IMPROVED MECHANICAL MEANS POR OBTAINING ELEVATIONS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joachim Hayward Stocqueler, of Regent Street, in
the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, and William James Buchanan
Saunders, of Southwark, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman, for the
Invention of "IMPROVED MECHANICAL MEANS POR OBTAINING ELEVATIONS."
Sealed the 25th January 1856, and dated the 16th August 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joachim Hayward
Stocqueler and William James Buchanan Saunders at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 16th August 1855.
We, JOACHIM HAYWARD STOCQUELER and WILLIAM JAMES BUCHANAN
SAUNDERS, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED
MECHANICAL MEANS FOR OBTAINING ELEVATIONS" to be as follows:-
may
We propose, on a solid strong (but moveable) platform, to construct a system
of levers, which by mechanical means we cause to rise in such manner that
the framing shall elongate vertically, carrying on its top persons or objects, as
be required. For instance, if we desire to make an observation in the
field (say for military purposes), the platform with the apparatus thereon is
to be carried to a given spot; the person or persons destined to make the
observation mount thereon, then three equidistant sliding blocks (on, which
the levers rest and are constructed, will be made by a simple mechanical con- .
trivance to draw towards a common centre. As these blocks or rests so

page_text: converge, the system of levers will rise from their nearly horizontal and
assume an angular position of any required degree, elongating the whole
vertically. These means of obtaining elevation will be applicable to many
uses, "inter alia," the building of chimneys or shafts, as the system of levers
may be made to rise simultaneous with the erection, (carrying the workmen,
tools, and material therewith,) and the whole be taken to pieces when the shaft
is complete.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joachim Hayward Stocqueler and William James Buchanan
Saunders in the Great. Seal Patent Office on the 16th February 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOACHIM
HAYWARD STOCQUELER, of Regent Street, in the County of Middlesex, Gentle
man, and WILLIAM JAMES BUCHANAN SAUNDERS, of Southwark, in the County
of Surrey, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of August, in the year of our, Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her. heirs..and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Joachim Hayward Stocqueler and William James Buchanan Saunders,
Her special licence that we, the said Joachim Hayward Stocqueler and-Wil-
liam James Buchanan Saunders, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Joachim Hayward Stocqueler and William
James Buchanan Saunders, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to tinie 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" IM-
PROVED MECHANICAL MEANS FOR OBTAINING ELEVATIONS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Joachim Hayward Stocqueler and William
James Buchanan Saunders, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should parti-
cularly 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Joachim Hayward Stocqueler and
William James Buchanan Saunders, 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, reference being
had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and forming part of this my Specifica-
tion, and to the letters of reference placed thereon, similar letters being used
to denote similar parts, where such parts can be seen in each of the Diagranis
respectively:
The object of this Invention is the speedy attainment by mechanical means
of elevations, and the means employed will be found applicable to obtaining
elevations for the furtherance of warlike, scientific building, and many other
useful purposes. In war, when it may be desirable to make observations as to
the force, position, or movements of the enemy, one or more persons. may be
raised with rapidity to a considerable height, the observations taken, the
observers lowered, and the apparatus removed before the opposers shall be
able to bring any destructive material to bear on the object presented to view
for so limited a period. For scientific purposes our Invention will be found
serviceable, and for building shafts, or stalks, and other similar erections the
greatest service may be obtained therefrom, and much lumbering, expensive,
and dangerous scaffolding and erections dispensed with. For example, in
building a chimney shaft, the tools, materials, and workmen are placed upon a
platform made and fixed on the top of the system of levers herein-after
described. As the work progresses, the levers with their load are made to
lengthen-or-rise. When the material is exhausted, or the usual meal-time of
the workmen arrives, the whole is allowed to descend on the framework.
The charge of material is renewed, and on the return of the workmen the
whole is again elevated (as herein-after described), and so on, till the erection
is finished. Again, it is applicable to any purpose where a sudden or quick
elevation and an equal facility of depression are desired.
We will now proceed to describe the working of the Invention, first calling
attention to the Drawing, where Figure 1 shews a set of levers, designated
and known by the name of "lazy tongs;" Figure 2 shews three sets of the
said levers, fastened together at the corners, and arranged in the manner they
are used in our Invention; Figure 3 shews an elevation of the whole Inven-
tion (as it appears when in use) from the pedestal or base to the ring on the
top, in which a gallery or platform may be erected at pleasure; Figure 4 is a
view of a corner block; Figure 5 shews a single lever or bar, such as is used
in our combination; Figure 6 is a plan view or under side of the pedestal or
base, shewing,the working of the nuts and. screws; Figure 7, transverse sec-.

