IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR DRILLING AND BORING HOLES
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Julius Ball, of New Bridge Street,
Blackfriars, in the Oity of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR DRILLING AND BORING HOLES.”
Sealed the 16th May 1878, and dated the 21st November 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Julius Ball
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 21st November 1872.
I, CHARLES JULIUS BALL, of New Bridge Street, Blackfriars, in the
City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS -IN-MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR DRILLING AND BORING
HOLES," to be as follows :——
This Invention relates to improvements in that form of apparatus for
drilling and boring holes in which a cylinder is used fitted with a
piston which is made to work backwards and forwards by the pressure
of steam, compressed air, or other elastic fluid, the drill used for boring
being attached to a rod connected with such piston. It consists of an
improved method of causing a single piston to travel backwards and

page_text: .
forwards in the cylinder of such drilling or boring apparatus by means
of an ordinary slide valve working in a steam-tight chest attached to or
forming part of the cylinder, which slide valve opens a port or passage
at each end of the cylinder alternately. These ports or passages are so
arranged that the one opened and closed by the lower end of the slide 5
valve communicates with the upper end of the cylinder (above the
piston), while the one opened and closed by the upper end of the valve
communicates with the lower end of the cylinder (below the piston).
I prefer to make or form the ports or passages described in a separate
plate which is attached to the cylinder, and upon the face of which the 1
slide valve works.
And in order to actuate such slide valve I arrange a suitable pro-
jection or projections upon the slide valve, or upon a rod connected to
the slide valve, which projection or projections are struck (at the extre-
mities of the stroke of the piston) by a tappet or tappets upon a rod 1
outside the cylinder, but connected to the piston, thus reversing the
direction of motion of the piston.
The advantage of this method of construction is that no lever is
required to work the slide valve, its motion when struck being in the
same direction as that of the piston (owing to the novel arrangement of 2
ports or passages already described), and great economy is thus effected
in the weight of the apparatus (one piston only being necessary), and in
the simplicity of its parts and consequent durability, especially when it
is driven at a very high speed.
Another part of my Invention consists of a novel arrangement for a
altering the size of the ports or passages opened by the slide valves
above described. In order to do this I prefer to make sliding plates
upon which the slide valve works, worked by screws or levers, so that
they may cover the ports more or less as required, and I connect these
sliding plates together, so that when the lower port is closing the upper
one is opening, and vice versa. By this means I enlarge the opening of
the upper port (which admits the steam below the piston) when the
hole, being bored by the drill, has reached a great depth, and the weight
of the rods attached to the drill becomes great, so that a larger quantity
of steam is admitted to raise the piston, and at the same time the
opening of the other port is diminished, so that a smaller quantity of
steam is admitted to force the piston down.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Julius Ball in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 21st May 1878.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
Julius Ball, of New Bridge Street, Blackfriars, in the City of London,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first-day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Charles Julius Ball,. Her special
licence that I, the said Charles Julius Ball, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Julius Ball,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, usc,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR DRILLING AND BORING HOLES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Julius
Ball, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Julius Ball; 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 and accompanying Drawing (that is to
say) :-
My Invention is especially applicable to that form of apparatus used
for drilling and boring in which a cylinder is used fitted with a suitable
piston, which piston is made to work backwards and forwards in the
cylinder by the pressure of steam, compressed air, or other elastic fluid,

