IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CHARGING GAS RETORTS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the "International
Patent Office," No. 8, Southampton Buildings, London, Consulting
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
CHARGING GAS RETORTS."-A communication from abroad by N. O. J.
Tisdalè, of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Robert Lake at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 12th August 1869, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT LAKE, of the "International Patent Office," No. 8, Southampton
Buildings, London, Consulting Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR CHARGING GAS RETORTS," and have petitioned Her Majesty
to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal
Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declaration that it

page_text: has been communicated to me from abroad by N. O. J. Tisdale, of
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Robert Lake, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawing, forming
a part of this Specification
:-
The said Invention relates to a mechanical organism through the
agency of which gas retorts can be more expeditiously and properly
charged with coal, and with. less labour and cost than by any method
hitherto known or practised. This organism consists of an elongated
shallow open box, in which is adjusted a moveable and reversible web or
link bottom or apron and proper means for operating the same sustained
in a guideway or sheath in such manner as to have a reciprocating
endwise motion corresponding in its extent with the length of the retort,
the said guideway being supported on a proper frame or carriage on
wheels, resting on a railway so as to be moveable, and therefore readily
susceptible of being taken from one benel of retorts to another, and into
the coal store. In other words the said Invention relates to a machine
which charges gas retorts without further hand labor than is requisite
to place the coal in it, and then to cause the same to be discharged
into the retort, the operation being effected with great economy of time
and labor, as compared with any other mode that. has hitherto been
practised.
The said Invention will be more quickly understood both in respect
of its mechanical construction and its mode of operation by reference to
the Drawing, of which Figure 1 is a perspective view of the said
machine; Figure 2 is a sectional view of the same. The same letters
denote like parts in both of the Figures.
A represents an ordinary gas retort in a detached state, the object of
its delineation being to illustrate the manner in which my machine enters
the same when loaded, and B is a guideway. whose function is to sustain
the elongated shallow open box C. (which for purposes of distinction may
be called a "charger,") and also suitable mechanical appliances or means
for operating the said charger and its reversible bottom-D, which consists
of a series of narrow strips as shown, hinged together in any usual manner
and by any proper means so that the said bottom may be readily flexible

page_text: a necessary condition, as will hereafter be seen, to the successful working
of this Invention.
The guideway B is fixed on a railway carriage moving through the
retort house upon a railway laid along the front of the fire stack in which
the retorts are set in such manner as to bring the proximate extremity
(of the same very nearly in contact with the front of the mouth piece of
the retort. On the carriage may be placed one or any number of
machines accordingly as the number of retorts in a bench may vary.
The said machines are to be adjusted to the same at such heights and in
such positions that each charger resting in its guideway will have its
bottom just sufficiently above the level of the bottom of the retort which
is to be charged by it to enter the said retort whenever the carriage is
placed in position before the bench to charge the retorts therein. These
machines being worked in, sets of as many machines as there are retorts
in a bench, they can all be driven into the retorts and withdrawn there-
from by a single motion and at a single operation, simultaneously
delivering their several charges smoothly and accurately and at any
desired rate of speed. As neither this carriage nor the particular means
for operating a number of the said machines forms an essential part of
this Invention I have not considered it necessary to shew the said
carriage or any such means in the Drawing. The guideway B consists of
two vertical sides 6, 6', held together and at a proper distance apart,
according to the width of the retorts, by transverse screw bolts c, which
all occupy the same horizontal line very near the lower edges of the
sides b, b', as shewn. Just above the line of the bolts c a ratchet or
toothed bar d is secured upon the interior surfaces of each of the
sides b, b', as shewn, and just above this bar is a projecting rail or slide é
to serve a purpose hereafter indicated. The ratchet bar d and the rail e
above it are parallel to each other and both occupy horizontal planes or
lines. On the top of each of the sides b, b', is another rail g, g, projecting
inwardly, as shown, and parallel with respect to e. The continuity of each
of these upper rails g is broken by traps or hinged sections g', g², near
their outer extremities and from the outer end of the openings under the
said traps. The rails 9, 9, are connected to the rail e by inclined bars or
rails h. The object of this connection will be presently shewn. The
rails g do not extend the whole length of the guideway B; they terminate
near the inner ends of the guideway, by which I mean the ends next the
retort, so as to provide an opening i upon each side of the said guideway

