Improvements in or relating to Burial Apparatus.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Sept., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 28th May, 1894-Accepted, 4th Aug., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Burial Apparatus.
A communication by MARIA CAROLINA SCHERER, of No. 45, East Thirty-Third
Street, Bayonne, in the County of Hudson and State of New Jersey, United
States of America, Manufacturer.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S. M.I.M.E., of The Agency for
Foreign Patent Solicitors, 6 Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6 Bank Street, Manchester,
both in the County of Lancaster, and 323 High Holborn in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to a device under the control of a fluid pressure brake, for
automatically, gently lowering caskets and burial cases into the grave provided for
their reception, with a trip device that, after the same has been safely lowered, then
automatically disconnects the lowering straps below the case, to facilitate the
removal of said straps, and in detail the invention consists of a grave, in connection
with which the invention is used, on the platform of which the mourners and the
attendants stand, and which platform rests on the surface of the ground surrounding
the grave, are the outer side pieces, the outer end pieces, the inner side pieces and
the inner end piece of the boxing chamber that hangs pendent from said platform,
which boxing extends along the sides of the grave, and across one end, the said
boxing being bottomless and being firmly secured to said platform.
In said boxings are housed the running and brake elements of the automatic
devices by which the casket and its case are gently and noiselessly lowered into the
grave, rotary piston-shafts, whose journals work in bearings in the journal boxes,
which journal boxes are secured by screw bolts within the side sections of said pendent
boxes to the platform above. Set collars are mounted on said piston shafts and are
fastened to their shoulder bearings alongside said journal boxes by set screws. Reel
rollers, two of which are fast mounted on each of the two piston shafts, and are held
in their required longitudinal position on said shafts by the integral projecting collars
and the set collars, which collars are secured tight alongside said reels by set screws,
so as to enforce the turning of said reels with said piston shaft.
The duplex sectional lowering straps, which may be made of woven wire in the
form of straps, or of leather, or any other suitable material, are made in two pairs,
there being two sections in each. The fast ends of said strap sections are securely
attached to the drums of said reels, and to their loose inner respective ends are
secured blank tongueless buckles, to one of each tongueless buckle in each pair are
pivotally secured trip clutch hooks by means of pivot bolts.
Trip levers or triggers are used on the curved inverted backs of said clutch
hooks. The clutch points of said hooks are made to engage in each pair of straps
with the corresponding blank buckle of the other section, and this holds said
sections in engagement until said trip lever triggers come in contact with the bottom
of the grave, and thus act as fulcrums on the pivot bolts to effect the release of
the clutch points of the hooks from the blank buckles of the corresponding sections
of the straps with which they have been engaged, so as to disconnect the same and
allow their quiet withdrawal after the casket and its case have been safely deposited
in their final resting place.
It is thus evident that, by this automatic attachment of the corresponding
sections of the lowering straps, the said straps can be almost noiselessly withdrawn,
and the usual very objectionable and protracted and noisy withdrawal of the long
straps, which have to pass with a rubbing, grating noise under the casket and case,
is by this device avoided.

page_text: Sprocket gear wheels, with their integral collars, are fast mounted on the
respective communicatory drive ends of the duplex rotary piston rods, and the
rigidity of said mount is further secured by set screws.
A sprocket chain, which is mounted on said, sprocket wheels, communicates the
power from the drive member of said duplex piston shaft to the driven member
thereof.
A stationary oil, atmospheric, or other fluid-pressure cylinder, or tube on the
drive side of the duplex rotary piston compound arrangement, and which tube is
preferably of a square form and of proportions to fit snugly within the pendent
outer and inner side pieces, and against the platform which surmounts it, to which
and to said pendent side pieces the said fluid pressure cylinder or tube is fastened
by brackets and bolts.
The member of the duplex rotary piston-shaft which is on the same side as said
fluid pressure cylinder or tube, and passes through its center, is provided with a
peripheral screw around said shaft, the length of and within said tube on which the
screw portion of said piston shaft, the screw center of the square traveller piston
head or valve is mounted.
The end walls of said pressure tube are provided with projecting collar circle
flanges, within which the said drive member of the piston shafts has its intermediate
bearings. Inner screw tapped, flanged bearer collars are screw seated on the
peripheral screws of the collar flanges, and packing of any suitable material, around
the piston shaft inside said bearer collars, effects fluid tight joints around said piston
shaft at its point of outlet through said bearer collars.
