IMPROVEMENTS IN ELEVATING MACHINERY
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th September 1876. A communication
from abroad by Victor Von Swaine, of Düsseldorf, in the Empire of Germany.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELEVATING MACHINERY."
A communication.
My Invention relates to elevating machinery for hotels, mining, and other
purposes, and comprises the following improvements, that is to say:-
First. The arrangement and use in an elevator of an elevating screw or elevating
screws at the sides or corners of the elevator platform, whereby an absolutely even
motion of the platform in ascending and descending may be obtained, and all
lateral or tipping motion is obviated, the screws being held absolutely rigid as far as
any lateral or swaying motion is concerned by peculiar bearings. In this elevator
an accident to one or all of the said screws would be comparatively unimportant,
for in such a case the platform, its motion being arrested, cannot drop from its
position, being held by the screw thread.
Second. The construction of these elevating screws in short sections connected to
each other, each section being provided with a smooth portion for a bearing, short
sections of screw being much easier to make, and consequently much less expensive
than one long piece.
Third. The use of hollow metal elevating screws which may be of a larger
diameter than solid ones without increasing their weight or expense, thus adding to
the strength and supporting capacity of the screws and their threads, and securing
an easier and smoother travel on the screw threads of the nuts which support the
platform. They may be formed of cast steel or cast iron in two longitudinal halves,
or drawn or cast whole like tubing, and the screw thread cut on them afterwards.
Or the screw thread might be cast on the hollow screw sections and polished after-
wards. They are connected to each other by short pieces of shafting, of which each
furnishes the means for securing the steadiness and rigidity of the entire screw by.
being supported in a suitable bearing wherein the shaft rotates freely, and which
may be secured to the solid wall of the elevator chamber. By making these screws
hollow and thereby obtaining a larger diameter for the same, necessary space is
gained for the thickness of metal which the bearings require to prevent lateral or
torsional motion of the screws.

page_text: Fourth. Peculiarly constructed nuts attached or secured to the sides or corners
of the elevator platform, through which the elevating screws pass or rather which
travel up and down upon the screws, and thus raise or lower the said platform;
these nuts being so slotted, and of such a length as to pass over the arms of the
bearings, and also from one section of the screw to the next one over the intervening
piece of shafting and its bearing without interfering with the smooth and continuous
travel of the platform either way, that is to say, they have a sufficiently secure hold
on the lower screw section in ascending, and on the upper one in descending, so that
the ends of the nuts which are out of contact with the thread of the screw sections
in passing over the intervening pieces of shaft and their bearings will not be liable
to any lateral motion.
Fifth. The combination with an elevator in which a plurality of screws is used
to operate the elevating platform of a motive mechanism arranged to operate the
screws even where the diameter of all the screws is not the same, simultaneously
in such a manner that the platform supporting nuts of all the screws will be raised
or lowered at the same time and from and to the same level.
Sixth. The arrangement and use in an elevator of two inclined screws or sets of
two such screws, or of a single inclined screw to elevate and lower carriages, the
carriages being arranged relatively to the screws in such manner as to be able to
enter and leave the screws at any desired point or points in the lengths of the latter
without interrupting the continuous rotation of each set of screws in its own
direction.
Seventh. In an elevator in which inclined scrows elevate and lower carriages, the
arrangement of sets of rails one above the other in such manner that the body of
the carriage is always level while being elevated or lowered as well as when run
out of or into connection with the screws.
Eighth. Hinging portions of each set of rails at certain points to enable them to
be raised to allow the carriages to be run off from or upon the rails below, and out
of or into connection with the screw at said points in ascending or descending.
Ninth. The combination with the sets of rails having hinged portions of movable
platforms so arranged at the points where the carriages are to be run into connection
with the screws and upon the rails in ascending from a story above the ground story
of the building to a higher one, so as to be able to be moved over the screws and
rails below to allow the carriage to be run upon the rails and into connection with
the screws at the point from which the carriage is to be started upwards. These
platforms are also necessary to remove a carriage from connection with the screws
and from the rails in descending from a higher to any lower story except the ground
floor.
Tenth. The combination with inclined screws for elevating or lowering carriages
of one or more sectional female screws, that is to say, nuts corresponding with the
male screw thread of the screws, but instead of enclosing the latter seizing into the
same.
Eleventh. The construction of the said female screw nut section in such a manner
that the solid portions between the female screw threads have on their outer edges
inwardly curved portions to correspond with the threads of the male screw thread
on the screws, so that in running a carriage into connection with the screws, these
curved end portions of the nuts, will if the nuts and screws should not be in proper
relative position for operation at the moment of contact, arrest the motion of the
carriage by bearing on the flat edges of the male screw thread of the screws, and
will slip smoothly on these male screw threads until the latter can enter the female
screw threads of the nuts while the carriage is being pushed forward.
Twelfth. Peculiar slotted side bearings for the screws, the slot of these bearings
having a width less than the diameter of the screw thread of the screws, but
sufficiently large to allow the female nuts on the carriages to pass without friction.