IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORATING TUNNELS AND GALLERIES OF MINES OF GREAT LENGTH THROUGH ROCKS MUCH QUICKER THAN BY THE PROCESS HITHERTO
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Theophilus Berrens, of the Town of Tarbes, now of
No. 60, Boulevart de Strasbourg, Paris, in the Empire of France,
Railway Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS
AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORATING TUNNELS AND GALLERIES OF MINES OF
GREAT LENGTH THROUGH ROCKS MUCH QUICKER THAN BY THE PROCESS HITHERTO
"
Sealed the 20th August 1867,, and dated the 1st March 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Theophilus Berrens at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition, on the
1st March 1867.
I, THEOPHILUS BERRENS, of the Town of Tarbes, now of No. 60, Boulevart de
Strasbourg, Paris, in the Empire of France, Railway Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS
AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORATING TUNNELS AND GALLERIES OF MINES OF GREAT
LENGTH THROUGH ROCKS MUCH QUICKER THAN BY THE, PROCESS HITHERTO EMPLOYED,"
to be as follows:-
This perforating apparatus is composed of a large bottomless stout sheet-
iron cylinder about 4 feet in diameter and length carried by a long central
iron shaft keyed in the centre of a strong wrought-iron cross piece bolted

page_text: inside of the back end of the cylinder; the fore end of said cylinder is provided
with several sets of hard boring tools or drills screwed fast around the outside.
The central iron shaft lies on grooved pulleys where it can run forward and
backward; it runs or slides freely through the centre of a cog wheel, the nave
of which is carried by a suitable chair where it can run; the cog wheel is
actuated by an endless screw, which screw is worked by ratchet wheels set at
each end of its shaft, the catching hooks of said wheels moving forward and
backward with the central shaft of the cylinder. This shaft is attached by
means of a coupling jacket or clutch end to end with another long iron lined
wooden shaft lying also on grooved pulleys; this shaft is furnished on both
sides with handles in any required number, and men sitting on boards take
hold of these handles and pulling back the shaft all together, as in rowing,
cause the crown or ring of drills or borers on the cylinder to strike the rock,
breaking little parcels of it which fall out by the back motion imparted to the
tools. At each blow of the cylinder the endless screw moving a little round
causes the cog wheel to turn a little and with it the shaft and cylinder; thus
a ring will be cut in the rock, while a stouter boring instrument carried by the
shaft will bore a central hole. When deep enough the cylinder will be
removed, and gunpowder being introduced in various parts of the ring it will
be blown off, and the broken pieces of rock being carried away the work will
go on as before stated.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Theophilus Berrens in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th August 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THEOPHILUS
BERRENS, of the Town of Tarbes, now of No. 60, Boulevart de Strasbourg,
Paris, in the Empire of France, Railway Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Theophilus Berrens, Her special licence that I, the said Theophilus Berrens,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such other's as I, the said
Theophilus Berrens, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter

page_text: 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
THE, PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORATING TUNNELS AND GALLERIES OF MINES
OF GREAT LENGTH THROUGH ROCKS MUCH QUICKER THAN BY THE PROCESS HITHERTO
EMPLOYED," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Theophilus
Berrens, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Theophilus Berrens, do hereby declare
the nature of my 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 Sheet of Drawing hereunto annexed, and
forming part of this my Specification, and to the figures and letters of reference
placed thereon:—
The object of my Invention is to increase tenfold, and even more if required,'
the speed of the work in the digging out or driving of tunnels and the pre-
paratory galleries of mines. On account of the speed obtained by this process'
the wells or shafts which are usually sunk three or four hundred yards from
one another to multiply the working points of the tunnel and hasten the work
will no longer be wanted. On account of the speed with which the tunnel or
gallery can be driven forward by my process through rocks attackable with
hard tempered steel tools, the longest tunnels may be commencéd by perforating
only at both ends; thus all heavy expenses for boring or digging shafts or
wells, putting up lifting machinery and exhaust pumps, and the carrying away
of the broken rock along narrow paths will be avoided. The principle of
action of my perforating cylinder is to break and injure as little rock as
possible; to perform this, work with a great number of men; and to avoid
the use of gunpowder, steam, or the production of any gaseous substance
hurtful to men, which cannot be done when the work is performed by miners
boring holes to blast the rock with gunpowder; instead of two or three miners,
the number generally working in pushing forward galleries of three yards.
section, the number of men employed to work the perforating cylinder of my'
Invention may be 16, 20, or 24; according to the speed to be attained and
the hardness of the rock to be perforated. The daily advance will be from"
'

