IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLI- CATION OF STEAM TO LIFTING OR HOISTING COALS AND OTHER GOODS FROM SHIPS HOLDS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Nathaniel Pengelly, of Gloucester Street,
Commercial Road East, Engineer, and George Porter, of Mary Ann
Terrace, Abbey Street, Bethnal Green Road, Bricklayer, both in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLI-
CATION OF STEAM TO LIFTING OR HOISTING COALS AND OTHER GOODS FROM
SHIPS HOLDS."
Sealed the 25th September 1857, and dated the 11th April 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Nathaniel Pengelly
and George Porter at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 11th April 1857.
I, THOMAS NATHANIEL PENGELLY, of Gloucester Street, Commercial Road
East, Engineer, and I, GEORGE PORTER, of Mary Ann Terrace, Abbey Street,
Bethnal Green Road, Bricklayer, both in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION
OF STEAM TO LIFTING OR. HOISTING COALS AND OTHER GOODS FROM SHIPS' HOLDS,'
to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to the application of steam to heaving or lifting coal.
and other goods from the holds of vessels, by means of the direct action of:
steam power, applied through the intervention of a rope-or fall, which.passes:
over one or more pullies, in order to multiply the stroke of the steam piston to

page_text: give the necessary rise of the goods. For this purpose we employ one or more
steam cylinders, placed on a suitable bed or frame; on the end of the piston
rod we mount sheaves or pullies, and also mount sheaves or pullies in the end
of the frame work. A rope or chain is rove round these sheaves the one end is
fixed to the frame, and the other led over suitable pullies, so as to depend and
hang down the ship's hold. The goods to be lifted are secured to the end of
the fall.
The steam being turned on in the cylinder will clevate the goods. Suitable
valves for regulating the admission and escape of the steam are applied to the
cylinder, which reverse the motion at the proper times. Tappets are adjusted
on the valve rod to regulate the movement of the valves, so that the length
of traverse of the piston is suited to the height of lift required. A force
pump is applied and moved by the direct action of the piston to supply the
boiler with water.
Instead of applying the direct action of the steam to the rope or fall, a
pressure of air or water maintained by the action of steam may be admitted to
the working cylinder of the lifting apparatus.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Nathaniel Pengelly and Georgo Porter, in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 10th October 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
NATHANIEL PENGELLY, of Gloucester Street, Commercial Road East, Engineer,
and GEORGE PORTER, of Mary Ann Terrace, Abbey Street, Bethnal Green
Road, Bricklayer, both in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Thomas Nathaniel Pengelly and George Porter, Her special licence
that we, the said Thomas. Nathaniel Pengelly and George Porter, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the, said Thomas
Nathaniel Pengelly and George Porter, 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

page_text: "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO LIFTING OR HOISTING COALS AND
OTHER GOODS FROM SHIPS' HOLDS," upou the condition (amongst others), that we,
the said Thomas Nathaniel Pengelly and George Portor, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their
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 Thomas Nathaniel Pengelly and
George Porter, 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
Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):-
Our Invention relates to the application of steam to hoisting or lifting coals
and other goods from the holds of vessels, by means of the direct action of
steam power, applied through the intervention of a rope or fall, which passes
over one or more pullies, in order to multiply the stroke of the steam piston
to give the necessary lift for the goods.
For this purpose we employ one or more steam cylinders, placed on a
suitable bed or frame. On the end of the piston rod we mount sheaves or
pullies, and also mount sheaves or pullies in the end of the framework. A ropo
or chain is rove round these sheaves; the one end is fixed to the frame, and the
other.led over a suitable pulley or pullies, so as to depend and hang down
the ships' hold. The goods to be lifted are attached to the end of the fall.
The steam being turned on in the cylinder will elevate the goods. A
suitable valve for regulating the admission and escape of the steam is applied
to the cylinder, which reverses the motion at the proper times. Tappets are.
adjusted on the valve rod to regulate the movement of the valve, so that the
length of traverse of the piston is suited to the height of lift required.
A force pump is applied and moved by the direct action of the piston to
Fig. 1 represents a side elevation of apparatus according to our Invention
5 for hoisting coals and other goods from ships' holds by the application of steam
power; Fig. 2 is a plan of the same; while Fig. 3 represents on a reduced
scale the apparatus complete on a ship's deck. a, a, is a steam cylinder of
considerable length, which length is arranged according to the number of:

