IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE TISED IN LIFTING AND HANDLING SACKS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Perkins, of Hitchin, in the County of
Hertford, for the Invention of “IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE
TISED IN LIFTING AND HANDLING SACKS."

page_text: platform as it moves up and down. The platform is lifted by chains,
which are wound upon a barrel turning by a crank handle and spur
gear.
So far the arrangement does not differ in its main features from an
ordinary sack elevator, but the platform of an ordinary sack.clevator can
only rise and fall, the guides preventing it from tipping. Now I provide
the platform with pivots, which run in the guides, and on which it can
tip, so that when the platform with the sack upon it has been raised it
may be tipped over either for the purpose of emptying the contents out
of the sack or for depositing the sack on to a waggon or other raised
platform. The pivots are placed above the level of the platform. The
edge of the platform rests against the guides, and the weight upon the
platform keeps it steady whilst the sack is being raised, but by the
exertion of a moderate force the platform may be turned partly over,
inverting the sack upon it and depositing it on a waggon or tipping it to
pour out its contents. The upper parts of the guides are curved to the
rear so as to bring the pivots on which the platform tips into such a
position that the. sack as it is inverted may pass well to the rear and
alight conveniently upon the waggon.
When it is desired to empty the contents of one sack into another an
empty sack is placed on a sack holder, which is suspended by springs.
The bottom of the sack at first hangs clear of the ground, but when the
full sack is inverted, as already described, and pours its contents into
the empty one, so soon as the bottom of the sack is properly filled the
load causes the springs to yield; the sack then descends to the ground
and the springs are relieved from further strain. By sustaining the sack
in this way at the commencement of filling the proper opening of the
bottom of the sack is ensured.
Sometimes the back of the rising platform is constructed of chains or
jointed links, these chains being connected together by cross slats of
wood or metal. The chains run in the guides, so that a sack may be
raised either vertically as a lifter, or if it be raised higher it follows the
curved guides and turns over, acting as a wader or shooter.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent;
filed by the said Thomas Perkins in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 27th April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
PERKINS, of Hitchin, in the County of Hertford, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
cighth year of Her Teign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Perkins, Her special license
that I, the said Thomas Perkins, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Perkins, my 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 Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
TO BE USED IN LIFTING AND HANDLING SACKS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Thomas Perkins, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
scals, 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 I, the said Thomas Perkins, 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 apparatus to be used
in lifting and handling sacks.
The apparatus consists of two side frames tied together by cross pieces,
and carrying between them a platform which can be raised and lowered
at pleasure. To the frames guides are fixed on either side to control the
platform as it moves up and down. The platform is lifted by chains,

page_text: Figure 1 is a front clevation of a sack holder constructed according to
my Invention; Figures 2 and 3 are side clevations of the same. In
Figure 2 the platform is in its lower, and Figure 3 in its upper
position.
.F
a, a, are the side frames connected firmly together by the cross pieces
b, b. The frames have guides c, c, fixed to them, and between these
guides the pivots d*, d*, fixed to the back d¹ of the lifting platform d
are able to slide. &, d, are studs fixed to the platform, and which rest
against the outer sides of the guides c when the platform is in its lower
position and whilst it rises; e, c, are chains attached to the lifting plat-
form and passing to the roller f, which is carried at the upper part of
the frame a. The roller has at its cnd a wheel f', with internal teeth,
and a pinion gears with these teeth. This pinion is turned by means of
the crank handle g, and so the chains e arc wound upon the roller ƒ,
and the platform & with the sack which has been placed upon it is
raised. On the axis of the handle and pinion is also a ratchet wheel g¹,
into which a pawl h drops to prevent the platform descending after it
has been raised until it is intentionally permitted to do so.
.
The apparatus is employed for different purposes; sometimes to enable
a man to take a sack more readily on bis back; sometimes to put it on
to the bed of a wagon; and sometimes to empty its contents into another
sack. In the first case the full sack is placed upon the platform and
raised by turning the handle until the sack is high enough for the
porter to take it easily on his shoulders. In the other cases above men-
tioned the platform is raised higher, and until its pivots d* drop into the
recesses at the top of the guides c, as seen in Figure 3. The platform
being thus securely supported the pawl is lifted, and then a slight
pressure of the hand on the rising back of the platform at x will
tip it.

page_text: If the object be to transfer the contents of the full sack into an empty
one the empty sack is first placed upon the sack holder i, which being of
well known construction need not here be described. It holds the sack
fast with its mouth distended and its bottom a short distance from the
ground.
The sack holder is supported by two levers k, k, turning on pivots, and
beyond the pivots the levers are connected with the adjustable springs
1, 1. The sack to be emptied is raised as in the former case, its mouth
is opened, and as the platform is inclined the contents of the first sack
are poured out, and the workman guides the mouth of the inverted sack
so that the material passes into tlie sack held upon the sack holder. The
lower end and corners of this sack are first filled, the sack being sus-
pended, and then the weight causes it to settle down on to the ground,
where it stands until it is full. This arrangement for supporting a sack
in order that it may properly fill may be used independently of the
lifting apparatus, and is a separate part of my Invention.
Figure 5 is a portion of a front view, and Figure 6 a portion of a side
view of a form of sack lifter slightly different from that shown at
Figures 1, 2, and 3. The pivots d* and studs d³ are dispensed with, and
the back of the platform is made flexible, and is. retained between the
guides c, c. In other respects the apparatus in its construction and use
is as already described.
What I claim is the apparatus to be used in lifting and handling sacks,