Im- PROVEMENTS IN ApparatuS FOR SCREENING AND PICKING COALS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Ephraim Walker, of Wearmouth Colliery,
Sunderland, in the County of Durham, Colliery Agent, and John
William Cole, of Byker, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, in the County of
Northumberland, Mechanical Engineer, for. the Invention of "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN ApparatuS FOR SCREENING AND PICKING COALS "
Sealed the 5th December 1873, and dated the 9th October 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Ephraim Walker
and John William Cole at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 9th October 1878.
We, JOHN EPHRAIM WALKER, of Wearmouth Colliery, Sunderland,
in the County of Durham, Colliery Agent, and JOHN WILLIAM COLE,
of Byker, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, in the. County of Northumberland,
Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS POR SCREENING AND PICKING Ćoals,”
to be as follows:-
"
This Invention has for its object to improve apparatus for screening coal,
and at the same time for facilitating the picking out from it all impurities.

page_text: or dross. For this purpose we employ barrels or rolls in combination
with a series of screens, the barrels or rolls we place transversely
between the screens, there being a screening surface intermediate of
the several barrels. By preference we employ three barrels, but other
number of barrels may be employed. Each barrel has standing out
from its periphery strips or facing pieces at intervals, and motion is
communicated to each barrel to cause it to revolve slowly in a direction
to carry the coal down from one screen to the screen below it, and the
screens are placed at a suitable inclination for the coal to pass down-
wards freely along them. A portion of the periphery of each barrel
rises above the level of the screening surfaces, so that as the coal comes
on to it the coal is raised up, and as it is carried onwards by the
revolving of the barrel is inverted and gently deposited on to the
next screening surface.
The coal to be screened is by preference first passed over a screening:
surface before arriving at the first barrel, and as it arrives at this barrel
it is carried onwards by it, and can then readily be picked over to
remove the dross and impurities. As the barrel continues to rotate the
coal, after being thus picked over, is deposited, as above described, on
to the next screening surface, and after passing along it arrives at the
next barrel, where it is again picked over, and so on until it is finally
deposited into a wagon in the ordinary manner.
The screens may be formed either of ordinary short screen bars or
grates, either fixed or hinged at one point, and receiving a rocking or
vibratory motion from suitable cams or bars fixed at the extremity of
the barrels; this will have the effect of additionally disturbing the
coals and shaking them free from dust. The grates or screen bars and
barrels may if desired have a lateral movement given them. The
barrels may also if desired themselves form a portion of the screening
surface, their periphery being in this case formed of a number of
screen bars, grates, or plates, through the openings between which the
coal may pass.
In cases where screening is not required, but cleaning or picking
simply, we provide a light wrought-iron plate, or one made of any other
suitable material, which is hung under the grates or screen bars, and
being brought up close to them prevents the coal from passing through
into the hopper, and thus renders the screening apparatus what is
known as dumb.

page_text: Eeach grate or set of bars forming a screen may be composed of a
different sized mesh or bars placed closer together, the wooden hopper
underneath being partitioned off accordingly. By this means it is
possible to obtain sundry different sizes of coal from the same screening
apparatus, such a duff nuts, and so on.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Ephraim Walker and John William Cole in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th April 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
EPHRAIM WALKER, of Wearmouth Colliery, Sunderland, in the County
of Durham, Colliery Agent, and JOHN WILLIAM COLE, of Byker, near
Newcastle-on-Tyne, in the County of Northumberland, Mechanical
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty
seventh ycar of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said John Ephraim Walker and John William
Cole, Her special license, that we, the said John Ephraim Walker and
John William Cole, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said John Ephraim Walker and John William Cole,
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
Ircland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SCREENING AND PICKING COALS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said John Ephraim Walker
and John William Cole, our executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 im
mediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John William Cole, on behalf of
myself and the said John Ephraim Walker, 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 to improve apparatus for screening
coal, and at the same time for facilitating the picking out from it all
impurities or dross. For this purpose we employ barrels or rolls in
combination with a series of screens, the barrels or rolls we place
transversely between the screens, there being a screening surface
intermediate of the several barrels. By preference we employ three
barrels, but other number of barrels may be employed. Each barrel
has standing out from its periphery strips or facing pieces at intervals,
and motion is communicated to each barrel to cause it to revolve slowly
in a direction to carry the coal down from one screen to the screen
below it, and the screens are placed at a suitable inclination for the
coal to pass downwards freely along them. A portion of the periphery
of each barrel rises above the level of the screening surfaces, so that
as the coal comes on to it the coal is raised up, and as it is carried
onwards by the revolving of the barrel is inverted and gently deposited
on to the next screening surface.
The coal to be screened is by preference first passed over a screening
surface before arriving at the first barrel, and as it arrives at this
barrel it is carried onwards by it, and can then be readily picked over
to remove the dross and impurities. As the barrel continues to rotate
the coal, after being thus picked over, is deposited, as above described,
on to the next screening surface, and after passing along it arrives at
the next barrel, where it is again picked over, and so on until it is
finally deposited into a wagon in the ordinary manner.
The screens may be formed either of ordinary short screen bars or
grates, either fixed or hinged at one point, and receiving a rocking or
vibratory motion from suitable cams or bars fixed at the extremity of
the barrels; this will have the effect of additionally disturbing the
coals and shaking them free from dust. The grates or screen bars and
barrels may if desired have a lateral movement given them. The barrels
may also if desired themselves form a portion of the screening surface,
their periphery being in this case formed of a number of screen bars,