page_text: for a purpose indicated in the description of the operation of this
machine. The inner ends of the openings i are guarded by the projecting
stoppers ¹. The rails e and 9 may be made of angle iron rivetted or
bolted to the vertical sides b, 6', or secured in any other proper manner,
and in some cases the ratchet bar d and the rail e may be formed of one
piece. I do not confine myself to any special mode of constructing the
rails, nor indeed any other part of the guideway B, always provided there
is no deviation from the general principles thereof, as herein described
and shewn in the Drawing, and that the rail c shall present two
distinct faces, the one a little above the other. At the outer end
and near the upper edges of the sides b, b₁ of the guideway B a
pulley E is secured, as shewn, in proper journals, and to the axis
of this pulley, which is extended for this purpose, a crank f is firmly
fastened. This pulley or any equivalent thereof constitutes a means
for operating the charger either by hand, steam, or other power.
Within the guideway B is fitted the charger C, which in its external
peculiarities of construction resembles very closely the guideway itself,
that is to say, it is composed of two vertical sides 2 held together at
any given or desired distance apart by transverse screw bolts 1. These
bolts pass through bars e¹ and secure them on the opposite internal
surfaces of the vertical sides 2 of the charger C in the same horizontal
plane as the supports for the reversible bottom or apron D, which when
occupying the position shewn at Figure 1, and therefore being ready
to receive a charge of coal, rests on the said bars and is sustained by
them. The reversible bottom or apron is provided with a bracket
termination k at its outer end, which is so constructed as to afford a
handle whereby it can be readily seized by hand when the said bottom
is to be drawn into position, as shewn at Figure 1, or for loading, and
also to take over the catches 3 to hold the apron immoveably in position,
At the end of the charger C next the retort, the bottom D passes
over a rectangular pulley (not shewn on the Drawing, but whose axis
is shewn at 4, the flat faces on the said pulley corresponding in width
with the width of the sections or strips which hinged together constitute
the said bottom D) and then passes between the bar e¹ and flanches
projecting from the two sides 2 at their bottom edges inwardly and
at right angles to the planes of the said sides, sufficient space between
the said bars and flanches being provided for this purpose. The
bottom D is secured to a chain o that leads and is connected to
the pulley F. This pulley is provided at each of its ends with a cog

page_text: wheel, whose cogs are of proper size to mesh in the teeth or cogs of
the bars d and (outside these wheels) with circular racks in which
the pawls m take; the retro-rotation of the pulley in the operation of
reversing the bottom to deliver the coal in the retort is thus prevented.
This pulley is not mounted in the sides of the charger, but in a frame n
projecting from the end of the latter, as shewn, and which is so con-
nected with the two sides thereof as to have a certain measure of up
and down vibration at the point at which the pulley has its journals,
with the view to adapt the latter to move on the two distinct planes
represented by the rails g and the rails e with equal facility. The
frame n may be constructed as shewn, or in any other manner which
will accomplish the same object. An extension of the axis of the
pulley F outside the frame n at both ends affords a means of putting
on the rollers p or their equivalents to sustain the said pulley on the
rails g and e accordingly as (in the operation of the machine) it rests
on the one or the other. The diameter of the rollers p should be just
a shade less than the distance or space. between the rails.g and e, so
as to provide a means for holding the pulley F down when it rests
on the rails e, and of securing the meshing of the cog wheels / with
the ratchet bar d. To the front end of the frame n a cord or chain q
is fastened, which being put around the pulley E two or three times to
prevent slipping is carried under the charger and over the pulley G and
then back to the outer end of the charger, where it is fastened by means
of a fixed projecting cross bracket or some equivalent contrivance. A
moderate degree of tension being always kept on the cord q it is obvious
that a rotation of the pulley E will move the charger with all its
adjuncts in one or the other direction (accordingly as the rotation of
the said pulley is in the one direction or the other) to the extreme
limit allowed by the stoppers ¹ and 8. In order to facilitate the move;
ments of the charger over the floor or bottom of the retort and in
the guideway small wheels w are placed at proper intervals apart
outside the vertical sides of the same, as shewn, which wheels resting
on the lower sections of the terrace rails e, and having a diameter
only sufficiently less than the space between said rails and the upper
rails g to permit of their free action constitute a means also for holding
the charger in position when it is in the guideway B. The diameter
and the rotation by means of the cog wheels of the pulley F are so
calculated and adjusted as to pull the moveable bottom or apron D over
the roller whose axis is marked 4 at a. rate or speed precisely corre

