IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR RAISING, LOWERING, AND TRANSPORTING OBJECTS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of No. 20, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES
FOR RAISING, LOWERING, AND TRANSPORTING OBJECTS."-A communication
from abroad by Nicolaus Wonlarlarsky, of St. Petersburg, in the
Empire of Russia.
Sealed the 18th November 1870, and dated the 5th August 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 5th August 1870.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
OR APPLIANCES FOR RAISING, LOWERING, AND TRANSPORTING OBJECTS," to be
as follows:-
:-
This Invention has for its object the construction of a portable
apparatus for conveying goods short distances, and for loading and
unloading them upon or from carts, railway wagons, barges, &c.,

page_text: principally applicable in localities where cranes are not erected, and
where such loading and unloading is usually effected by manual labour.
The apparatus consists mainly of a beam supported at the requisite
height from the ground, by preference by means of a tripod from which
the beam is suspended, by means of hooks attached to the latter at one
or more points in its length, which beam is secured in a more or less
inclined position by means of guy ropes attached to the ends thereof
and secured to the ground in any convenient manner. Upon the beam
is situated a small carriage with pulley tackle, to which the load to be
transported is suspended. The beam being inclined from the place from
which the objects are to be removed towards the place where they are to
be deposited, it follows that on shifting the carriage to the higher end of
the beam and suspending the load thereto by means of the tackle, the
carriage with the load will by virtue of its gravity, run down the
inclined beam to the end where the load is to be deposited, which is
effected by lowering it by means of the tackle. Thus the load is
transported from the one point to the other with little or no expenditure
of power.
In order to relieve the hauling chain or rope of the tackle from the
weight of the load while this is travelling along the beam a short chain
may be suspended from the carriage, on to which the load is hooked when.
it has been raised by the tackle. The beam is by preference provided
with three hooks for suspension from the tripod or other support, one in
the middle of its length and the other two towards the two ends, so that
by employing one of the latter as the point of suspension the beam may be
made to overhang any space, and also if needed it may then be used itself
as a lever. The beam may either be of one solid or hollow piece, in which
case the load is suspended from the carriage by means of bridle piece
while the suspension hooks are fixed in the middle of the beam; or the
beam is constructed of two metal bars fixed together with the inter-
vention of distance pieces at the ends, and by means bridge pieces
carrying the suspension hooks in such manner that a space intervenes
between the two bars, through which passes a looped rod attached to the
carriage, from which rod the lifting tackle with the load is suspended.
Thus it will be seen that in either arrangement of the beam the
carriage with its load will be enabled to pass the point of suspension of
the beam on its way from one end of the beam to the other..

page_text: The beam may be suspended either directly from the tripod or other
support, or with the intervention of lifting tackle, by preference such as
the well known Weston's differential pulley. It may also be suspended
from supports at the two ends instead of one in the middle.
If it be required to transport the goods a greater distance than the
length of the beam will allow of, two or more of the above described
apparatus may be erected end to end, and the load conveyed along cach
one consecutively.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 6th December 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-fourth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Charles Denton Abel, Her special licence that
I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my exe-
cutors, 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, 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 APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR RAISING, LOWERING, AND
TRANSPORTING OBJECTS," (a communication to me from abroad by Nicolaus
Wonlarlarsky, of St. Petersburg, in the Empire of Russia,) upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, 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

