IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SUBDIVIDING OR REDUCING INTO SMALL PARTICLES MASSES OF ROCK AND MINERALS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Ellis and Joseph Henry Ellis, of Leicester,
in the County of Leicester, Coal and Lime, Merchants, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SUBDIVIDING OR REDUCING INTO
SMALL PARTICLES MASSES OF ROCK AND MINERALS."
Sealed the 4th June 1858, and dated the 5th January 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Ellis and Joseph
Henry Ellis at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 5th January 1858.
We, JAMES ELLIS and JOSEPH HENRY ELLIS, of Leicester, in the County
of Leicester, Coal and Lime Merchants, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SUBDIVIDING OR
REDUCING INTO SMALL PARTICLES MASSES OF ROCK AND MINERALS," to be as
follows, that is to say:
Our Invention consists in machinery for breaking into pieces slabs or blocks
of rock or stone of any description, more particularly referring to such
descriptions of stone as are usually employed for road making or for the manu-
facture of concrete for builders' uses, and for which purposes it is essential that
the stone should, be reduced to, as nearly as may be a uniform size. This has
hitherto been effected by manual labour, but we propose employing a grooved
or denticulated metal roller or irollers. When one roller is employed it would
be in conjunction with a corrugated, or grooved, or perforated plate, between
which and the roller slabs or blocks of the material to be reduced would

page_text: be passed. This would be broken up in its passage between the roller and
plate into small blocks, the size of which would in some measure be governed
by the size of the corrugations or indents in the plate and roller, or two hori-
zontal rollers may be used, each hung in a powerful frame, and they may be
either both corrugated or both indented, or one corrugated and the other
indented. In forming these rollers we prefer to use spindles of square, hexa-
gonal, or other angular section, upon which we slip discs corrugated in a line
with the axis. These discs may all be fixed upon the spindles with the corru-
gations in the same line parallel with the axis; or each alternate disc may be
turned a few degrees upon the spindle, so as to present a tooth on one disc to
a hollow in the next, and producing indents on the entire periphery of the
complete roller. We shall in some instances employ two or even more pairs
of rollers, so as to reduce the slabs or blocks gradually, the first breaking them
roughly or into large pieces, and the other rolls reducing them into any
requisite size; and one or more pairs of the rollers may, if preferred, be
grooved or corrugated round their peripheries, and transversely to the line of
the axis.
When more than one pair of rollers are employed, the second or following
pair would be mounted lower than the preceding pair or pairs, but not in the
same vertical line, so that a shute from the upper pair would carry the
stone into the next. Suitable means would of course be employed to relieve
the rollers in case the stone jammed, but this can be effected in various ways.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Ellis and Joseph Henry Ellis in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 3rd July 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
ELLIS and JOSEPH HENRY ELLIS, of Leicester, in the County of Leicester,
Coal and. Lime Merchants, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said James Ellis and Joseph Henry Ellis, Her special licence, that we,
the said James Ellis and Joseph Henry Ellis, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said James Ellis and Joseph
Henry Ellis, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
.

page_text: 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
MACHINERY FOR SUBDIVIDING OR REDUCING INTO SMALL PARTICLES MASSES OF ROCK
AND MINERALS," upon the condition, amongst others, that we, the said James
Ellis and Joseph Henry Ellis, by an instrument in writing under our
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 we, the said James Ellis and Joseph Henry
Ellis, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is
to say:
Our Invention consists of improved machinery to be employed in reducing
or breaking up slabs or blocks of rock or stone, more particularly such
descriptions of stone as are or may be ordinarily employed as road metal or in
the manufacture of concrete, for either of which purposes it is desirable that
the stone should be reduced to particles of as nearly as possible equal size. A
reference to the accompanying Drawings will be necessary in order to
elucidate clearly the construction and action of our machines.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Sheet A, Figure 1 represents the front elevation of the machine; Figure 2,
the plan; Figure 3, a side elevation shewing the housings of the stone rolls ;.
Figure 4, an elevation of the opposite side, shewing the housings and pitch.
lines of the pinions.
Sheet B shews the details of the denticulated or corrugated discs of which
the stone rolls consist.
We will now proceed with the description of the machine :-(A), Sheet A;
is a strong cast-iron bed plate, to which are secured by strong cottar bolts the
four upright housings or standards (B, B',) C, C',) two at each end of the
bed plate (A). The pair of housings (B, B',) carry five pinions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5,)
the bearings of which run in brasses in the said housings, and are retained in
position by caps and bolts (D, D). The pair of pinions marked (1; 2,) are

