Improvement in Street-sweeping Machines.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application (in United Kingdom), 25th July, 1891
Complete Specification Left. 25th July, 1891-Accepted, 24th Oct., 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvement in Street-sweeping Machines.
1, ANDREW HERRMANCE SMITH, of 22 East 42 Street, New York, in the
County and State of New York, United States of America, Doctor of Medicine,
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:―
Street-sweeping machines have heretofore been constructed in which the dust
and other materials have been swept into receptacles and raised automatically and
dumped into carts or receptacles.
My present improvements relate to means for receiving and elevating the
sweepings, and this improvement may be added to machines already in existence,
or the machine may be constructed with special reference to its adaptation to the
present invention. I employ a belt that runs upon or adjacent to the pavement
and the sweepings are thrown upon this belt and against a deflector, from which
they drop upon the belt, and the belt passes around a guide-wheel and around one
of the main driving-wheels, which wheel is provided with buckets that act in con-
junction with the belt to carry the sweepings up sufficiently high for them to be
discharged into bags or other convenient receptacles, so that by the present
invention street-sweeping machines of the most approved pattern can be made to
gather up the sweepings automatically.
In the drawings,
Figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan view.
Figure 2 is an elevation sectionally of the axle at the line xx, and
Figure 3 is a section at the line yy.
Street-sweeping machines are constructed and advantageously used in which the
brush F is placed diagonally to the vehicle and the same is rotated by gearing,
such as sprocket wheels and chains, connected with the back axle G or one of the
driving-wheels H, or both, and this brush F is rotated so that the bottom thereof
is moving in the same direction and at a faster speed than the vehicle. Hence the
sweepings are thrown diagonally, and there is usually a curtain or deflector of
canvas hanging from the frame of the vehicle to prevent such sweepings being
thrown too far and the sweepings are left in a windrow upon the pavement.
I make use of an endless band or apron A of suitable width, which occupies the
position on the pavement where the sweepings have heretofore been left in a wind-
row, and this apron A is endless and of suitable length. It may be of canvas or
other flexible material, or it may be of sheet metal sufficiently thin to bend freely
as it passes around the guide-wheel B, and it also passes around the buckets C
upon one of the driving-wheels H. These buckets are in the form of plates
extending inwardly and radially, or nearly so, and at a sufficient distance inside the
tire of the wheel for the band or apron A to intervene without being injured
by pressure upon the pavement, and the wheel H has a disk or plate of metal.
which closes up the same partially, as in Fig. 2, or wholly, as in Fig. 3, to prevent

page_text: any sweepings passing through between the spokes, and there is a pendent curtain
or plate adjacent to the outer edges of the belt, and these parts are located with
reference to the brush in such a manner that the sweepings are arrested by the
curtain or plate I and the disk or plate that closes the wheel H. Hence such
sweepings fall upon the upper surface of the lower part of the endless apron or
band A, and they are carried up by the buckets C of the wheel H as such wheel
revolves and the sweepings slide off the buckets C successively upon a deflector or
chute K of any suitable character, and are delivered by the same into bags or
other suitable receptacles adjacent to the axle of the driving-wheels.
The guide-wheel B is suitably sustained. I have shown an arm B extending
forward from the axle G and provided with a fork for the said wheel B. The
curtain or plate I is represented as hung by straps 1' from the frame.
By this improvement an automatic clevating apparatus can be adapted to street-
sweeping machines already in existence or to those that may be built with special
reference to the improvements in question, and the sweepings are gathered up and
delivered in a convenient form, so that hand work in street-sweeping is almost
entirely dispensed with.
In those machines in which the diagonal brush is to the rear of the driving-
wheel axle the wheel that is provided with the lifting-buckets C is to be placed
upon an axle or gudgeon upon a rearward extension of the frame and the belt A
passed around the said wheel and around the guide-wheel B, in which case the
driving-wheels may occupy the position indicated by the dotted lines H1, Fig. 1.
By this improvement the belt upon which the sweepings are received is subjected
to very little wear because it is not dragged over the pavement, but simply laid
down and lifted up, whereas in machines heretofore constructed in which there is a
shoe or pan receiving the sweepings the same is worn out rapidly by being dragged
over and in contact with the pavement.
"
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :
1. The combination, with a diagonally-placed revolving brush and the driving-
wheels therewith connected, of an endless band upon which the sweepings are
delivered, and elevating-buckets upon the driving-wheel, around which such band
or apron passes, substantially as set forth.
2. The combination, in a street-sweeper, with the wheel H and buckets C, of the
endless band A and guide-wheel B and the diagonally-placed sweeping-brush F,
substantially as set forth.
3. The wheel H, having a plate to close the spaces between the spokes and the
buckets C upon such plate, in combination with the endless band A, passing around
the buckets C, the guide-wheel B, and a hanging shield or apron I adjacent to the
endless band and the revolving brush, substantially as set forth.
Dated this
day of July 1891.
F. W. BARKER,
Applicant's Agent.