably two at each of two opposite sides of the rectangle ;
these spindles extending the whole depth of the shaft and having on their
upper ends pinions gearing with a central wheel to which an intermittent
movement of partial rotation alternately in the one direction and the
other is imparted either by tappets on the reciprocating rods or by direct
connection with the motor engine employed for working them. At
each stage there are hooks or arms having bosses keyed on those spindles
and resting on bearing plates on the cross beams, so that when the
spindles are partly turned in the one direction those hooks or arms are
made to project to the interior of the rectangular compartment of the
shaft, and when the spindles aro turned backwards about one quarter of
a revolution the hooks or arms are withdrawn. In each compartment
there are two reciprocating rods one on each side of the compartment
coupled together and caused to make a vertical stroke upwards and
downwards alternately by any suitable motor. To these reciprocating
rods are secured cross frames at distances apart equal to the heights of
the successive stages of the shaft, which cross frames are guided by
fixed uprights in the shaft, and which have bearings for vertical spindles,
preferably two on each side of the compartment that ascend and descend
with the reciprocating rods, and have an intermittent backwards and
forwards partial rotary movement imparted to them by gearing at the
top like the spindles already mentioned. These moving spindles like
the stationary spindles have on them hooks or arms, which by the
partial rotary movement of the spindles are alternately caused to
protrude into the interior of the compartment and to be withdrawn.
The trucks are made with handles projecting at the sides and ends so
as to be alternately engaged with the one set of hooks or arms on the
_stationary spindles, and with the other set on the moving spindles and
to be raised in the following manner:-A truck rests by one set of its

page_text: handles on the hooks or arms of the stationary spindles which are
protruded, while the reciprocating rods make their down stroke, the
hooks or arms on the moving spindles being then withdrawn so as to
pass clear of the truck. When the down stroke is completed the hooks
or arms on the moving spindles are protruded, and as the reciprocating
rods make their up stroke these hooks or arms catch the handles of the
truck and lift it off the one set of stationary hooks or arms past the set
on the next higher stage, which at that same time are withdrawn. The
up stroke being completed the hooks or arms last mentioned are
protruded, and as the reciprocating rods make their down stroke the
truck is left resting on them, whereupon the action is repeated as already
described, and thus the truck is lifted intermittently stage by stage to
the top of the shaft. In the lowering compartment the construction
and action are of the same kind, the movement of the hooks or arms
being differently timed so as to let the truck down stage by stage.
Instead of the stationary spindles with their arms or hooks above
described another set of moving spindles may be employed mounted on
the framing of a set of reciprocating rods working opposite to the set
already mentioned, so that the truck instead of remaining at rest during
the down stroke of either sct of the rods is being lifted by the up stroko
of the other set.
The reciprocating rods may be worked directly from one or more
motor engines. I prefer, however, to employ such engines to work
pumps for the supply of single-acting hydraulic cylinders fixed directly
over the shaft. These cylinders being fitted with pistons to which are
attached the reciprocating rods, the said rods are raised by the up stroke
of the pistons when they are subjected to the hydraulic pressure, and
descend by their own weight when the pressure is relieved.
The reciprocating rods with their attachments may be partly counter-
balanced by weights at several of the stages attached to chains which
pass over pullies, and are attached to the rods or their cross frames.
I prefer to make the rods and spindles in lengths secured together by
an that thais lanathe was he accumatale adjusted

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Houdaille in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 7th June 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HOUDAILLE, Engineer, of Boulevard de Strasbourg, 23, à Paris, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said George Houdaille, Her
special license that I, the said George Houdaille, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George
Houdaille, 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 MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING
AND LOWERING TRUCKS IN MINE AND OTHER SHAFTS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said George Houdaille, 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 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 George Houdaille, 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 thereof, reference being had to the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
My Invention relates to machinery or apparatus for raising loaded
trucks in mine shafts and lowering empty trucks therein.
My improved apparatus acts on the known principle of reciprocating