page_text: placed in gear at the top of the housings (B, B',) with their centres in a
horizontal line, and they are driven by pinion (No. 3), which is upon the shaft
of the driving wheel gearing into the under side of (No. 2). The remaining
pair (4 and 5) are placed in a horizontal-line at the bottom of the housings,
one of them (No. working into the driving pinion and thus actuating the
entire set, the driving pinion being fixed upon the shaft (H), to which power
may be applied in any convenient form. The four driven pinions (1, 2, 4, 5,)
are cast in one piece with their respective shafts, which shafts are of sufficient
length to project through and beyond the inner housing. (B').; this extra
projecting length of the shaft is made square in section, and upon it are fitted
the couplings (I, 1,) which transfer the motion of the pinions (1, 2, 4, 5,) to
the crushing or stone rolls (6, 7, 8, 9,) through the break spindles and
second set of couplings (L, L,) fixed on the squared ends of the roll shafts.
These roll shafts are four in number, corresponding. in position to the four
driven pinions (1, 2, 4, 5,) two (Nos. 6 and 7) being at the top and the other
two (Nos: 8 and 9) at the bottom of the housings (C, C¹). Each of these
shafts is squared in section at one end, as before described with respect to the
pinion shafts, and next to the squared portion is a bearing of about six inches
in length, then a collar of about two inches thick, after which the shaft is
planed to a hexagonal section for a length of about one foot ten inches,
and the remaining length is occupied by a square-threaded screw and
another 6-inch bearing. The housings (C, C¹) for these shafts, which are
marked (M, M, M; M',) and the rolls (6, 7, 8, 9,) are securely bolted between
stops to the bed-plate (A), and they are fitted with chilled cast-iron bearings,
and retained in position by strong cast-iron caps and bolts. Four of the
bearings, that is to say, two to each pair of rolls, are made to slide horizontally,
so that in case the rolls meet with a larger or harder piece of stone than usual,
the rolls (Nos. 6 and 7) may separate to avoid the breakage of the machine.
The rolls are kept in position and up to their work by a system of levers, the
longest of which (R, R,) are counterbalance levers standing out from the
machine, and having weights of about two tons each hung on their ends. A
double set of these levers are employed, one set to each of the housings (C, C').
The rolls we prefer using for the stone rolls (Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9) are composed of
a number of discs corrugated or denticulated on their peripheries, as will be
seen by referring. to Sheet (B) of the Drawings. They are each formed with a
hexagonal opening in the centre to receive the hexagonally planed portion
of the shafts (M, M, M, M',) upon which they are to fit. A sufficient number
of these discs having been slipped on to the shaft, they are screwed up tightly
against the collar before alluded to by means of the octagonal nut (S), which

page_text: traverses the screwed portion of the shaft. A moveable hopper or shoot is
provided within the housings (C, C;) and between the upper and the lower rolls,
which-hopper is fitted upon a swivel pin so arranged that the sliding upper
roll (No. 7) shall, by means of a forked lever embracing the shaft, tilt the
hopper when the roll is forced back by a hard piece of stone; and thus deliver
the stone at the back of the machine instead of allowing it to, pass through the
lower and finer rolls (8 and 9.). . The action of the counterbalance levers
(R, R,) causing the upper roll to assume. its original position, the hopper is
returned to its former place. The stone to be broken is delivered into a
hopper mounted on the top of the housings (C, C,) in such position as to
direct the stone between the top rolls (6 and 7), by which rolls it will be
reduced roughly and to a moderate size; it then passes into the moveable
hopper between the upper and lower rolls, whence it is conducted to the lower
rolls (8 and 9), which further reduce it to the required size; it falls thence
through an aperture in the bed plate into a pit or any suitable receptacle for
conveying it
away.
Thus far we have described our improved machinery in its full developement,
but for many purposes a greatly simplified form, and one requiring the
employment of a lesser number of parts, will be practically useful. One of these
simpler machines may be thus constructed:-A single roller, corrugated or
denticulated on its periphery, may be arranged to travel upon a bed plate,
which bed plate may also be corrugated or denticulated, or, if preferred,
perforated. The slabs of stone being introduced between the roller and the
bed plate would be crushed by its passage between them into blocks, the size
of which would be in a great measure governed by the size of the teeth or
indents upon the roller and plate; or a single pair of corrugated or toothed roils
may be employed in lieu of two pairs (as shewn in the Drawings), and these
rolls may be either both corrugated or both denticulated, or one of each
description may be used. The formation of the rolls by building them up of a
series of discs we have already described, save in one point, the construction of
what we term the denticulated rolls. These are formed by turning each alternate
disc a few degrees upon the spindle, instead of keeping the corrugations in one
parallel line with their axes, thus a tooth upon one disc would be presented to
a hollow in the adjoining one, producing indents on the entire periphery of the
complete roll.
The rolls may also, if preferred, be grooved or corrugated
round their peripheries in a line transverse with instead of parallel to their
axes.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that we do not

page_text: confine ourselves to these precise details; but that which we claim is, the
improvements in machinery for subdividing or reducing into small particles
masses of rock and minerals, herein described and shewn in Drawings, together
with the several modifications or simplified forms of the same, as herein more
fully set forth and specified.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Ellis and Joseph Henry Ellis,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Second day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.