IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SINKING OF CYLINDERS FOR FOUNDATIONS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS THEREFOR
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Allan Munn, John Rennie, and
John Sutherland at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 4th February 1875.
We, ALLAN MUNN, Commision Agent, JOHN RENNIE, Engineer, and
JOHN SUTHERLAND, Engineer, all of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SINKING OF CYLINDERS FOR FOUNDATIONS, AND IN THE
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
This said Invention consists in the sinking of cylinders of iron, stone,
brick, concrete, or other equivalent foundations (for the piers of bridges,
or the walls of harbours, docks, or other structures) by the use of an
excavating or boring and raising screw or screws carried on the lower
end of and turned by an upright revolving shaft or shafts within the
cylinder to be sunk, and driven or actuated at the top by tooth or
friction gearing, and bands, chains, or wire ropes from any adjacent
prime motive engine for the purpose; which might also be made to lift
the material excavated, or work the pumps for discharging the water or

page_text: water and material excavated by the screws; or single or double angled
pointed tools might be used, such as are used for augers and other drills
or tools used for boring holes in wood and metal, or in boring for
minerals and sinking wells, but of a large size, and preferably with an
outside case, pipe, or vessel (round the said screw or boring excavator)
for containing the material excavated at the bottom of the cylinders, and
for raising it to the top along with the screw or cutter when full; or in
some cases this vessel or pipe might be carried up to the top to conduct
the material thereto (as screwed or forced into it from below), where -in
either case it could be delivered by a spout or other equivalent into
removing waggons or wheeled hutches; or otherwise, in some kinds of
earth the screw or angled cutters might cut, loosen, excavate, and raise
the sand or earth without a casing when the material is of a hard and
in
tough nature, and liable to fill and stick in the groove of the screw,
which circumstances the screw might have a lip or edge to adapt it for
this purpose; or otherwise, when the material is of a loose sandy or
gravelly nature, it might be raised by pumps, or steam, or water jet
apparatus. And these excavating and elevating screws or cutters for
sinking cylinders might either be made very large (as to within a few
inches of the internal diameter of the cylinders to be sunk) with two or
more fine pitched threads with cutting points, some of which might be
of different shapes, all so as to be driven slowly and with greater power
in proportion to their size; or the screw or cutter might be made smaller
in diameter, as from 12 to 18 inches, and be driven at a consequently
proportional increased speed on its own spindle from the central shaft,
while it revolves on a radial frame round that shaft, close to the inner
circumference of the cylinder to be sunk, while an agitator or other
equivalent on the lower end of the central spindle may be made to break
up the mass of earth left in the centre of the annular recess excavated
by the screw on the lower end of the circumferentially revolving or
travelling shaft or shafts. These shafts in any case descend as they bore
or excavate the earth and hole or groove below them (either by their
own weight or a weight upon them for that purpose) by sliding or
passing through the eye of their driving gear, which is carried on a cast
iron or other strong or portable frame on the top of the cylinders being
sunk, the first motion driving band or shaft admitting of this. The
frame is removed and replaced each time a new block or set length
of the cylinder is added and fixed on the top of the cylinders being
sunk.

page_text: The advantages of this new mode and means of sinking cylinders for
foundations are greater efficiency and regularity of action, with less
expenditure of power than with the machinery or apparatus heretofore
employed for that purpose.