IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED WHEN GETTING COAL, STONE, AND MINERALS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Haggie, of Gateshead-on-Tyne, Merchant,
and Peter Gledhill, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, Mechanical Engineer, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED WHEN GETTING
COAL, STONE, AND MINERALS."
Sealed the 21st February 1865, and dated the 23rd November 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Haggie and Peter
Gledhill at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 23rd November 1864.
We, PETER HAGGIE, of Gateshead-on-Tyne, Merchant, and PETER
GLEDHILL, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED
WHEN GETTING COAL, STONE, AND MINERALS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery employed
when getting coal, stone, and minerals. For these purposes an engine suitable
to be worked by compressed air or other fluid is fixed on a carriage mounted
on three wheels, two on one side and one on the other or working side of the
carriage; this engine gives motion to reciprocating picks or cutters. The
form of engine employed in combination with such reciprocating picks and
cutters may be varied. One form of engine consists of an upright shaft or axis
having on it a portion of a circular disce; on the periphery or edge of which
disc is formed or affixed a piston, by preference, of a circular form, which
works in a cylinder or chamber of a section or segment corresponding with
the piston, and the cylinder or vessel is a section of a circular hollow ring.

page_text: The disc works through a stuffing box formed through one side of the hollow
cylinder. The working of the piston gives motion to the upright shaft or axis,
on which is applied a socket for receiving the handle of a lever pick, and the
socket is formed to receive the handle of the pick at either end, so that the action
of the pick may be reversed; or the piston may be fixed and the cylinder or
vessel made to vibrate on it. Or in place of using the form of engine above
described, we apply an engine consisting of a cylinder with a central passage
through it, and an annular piston, the piston rods giving motion to a cross
head which gives motion to a connecting rod working through the central
passage in order to actuate a reciprocating lever or straight pick or cutter.
Or the annular piston may be stationary and the cylinder made to slide on it,
the connecting rod being attached to the cylinder, and working through the
central passage; or in some cases we employ a pendulous engine, which
consists of a cylinder mounted on an axis at one end so that it may give
direct action by its piston rod to a crank on the pick shaft. In other cases
the cylinder of the engine may be made to slide on a fixed piston rod, and by
a rack on the cylinder give a reciprocating motion to a pick shaft by having a
toothed sector on such axis, or the cylinder of the engine may be fixed, whilst
the piston rod by a rack thoreon gives motion to a sector on the shaft or axis
of a pick.
It is preferred to use a carriage on three wheels, in each case, when using
these forms of engines, but the carriages employed therewith may be mounted
on more wheels, or in place of using wheels, slides embracing the rails
on which the carriage moves may be used, or such slides may be used in
conjunction with wheels. In some cases, also, wheels are used arranged to
act on the under parts of the heads of the rails so as to ensure that the
carriage may not rise off the rails. In some cases the carriages may be
mounted on wheels, the peripheries of which are composed of a series of
moving instruments which are caused to clip the rail by the weight of the
machine.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, PETER
HAGGIE, of Gateshead-on-Tyne, Merchant, and PETER GLEDHILL, of New-
castle-on-Tyne, Mechanical Engineer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said Peter Haggie and Peter Gledhill, Her special
licence that we, the said Peter Haggie and Peter Gledhill, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Peter Haggie
and Peter Gledhill, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED WHEN GETTING COAL, STONE, AND MINERALS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Peter Haggie and
Peter Gledhill, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us
or them, 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 I, the said Peter Gledhill, on behalf of myself and
the said Peter Haggie, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is
to say:
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery employed
when getting coal, stone, and minerals. For these purposes an engine suitable
to be worked by compressed air or other fluid is fixed on a carriage mounted
on three wheels, two on one side and one on the other or working side of the
carriage; this engine gives motion to reciprocating picks or cutters. The
form of engine employed in combination with such reciprocating picks and.
cutters may be varied. One form of engine consists of an upright shaft or-
axis having on it a portion of a circular disc; on the periphery or edge of.
which disc is formed or affixed a piston, by preference of a circular form,.
which works in a cylinder or chamber of a section or segment corresponding
with the piston, and the cylinder or vessel is a section of a circular hollow.
ring; the disc works through a stuffing box formed through one side of the
hollow cylinder. The working of the piston gives motion to the upright shaft
or axis, on which is applied a socket for receiving the handle of a lever pick,

