Improvements Connected with Hydraulic Presses for Mining Purposes
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 8th June, 1888
Complete Specification Left, 21st July, 1888
Complete Specification Accepted, 14th Sept, 1888
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Improvements Connected with Hydraulic Presses for Mining
Purposes
We THOMAS CHARLES ROBERTS HORSFIELD, Engineer, of 11 Upper Tollington Road,
Ishington, in the County of Middlesex and ROBERT PORTER of 18 Beaulieu Villas,
Finsbury Park also in the County of Middlesex, Merchant do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows
-
In the specification of a former patent granted to us, dated the 21st of October 1887
(No 14344) was described an improvement in the inner construction of Hydraulic
Presses for breaking down Coal or other Minerals
In carrying out our present Invention we propose to leave the Cylinder whole and
not divide it into two parts, nor in leaving it whole, do we propose to employ it,
as stated in our previous specification, namely by letting the rains act directly on
the Coal
In this our new invention we let the rams abut on a crescent shaped piece of steel or
other suitable metal, which an its turn will impart the pressure received from the
rams, to the surface of the Coal or other Mineral to be operated on
This crescent
shaped piece, has the same length as the press and is attached to the latter by means
of screws fixed in the foremost and last ram The holes in the bar in which the heads
of these screws rest, are cut oblong, so that the screwheads rest easy and cannot be
exposed to any strain
To prevent the
piece from becoming detached from the press and to prevent the
rams from falling out with it, the foremost and last ram in the press is provided on its
outer side with a groove, which runs nearly up to the cupleather In this groove fits
the prominent part of a little plate which is let into the body of the press and secured
by means of a steel screw
The end of the groove reaching the prominent part of the little plate will have
the effect to arrest the rams and the crescent shaped piece in their outward move-
ment These little plates will only have to sustain the weight of the rams and the
LD 827

page_text: crescent-shaped piece, as by the time the end of the groove comes to rest on the
plate, the pressure of the Hydraulic force will have been taken off, by the little escape-
holes E described in our previous specification
The object of this crescent shaped attachment is to prevent the rams from getting
into contact with small pieces of Coal or other Mineral operated on, in case any one
or two of the ram should refuse to act on account of being fixed in the cell through
rust, (if the press has not been used for some time) or through some other cause
The remaining free rams would then exert themselves on this bar and with the aid of
it, exercise sufficient pressure, to accomplish the work set to them
In the ordinary press which we propose to use and which is 3 inches in Diameter
and 22 inches long, this Crescent shiped piece would be inch thick at the basis,
14 inches high and 21 inches long We do not however restrict ourselves to these
measures, the piece can be adapted to any size press in proportion
We do not lay claim to the separate parts, as described herein, for a bar for the
rams to abut on, was already described in our previous specification and has been
previously used, but what we claim as new is the combination and the arrangement of
the parts as herein described
Another improvement connected with Hydraulic presses consists in employing a
spirally bent Copper tube which serves to connect the forcepump and the steel tube
screwed to the press In using our press we propose to give this steel tube a length
of 2 feet 9 inches so that the press with this tube can go to the end of an ordinary
deep bore-hole with the effect, to bring down the Coal right from the back and in one
solid mass
In former presses the force pump was mostly connected direct to the steel tube and
this arrangement, had a great deal to do with their failure
The operator was compelled to stand at the "face" of the Coal to be operated on
and was exposed to the danger arising from the falling of a mass of Coal
If the forcepump was however used standing a short distance from the Coal to be
operated on, the connecting tube was applied in a direct slanting way and had not
sufficient elasticity to follow the movements of the press
The spirally bent Copper tube we intend to employ has the advantage to follow the
movements of the press, while breaking down the Coal or other Mineral, being
sufficiently elastic, whilst at the same time, it has sufficient power of resistance to keep
the press on the top of the mass of Coal, which has been brought down Without
this irrangement, it would happen that the press falls down and might from its weight
sustain some injury in the weaker parts, such as the screws and little plates of the
guides
With the spiral arrangement of the Copper tube, the operator is enabled, to stand
at a proper distance from the press say from 5 to 8 feet, so as to be out of the reach of
any danger from the falling Coal
With a spiral arrangement of the connecting Copper tube, several presses can be
worked from one forcepump In such cases the copper tube would run for a certain
distance straight on the ground and would only be spirally wound on face of the
hole, in which the press is inserted
P
T
1000
a
"
"

