IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS AND MACHINERY FOR CUTTING COAL AND OTHER MINERALS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Williams at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th
January 1871.
I, WILLIAM WILLIAMS,. of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
'IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS AND MACHINERY FOR CUTTING COAL AND OTHER
MINERALS," to be as follows:-
86
The object of this Invention is to detach blocks of coal or other
mineral from the main measure by vertical and horizontal cuts in such
manner that they may be moved away in pieces of given thickness and.
of a length if required equal to the thickness of the stratum from which.
they are obtained.
'
The machinery consists of a frame carrying either a crank shaft and
By wheel or a cylinder and piston, the choice depending upon the nature
of the driving power most convenient for use. Should it be absolutely
necessary that the work should be done by manual labour the crank

page_text: and fly wheel then unavoidable will be coupled by means of a con-
necting rod with a sliding head working the cutting tool, which cutting
tool may be raised or depressed as required by means of a screw passing
through a block acting with it. The necessary amount of cut or feed
is given by self-acting gear working the screw. In places where any
stronger power can possibly be obtained the crank and wheel may be
dispensed with in favour of a cylinder and piston, which in the same
manner as the cutter in the sliding head can be raised, depressed, or
When the cylinder
moved horizontally by means of blocks and screws.
and piston are used any description of force may be applied, hydraulic,
steam, compressed air, or otherwise.
An important feature in the machine is the facility of detachment of
the blocks of coal. In working a horizontal trench about 18 inchics
deep should be made along the entire length of the measure at the
junction of the coal and the underlying shale, after which a number of
vertical cuts equally deep and 18 inches apart will be made in the face
reaching from the horizontal trench to the shale above the measure. A
number of the divisions marked out by these vertical cuts will be wedged
out so that the machine may be got to work making vertical cuts
18 inches from the face and at right angles to those made previously.
It is plain that these last cuts would leave the blocks quite unsupported
and so cause them to fall from their places in rectangular masses capable
of being taken away intact.
In order that the "back cut" may be made in the same plane as
the fresh face of coal, and not as in the case of the previous cuts in a
line with the centre of the machine in position, the tool for executing
that portion of the work will be of a crank or bayonet form.
:
To supply power to the machine a permanent pipe may be passed
down the shaft and connected with a series of air-tight receivers, placed
in the workings where operations are going on. These receivers should
be placed at convenient distances apart and connected one with another
by india-rubber or other pipes made especially for the purpose of bearing
a great pressure, and are made so that they may be connected one after
another as the work progresses along the face by means of a pipe
similar to those last described with the machine in usc. The removal
of the receivers from one place to another is seldom required, as a con-

page_text: siderable depth of coal could be taken from the face of the measure
without the pipe between the machine and the receiver being too much
lengthened to be easily used.