page_text: four to five yards instead of one and a half feet, which is rarely exceeded by
the usual method.
The diameter of the perforating cylinder represented on the annexed Sheet
of Drawing is of one métre thirty-four centimétres (four feet five inches), the
sheet iron being three-eighths of an inch thick and one and a half métres or
five feet long.
Figure 1 is a vertical and Figure 2 a horizontal section made in the centre
or axis of the tunnel. At one of the ends of the cylinder fifty steel tools are
fixed; they are of three different shapes, and grouped by fives near one
another, as shewn, Figure 3, which is an end view of the cylinder; Figure 4
shews one of the tools, the crown ring or circular groove they will cut out
will be two inches wide; the other end of the cylinder is fastened to a thick
iron cross piece B, the centre of which forms a hollow boss or socket, into
which is fitted the end of an iron shaft A smoothly turned throughout to a
diameter of six inches and about ten métres (thirty-two feet ten inches
long) which is keyed fast in the cross piece, this shaft resting on two cast-iron
grooved pulleys about five métres (sixteen feet six inches) apart from each
other holds up the cylinder and maintains the straight direction. The other
end of the shaft is fitted free in the socket of a thick cast-iron piece D which
allows the shaft to rotate on one of its ends, whilst the other end of the said
cast-iron piece is riveted fast to a sheet iron hollow cylinder E flat at the top
and round at the bottom, as shewn, Figure 5, the sheet iron being about one-
fourth of an inch thick; the said cylinder is furnished with cross pieces or
handles P fitted in cast-iron blocks inserted within the cylinder F; the power
of the workmen seated on wooden seats S, S, will be applied on these
handles, and their muscular strength will thus be combined as in rowing boats;
the simultaneousness of their efforts will be obtained by. accentuated singing,
as do sailors when lifting anchor or pulling and hauling. The extent of the
stroke will be from two and a half to two and three quarter feet; after each
stroke of the cylinder on the rock both the cylinder and the shaft A will
receive during their back motion a rotary motion varying in extent according
to the nature of the rock to be perforated, which extent I calculate to be at
three-quarters of an inch for hard chalky stones; this action is produced by a
lever Loscillating freely on the shaft of the cylinder, and its lower end sliding
betwixt two inclined bands of iron fastened by bolts or rivets on a rounded
sheet of iron M, shewn, Figure 6, of about two and a half meters (eight feet
four inches) long, and which is removed each time the perforating cylinder has
advanced one and a quarter métres (four feet two inches), that is to say, four.

page_text: times a day. During the striking motion the lever L inclines itself and moves
away from the iron ratchet wheel H, but in the back motion a small pro
jecting cleat of the lever catches in the teeth of the ratchet wheel through the
action of the weight T or of a vertical spring, and causes the wheel to move
with the shaft A and cylinder, the extent of the motion being for the cutting
tools about three-quarters of an inch. The wheel E, shewn, Figure 6, is
composed of two pieces fastened together by four screw bolts in order to
facilitate its removal to allow the passage of the waggon I, Figure 7, intended
to carry away four times a day the fragments broken off from the stone
cylinder detached from the rock by the perforating cylinder. A small stream'
of water is darted at each stroke of the ram into the top part of the circular
ditch or groove of the rock by a small forcing pump, and the surfaces of this
circular ditch or crown being so watered all the dust produced by the ham-
mering of the tools is washed away, whilst slender pliable steel scrapers
suitably arranged outside of the cylinder between the groups of tools will drive
out the small parcels of stone which were broken off by the tools. Besides
the perforating. cylinder the central shaft is fitted with a four or six bladed
tool which will bore out a central hole from six to eight inches in diameter
for the purpose of blowing off or splitting the stone detached cylinder by means
of gunpowder. or wedges, the perforating cylinder having been previously
removed.
Instead of a central four or six bladed tool I prefer using a central cylinder
eight inches in diameter, as shewn, Figures 1 and 2, fitted at the end of the
shaft, and carrying a sharp toothed tempered steel ring to dig out or perforáte
a central ditch or ring about three-quarters of an inch thick; the stone
cylinder thus isolated being only seven and a half inches thick will easily be
separated from the rock by means of an iron lever; by this process, which I
prefer the use of, gunpowder so dangerous in its effect and by the unhealthy
gas it gives rise to is avoided. There must be as many men working the per-
forating cylinder as to make one meter and a quarter (four feet two inches)
each day.
As soon as the striking or percussion work is stopped the perforating cylinder
will be removed; and an iron cylinder, carrying around its' periphery four or
six steel pistons of two inches diameter at an equal distance from each other,
as shewn in Figure 8; is introduced into the central bore; it will be suitably
connected by pipes with a hydraulic press mounted on wheels' and' placed
between the two pulleys bearing the central shaft; two men will work the levers
of the force pump, and the pistons of the iron cylinder acting as wedges will