page_text: Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof, reference being had to the accompany-
ing Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say :-
This Invention has reference to a new or improved portable apparatus
of simple and inexpensive construction principally intended for loading
and unloading goods of moderate weight, such as are generally moved by
manual labour, the employment of cranes being usually limited to goods
of not less than 10 cwt.
The said apparatus consists mainly of a beam suspended at any
desired height from a tripod or other suitable support, upon which beam
is situated a small carriage with lifting tackle for raising and conveying
the goods, the beam being steadied while in use by means of guy ropes
or chains. The beam is by preference provided with three suspending
hooks fixed at different points of its length, by either of which it is
suspended, either directly or with the intervention of lifting tackle from
the tripod or other support, and is held in a more or less inclined position
by the before-mentioned guy ropes or chains, secured in any suitable
manner to the ground. The beam is inclined from the place where the
goods are to be unloaded to the point where they are to be deposited, so
that on the load being suspended from the carriage this will, by virtue
of the gravity of the load, of itself run down the inclined beam to the
end where the goods are to be unloaded, and thus the expenditure of
power for removing the goods from the one point to the other will be
obviated. The raising of the load at the first-named point and the
lowering of the same at the last-named point is effected by means of the
before-mentioned lifting tackle, the hauling end of the rope or chain of
which is allowed to slip through the band of the operator while the load
suspended from the carriage is passing with the same along the beam.
After depositing the load the carriage is drawn back to the loading end
of the beam by the said hauling end of the lifting tackle.
The construction of the before-described portable apparatus for loading
and unloading will be readily understood upon reference to the accompany-
ing Drawing, in which similar parts are indicated by similar. letters of

page_text: reference in each of the Figures. Figure 1 shews a side view of the
apparatus; Figure 2 shews a side view of the beam detached; Figure 3.
shews a plan of the same; Figure 4 shews an enlarged transverse section
of the same through X, X, Figure 2; Figure 5 shews an enlarged cross
section through the carriage k; Figure 6 shews a section through the
same on the line Y, Y, Figure 5; Figure 7 shews an enlarged view of
the suspending loop c; Figure 8 shews a part enlarged section and
elevation of one of the poles a; Figure 9 shews an enlarged view of the
connecting bolt b, which is bent to the required curvature, as shewn in
Figure 1; Figure 10 shews a transverse section of a solid form of beam.
with modified construction of the carriage k.
a, a, a, is the tripod or support composed of three poles of wood or
metal (either solid or tubular) connected together at the upper ends in
such manner, by means of a bolt 6 passing through the same, that the
poles may be freely moved nearer together or farther apart, or even laid:
closely side by side for convenience of transport. The bolt 6 also carries
the loop c, to which the beam d, d, is hung either directly, as shewn in
the Drawing, or with the intervention of a differential pulley by means.
of one of the three hooks e, e, e. The beam d is constructed either of
wood or, preferably, of iron or steel, and is composed of two flat bars,
as shewn in Figures 1 to 4, which are secured together at a certain
distance apart by means of bolts or rivets and distance pieces fat the
ends, and by means of the bridge pieces 9 carrying the suspension.
hooks e.
Upon the upper edges of these bars runs the carriage / (Figures 1, 5,
and 6), from the eye n of which is suspended the load m by means of the
lifting tackle with hauling rope or chain s. The carriage may either
have only two wheels p, as shewn, or it may be provided with four.
wheels. The bridge pieces g must be of such a height that the carriage
can pass through them on its way from one end of the beam to the.
other. The lifting tackle for raising, lowering, and suspending the
load is hooked into the eye n, which is suspended loosely upon the axle o.
of the carriage. By suspending the beam d from one of the two side
hooks e instead of the middle one it may be made to overhang a con-,
siderable space such as might be necessary for loading and unloading a
barge, and it may also in that case be used as a lever.
As before stated the beam & may also be of one solid piece of wood
or other suitable material, as shewn in the section at Figure 10. In this,

