An Improved Expansible Plug and Fixing Apparatus applicable to. Mine Shot Holes and other Bore Holes or Pipes.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Nov., 1899-Accepted, 6th Jan., 1900
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Expansible Plug and Fixing Apparatus applicable to.
Mine Shot Holes and other Bore Holes or Pipes.
I, JOSEPH BOVIER, of 33, Place St. Jaen, Liege, in the Kingdom of Belgium,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
This invention relates to apparatus for plugging the ends of boreholes or pipes
or other round passages and has for its object.
1st. The suppression of the operations so dangerous as at present carried out
of tamping and unstopping shot holes in mines or quarries a source of so much
danger to the workmen.
2nd. To obtain rapidly without the least danger under all circumstances the
plugging and unplugging of bore holes in mines or other conduits or passages.
3rd. To obtain the best effect effect of the explosives in shot holes by a more
perfect and resisting plugging or tamping of such holes than is obtained by
present methods.
My improved apparatus comprises the expansive plug itself and apparatus by
which the plug may be fixed and removed.
And in order that my invention may be the better understood I now proceed to
describe the same, reference being had to the drawings hereto annexed and to
the letters and figures marked thereon such drawings showing a practical form
of the apparatus for carrying my purpose into effect.
Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 show longitudinal sections of various forms of the
composite plug itself.
Figures 1 and 4" show transverse sections through the plug on the lines
indicated.
!
Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section through such part of the apparatus for applying
the plug as lies outside the bore hole.
Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section showing the plug in situ in a slot or bore hole
and Fig. 5b are transverse sections upon the lines indicated.
The plug as shewn in Figures 1 2 3 and 4 in various equivalent modifications
consists of a series of split cones a bin which male and female wedge surfaces
engage mutually with one another so as to form a solid but expansible plug of
which the exterior shape and the section conform to the shape and dimensions
of the shot or bore holes or pipes that it is desired to plug. The split plugs
which may be made of wood or other material by their mutual wedging engage-
ment by pressure are adapted to expand so as to firmly wedge or clinch the plug
within the shot hole or passage.
The plug sections other than the final plug have a central hole c adapted to
receive a rod d of the fixing apparatus.
All sections of the plug may have where used for shot holes a longitudinal
groove or channel f Figures 12 and 3 for the reception of the fuze or match to
the slot beyond the plug and unelastic ring g Fig. 4 may be applied as

page_text: between the joints of the various sections to render the composite plug gas tight
or watertight when required according to requirements the composite plug may
be composed of such equivalent forms as those shewn at a, b, h, i in Figs. 1, 2, 3
and 4 or may be modified in any desired manner as regards their combination
and form within the general meaning of this description.
The fixing and removing appliance consists as in Figs. 5, 5ª, 5b.
1st of a central rod terminated at one end by a hand turning head or
lever and at the other end by a socket 7 in which may be fixed a wood screw
and rod d.
2nd of a screwed sleeve m provided with a hand lever or wheel for the turning
of the same in which sleeve the central rod j can turn or move longitudinally
within limits determined on one side by the hand lever and on the other by
its socket 1.
3rd of a nut with a hand lever or wheel n which nut engages with the screw
thread m.
This nut is affixed to the tube o serving as a sheath to the rod ; and
the screwed sleeve m terminates with a female conical screw thread 7. A sliding
washer travels on the pipe o and may be fixed at any required point by the set
screw clamp r.
In order to fix the plug in place the composite plug is applied to the fixing
apparatus as shown in Fig. 1 the screw rod & being engaged by its screw with the
farthest solid plug b. The sliding flange is then fixed at such a point upon
the tub o so as to determine the proper location of the plug in the hole. In the
case of short holes in mines the under side of the plug is placed within about a
centimetre of the charge. The match for the shot is laid in the channel f of the
composite plug whilst it is being fixed. When the plug is in place the hand
nut is held and the hand screw m is turned so as to force up the lower section
of the plug into its upper covering sections held down by the tube and thus
the sections of the plug are caused to expand & jam tightly against the walls of
the bore hole or passage.
The plug having thus been jammed in place the screw is unscrewed from the
lowest section and the fixing appliance is withdrawn.
To remove the plug the screw being then drawn back into the tube o as
shown in Figure 5", the tool is introduced into the bore hole or passage. The
female screw is then screwed home over the end of the top section of the
plug, the sliding flange is fixed in contact with the face of the hole, and the
screw is caused to enter into the central canal of the composite plug so as to
engage again with the bottom section of the plug as in Fig. 1. The hand
screw m is then turned so as to cause, the rod and the lower section of the
plug attached to it to leave the other sections of the plug with which it has
been engaged.
The composite plug is thus released from its jamming pressure in the hole and
may be withdrawn."
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is:-
1st. An expansible and jamming plug adapted to tamp shot holes in mines
without danger or to close any passage or pipe against a flow of liquid, consisting
of in combination two or more sections of wood or other suitable material having
respectively male and female coned ends and being split longitudinally formed
so that the said sections when engaged with one another provide by their juxta
position a solid body of which the external form approximates to that of the hole
to be plugged and adopted so that any pressure forcing the end sections of the
plug together tends to augment the area of the plug and thus to jam it against
the walls of the hole or passage substantially as and for the purposes specified.
2nd. In such a composite plug the arrangement of a central aperture through
the upper sections to admit the entry of a screw tool to the lower seition sub-
stantially as and for the purposes specified.

page_text: 3rd. Apparatus for the fixing and removable of a composite plug as claimed in
Claims 1 and 2 consisting of in combination an internal rod with terminal
screw an externally screwed sleeve m adapted to press on a shoulder of the
said rod and to be turned by a hand lever k and a nut n on said sleeve m
adapted to be turned or held by hand levers and having affixed to it a tube o
terminating with a female coned screw-thread for the purpose of placing and
jamming an expansible plug in place and for freeing and removing the same,
substantially as described.
ated the 4th day of Vanamalian 1200