page_text: the drill used for boring being attached to the outer end of a rod
connected with the piston.
My improvements have for their objects a more simple method of
working the ordinary slide valve by which the direction of motion of
the piston is reversed at each end of its stroke than has heretofore been 5
ordinarily used in such engines. Also a method of altering the
relative size of the ports by which the steam or other elastic fluid is
admitted above and below the piston in such manner that if a vertical
hole is being drilled the size of the lower port is increased, and that of
the upper port is diminished as the depth of the hole and the consequent 1
weight of the drill become greater, and the increased weight of the drill
is thus to some extent counterbalanced.
For the purpose of carrying into operation the first part of my
Invention I form upon or attach to the cylinder in which the piston
works a flat face containing steam and exhaust ports, upon which 1
works a slide valve of the usual form and construction. The slide valve
is contained in a steam chest, to which the steam, compressed air, or
other elastic fluid by which the piston is actuated is admitted. In using
such slide valves as ordinarily applied to cylinders containing moveable
pistons it is necessary that the valve should be driven in an opposite
direction to that in which the piston is moving when it is required that
'the direction of the latter should be reversed, and this renders it
necessary where the valve is driven by the direct impact of the piston or
of projections connected to the piston or the piston rod, that a lever
should be used by which the direction of motion of the valve is a
reversed.
My improvement consists in making each of the two steam ports
which are opened by the valve communicate with a passage leading to
the opposite end of the cylinder, so that the port opened and closed by
the lower end of the slide valve communicates with the upper end of
the cylinder (above the piston) while the port opened and closed by the
end of the valve communicates with the lower end of the cylinder
upper
(below the piston), and by this arrangement the use of a lever as above
described is avoided, and great simplicity is attained.
I prefer to make or form the ports and passages described in a
separate plate which is attached to the cylinder, and upon the face of
which the slide valve works.

page_text: In order to actuate the slide valve described at the extremities of the
stroke of the piston, I prefer to arrange a suitable projection or pro-
jections upon the slide valve, or upon a rod connected to it, which
projection or projections are struck (at the extremities of the stroke of
the piston) by a tappet or tappets upon a rod outside the cylinder, but
connected to the piston.
By my improved method of construction and arrangement as above.
described great economy is effected in the weight of the apparatus, and
in the simplicity of its parts and consequent durability, especially when
it is worked at a high speed, and one piston only is necessary.
The accompanying Drawing is in illustration of this part of my
Invention. Figure 1 shews a plan; Figures 2 and 3, side views; and
Figure 4, a cross section of a cylinder shewing the method in which I
arrange the ports.
a is the body of the cylinder, 6 the stuffing box, and c the piston
rod (both shewn broken off) to which the drill is attached; d is the
exhaust port, and e, f, steam ports, the opening and closing of which
are regulated by a slide valve of the ordinary form and construction.
The outer steam port e is shewn communicating by the passage e¹ with
the inner end of the cylinder, and the inner steam port ƒ is shewn com-
municating by the passage f¹ with the outer end of the cylinder.
In Figures 1, 3, and 4 the passage f¹ is shewn raised sufficiently for
the exhaust passage to pass underneath it.
The second part of my Invention consists of a novel arrangement for
altering the size of the ports which are opened by the slide valve as
above described. For this purpose I prefer to make a sliding plate or
plates upon which the slide valve works between the valve face and the
valve, and I arrange this plate, or connect them together where more
than one is used, so that they may cover the ports more or less as
required, and so that when the lower port is being closed the upper
port is being opened, and vice versa. I connect this plate or plates to
suitable levers or screws, by which their position may be adjusted as
required. By this means I enlarge the opening of the upper port
(through which steam is admitted below the piston) when the hole
which is being bored by the drill has reached a great depth, and the
weight of the rods by which the drill is attached to the piston becomes

page_text: great, so that a larger quantity of steam is admitted to raise the piston,
and at the same time the opening of the other port is diminished, so
that a smaller quantity of steam is admitted to force the piston down.
By this arrangement considerable economy is effected in the quantity of
steam or other elastic fluid required to drive the apparatus, and there is
less wear and tear and consequently greater durability of the different
parts of the apparatus.
I claim as my Invention the use in apparatus used for drilling and
boring holes of ports and passages opened and closed by an ordinary
slide valve, and so arranged that the ports opened by the respective ends 1
of the slide valve communicate with the opposite ends of the cylinder
respectively, substantially as described and shewn in the Drawing.
Also the method, substantially as and for the purpose described, of
altering the relative openings of the ports opened and closed by the slide
valve.
In witness whereof I, the said Charles Julius Ball, have hereunto
set.my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
CHARLES JULIUS BALL. (L.S.)