page_text: rods, raising or lowering loads hooked to them stage by stage intermittently
and successively, and consists chiefly in the arrangements whereby
the alternate and successive hooking and unhooking of the trucks is
effected. The mine shaft is divided into two rectangular com-
partments, side by side, the one in which the loaded trucks are
raised, and the other in which the empty trucks are lowered. The
arrangements in those being similar I will describe them for one, that
is to say, for that for raising the loaded trucks. I divide the shaft
into a number of stages in height, each somewhat less than the stroke
of the reciprocating rods, by cross beams, on which are mounted
vertical spindles, preferably two at each of two opposite sides of the
rectangle, these spindles extending the whole depth of the shaft and
having on their upper ends pinions gearing with a central wheel, to
which an intermittent movement of partial rotation alternately in the
one direction and the other is imparted either by tappets on the
reciprocating rods, or by direct connection with the motor engine
employed for working them. At each stage there are hooks or arms
having bosses keyed on those spindles and resting on bearing plates on
the cross beams, so that when the spindles are partly turned in the one
direction those hooks or arms are made to project to the interior of the
rectangular compartment of the shaft, and when the spindles are turned
backwards about one quarter of a revolution the hooks or arms are
withdrawn. In each compartment there are two reciprocating rods,
one on each side of the compartment, coupled together and caused to
make a vertical stroke upwards and downwards alternately by any
suitable motor. To these reciprocating rods are secured cross frames at
distances apart equal to the height of the successive stages of the shaft,
which cross frames are guided by fixed uprights in the shaft, and which
have bearings for vertical spindles, preferably two on each side of the
compartment, that ascend and descend with the reciprocating rods, and
have an intermittent backwards and forwards partial rotary movement im-
parted to them by gearing at the top like the spindles already mentioned.
These moving spindles like the stationary spindles have on them hooks
or arms, which by the partial rotary movement of the spindles aro
alternately caused to protrude into the interior of the compartment and
to be withdrawn.

page_text: Fig. 1 shews a vertical section, and Fig. 2 a horizontal section
of part of a mine shaft with the before described apparatus applied
thereto; and Fig. 3 shews to a smaller scale a vertical section at right
angles to Fig. 1 on line X, Y, Fig. 2, shewing the lifting apparatus above
ground.
Figs. 4 and 5 shew plans of the mechanism for actuating the hooks
upon which the trucks rest.
B, C, D, is the wood framework dividing the mine shaft into two com-
partments and acting as guides for the raising and lowering mechanism.
This consists, firstly, of vertical spindles F, four in each compartment,
receiving an intermittent partial rotary motion from the motor engine
by gearing H, shewn at Figs. 3 and 5, and carrying hooks f,f, which
rest on the cross beams B, and which by the partial rotation of F are
made alternately to extend beyond the face of the beam, as shewn in the
upper part of Fig. 2, and to turn into a position parallel with the beam,
as shewn at the lower part of that Figure. A, A, are other vertical rods,
two in each compartment, which are connected by a cross head at top,
and caused to make a vertical stroke up or down by the hydraulic or
other engines M, to the piston rods m of which they are connected. To
these rods are secured cross frames a at distances apart equal to the height
of each of the successive stages B, with hooks f, which frames are guided
by the uprights D of the framework between plates d, on which they
slide. These frames have bearings for vertical spindles G, having
hooks similar to those f, the spindles G being caused by gearing I, i,
Figs. 3 and 4, to turn alternately one-quarter of a revolution to the
right and to the left, so as to cause the hooks y alternately to project
beyond the frames a, as in the lower part of Fig. 2, and to lie parallel
therewith, as in the upper part of that Fig. The gearing for
imparting this motion consists of spur pinions i, i, fixed upon each
of the spindles G in gear with a spur wheel I, loose upon a central rod,
and turned slightly in contrary directions at the end of each up-and-
down motion, either by means of tappets or by a connection with the
piston rod of the motor engine.
g
The two hydraulic cylinders M may be made to communicate with
one and the same force pump, whereby their pistons are caused alter-

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my Invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I claim,―
First. The use of apparatus for raising and lowering trucks in mine
and other shafts wherein two sets of hooks receiving intermittent partial
rotary motion are caused either both to ascend and to descend, or the
onc set to ascend and descend while the other set is stationary, so that
a truck supported on the one set of hooks is first transferred to the other
set, and then either raised or lowered by these to the hooks on the next
stage, substantially as herein described.
Second. In apparatus such as above referred to, the combination of
stationary hooks f, actuated by rods F, with reciprocating hooks g,
actuated by rods G, substantially as herein described with reference to
the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Houdaille, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
G. HOUDAILLE. (L.S.)
Wittness,
JULES ARMENGAUD,
Civil Engineer,
à Paris,
Boulevard de Strasbourg, No. 23.