page_text: be sufficiently powerful to cause the detached cylinder of rock to split out into
four or six sector-shaped pieces by the effect of the sharp edge of the piston's
head; and even if the broken fragments were of irregular shape on account
of splits or crevices in the rock they may come out without difficulty, for in
the direction of the radius they will not be more than about half a meter (one
foot eight inches) thick, whilst the free height above the bottom or platform
of the small waggons I intended to carry them out to the large waggons will.be
fifty-seven centimetres (twenty-two and a half inches) as shewn, Figure 6.
The upper sector and the lateral pieces will be first removed; the lower sector
previously keyed fast will not be taken away until after the bydraulic press
and the loosened pieces of stone have been removed. All these various opera-
tions must be completed in one hour four times a day; namely, after one and
a quarter meters (four feet two inches) of forward work. As to the pulleys
on which rest the shaft and work rod they must be removed twice a day, or
after each forward step of two and a half meters (eight feet four inches); this
job will be easily performed since the wooden bearing sleepers lay directly over
the bottom of the gallery; these combined pieces have simply to be placed
level. The tools fixed all around the sheet iron cylinder must be made of the
best quality of steel and tempered very hard; they must be removed and fresh
ones put in their place as soon as the sharp edge is dull, they will last longer
than the common miners' tools; such tools may be used for breaking the
hardest calcareous stones, calcareous grit stones, flaky slate, flaky tale, and
even feldspathic granite. But if rocks of harder kinds than those mentioned
have to be bored through, and the steel tools prove inefficient another process
should be used, and I would suggest the disaggregation of such rocks by the
sudden contraction which can be produced by projecting water on to surfaces
previously heated to 4 or 500 degrees "centigrade" (720 to 900 Fahrenheit)
by means of the flame or blaze of either compressed hydrogen, alcohol, or
benzole blown through small pipes by compressed air, or by any similar con-
trivance. Such apparatus placed on a wagon should be arranged in vibrating
or oscillating vertical bands, and would operate by digging or cutting vertical
slits from four to seven inches wide, separated eighteen to twenty inches from
one another, which should be split by means of wedges after each advance or
forward step of eighteen to twenty-four inches. I mean to break off the
insulated blocks of stone by using a hydraulic press in order to avoid using.
gunpowder, which gives rise to unwholesome gases or vapours, and would.
necessitate the production of a ventilation very hard, difficult, and costly of
attainment, especially in the case of tunnels to be opened only by the two ends,

