A CONVEYING ENGINE
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Louis Therèse David de Penanrun
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th January 1877.
LOUIS THERESE DAVID DE PENANRUN, of Paris, in the French Republic,
Architect. A CONVEYING ENGINE."
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My Invention consists in the construction of an engine or machine suitable for
raising, drawing, hauling, pushing, lowering, retaining or arresting loads of any
nature situated upon the ground, or in the earth, or water, or in the air. This
engine can be used as an elevator or as a traction engine.
The Invention is chiefly based on the action of a moveable screw on the engine
or machine, turning in a fixed tubular nut extending the whole course to be tra-
versed, the rotary motion with which the screw is actuated causing the screw and
the engine to advance. If the way to be traversed is vertical or inclined, the screw
in turning in one direction causes the engine to rise; if the screw ceases to be
actuated the engine can descend naturally of its own weight; the friction of the
screw in the nut then serves to moderate the movement which prevents any accident
during the descent.
Both the essential parts, the screw and the nut, present arrangements which can
be varied according to the purposes to which my Invention is applied. Among
these purposes I will mention the two most important, viz. the application of
the engine to raising loads, such for example as from mines, and its application as a
locomotive or traction engine on metal ways, with steep gradients, on a mountain,
for example.
In applying the Invention for raising, say, coal or minerals from the bottom of a
mine, I place in the mine shaft a vertical tube which forms a nut. This tube is
made up of tubular parts or portions connected together by stays and bolts, or in
other suitable manner, and each of the parts or portions has helicoidal projections
which form the threads of the nut. In this nut is lodged the screw, the rotary
motion of which produces the advance or receding, and consequently the lifting or
descent of the cage to which it is fitted. The cage carries a second screw turning
in a tubular nut parallel to the tubular nut already described, and serving as a
guide. The tubular nuts are formed for their whole length with a slot or opening,
to give passage to the arms which connect the screws to the cage; these slots inay
have bands or strips of leather to keep them closed; the screws may be formed as

page_text: ordinary screws, but with very quick threads, in order that the cage can descend by
its own weight. prefer, however, to arrange on the cylindrical part of the screw
rollers mounted on inclined axes, these rollers being arranged in a continuous helix,
having the same pitch as the thread of the nut. There are two sets of rollers, the
one bearing on the upper and the other on the lower surface of the thread; the
rollers may likewise be placed horizontally. The body of the screw is prolonged at
top and bottom by journals which serve as its axes; these journals turn in sockets.
The socket of the lower journal is fixed to a foot projecting from the platform of
the cage, and that of the upper journal is fitted to the upper part of the cage, so
that the cage is firmly connected with the screw while the latter is free to turn. It
is the same with both the screws.
The platform of the cage has a hook on its under side to which the tubs or baskets
for containing the coal are suspended. The miners stand on the platform, which is
surrounded by a fence or rails.
Of the two screws only one is employed as the driver; it is actuated by a steam,
gas, compressed air, or other motor situated on the platform of the cage. The main
shaft of this motor carries a pinion gearing with a pinion on the upper journal of
the screw on which it can be made to slide by a lever clutch. By means of this
clutch the two pinions can be separated and the motion of the screw thereby
stopped and the cage suspended. A break strap on the lower part of the screw
allows of the motion being regulated. On each of the screws may be a driver, and
each carry a break strap; the motor on the cage platform may be accompanied by
its boiler and furnace, but to avoid the dead weight and the objections to having a
fire at the bottom of the mine shaft, it is better to have the boiler at the surface,
and to convey the steam through a flexible pipe, which unwinds as the cage
descends; or at the side of the motor a generator without a furnace may be placed
containing superheated steam at high pressure; or instead of a motor on the cage
a mechanical arrangement may be employed, such as a rope or chain, actuated by
an ordinary winding engine, and in this case the screws and their nuts would
simply act as guides.
In applying my Invention to conveying loads on metal ways with steep gra-
dients, I make the engine by preference of triangular form, in order to preserve the
horizontal arrangement of the cylinder and boiler. The engine frame is provided
with wheels which run on the rails; to the frame are also fitted parts carrying the
driving screw which turns in a tubular nut arranged in the middle of the way.
The screw is driven by a vertical shaft, taking its movement from the driving shaft,
and transmitting it by pinions to the axis of the screw. This trausmission may be
effected in any other suitable manner, for example, by means of chains and joints
for accommodating the engine to variations in the line of way.
The mechanism comprises, as in the preceding case, a clutch or disengaging device
and a break. For this application of the Invention it will be necessary to have a
screw with double rollers placed in opposite directions on account of the alternation
of ascents and descents. For the same reason the engine should be turned, or at
least the inclination of the platform should be changed at all points where the line
changes.