page_text: sponding with the movement of the charger as it is drawn back into
the guideway, so as to deposit the charge in the retort with precise
uniformity of depth throughout the whole extent or space within which
it is desired to put it. If a more rapid delivery of the charge should
be desired however, so as to deposit it in a shorter space in the retort
than it occupied in the charger, it can be done by increasing the
diameter of the pulley F, and thereby giving a more rapid motion to the
bottom than to the charger.
The machine herein described is made of wrought iron and as light
as is compatible with a due regard to strength, and as before remarked
it may be very considerably modified in one or all its parts and also
in its general arrangement without in the slightest degree changing
its modus operandi, which I will now proceed to explain :-Supposing
the machine in single or multiple form to be properly placed on a
carriage resting on a railroad extending from the coal store along the
front of the fire stack, whatever may be the number of benches of
retorts therein the charger is put in that position in the guideway
which will bring the rollers p in contact with the stoppers 8, and the
bracket of the reversible bottom D over the catches 3. The charger
or chargers are now filled with the desired quantity of coal, and the
carriage is placed in front of the bench to be charged in such a manner
as to bring a charger in line with each of the retorts therein, sub-
stantially as shewn in Figure 1. This being done the pulley E is put
in motion, and through the agency of the cord q forces the charger
into the retort and out of the guideway until the rollers reach the
openings i, through which from the gravity of the pulley F and its
appliances they instantly fall upon the lower rail e, carrying of course
with them the pulley F and the cog wheels 7, which latter at once
come into connection with the ratchet bars d. The proportions of the
parts are so adjusted that when this takes place the charger has attained
the limit of its penetration into the retort. The direction of the rotation
of the pulley E is now reversed and the charger begins to recede from
the retort, and in doing so puts the pulley F in motion by means of
the cog wheels and winds up the chain o. This draws the bottom D
over the pulley at 4, and thus reverses the same and deposits the coal
in the retorts in even and regular measure as fast as the chargers move
out of them. In the reversal of the bottom D, as above described, it
is drawn between the bar e¹ and the projecting flanches at the bottom

page_text: edges of the sides 2 of the charger, which latter support it on its
longitudinal edges and thus keep it from "sagging" or falling down
below the bottom of the charger. The length of the ratchet bar d
is calculated with reference to the extent to which the bottom
is to be reversed, so that the pulley F passes beyond these bars at
the instant the charge is delivered. To prevent the passing of the
bottom D entirely from its upper plane catches are placed to take
against the bracket k the moment the charge has been delivered and
the ends of the ratchet bars have been passed by the pulley F. Arriving
at the inclined bars h the pulley F ascends the same, the light
traps g', g, interposing no appreciable resistance until the rollers p
once more rest upon the rails y the traps falling back into their
places, as soon as the said rollers advance sufficiently beyond the
openings to allow them to do so. The pawls m are now disengaged
from their racks in order to allow of a reverse revolution of the pulley F,
and then the bottom D is pulled by hand by means of the bracket k
back to its original position, and the machine is ready for another
operation, and so on indefinitely.
Having thus fully described the said Invention as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent, and shewn how the same may be
conveniently and advantageously carried into practice, I claim,-
First. The guideway B when constructed substantially as herein
described for the purpose set forth.
Second. The charger C when provided with the reversible bottom
or apron D and constructed and operating substantially as and for
the purpose set forth.
Third. The combination of the guideway B and the charger C when
these parts are constructed, arranged, and conjointly operated sub-
stantially as described for the purpose set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE. (L.S.)