page_text: case the bridge pieces 9 are dispensed with, and the suspending hooks e
are fixed directly in the middle of the beam. The wheels p of the
carriage are in this case connected by the stirrup n', from which the
lifting tackle is suspended. By this arrangement it will be seen that
the carriage & can, as in the previous arrangement, pass the hooks e on
its way along the beam.
It will be self understood that the strength of the beam and other
parts will have to be made in due proportion to the load the apparatus
is intended to carry, and their form may also be varied according to
circumstances without departing from the nature of this Invention;
thus for the tripod a may be substituted any other convenient form of
support, and the beam may even be supported at the two ends instead of
centrally, if desired, such supports being not rigidly connected to the
beam, and arranged in any convenient manner, so that they may be
raised or lowered so as to give the beam the requisite inclination.
If the apparatus requires to be frequently shifted from one locality to
another, the suspension of the beam d may be advantageously effected
by means of the well-known "Weston's differential pulley" with endless
hauling chain, which is interposed between the suspension hooks e and
the loop c of the support, so as to enable the beam to be raised and
lowered. Such differential pulley being of well-known construction,
and forming no part of the present Invention, it is not shown on the
Drawing.
The mode of operating with the apparatus is as follows:-The guy
ropes or chains ", ", are secured to a fixed object in such a manner that
they hold the beam in a position inclining from the place where the
goods are situated to the point where they are to be deposited, as, for
instance, with the one end overhanging a railway wagon, and the other
end over the platform. The load is then suspended to the lower hook of
the lifting tackle, is raised by the hauling rope s, after which by
letting the said rope slide through his hand the operator allows the
carriage with its load, by virtue of its own gravity to run down the
inclined beam to the end where the load is to be deposited; arrived at
such point the load is lowered by the tackle, and after unhooking the
latter the carriage with the tackle is drawn back to the other end of the
beam and the operation is repeated.
In order to take the drag produced by the weight of the load off the
operator's hands while the carriage is passing along the beam the load

page_text: may when raised to the requisite height be hooked on to a short
independent length of rope or chain suspended from the carriage or
upper pulley of the tackle, from which it is unhooked when arrived at
the other end of the beam.
By placing several of the before described apparatus end to end it will
be evident that the loads may be transported considerable distances by
transmitting the load when arrived at the end of the beam of one
apparatus to the carriage on the contiguous end of the beam to the next
apparatus.
The advantages to be derived from the use of the before described
apparatus are, —
First. Its simple and inexpensive construction.
Second. The ease with which it may be transported from place to
place.
Third. The rapidity with which goods may be loaded or unloaded by
means thereof.
Fourth. The great saving of manual labour effected by its use.
It is therefore anticipated that this apparatus will meet with
considerable applications at railway stations, docks, landing places,
factories, and for agricultural purposes, &c. for loading, unloading, and
transporting goods of medium weight.
Having thus described the nature of this Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, I wish it to be understood that I am aware of the
existence of travelling cranes consisting of a horizontal beam supported
at each end by travelling uprights framed rigidly with the said beam and
having a carriage which is moved along the beam by means of chains
passing over guide pulleys down to winches on each side of the supports,
and I therefore in no way claim such an arrangement; nor do I limit
myself to the precise details of the apparatus as shown on the accom-
panying Drawing, as these may be variously modified without departing
from the nature of the Invention; but what I claim is,--
First. Constructing and using apparatus for raising, lowering, and
transporting goods wherein a beam suspended in a detachable manner
from a tripod or other support carries a truck or carriage with lifting
tackle, to which the load to be moved is suspended, and which is caused

page_text: to move with the load along the said beam either by the action of gravity
or by the operator drawing it along, substantially as herein-before
described.
Second. The beam d or equivalent structure acting in combination
with the tripod or other support a, guy ropes r, carriage k, and lifting
tackle 1, s, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
Third. The provision of two or more suspension hooks at different
points of the beam for the purposes set forth.
Fourth. Constructing the beam d of two chceks or bars a certain
distance apart, connected by bridge pieces 9 with suspension hooks e
through which the carriage k is free to pass, substantially as set forth.
Fifth. Constructing the beam d of a solid piece with suspension hooks
secured in the middle of its width in combination with a carriage, the
wheels of which are connected by a stirrup passing below the beam,
substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
Sixth. The subject-matter of the second claim in combination with
adjustable supports at each end of the beam d in lieu of the central
support and guy ropes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have herc-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
CHA³. D. ABEL. (L.S.)