IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR WORKING COAL AND OTHER MINES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Grafton Jones, of Cumming Street, Penton-
ville, in the County of Middlesex, and Robert Ridley, of Leeds, in the
County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND
Sealed the 16th October 1863, and dated the 8th June 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Grafton Jones and
Robert Ridley at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 8th June 1863.
We, JAMES GRAFTON JONES, of Cumming Street, Pentonville, in the
County of Middlesex, and ROBERT RIDLEY, of Leeds, in the County of York,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR WORKING COAL AND OTHER MINES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery and apparatus
for working coal and other mines, and consists in peculiar combinations of
machinery and apparatus when using lever picks and sliding picks. For these
purposes a truck or carriage on four wheels is used, which by reason of the
employment of the peculiar combinations of mechanism for actuating lever.
picks and sliding picks, we are enabled to keep within the dimensions of the
tram trucks used in such mines, which is important in order that such machines
may be more readily moved along the ordinary trams of such mines where
comparatively short bends are employed.

page_text: In combining machinery or apparatus where a lever pick is employed, such
pick is as heretofore mounted on a suitable lever, which is arranged to turn on
or with an axis at or near one end of the truck on which the mechanism and
apparatus are mounted. Compressed air is used to give motion to the piston
of the engine employed, and the engine is, by preference, mounted horizontally
in and is carried by the truck. In place of using the class of air engine
heretofore employed, we use what is known as a trunk engine, and cause the
compressed air which is to actuate the pick when making its blows or cuts to
press on the larger area of the piston, whilst the compressed air, in bringing
back the lever pick, acts on the smaller area of the piston, by which much of
the compressed air heretofore necessary when working this description of pick
by compressed air will be saved. The short arm of the lever of the pick is
connected by a pin joint to a connecting rod, the other end of which is
attached by a pin joint to the inner end of the trunk of the engine which
works through a suitable stuffing box, as is well understood. When working
with a sliding pick a similar truck and a like air engine are combined, but
the connecting rod in the trunk of the engine is at its outer end pin-jointed to
another connecting rod, the other end of which is pin-jointed to a link which
is pin jointed to the sliding, pick. The pick slides to and fro in suitable
guides which support the pick at or near one end of the truck. In this
arrangement, also, the pressure of the compressed air to bring back the pick
acts on the smaller area of the piston.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Grafton Jones and Robert Ridley in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 8th December 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
GRAFTON JONES, of Cumming Street, Pentonville, in the County of Middlesex,
and ROBERT RIDLEY, of Leeds, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us
the said James Grafton Jones and Robert Ridley, Her special licence that we,
the said James Grafton Jones and Robert Ridley, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said James Grafton Jones and
Robert Ridley, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any

page_text: 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR WORKING COAL AND OTHER MINES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said James Grafton Jones and
Robert Ridley, 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 we, the said James Grafton Jones and Robert Ridley
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 and apparatus
for working coal and other mines, and consists in peculiar combinations of
machinery and apparatus when using lever picks and sliding picks. For these
purposes a truck or carriage on four wheels is used, which by reason of the
employment of the peculiar combinations of mechanism for actuating lever
picks and sliding picks, we are enabled to keep within the dimensions of the
tram trucks used in such mines, which is important, in order that such
machines may be more readily moved along the ordinary trams of such mines.
where comparatively short bends are employed.
In combining machinery or apparatus where a lever pick is employed, such
pick is as heretofore mounted on a suitable lever, which is arranged to turn
on or with an axis at or near one end of the truck on which the mechanism
and apparatus are mounted. Compressed air is used to give motion to the
piston of the engine employed, and the engine is, by preference, horizontally
mounted in and is carried by the truck. In place of using the class of air
engine heretofore employed, we use what is known as a trunk engine, and
cause the compressed air which is to actuate the pick when making its blows
or cuts to press on the larger area of the piston, whilst the compressed air, in
bringing back the lever pick, acts on the smaller area of the piston, by which
much of the compressed air heretofore necessary when working this description
of pick by compressed air will be saved. The short arm of the lever of the
pick is connected by a pin joint to a connecting rod, the other end of which