page_text: each half of which might be three or four miles long. By using my perfo-
rating cylinders the mere muscular work of men is substituted to the power of
gunpowder and steam, and thus in subterraneous works the air may be main-
tained sufficiently pure for the workmen working far from the entrance of the
gallery by simply throwing air by means of a rotary fan through wooden pipes
laid on the bottom of the gallery, and pushed forward every day to the point
where the workmen are employed. Recourse: may be again had to the use of
gunpowder for the completion of the work, but only when the carriage gallery
is entirely cut through when a current of air will be established from end to
end either naturally or by means of fans.
Figure 9 shews the successive order of the operations for the rapid execution
of a tunnel with perforating cylinders; two of the said cylinders should be at
first placed at one meter and three-fifths (five feet four inches) from the bottom
and their shafts at one and a half meters (five feet) from each other; the
greatest care must be taken to establish them in a perfectly parallel direction.
After the forward work or perforation will have reached fifty meters (fifty-five
and a half yards) two other perforating cylinders should be installed on the
bottom to bore jointly with the upper ones; the angles of the rock projecting
between the peripheries of the bores would be knocked away, and the rail
should be laid down to follow the work five hundred meters (five hundred and
forty-seven yards) behind. After every mile of forward boring or tunneling a
siding should be made to. contain two or three waggons. About 500 métres
(547 yards) back from the perforating cylinders the plain or solid rock part,
No. 1, above the way will either be broken or cut away with gunpowder if the
stone has cracks or fissures, or with vertical circular saws set on a waggon
and driven by a small steam engine, if the stone is close and good for blocks
for building purposes, horizontal boring tools pretty close to each other and
worked in the usual way will cut out the block of stone of a suitable thickness,
and it will be made to come down on to special waggons fitted with a suitable
platform for the purpose. After the solid rocky parts, Nos. 1 and 2, have
been carried off the vault will be made; the solid parts, Nos. 3 and 4, may
be attacked laterally, either by blasting with gunpowder or by cutting out
regular blocks, and the line of rails laid down in the whole length of the sub-
terraneous gallery will permit this last part of the work to be effected with
great rapidity.
For the shafts of coal pits of from ten to thirteen feet diameter the shaft
of the perforator (which is of great length) must be made in several pieces in
order that it may be turned over to be introduced into the horizontal gallery

page_text: or drive; these several pieces will be united by iron clutches or jackets, but
as these galleries have a rectangular section I do not propose to use. a cylinder
for carrying the cutting or boring tools but a sheet iron prism of a square
or rectangular section carried like the cylinder on a shaft which will no longer
require to have a rotary motion nor to be so long; the pulleys on which it
slides by the simultaneous action of the men will be carried on a chariot,
which is advanced in proportion to the lengthening of the gallery.
Several grand and stupendous works, hitherto deemed impossible, may be
performed with this new method of working; amongst the most urgent I will
quote the passage under the English Channel, which in the most favourable
part, according to the soundings taken to ascertain the depth of the sea
between Boulogne and Folkstone, requires the piercing of a tunnel of 13 kilo-
metres or 8.08 miles long under the deepest part of the sea, the other sections
terminus parts of this submarine tunnel would not exceed a length of 4 miles.
My Invention being now described, I claim,—
1stly, the entire combination of the apparatus or perforating cylinder herein-
before described for cutting out or piercing tunnels or the galleries of mines
through stone or rock with a number of percussion tools, by means of the
application of the muscular power of as many men as may be required for
getting forward or driving with much more speed than has hitherto been
obtained in such works, avoiding the use of gunpowder, steam, or smoke of
any kind injurious to the health of the workmen so long as the atmospheric
air cannot freely run through the subterraneous work.
2ndly, the means of boring at the same time the central part of the stone
cylinder by means of a hardened steel toothed crown fitted at the end of a
small sheet iron cylinder carried, by the shaft of the main perforating cylinder.
3dly, the combination described, or any other similar one, for causing
the perforating cylinder to rotate to the extent required after each blow of
the tools.
4thly, the process of splitting. in several segments the stone cylinder
insulated by the circularly cut groove from the solid mass of rock by intro-
ducing into the central hole an iron cylinder carrying around its periphery
several pistons acting as wedges and actuated by a hydraulic press.
5thly, the combination of a small stream of water darted into the upper
part of the circular groove to wash out the dust and small particles of stone
loosened by the tools, and carried out by scrapers suitably arranged between
each set of percussion or striking. tools.
6thly, the arrangement of the timber bottom provided with rails for the

page_text: passage of a small waggon intended, after each advance in tunnelling of about
1 métres (4 ft. 1 in.), to carry away the pieces of the insulated stone
cylinders after they have been split out.
7thly, and, lastly, I claim the mode of carrying out simultaneously the work
of several perforating cylinders for the purpose of making large tunnels, as
shewn Fig. 9 of the annexed Sheet of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Theophilus Berrens, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
Witness,
L. D'AUBRÉVILLE, C. E.
T. BERRENS. (L.S.)