IMPROVEMENTS IN CRANES AND OTHER LIFTING APPARATUS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Edward Skinner, and William Henry Miller,
both of Shadwell, in the County of Middlesex, Engineers, for the Inven-
Sealed the 12th March 1861, and dated the 21st September 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Edward Skinner
and William Henry Miller at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 21st September 1860.
We, HENRY EDWARD SKINNER, and WILLIAM HENRY MILLER, both of
Shadwell, in the County of Middlesex, Engineers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CRANES AND OTHER LIFTING
APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in the adaptation and application to cranes and other
lifting apparatus of a stationary screw to which power is applied, combined
with a nut moveable in or between guides, such nut being connected with the
weight required to be lifted by means of a sheave or sheaves, and a guide
pulley or pulleys, or other suitable appliances. The pitch of the screw will be
varied in different cases, and also intermediate gearing may be applied between
the power and the screw, in order to adapt the machine for raising or lowering
different weights.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Edward Skinner and William Henry Miller in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st March 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
EDWARD SKINNER and WILLIAM HENRY MILLER, both of Shadwell, in the
County of Middlesex, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Henry Edward Skinner and William Henry Miller, Her special license
that we, the said Henry Edward Skinner and William Henry Miller, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Henry
Edward Skinner and William Henry Miller, our 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 CRANES AND OTHER LIFTING APPARATUS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Henry Edward Skinner and
William Henry Miller, by an instrument in writing under our hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 we, the said Henry Edward Skinner and William
Henry Miller, do hereby declare the nature of our 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) :-
"
Our Invention of "Improvements in Cranes and other Lifting Apparatus
consists in the adaptation and application thereto of a stationary screw, to
which power is applied combined with a nut moveable in or between guides,
such nut being connected with the weight required to be lifted by means of
a sheave or sheaves, and a guide pulley or pulleys, or other suitable appliances.
The pitch of the screw will be varied in different cases, and also intermediate

page_text: gearing may be applied between the power and the screw, in order to adapt
the machine for raising or lowering different weights.
Having thus stated the nature of the said Invention, we will proceed to
describe more particularly in what manner the same is to be performed, by
the aid of the accompanying Drawings, in which is represented one mode of
carrying our Invention into effect.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 is a plan or horizontal view; and Fig. 2 is a longitudinal elevation
of the stationary screw and moveable nut with their appurtenances for commu-
nicating with the weight required to be lifted or lowered. A is the frame in
which the screw is mounted. This frame is bolted to baulks of timber or
otherwise secured. B is the screw the end of which terminates in the driving
shaft C, to which power is applied in any convenient manner. A brass or
metal bearing is inserted in the end frame at D, for the purpose of sustaining
the pressure of the head of the screw; E is the nut moveable in or between
the guides F, F, which nut carries the sheaves G, G', round which the chain
H passes, by which the communication with the weight to be raised or lowered
is effected, I is a guide pulley for guiding the chain from the sheave G to the
other sheave G'.
It will be evident that by applying power to the shaft C, the screw B
will be turned in its bearings, and by working through the nut E with a female
screw in its interior this nut will be moved along the guides F, F, in either
direction according to that in which the screw B is turned. For raising the
weight the nut will be caused to move in the direction of the arrows and in
the reverse direction for lowering the same. The end of the chain H is fixed
at the opposite side of the frame to that shewn in Fig. 2, the chain is then
carried under the sheave G, round and over the same, round the guide pulley
I, over, round, and under the sheave G¹, and thence by a guide pulley up the
hollow pillar or stem of the crane to the weight in the usual manner.
Our Invention is not confined to the use of a horizontal screw, as represented,
but a vertical screw may be applied directly to the crane; neither is it confined
to the mode represented and described of connecting the moveable nut with
the weight required to be raised or lowered.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we hereby declare that what we claim
as of our Invention is, the adaptation and application to cranes and other lifting
apparatus of a stationary screw turned in its bearings by power being applied
to it, combined with a nut having a female screw in its interior, such nut being

page_text: caused to move in and along stationary guides, and being connected with the
weight intended to be raised or lowered as herein-before. described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Henry Edward Skinner and William
Henry Miller, have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Twentieth
day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-one.
Witness,
JAMES MILLER,
of No. 10, Philpot Lane,
London,
Solicitor.
HENRY E. SKINNER. (L.S.)
W. H. MILLER.
(L.S.)