A small channel-groove oil, atmospheric or other fluid duct, is recessed in the
inner, wall of the under side of said pressure cylinder or tube.
The said small
duct allows the reciprocating gradual passage of the fluid under pressure on one
side of the travelling piston head or traveller valve to the other within the tube or
cylinder.
A fulcrum tappet trip treadle, whose journal pins are fulcrumed in perforate
lugs, which lugs are seated and firmly secured in one of the inner side pieces of
the pendent boxing chamber frame. The vertical inner T end of said treadle, on
the upper limb of which a spiral spring is mounted, the head of which spring
projects into and is held in a recess in the under side of the platform. The lower
limb or key stem of said T head, when under the influence of said spiral spring, is
key seated in a socket key hole in the rotary piston shaft, so as to prevent the
rotation of said shaft as long as said key stem maintains its lock seat in said socket
key-hole.
The vertical drive surmounting end of said treadle, which rises from the
horizontal fulcrum bar thereof, through a slot in the platform is itself surmounted
by a treadle cap. It will be seen that, as long as said treadle cap is not pressed
down, the spiral spring forces the lock key of said treadle into its stop key-hole in
Baid piston-shaft, so that said shaft cannot travel and in consequence the lowering
straps are held taut and hold the casket and its case from being lowered until the
undertaker, or other gentleman in charge of the funeral, steps on the cap of the
treadle, so as to withdraw the key from the piston shaft, when the gravitating
effect of the weight of the casket and case turns the duplex piston shafts, but the
piston head or traveller valve, that is screw mounted on the drive screw member
of the said piston shafts, can only travel from one end of the fluid pressure piston
cylinder or tube to the other at the same slow speed that said fluid (let it be air, or
oil, or any other suitable fluid,) can re-adjust itself by passing through a small duct
respectively to or from the corresponding chambers of said pressure cylinder on
each side of said traveller valve.
It is thus evident that said casket and coffin will be lowered very gently and
quietly into the grave, in fit accordance with the solemn occasion, and avoids the
usual objectionable practice of the mourners having to stand aside and have the
grave diggers come forward and take possession of the platform to lower the casket
during the last most solemn leave taking rite, in which the receptacle that holds the

page_text: Thus
remains of the departed one is lowered into the grave, out of sight for ever.
the heretofore objectionable commotion and noise in lowering the casket and
withdrawing the straps, and that by strangers during the final and most solemn
closure of the funeral rites, that add poignancy to the grief of the mourners, are
avoided.
Bracket foot plates are secured to the platform, preferably at the ends, but may
be at the sides of the grave by bolts, and there are long band pins that pass
through the perforate lugs that surmount said foot plates, and through bore holes
in the case, through which said bolts project sufficiently to support the casket in an
elevated position in said case. Either two or four of said foot plates with their
mounted pins may be used.
Spiral pyramid springs, of which there are preferably four, which are large at
their bases, rest on the bottom of the case, and which taper towards their summits
on which the casket rests, when the above mentioned pins are withdrawn at the
close of the funeral services, the said spiral springs then allowing said casket to
gently subside or be lowered by said springs within the case.
As the weight of the casket and body is sufficient to closely compress said
springs, the casket then assumes its position within said case, and the lid can be
placed on the case (if desired) before it is lowered in the grave. Thereby is also
avoided another usual distressing feature of funerals, incident to one of the grave
diggers having to let himself down or jump down on the burial case to affix the lid
thereon. In jumping down there is also danger that the man may sometimes
accidentally alight on and break the casket, all which dangers and circumstances,
incongruous to the solemnity of the occasion, are avoided by the 'use of this
invention.
The lever friction brake may be used if desired in the place of the fulcrum
tappet trip treadle, by the undertaker keeping his foot on said lever until such
time as it is desired that the casket and case shall be lowered.
It will be seen that the undertaker can restrain the automatic lowering of the
casket by said friction lever, when from any cause this fulcrum trip lever is not
used.
A vertical, bevel pinion is fast seated on the drive member of the rotary piston
rod by means of a collar and set screw, and there is a horizontal, bevel pinion that
engages with the foregoing, and whose vertical operating shaft rotates in a tube
column, and there is a stay collar that is secured by a set screw to said vertical
shaft, to retain it in position in said column. The lowering straps, after leaving
the reels, pass through apertures over pulley rollers under the burial case, where
the blank buckles of the sections of said lowering straps from each side are secured
together beneath said case by automatic fulcrum trip hooks.