page_text: times the fall passes over the sheaves for multiplying the travel of the piston &
according to the lift required.
The cylinder a is furnished with a piston 6 and piston rod c, which traverses
through the stuffing box d in the cover d' of the cylinder in the ordinary
manuer. The piston rod c has a cross head E fixed thereto, in which is placed
one or more sheaves or pullies e, e, e. The cross head E is guided in its
traverse between two guide rods f,f, fixed at one end to the flange or lugs of
cylinder a, and at the opposite end to a fixed frame F, in which are placed
one or more sheaves or pullies 9, 9; these rods f,f, also brace the frame F
and cylinder together. This frame F, as also the cylinder a, is mounted on a
light bed or frame of wood h, for sake of portability, and so that the whole
may be readily moved about and fixed on the deck of a ship as desired. Tho
frame F and cross head E are, with the sheaves or 'pullies e and 9. similar to
a pair of blocks, on which the fall or rope i, i, is rove, much in the same
manner as in such blocks.
i
The cylinder is furnished with a suitable slide valve at k for controlling the
admission and escape of the steam, as also a pump 7 for forcing the water to
feed the steam boiler. m is the valve rod, the extreme end of which works in
a guide n fixed to F, while p is the pump rod, which also works in a guide g
fixed to the opposite side of F. Motion is given to these rods by means of
tappets and s affixed to the cross head E, the stroke of the valve and pump
being regulated by adjustable collars t, t, and u, u', against which the tappets
r and s take effect during the traverse of the piston, and according to the
position of the collars t, t¹, and u, u', so will be the length of stroke of the
piston, as the length of stroke of the piston is varied according to the height the
coals or other goods have to be lifted. The difference of position of the collars t
and u is considerable; thus, supposing the stroke of piston required be very
short, the set collars u will be moved from left to right as much as will causo
the change of the valve by the contact of tappet s therewith at the proper time
to reverse the stroke of the piston, that is to say, when a sufficient length of
stroke is completed. The set collar t' is similarly adjusted, so that it receives
sufficient motion from tappet r for the stroke of the pump. i is the rope or
fall, the one end of which is made fast to an eye w in the frame F, from
thence it passes over the first sheave or pulley c, thence back under the first
shcave or pulley g, returning to second sheave e, then to second sheave 9, and
so on precisely as a fall is rove in a pair of blocks. The end of the rope or
fall after leaving the third sheave passes up over a rigger a fixed at a suffi-
cient height, and thence descends into the ship's hold, where it has a basket
attached if it is intended to hoist coals or other goods in bulk, as seen at

page_text: Fig. 3. A small tank D to contain the feed water is placed between the bed
rails h, from which the pump draws its supply. The pipe through which the
waste steam escapes may be caused to pass through the water in this tank in
order to heat it before it is fed into the boiler.
The action of the apparatus is this: Supposing the apparatus to be fixed
down on a ship's deck and rigged, as seen at Fig. 3. A is a steam boiler, unne-
cessary to be described, which supplies the steam conducted by the pipe y to
the slide valve at k. If the lift is short, the stroke of the piston is kept nearest
the cover or stuffing-box end of the cylinder, in order that no steam may be
used otherwise than is necessary for the lift. Supposing the piston to be close
to the cover d' of the cylinder, and the basket .hooked on in the hold below,
steam is admitted by the stop-cock B, which enters between the piston 6 and
cover d', and forces the piston from left to right. This action carries with it
the cross head E, and compels it to recede from F, which causes the rope or
falli to be taken up rapidly and whips up the basket j of goods to the height
required, at which time the tappets arrives at u³ and moves the valve k.
Supposing this to take place in the position of u³, shown dotted, it will be at
about half stroke of the piston. When the valve is reversed the steam
escapes from the cylinder, the weight of the basket j (after being emptied)
on the end of the fall i will then cause it to descend and carry the piston b,
piston rod c, and cross head E back towards the frame F. Just before the
completion of the descent of the basket, the attendant takes hold of the basket
and stops the further descent of the fall by removing the weight, and while
in the act of attaching another basket causes a completion of the descent, and
consequently the completion of the stroke of the piston and cross head E; at
this moment the tappets comes in contact with u and acts on the slide valve,
so as again to admit the steam between the cover and piston b, which
produces another stroke of the piston and another lift of the basket to the
same point; the valve k is again reversed by contact of tappet & with u³, and
the steam allowed to escape as before; another descent now takes place, and
so on. The attendant must of course be quick in seizing the basket when it
comes up, otherwise it would descend when the tappet acts on u. The
escape of steam from the cylinder a is regulated by a stop-cock to prevent the
loaded basket falling too fast when valvek is reversed.
In hoisting heavy goods with a large apparatus it might be necessary to
admit the pressure of steam on the opposite side of the piston to cause the
descent; but for light goods a sufficient weight may always be attached to
the end of the fall, to bring it down, and bring the piston back to renew the
stroke; to ensure this every part should work freely. In case of admitting.

page_text: steam on both sides of the pistón an alteration in the slide valve will be neces-
sary,
but which need not be described, as it is well understood in the action
of steam engines.
In the arrangement represented, the lift effected will be six times greater
than the stroke of the piston; thus, with a cylinder in which the stroke is
four feet a lift.of twenty-four feet will be effected, but in case only one
'sheave e be employed, from which the rope i would proceed direct under
pulley 9 and up to the rigger x, only eight feet rise would be effected, consc-
quently the rise would only be equal to double the length of the extreme
stroke, and for a high lift a very long cylinder would be. requisite; for this
reason we prefer to employ two or three pullies 6, and two or three pullies g,
to increase the multiple, as described.
Having described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of per
forming the same, we declare that what we claim as our Invention, to be
secured by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is, the hoisting or
lifting coals and other goods from ships' holds, by a cylinder and piston
actuated by steam, and applied as herein-before described.
1:
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Nathaniel Pengelly and
George Porter, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Tenth
day of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty seven.
THON. PENGELLY. (L.S.)
GEORGE PORTER.
(L.S.)
Witness,
:WILLIAM CLARK,
Patent Agont,
53, Chancery Lane, London.