page_text: .
is attached by a pin joint to the inner end of the trunk of the engine which
works through a suitable stuffing box, as is well understood.
When working
with a sliding pick, a similar truck and a like air engine are combined, but
the connecting rod in the trunk of the engine is at its outer end pin-jointed to
another connecting rod, the other end of which is pin-jointed to a link which
is pin-jointed to the sliding pick. The pick slides to and fro in suitable
guides which support the pick at or near one end of the truck; in this
arrangement, also, the pressure of the compressed air to bring back the pick
acts on the smaller area of the piston.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, we will proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a plan of a truck and machinery combined therewith,
according to our Invention, and Figure 2 is a longitudinal sectional elevation.
a, a is the framing of the truck, and b, b are the wheels, which are constructed
with flanges to suit the wheels for edge rails, but if trams are used, the wheels
will be made accordingly. c is a hand wheel on the upright shaft c¹, on the
lower end of which is a bevilled toothed pinion, which takes into and drives a
bevilled toothed wheel on the axis of one of the pairs of wheels b, and motion
is communicated from such axle to the axle of the other pair of wheels b, by
means of a shaft c², and bevilled toothed wheels c³, c, c, and c, by which means
the truck is progressively moved along the rails as the work proceeds. d, d,
are two vertical shafts, which receive motion from the connecting rod h of the
trunk piston f, which works in the cylinder e, and the arrangement is such
that either of the shafts d, may be connected with and receive its motion from
the connecting rod h by the crank arm i, of either of the shafts & being pin-
jointed for a time to the outer end of the connecting rod h. On each of the
shafts d is an arm j for working the slide valve in the following manner :-The
arm jis pin-jointed to a connecting rod, which at its other end is pin-jointed
to the sliding frame k, which is guided by the fixed guides k¹. The spindle or
rod of the slide valve m is pin-jointed to the crank lever m', on the
other end of which is a sliding socket m², which is capable of being fixed in any
desired position on the lever m² by a set screw. The socket m² has fixed to
it a curved bar m³, against which a truck or roller * carried by the sliding
frame kacts when the frame k is caused to slide in its guides by either of the
arms j. The slide valve is shewn in the position when the pick p is back, and
the port is opened to admit compressed air to act on the larger area of the
piston. When the pick p has been caused to tact, the slide valve is moved

page_text: back by means of the hand lever n, which by an arm n' affixed to the axis of
the lever gives motion by a connecting rod n² which is connected to an arm n³
on the axis of the crank lever n². The handle of the pick p is fixed in one
of the bosses or sockets d' on one of the shafts d, and the position of the
socket on the square end of the shaft dis adjusted by means of the lever q on
the shaft q', which has two forked arms q², one to each of the sliding bosses or
sockets d'. The forks partly embrace and enter the grooves in the bosses or
sockets, as shewn in the Drawings. The lever q is retained in position by a
pin or bolt passed through its upper end into the fixed plate r. We would
state that although we prefer the arrangement shewn for working the slide
valve of the engine, the same may be modified or varied.
Figure 3 shews a sectional plan of part of a truck and apparatus when
using sliding picks in combination with a similar construction of engine to
that before described. In this arrangement the connecting rod of the trunk
piston s gives motion to a lever arm on the upright shaft t, which by another
lever arm u gives motion to the sliding pick w by means of a link v. The
pick in the arrangement shewn is caused to work in a plane, just above the
level of the rails, on which the truck runs, but it will be evident that a sliding
pick may also be arranged to work near the upper part of the workings. We
have not thought it necessary to shew the details of the engine, as they will
readily be supplied by an engineer, aided by the Drawings and description
given of the other part of the Invention.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that we make no claim to
any of the mechanical parts separately, but what we claim is the combination
of a lever pick on a truck or carriage with a trunk engine, as herein described,
and we also claim the combination of a sliding pick on a truck or carriage
with a trunk engine, as herein described.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Grafton Jones and Robert
Ridley have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Eighth day of
December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
JAMES GRAFTON JONES. (L.S.)
ROBERT RIDLEY.
(L.S.)