The fluid pressure cylinder or tube is both air and fluid tight, the packing around
the bearings of the rotary piston making said bearings also fluid tight, so that
whether said fluid pressure is of air, oil, or other fluid, it always remains the same,
sealed up within the cylinder, and as it can only travel from one compartment to
the other of said cylinder, past the traveller valve or piston head, as the screw of
the piston shaft rotates in that of the valve, the device constitutes a perfect brake
to gently and slowly lower the casket and burial case with the body of the departed
to the final resting place.
The whole automatic lowering device is locked by means above stated from its
lowering movement until, by the simple quiet act of the undertaker (not necessarily
seen by others) by his stepping on the cap of the fulcrum trip treadle, which
relieves the rotary piston shafts, and the casket is then automatically lowered, and
the sections of the lowering straps automatically disconnected when the operation
is completed as above described, so that the said straps are raised without the usual
distressing noise.
At any time before the removal of the platform and apparatus, after the
departure of the funeral party, the fulcrum treadle is made to release its hold of
the piston. shaft, and the friction brake, if it has been in use, is also released.

page_text: Then the socket of the key seated on the key seat of the pinion, wind operating
shaft on which is mounted the bevel pinion, which meshes with the other bevel
pinion, which latter is fast mounted on the drive member of the rotary piston
shafts. Then by the turning of the key and the consequent turning of the bevel
gear connection, the said drive member of the piston shaft is turned by the means
of the corresponding sprocket wheels in both members of said piston shafts and
the connecting sprocket chain, the drive member of said duplex piston-shafts is also
rotated and the reels wind up the lowering straps for future use.
Dated this 29th day of September 1893.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.
A communication by MARIA CAROLINA SCHERER, of No. 45, East Thirty-Third
Street, Bayonne, in the County of Hudson and State of New Jersey, United
States of America, Manufacturer.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of The Agency for
Foreign Patent Solicitors, 6 Lord Street, Liverpool and 6, Bank Street,
Manchester both in the County of Lancaster and 323 High Holborn in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to a device under the control of a fluid pressure brake, for
automatically, gently lowering caskets, and burial cases into the grave provided
for their reception, with a trip device, that after the same has been safely lowered,
then automatically disconnects the lowering straps below the case, to facilitate the
removal of said straps. The features claimed as novel will be set forth in the
claims.
In the accompanying drawings
:-
Figure I is a bottom or inverted view of the platform that surrounds the grave,
and shows the roller strap bearer, duplex piston-shafts, the fluid controlling cylinder
mounted on one of said shafts, the strap bearer rollers fast mounted on said piston
shafts, the bearer straps mounted on said rollers, the automatic trip, that connects
and disconnects said bearer straps, and the sprocket chain that provides an
equalizing drive connection between said bearer shafts.
Fig. 11 is a vertical section taken on line II-II, Fig. III, and shows the grave,
the burial case suspended on the lowering straps, within the mouth of said grave,
the platform around said grave, the bolts that pass through the ends of the case
and support the casket in view of the mourners during the burial service, and the
spiral springs mounted on the bottom of said case, that allow the casket to gently
lower into its ultimate resting place within the case, when said supporting pins are
withdrawn.
Fig. III is a vertical section, taken on line III-III, Fig. II, and shows the
funeral platform, the case and casket supported within the same, the pressure oil
or other fluid, or atmospheric power cylinder, the rotary screw piston shaft of which
is connected with and works the lowering straps to automatically gently lower the
body in its casket and case into the grave: it also shows the automatic trip hook
that connects the two sections of said straps and the lever thereon that as it
strikes the bottom of the grave (as shown in broken lines at the bottom of said
figure,) trips the link connection of said straps: it also shows the bevel gear on one
of the bearer screw piston-shafts with its surmounting pedestal, that when operated
by a hand-key rotates said screw piston shaft and thus forces back its head to its

page_text: normal position, after a funeral, preparatory to its future use, the fluid repassing
through the duct in maintenance of its level.
Fig. IV is an enlarged, vertical section, taken on line IV-IV, Fig. I, and
shows the platform, the lowering straps wound around their reels on the bearer
screw piston shafts, and it also shows the automatic trip lever link connections of
eaid lowering straps.