page_text: •
grates, or plates, through the openings between which the coal may
pass.
In cases where screening is not required, but cleaning or picking
simply, we provide a light wrought-iron plate, or one made of any other
suitable material, which is hung under the grates or screen bars, and
being brought up close to them prevents the coal from passing through
into the hopper; and thus renders the screening apparatus what is
known as dumb.
Each grate or set of bars forming a screen may be composed of a
different sized mesh or bars placed closer together, the wooden hopper
underneath being partitioned off accordingly. By this means, it is
possible to obtain sundry different sizes of coal from the same screening
apparatus, such as duff nuts, and so on.
In the Drawing herounto annexed we have shewn two views of a
screening apparatus constructed in the manner we prefer for carrying
out our Invention.
Figure 1 represents a side clevation of the machine, shewn in section,;
Figure 2 represents a plan view of the same; Figure 3 represents
an enlarged view of one method of constructing the barrel.
Referring to Figures 1 and 2, A, A, are the side frames; B is the
hinged door for regulating the supply of coal in its descent upon the .
barrel and screen bars or grates; C, O, O, are the grates or screen bars,
hinged at F. The barrels or rollers for carrying forward the coal are
represented by the letters D, D, D. These receive their motive power
from shafts I, H, H, which respectively drive the pinions G, which are
geared into bevel wheels keyed on the ends of the barrel axles E, E, E,
power being conveyed through the bevel gearing K, J, from the prime
moving countershaft L, which in its turn is driven by a suitable small
engine placed in any convenient spot. In place of the pinion G
and bevel wheel Ę a scroll wheel and worm may be respectively
substituted.
•
The action of the whole apparatus is as follows:-Coal which has
been upset by the ordinary style of kick-up at the flat shoots into the
space marked M, and is allowed to fall gradually on to the grates
or screen bars C, thence on to the periphery of the first barrel
marked D. This carries the coal forward in the direction of the arrow

page_text: shewn on the Drawing, and while thus occupied easy access may be had to
those portions of the coal which require picking and cleaning by the
attendant.
The coal is gently deposited on to the next-series of grates or screen
bars by this barrel having been turned over in its course, and there
undergoes a second system of screening. The following barrel then
lays hold of it and carries the coal again forward to the third series of
screen bars, where a similar process is carried into operation, and from
thence the coal is carried forward over the third barrel, and finally
deposited by, means of the shoot or spout into the wagon.
Having thus described the screening apparatus we would have it
understood that what we claim is,--
1st. The combined arrangement of apparatus, substantially as herein
described, for screening and cleaning or picking coals.
2nd. The employment of revolving barrels or rollers for carrying 1
forward and turning over coal, substantially as herein described,
whereby the dross and other impurities are effectually exposed and
ample facility is given for picking and cleaning.
3rd. The employment of grates or screens, having different sized
meshes, in combination with barrels for conveying the coal from one a
screen to another, substantially as herein described, whereby two or
more kinds of small coal may be obtained from the same screening
apparatus.
In witness whereof I, the said John William Cole, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this 31st day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and savants fosse