page_text: tion of travelling nut as used when the apparatus is made of metal; Figure 8,
same, if made of wood; Figure 9, plan view of upper part of the travelling
nuts. When the apparatus is made either of wood or metal, the arrangement
of levers shewn at Figure 1 form what is generally known by the term "lazy
tongs," the ends of which, a and b, being drawn together, the elongation of the
whole takes place.
The Invention consists chiefly in using three sets of levers on the "lazy
tongprinciple, so fastened or secured together as to admit of their being
operated upon by considerable force, and rendered capable of sustaining.con-
siderable weight on their apex when elongated in a vertical position. The
three sets or combinations of levers are erected upon the plane of an equi-
lateral triangle (as shewn at Figure 3), the ends of each of the levers having
a block c (Figure 4) between, a bolt or pin being passed through the ends of
the said levers, and screwed (or otherwise secured) into the blocks c, c. The
three lowest of these blocks c are on the top of and attached to the travelling
nuts d, d, which are made to run in slots or grooves formed in the base or
pedestal e. Through the bottom or centre of each of the nuts d, d, screws f, f,
are passed, and these screws are fastened by short screws 9, 9, at their
extremities, as shewn at Figure 6. One of these screws f is extended (such
screw not having the thread formed thereon farther than h) through the centre
block h, and terminates (on the other side thereof) with a square end; on this
square, when the apparatus is to be worked, is placed a crank handle i; upon
each of the screws f, f, is keyed a bevilled wheel j, the whole being in position
at rest. On turning the crank handle i the three screws f, f, will be put in
motion, turning in one direction, causing the nuts d, d, to travel in their
grooves or slots, and converge to a centre; and these nuts, carrying the lower
ends of the levers with them, cause the whole system to elongate vertically,
and so the circle constructed on and secured to the upper ends of the system
of levers will be raised to any required height, or to the extreme vertical
elongation of the levers, as may be desired. The levers when required to
sustain weight should be made of tough timber, with plates of iron at the ends
and centre of each lever, and washers may be passed between the levers and
blocks to secure the surfaces from contact or friction. The corner blocks
(when the apparatus is of a large size) should be made of castings of iron or
gun metal; in smaller, of wood or other suitable material. The upper arms
of the bars or levers need not be all of one length, it being found that if they
be gradually lessened in length as they are placed nearer the top of the system,
the elasticity of the material of which they are made will be the better coun-
teracted. On the top of the apparatus, and to the circle shewn (Figure 3), a

page_text: platform chair, or carrying surface of any form or description, may be placed,
either affixed to the circle, or capable of being fastened thereto and removed
at pleasure. The whole may be placed on wheels for locomotion, or be taken
to pieces and transported in any convenient manner."
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed or carried into practical effect, we would have it
understood that we do not confine ourselves to the precise form, arrange-
ments, or modifications herein described or shewn in the annexed Drawing, as
such may be, and indeed must be, varied and altered, according to the purposes
for which our Invention may be required to be used; nor do we lay any claim
to the exclusive use of any of the parts or portions of machinery or otherwise,
as described and shewn, taken as parts or portions, and not in combination
for the purposes of our Invention, which we declare to be, and we claim
the exclusive use of, the combination machinery or apparatus herein-before
described, and illustrated in the annexed Drawing, for obtaining elevations.
In witness whereof, the said Joachim Hayward Stocquelèr and William
James Buchanan Saunders, have hereunto set their hands and seals,
this Sixteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
JOHN GEDGE, Patent Agent,
4, Wellington Street South,
Strand, London.
J. H. STOCQUELER. (L.S.)