Fig. V is an enlarged, vertical section, taken on line V-V, Fig. I, and shows
the fluid brake pressure power cylinder, the piston shaft and its head therein, the
pendent casing integral with the platform, in which said cylinder is seated, and
the small duct through which the fluid slowly passes under pressure, as the screw
piston shaft rotates, from the uncoiling on the reels mounted on said shaft of the
lowering straps, as the case and casket descends into the
grave.
Fig. VI is a vertical section, taken on line VI-VI, Fig. V, and shows the fluid
power cylinder, the screw piston shaft, that passes through said cylinder, the
horizontally moving piston head screw mounted on said shaft, and the tight
journal boxings mounted on the cylinder heads, through which said piston shaft
works and
Fig. VII is an enlarged, vertical section, taken on line VII-VII, Fig. I, and
shows a spring fulcrum tappet key, that when sprung home by its surmounting
spiral spring is lock seated in the screw piston shaft, but when the tappet head is
pressed by the undertaker's foot, the fulcrum key releases the screw piston shaft,
which immediately commences to rotate at the slow rate that the passage of the
fluid through the duct will allow.
Referring to the drawings :-
1 represents a grave in connection with which the invention is used.
2 represents the platform on which the mourners and the attendants stand, and
which platform rests on the surface of the ground 3, surrounding said grave.
4 are the outer side pieces, 5 the outer end pieces, 6 the inner side pieces and 7 the
inner end piece of the boxing chamber 8 that hangs pendent from said platform
which boxing extends along the sides of the grave, and across one end, as shown in
the inverted view in Fig. I, the said boxing being bottomless and being firmly
secured to said platform.
In said boxings are housed the running and brake elements of the automatic
devices by which the casket 9 and its case 10 are gently and noiselessly lowered
into the grave.
11 represents duplex, rotary piston-shafts, whose journals 12 work in bearings 13
in the journal boxes 14, which journal boxes are secured by screw bolts 15 within
the side sections of said pendent boxes to the platform above. Set collars 16 are
mounted on said piston shafts and are fastened to their shoulder bearings alongside
said journal boxes 14 by the set screws 17.
18 represent roller reels, two of which are fast mounted on each of the two
piston shafts 11, and are held in their required longitudinal position on said shafts
by the integral projecting collars 19 and the set collars 20, which collars are
secured tight alongside said reels by the set screws 21, so as to enforce the turning
of said reels with said piston shaft.
22 represent the duplex sectional lowering straps which may be made of woven
wire in the form of straps or of leather or of any other suitable material, and are
made in two pairs, there being two sections in each. The fast ends of said strap
sections are securely attached to the drums of said reels, and to their loose inner
respective ends are secured the blank tongueless buckles 23, to one of each
tongueless buckle in each pair pivotally secured the trip clutch hooks 24 by
means of the pivot bolts 25.
26 are trip levers or triggers on the curved inverted backs of said clutch hooks.
The clutch points 27 of said hooks are made to engage in each pair of straps
with the corresponding blank buckle of the other section, and this holds said
sections in engagement until said trip lever triggers 26 come in contact with the
bottom of the grave, and thus act as fulcrums on the pivot bolts 25 to effect the

page_text: release of the clutch points 27 of the hooks 24 from the blank buckles of
the corresponding sections of the straps with which they have been engaged, so as
to disconnect the same and 'allow their quiet withdrawal after the casket and its
case have been safely deposited in their final resting place.
It is thus evident that by this automatic detachment of the corresponding
sections of the lowering straps, the said straps can be almost noiselessly withdrawn,
and the usual very objectionable and protracted and noisy withdrawal of the long
straps which have to pass with a rubbing, grating noise under the casket and case
is by this device avoided.
28 represent sprocket gear wheels, which with their integral collars 29 are fast
mounted on the respective communicatory drive ends of the duplex rotary piston
rods 11, and the rigidity of said mount is further secured by the set screws 30.
31 represents a sprocket chain which is mounted on said sprocket wheels, and
communicates the power from the drive member of said duplex piston shaft to the
driven member thereof.
32 represents a stationary oil, atmospheric, or other fluid-pressure cylinder, or
tube on the drive side of the duplex rotary piston compound arrangement and
which tube is preferably of a square form in cross-section, as shown in Figs. 1, V
and VI, and of proportions to fit snugly within the pendent outer and inner side
pieces 4 and 6, and against the platform 2 which surmounts it, to which and to said
pendent side pieces the said fluid pressure cylinder or tube is fastened by the
brackets 33 and bolts 34.