page_text: and the socket is formed to receive the handle of the pick at either end, so
that the action of the pick may be reversed.
Figure 1 is a side view of a machine for getting coal constructed in this
manner; Figure 2 is a transverse section, and Figure 3 is a plan of the
same; Figure 4 is a plan, partly in section, of some of the parts separately.
a, a, is the frame or carriage mounted on the three wheels b, b, b, one on
the working side and two at the outside of the machine; the wheel on the
working side is placed close up to the pick shaft c, so that it will allow of the
pick working on either side of the pick shaft, and thus with one pick shaft
the machine may be worked either forward or backwards, the stem or handle
of the pick being entered into and secured in the pick socket d on the pick
shaft on one or the other side according to the direction in which it is
required to work. On the axis of each of the wheels a worm wheel is
mounted, and these worm wheels gear with worms e¹ on the axis e, at each
end of which is a hand wheel e, and by turning these wheels the carriage can
be propelled forward or backwards. The pick shaft c is mounted in strong
bearings on the carriage, and has fixed upon it a disc f with a piston g fixed
at its periphery. The most convenient way of constructing these parts is to
key a wrought-iron arm on to the shaft c, and bolt the piston to its outer end,
and then to complete the disc around the axis by means of an iron casting
fitting over the arm, as the Drawing shows. In place of a complete disc fa
segment may be employed, especially if the air cylinder or chamber be
shortened. This air cylinder or chamber is marked g'; it is closed at the
ends, and is conveniently made in two parts bolted together. The disc
enters the cylinder of chamber g' at one side thereof, and the edges of the
opening through which it enters are packed on each side of the disc. The
packing is shown at h, and is compressed in the packing grooves by
the glands i, i, which are drawn up tight against the packing by bolts ;
k, k, are chambers to receive packing to make tight joints against the edge of
the disc f. The cylinder or chamber g' is supplied with compressed air, or it
may be other fluid under pressure by a flexible pipe which conducts it to a
valve box on the cylinder or chamber, and an ordinary slide valve directs it
to one or other end of the cylinder according to the position of the valve. The
valve is worked by hand levers 7 one at each end, and there are also adjust-
able tappets m, m, carried on a slotted disc at the upper end of the shaft c,
and these also actuate the valve; usually, however, the motion to produce the
return of the pick is produced by hand, for unless the pick strikes quite home
the tappet is not able to act, so that the principal use of this tappet is to
prevent the piston striking the end of the cylinder or chamber. Or in place

page_text: of using the form of engine, above described, we apply an engine consisting of
a cylinder with a central passage through it and an annular piston, the piston
rods giving motion to a cross head, which gives motion to a connecting rod
working through the central passage.
This arrangement is shown in plan at Figure 5, and horizontal section at
Figure 6. a is the outer cylinder fixed on the carriage with its cover b, and
with this the inner cylinder c is formed; d is an annular piston working in the
space between the cylinders a and c; e, e, are the piston rods working through
stuffing boxes in the back cover; f is a cross head to which they are fixed,
and g is a connecting rod passing through the cylinder c, and communicating,
motion to an arm h on the pick axis. The valve is worked by two hand
levers i, i, connected together by a link k, so that the valve may be worked
from either side of the machine. Or the annular piston may be stationary,.
and the cylinder made to slide on it, the connecting rod being attached to the.
cylinder, and working through the central passage. This arrangement is
shown in plan at Figure 7, and horizontal section at Figure 8. Here the
piston rods pass out through stuffing boxes at each end of the cylinder, and
they are fixed to the carriage. The cylinder is moveable, and has the con-
necting rod jointed to it, and also to the arm on the pick axis,, as is shewn..
The valve is arranged to work across the cylinder; it is actuated by a short
arın fixed on a boss a, which is able to slide but not turn on the axis b, at the
end of which are hand levers for working the valve. Or in some cases we
employ a pendulous engine, which consists of a cylinder mounted on an axis.
at one end, so that it may give direct action by its piston rod to a crank on
the pick shaft.
Figure 9 is a plan of this arrangement. The cylinder a is connected to the
carriage by a centre 6 at its rear end; the piston rod c is connected directly.
to the arm d on the pick shaft, and the valve is worked by an arm on an
axis e carried by bearings on the cylinder cover, and having hand levers at
its ends for working the valve from either side of the machine. In other cases
the cylinder of the engine may be made to slide on a fixed piston rod, and
by a rack on the cylinder give a reciprocating motion to a pick shaft by
having a toothed sector on such axis. Figure 10 is a plan of this arrange-.
ment; the piston rod a with the piston are fixed to the carriage, and the
cylinder 6 moves; it has a dovetail slide formed on it which works in guides
on the carriage; c is a rack on the cylinder, and it gears with the sector d
on the pick shaft. The valve gear is the same as has already been described
as respects the arrangement shown in Figure 7, or the cylinder of the engine
may, as is shown at Figure 11, be fixed, whilst the piston rod by a rack

page_text: thereon gives motion to a sector on the shaft or axis of a pick. The valve in
this arrangement is worked direct by a hand lever, as already described in
respect to Figure 5.
It is preferred to use a carriage on three wheels in each case when using
these forms of engines, one wheel of the carriage being on the working side,
and two on the outer side, as above described, and this is an important
feature of our Invention not only is the carriage very steadily supported, but
also the construction admits of one pick shaft being employed for working
forwards and backwards which much simplifies the machinery. In place of
one wheel on the working side of the machine two small wheels quite close
together may be employed, but not so advantageously. But although we
much prefer a carriage with but one wheel or point of support on the working
side of the machine, nevertheless the carriages employed with engines such as
are herein described may be mounted on more wheels, or in place of using
wheels, slides embracing the rails on which the carriage moves may be used,
or such slides may be used in conjunction with wheels.
In some cases the carriages may be mounted on wheels, the peripheries of
which are composed of a series of moving instruments which are caused to
clip the rail by the weight of the machine.
Figure 12 is a section of the lower part of a wheel thus constructed.
the centre part of the wheel which is fixed to the axis; b, b, are a series of
levers jointed to it all round, and, as is shown, they are so constructed that
any weight on the wheel tends to cause the levers to move inwards about
their joints 6', 6', and so to grip and hold firmly the rail c on which the carriage
stands. The wheel or wheels on the other side of the machine should be
plain, as it will be difficult to lay the rails sufficiently true to work with
nipping wheels on each side.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Gledhill, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
PETER GLEDHILL. (L.S.)