CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN BORING, MINING, AND BLASTING, AND IN THE APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH." PROAL SP
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jonathan Worthington, of Llancaiach and Gilvach
Main Collieries, near Cardiff, Wales, Gentleman, and Fennell Allman,
of. 9, Adam Street, Adelphi, London, Consulting Engineer, for the
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN BORING, MINING, AND BLASTING,
AND IN THE APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jonathan Worthington
and Fennell Allman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 18th May 1854.
We, JONATHAN WORTHINGTON, of Llancaiach & Gilvach Main Collieries, near
Cardiff, Wales, Gentleman, and FENNELL ALLMAN, of 9, Adam St., Adelphi,
London, Consulting Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN BORING, MINING, AND BLASTING, AND IN THE
APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
The Invention may be generally described as follows:-
First, the employment of drills, or bits, or such like tools, for boring or
drilling holes in mines or quarries, and in the matter to be removed by
blasting, having a reciprocating or rotatory motion. In respect to this part of
our Invention, we do not clain any particular form of mechanism or machine
whereby motion is given to the said drills or bits, as the shape and configuration

page_text: of the parts of such mechanism may be infinitely varied; but we do claim
any form of drill, bit, or such like tool, in drilling or boring the holes required
for blasting purposes, when the said drills or bits receive a reciprocating or
rotatory motion.
Secondly, we make the drills or bits partly of iron and partly of steel, as
shown in Figure, which gives a transverse section of drill:-
a, a, a, a, being the steel facing.
The iron, being softer than the steel, wears
more under the action, and leaves the steel edge "proud," and thus prevents
the necessity of frequent sharpning. We claim forming drills or bits, for the
purposes herein set forth, back part of iron, face part of steel.
Thirdly, we employ steam, water, horse, or manual power, in giving motion
to the herin described drills or bits. As any of these powers may be employed
in the usual and well-known ways in which such prime movers are generally
applied, it is not necessary to describe thier well-known forms or methods of
If we employ steam power, we prefer to place the engine and boiler
under the shaft, to aid in ventilating and carrying off the waste steam and
smoke. The power may be communicated by portable shafting with universal
couplings and running on cast-iron "lifts," which may be moved up to the
work. We do not claim the employment of the motive powers herein specified
in mines or quarries for purposes other than drilling or boring, but we do
claim the use or employment of such powers when used to give rotatory or
reciprocating motion to apparatus for boring or drilling. We also employ
cylinder saws for cutting out coal, &c., as Fig.
which, being
cylinder saws for cutting out coal, &c., as Fig.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jonathan Worthington and Fennell Allman in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 16th November 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JONATHAN
WORTHINGTON, of Llancaich and Gilvach Collieries, near Cardiff, Wales, 3

page_text: Gentleman, and FENNELL ALLMAN, of 9, Adam Street, Adelphi, London, Con-
sulting Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Jonathan Worthington and Fennell Allman, Her special licence that we, the
said Jonathan Worthington and Fennell Allman, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Jonathan Worthington and Fennell
Allman, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN BORING,
MINING, AND BLASTING, AND IN THE APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Jonathan Worthington and
Fennell Allman, by an instrument in writing under our 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 we, the said Jonathan Worthington and Fennell
Allman, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:―
Our Invention may be generally described as being certain improved
mechanism which we employ in boring the holes required in blasting opera-
tions; and secondly, in certain novel apparatus to be used in mining and
excavating coal. In respect to the first part of our said Invention, we use
either ordinary drills of the usual form employed in the drilling of metals, or
drills of an improved construction, to be described herein-after. The motion
given to these drills is either a rotatory, reciprocating, or alternating motion,
but in all cases cutting the hole by revolving or reciprocating under pressure,
in contradistinction to cutting the hole in the manner now employed, by a
stroke or blow on the end of the cutter or chisel. The mechanism we use for
holding the drills and communicating motion to the same is of any of the
ordinary and well-known kind and construction as used in boring ordinary
holes, all that requires consideration being to make the drill frame very

page_text: "
simple and portable, so as to be easily removed after a hole is bored to avoid
injury from the effects of the blast; for instance, we prefer in ordinary
cases using a double brace, as usually constructed, with right angle cranks, to
employ the labour of two men. This "brace we use in the usual way, the
drill being kept up to its work by a screw or other similar means, a purchase
being obtained from the wall, floor, or ceiling, as the nature of the situation
may permit, or the angle of the hole may require; for instance, in drilling
"black-band" in coal mines, where holes are required, not only horizontal,
but also at an angle to the horison, it will be necessary to take a purchase
from the ceiling, and also from the wall at back, opposite the face of black-
band and coal. Although we use in some situations a brace for manual
labour, we prefer in many cases the use of steam, water, or wind power, to
give motion to the drill, as being much more efficient than manual labour.
Where the engine or power is on the surface, or at any distance from the drill
and work, we communicate the power by a number of light shafts, united
by universal joints, so as to be easily extended as the work progresses; by this
means I am enabled to employ power in boring the holes required for blasting
purposes. With respect to this part of our said Invention, we claim the use
of steam, wind, or water power in giving a rotatory or reciprocating motion
to drills when employed in or within coal mines as being new; we also
claim the employment of drills for the purposes of drilling holes for blasting
purposes when the said drills receive a rotatory or reciprocating motion. We
further make an improved drill as follows:-Taking a drill of the ordinary
shape, we make it of iron, not steel, but weld or braze a thin plate of steel on
the cutting face of the drill: now, when the drill is put into use, the abrasion,
acting on the edge, so composed of iron and steel, the soft iron being more
easily abraded than the hardened steel, becomes worn away, leaving the steel
proud, or projecting; this affords a cutting edge, constantly maintained by the
action of drilling, in the same way as the hard enamel of the teeth of some
animals always maintains a sharp edge, the inner part of the tooth being more
rapidly removed by mastication than the enamel, leaves-it-proud-and-sharp.
We claim, in respect to this part of our said Invention, the constructing drills
or cutting bits of iron and steel, the steel being on the flat face of drill, and
united thereunto by brazing or welding screws or rivets. We sometimes
employ drills whose transverse section would be the figure of a cross, or two
flat drills crossing each other, the axis of the one coinciding with the axis of
the other; secondly, in excavating coal, we use cylinder saws, or plain edged,
that is to say, a cylinder of thin steel, made to revolve rapidly on its longi-

page_text: tudinal axis by any of the means herein described as being used in the case
of drilling, and the edge given by its transverse section being forced against
the wall or face of coal by this means, a cylinder of coal will be cut and
removed. By this means we are enabled to get the coal out in larger masses
than in the usual way, and save time in excavating. We do not claim the
use of circular saws, as these have been used; but we do claim, in respect
to this part of our said Invention, the use of cylindrical saws, or plain edged
cutting cylinders, when used for cutting coal in mining operations. This
we deliver as a full and true description and Specification of our said
Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Fennell Allman, have, on behalf of myself
and the said Jonathan Worthington, hereunto set my hand and seal,
the Sixteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-four.
FENNELL ALLMAN. (L.S.)