The member of the duplex rotary piston-shaft which is on the same side as
said fluid pressure cylinder or tube, and passes through its center, is provided with
a peripheral screw around said shaft, the length of and within said tube on which
the screw portion of said piston shaft, the screw center 35 of the square traveller
piston head or valve 36 is mounted.
The end walls 37 of said pressure tube are provided with projecting collar circle
flanges 38, within which the said drive member of the piston shafts has its inter-
mediate bearings. Inner screw tapped flanged bearer collars 39 are screw seated
on the peripheral screws of the collar flanges 38 and packing 40 of any suitable
material around the piston shaft inside said bearer collars 39, effect fluid
tight joints around said piston shaft at its points of outlet through said bearer
collars.
41 represents a small channel-groove oil, atmospheric or other fluid duct, that is
recessed in the inner wall of the under side of said pressure cylinder or tube. The
said small duct allows the reciprocating gradual passage of the fluid under pressure
on one side of the travelling piston head or traveller valve 36 to the other within
the cylinder or tube 32.
42 represents a fulcrum tappet trip treadle, whose journal pins 43 are fulcrumed
in the perforate lugs 44, which lugs are seated and firmly secured in one of the
inner side pieces 6 of the pendent boxing chamber frame 8. 45 is the vertical
inner end of said treadle on the upper limb 46 of which the spiral spring 47 is
mounted, the head of which spring projects into and is held in the recess 48 in the
underside of the platform 2. The lower limb or key stem 49 of said T head, when
under the influence of said spiral spring is key seated in the socket key hole 50 in
the rotary piston shaft, as long as said key stem maintains its lock seat in said
socket key-hole.
51 represents the vertical drive surmounting end of said treadle, which rises
from the horizontal fulcrum bar thereof, through a slot 52 in the platform 2 and is
itself surmounted by the treadle cap 53. It will be seen that as long as said
treadle cap is not pressed down, the spiral spring forces the lock key of said
treadle into its stop key-hole in said piston shaft, so that said shaft cannot travel
and in consequence the lowering straps are held tant and hold the casket and its
case from being lowered until the undertaker or other gentleman in charge of the
funeral steps on the cap 53 of the treadle trap 42, so as to withdraw the key 50
from the piston shaft, when the gravitating effect of the weight of the casket and

page_text: case turns the duplex piston shafts 11 but the piston head or traveller valve 36, that
is screw mounted on the drive screw member of the said piston shafts, can only
travel from the one end of the fluid pressure piston cylinder or tube 32 to the other
at the same slow speed that said fluid (let it be oil or air or any other suitable
fluid) can readjust itself by passing through the small duct 41 respectively to or
from the corresponding chambers of said pressure cylinder on each side of said
traveller valve.
It is thus evident that said casket and coffin will be lowered very gently and
quietly into the grave in fit accordance with the solemn occasion, and avoids the
usual objectionable practice of the mourners having to stand aside and have the
grave diggers come forward and take possession of the platform to lower the casket
during the last most solemn leave taking rite, in which the receptacle that holds
the remains of the departed one is lowered into the grave, out of sight for ever.
Thus the heretofore objectionable commotion and noise in lowering the casket
and withdrawing the straps, and that by strangers during the final and most
solemn closure of the funeral rites, that adds poignancy to the grief of the
mourners is avoided.
54 represent bracket foot plates which are secured to the platform, preferably at
the ends, but may be at the sides of the grave, by the bolts 55, and 56 are long
hand pins that pass through the perforate lugs 57 that surmount said foot plates,
and through the bore holes 58 in the case, through which said bolts project
sufficiently to support the casket in an elevated position in said case.
Either two or
four of said foot plates with their mounted pins may be used.
59 represent spiral pyramid springs of which there are preferably four, which are
large at their bases which rest on the bottom of the case and which taper towards
their summits on which the casket rests, when the above mentioned pins are with-
drawn at the close of the funeral services, the said spiral springs then allowing said
casket to gently subside or be lowered by said springs within the case.