page_text: WO THOMAS CHARLES ROBERTS HORSFIELD Engineer of 11 Upper Tollington Road
Islington in the County of Middlesex and ROBERT PORTER of 18 Beaulieu Villas
Finsbury Park also in the County of Middlesex Merchant 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
The object of this invention is to provide Hydraulic Presses for Mining purposes as
described in the specification of our Patent No 14,344 of the 21st of October 1887 with
more suitable and simpler guides, which will prevent the segment on which the Rams
abut from falling out, if the Rams are working downward Such segment being so
shaped that it will protect the escape holes E from getting obstructed by small pieces
of coal or other mineral or dirt when the press is inserted in the borchole and further
to insure through this improved construction a greater stroke of the Rams
In order that the details of these improvements may be more clearly understood we
shall now refer to the accompanyings in which
Fig 1 is an end view of the press shewing the manner in which the segment is
attached to the Ram "C" also shewing the groove "h" in the foremost Ram and the
position of the little plate "U" with its screw in its relation to groove "h"
Fig 2 is a front view of same
Fig 3 is an end view of same when the Ram has accomplished its stroke
Fig 4 is a plan showing the position of the little plates "U"
Identical parts are marked with identic il figures The drawings are not to scale
In carrying out our invention, we propose to leave the cylinder (A) whole and not
divide it into two parts, nor in leaving it whole do we propose to employ it, as stated
in our previous Specification, namely by letting the Rams act directly on the Mineral
In this our new Invention we let the Rams abut on a Crescent shaped piece R. made
of steel or any other suitable metal, which in its turn will impart the pressure received
from the Rams "C" to the surface of the Coal or other mineral operated on
This crescent shaped piece is nearly of the same length is the press and fits exictly
round the lower part of the latter When the press is closed as shown in figs 1 & 2
this segment R closes the escape holes E in the Ram cylinder and prevents them from
getting blocked up by dirt or other obstructions The segment is attached to the
The clearance hole
press my means of screws-2-fixed in the foremost and last Ram
in the segment is larger than the head of the screw-1-so as to allow the latter ample
playroom in case of any lateral strain

page_text: Instead of the guides f shewn in our former Specification we propose to use the
following arrangement to prevent the segment R ind with it the Rams, from filling
out when the press is used with the Rams moving downward and further to prevent
the Rams from turning in their cylinder, the foremost and last Ram is provided on
its outer side with groove "h" which runs nearly up to the cupleather and which
groove engages in the prominent part of the little plate "U" let into the body of the
press and fixed to the latter by a steel screw The end of the groove reaching the
prominent part of the little plate U will arrest the rams and with them the crescent
shaped piece and will thus prevent them from filling out These little plates will only
have to sustain the weight of the rams and the crescent shaped piece as by the time
the neck on the end of the groove comes to rest on the plate the pressure will have
been taken off by the little escape holes E described in our previous specification
The object of the segment R is to ensure an equal pressure of the Rams on the
surface of the Coal or other Mineral to be operated on
The principal advantage derived from the combination and arrangement of parts
herein before described is the greater stroke of the Rams in a press of the same
circumference and fitting the same borehole as in the construction described in our
previous specification This result we obtain because the depth of the Ram Cylinder
is greater and we can place the escape holes E at a much lower level accordingly It
is not necessary to provide each Rain cylinder with an escape hole it will be sufficient
if the first and list Ram cylinder in the press has an escape hole
In the ordinary press which we chiefly propose to use in Coil Mines and which is
3 inches in diameter and about 21 to 22 inches long, this crescent shaped attachment
would be from a quarter inch to half an inch thick it its basis and about 1 inch high
and from 19 to 20 inches long We do not however restrict ourselves to these
measures, which we merely quote is an example, the crescent shaped piece can be
adapted to any size press in proportion
We do not lay clum to the separate parts as described here before, but we claim
the combination and arrangement of the parts as herein described whereby a greater
stroke and easier working of the press is obtained, whilst the cost of construction is
reduced
The best way of working our press is by the following arrangement which his not
been employed before in Hydraulic presses for Mining purposes
It consists in the use of a spirally bont copper tube for connecting the force pump
and the steel tube B which is screwed to the press This copper tube is screwed to
the pump and the free end of the steel tube by means of Unions The number of
circular twists which the copper tube receives depends on the distance between the
pump and the press, which should be about from 5 to 8 feet The operator will by
this arrangement be enabled to stand at a proper distance from the Coil and will not
be exposed to any danger from the falling mass The copper tube when it is spirally
wound will possess sufficient elasticity to follow the movements of the press during
the breaking down process, whilst it also has power of resistance enough to keep the
press on the mass of coal after it has been brought down without any other support
whatsoever As the press will rest in an inclined position on the coal which has been
brought down the water will flow back by itself into the pump
With this spiral arrangement, several presses may be worked from one pump A
cross shaped union is then used at the pump and the copper tube would run straight
till within a few feet from the borehole which contains the press In face of this
borehole it would be secured and from this point only up to the press it would be
spirally wound
We wish it to be distinctly understood, that we do not lay any clum of novelty to
the use of a spirally wound copper tube We have merely described the arrangement
for the purpose of shewing the best method of connecting our press with the pump
and because in carrying out our invention we shall make a point of using this
arrangement for the sake of protecting our press from injuries and for making all
other supports unnecessary

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim 15
Improvements in the construction of Hydraulic Presses for Mining purposes,
consisting in the combination and arrangement of the parts R-U- and h, by which
construction a better and simpler Action of the Press is obtained substantially as
herein before described with reference to annexed illustrative drawing
Dated this Twenty first day of July One thousand eight hundred and eighty eight
CHAS W J NOLTE,
17, Coleman Street, EC,
Agent