As the weight of the casket and body is sufficient to closely compress said springs,
the casket then assumes the position within said case shown in broken lines in
Fig. II, and the lid can then be placed on the case (if desired) before it is lowered
in the grave. Thereby is also avoided another usual distressing feature of funerals,
incident to one of the grave diggers having to let himself down or jump down on
the burial case to affix the lid thereon. In jumping down there is also danger that
the man may sometimes accidentally alight on and break the casket, all which
dangers and circumstances incongruous to the solemnity of the occasion is avoided
by the use of this invention.
In Figs. I and III is also shown the lever friction brake 60, that may if desired
be used in the place of the fulcrum tappet trip treadle 42, by the undertaker
keeping his foot on said lever until such time as it is desired that the casket and
the case shall be lowered. 61 is the lever of said brake, and 62 is a friction drum,
the integral collar 63 of which is rigidly secured to the drive member of the rotary
piston rods 11 by means of the set screw 64. 65 are perforate lugs which are
secured to and surmount the platform 2, 66 is the fulcrum pivot pin that passes
through said fulcrum brake lever and through said lugs, and 67 is the friction brake
strap, the fast end of which is secured to the frame of the apparatus and the other
end to said fulcrum lever.
It will be seen that the undertaker can restrain the automatic lowering of the
casket by said friction lever, when from any cause the fulcrum trip lever is not used.
68 represents a vertical, bevel pinion that is fast seated on the drive member of
the rotary piston rod by means of its collar 69, and set screw 70 and 71 is a
horizontal bevel pinion, that engages with the foregoing and whose vertical
operating shaft 72 rotates in the tube column 73, and 74 is a stay collar that is
secured by the set screw 75 to said vertical shaft, to retain it in position in said
column.
76 represents an integral key seat that surmounts said vertical shaft, and 77 is a

page_text: rotary key whose socket 78 fits on the key seat 76, to wind the same when said key
is turned by the aid of its surmounting disk 79.
80 represents apertures provided at the junction of the inner side pieces 6 and
the platform 2, opposite the reels that carry the lowering straps. 81 are pulley
frames secured within said apertures, 82 are bearer pins mounted in said frames,
and 83 are pulley rollers mounted on said bearer pins.
The lowering straps 22, after leaving the reels 18, pass through said apertures 80,
over said pulley rollers 81 and under the burial case as aforesaid, where the blank
buckles of the sections of said lowering straps from each side are secured together
beneath said case by the automatic fulcrum trip hooks 24.
The fluid pressure cylinder or tube 32 is both air and fluid tight the packing
around the bearings of the rotary piston making said bearings also fluid tight, so
that whether said fluid pressure is of air, oil, or other fluid, it always remains the
same, sealed up within the cylinder, and as it can only travel from one compartment
to the other of said cylinder, past the traveller valve or piston head, as the screw
of the piston shaft rotates in that of the valve, the device constitutes a perfect
brake to gently and slowly lower the casket and burial case with the body of the
departed to the final resting place.
The whole automatic lowering device is locked by means above stated from its
lowering movement until by the simple quiet act of the undertaker (not necessarily
seen by others) by his stepping on the cap 53 of the fulcrum trip treadle 42, which
relieves the rotary piston shafts, and the casket is then automatically lowered, and
the sections of the lowering strap automatically disconnected when the operation is
completed as above described, so that the said straps are raised without the usual
distressing noise.
At any time before the removal of the platform and apparatus, after the departure
of the funeral party, the fulcrum treadle is made to release its hold of the piston
shaft, and the friction brake 60 if it has been in use, is also released. Then the
socket of the key 77 scated on the key scat 76 of the pinion, winds operating
shaft 72 on which is mounted the bevel pinion 71, which meshes with the bevel
pinion 68, which latter is fast mounted on the drive member of the rotary piston
shafts. Then by the turning of the key and the consequent turning of the bevel
gear connection, the said drive member of the piston shaft is turned by means of
the corresponding sprocket wheels 28 in both members of said piston shafts and the
connecting sprocket chain 31, the drive member of said duplex piston-shafts is also
rotated and the reels wind up the lowering straps 22 for future use.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. In a burial apparatus, the combination of the platform 2, the reels 18 pendent
from said platform, and sectional lowering straps mounted on said reels:
substantially as described.
2. In a burial apparatus, the combination of the platform 2, the system of bevel
gear operated piston shafts 11, the reels 18 on said shafts and the sectional
lowering straps 22 mounted on said reels: substantially as set forth.
3. In a burial apparatus, the combination of the platform, the system of bevel
gear operated piston shafts 11 beneath said platform, the reels 18 on said shafts,
the lowering straps mounted on said reels, the fluid pressure cylinder, and the piston
head brake that works therein, substantially as set forth.
4. In a burial apparatus, the combination of the platform, the system of bevel
gear operated piston shafts 11, the reels 18 on said shafts, the duplex sectional
lowering straps 22 having the connecting blank tongueless buckles or links 23, and
the locking trip clutch books 24, that alternately connect and trip the connection of
said links of the lowering straps: substantially as set forth.
5. In a burial apparatus, the combination of the platform 2, the system of gear

page_text: operated rotary piston shafts 11, the reels 18 on said shafts, the sectional duplex
straps 22, the connecting links 23 at the joint ends of said straps, the locking trip
lever hooks, the fluid pressure cylinder 32, through which the rotary piston shaft 11
passes, the rotary screw working piston head 36 mounted on said shaft in said fluid
compression cylinder 32, the fluid in the cylinder, and the said cylinder provided
with the recessed channel groove duct 41, substantially as set forth.
6. In a burial apparatus, the combination of the sectional lowering straps 22, the
tongueless buckles or links 23 at the lower or junction ends of said straps and the
trip clutch hooks 24 pivoted to certain of said links and their clutch hooks engaging
the links of their corresponding sections, when lowering the said hooks having the
trigger levers 26, that trip the connection when they strike the bottom of the grave,
substantially as set forth.
7. In a burial apparatus, the combination of the platform 2, the system of rotary
piston shafts 11, the reels 18 on said shafts, the lowering straps 22 mounted on said
reels, the fluid pressure cylinder 32, the drive member of said rotary shafts.
constituting a screw threaded piston shaft, the piston head or traveller valve 36 that
is mounted on said piston shaft, the said fluid pressure cylinder provided with the
fluid duct 41, through which the fluid gradually passes said cylinder head as said
cylinder rotates, the fluid in said cylinder, the fulcrum trip lever 43, said piston
shaft provided with the counter-sink locking recess 50, and said lever having the
foot key 49, the spiral springs 47 that enforces the locking of said foot key, and the
said trip lever provided with the tappet head 53, which when depressed works
said lever on its fulcrum journal to release said foot key: substantially as set
forth.
8. In a burial apparatus, the combination of the platform 2, the system of rotary
piston shafts 11, the reels 18 on said shafts, the set screws 21 that fasten said reels-
to said shafts, the lowering straps mounted on said reels, the fluid pressure-
cylinder 32, the drive member of said rotary shafts constituting a screw threaded
rotary piston shaft that works in said cylinder, the rotary piston head 36 mounted.
on said piston shaft, the said cylinder provided with the fluid duct 41, the fluid in
said cylinder, the vertical winding stem 72, the bevel pinion 71 on said stem, the
bevel pinion 68 on one of said piston shafts 11, the key 77 that fits on said.
stem 72 and winds up the piston shaft and its head: substantially as set forth.
9. In a burial apparatus the combination of the platform 2, the duplex piston
shafts 11, the fluid pressure cylinder 32, the screw mounted piston head or traveller
valve in said cylinder, the reels 18, the sectional lowering straps 22, the links 23 on.
said straps, the trip trigger hooks that connect said strap sections and release the
same, the sprocket wheels 28 on said piston shafts and the sprocket chain 31 that
CODDects said sprocket wheels, substantially as set forth.
10. In a burial apparatus, the combination of the platform 2, the side and end
pieces 4, 5, 6, and 7 secured beneath said platform that constitutes the box chamber 8,
the duplex piston shafts that work in said chamber, the journal boxes 14 in which
said shafts are mounted the reels 18, the sectional lock trip lowering straps, the spiral
springs 59, the bracket foot plates 54, and the supporting pins 56: substantially as.
described.
11. In a burial apparatus, the combination of the platform 2, the duplex piston
shaft 11, the reels 18 mounted on said shafts, the sectional lowering straps mounted.
on said reels, the links secured to the corresponding ends of said straps, the
automatic trip trigger connection of said links, the pulley rollers 83 over which
said straps pass in the vicinity of said reels, and the friction brake 60 having the
lever 61, the friction drum 62, and the friction brake straps 67: substantially as.
described.