IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR DREDGING, LIFTING, DISCHARGING, LOADING, AND CONVEYING GRAIN OR OTHER MERCHANDISE OR MATERIAL EITHER SOLID OR LIQUID
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Percy Graham Buchanan Westmacott
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th November 1879.
PERCY GRAHAM BUCHANAN WESTMACOTT, of Elswick, in the County of Newcastle-
upon-Tyne. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR DREDGING, LIFTING, DISCHARGING,
LOADING, AND CONVEYING GRAIN OR OTHER MERCHANDISE OR MATERIAL EITHER
SOLID OR LIQUID."
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for dredging,
lifting, discharging, loading, and conveying grain or other merchandise or material,
either solid or liquid.
At the present it is usual to raise grain from the holds of ships by means of an
endless series of buckets carried by bands or chains passing around pulleys at the
top and bottom. Similar apparatus is used in graneries, warehouses, and other
places. Apparatus of a like nature is also employed in dredging the bottoms of
water courses for raising water and for other uses.
Hitherto in such dredging machinery the driving power has been applied
continuously through the axis of the upper drum or pulley of the endless series of
buckets, and this drum or pulley consequently has to be made of large dimensions
adapted to the power transmitted through it. This necessitates an increase of the
dimensions throughout the whole length of the elevator leg, which is inconvenient
and costly. Now according to my Invention I apply the power not through the
axis but by means of a rope, chain, or rod, placed along side of the endless series of
buckets. Such rope, chain, or rod, has a reciprocating motion imparted to it, and
is made to engage in its upward movement with the endless bands or chains of the
series of buckets and to release its hold upon them when the downward motion
commences. In the case of stationary elevators it is convenient to impart this
intermittent motion to the endless series of buckets by means of an hydraulic
cylinder and ram, and this cylinder having its foundations near the lower end of the
elevator leg and exerting a direct upward pull on the endless chains or bands
carrying the buckets, the strains upon the upper end of the elevator leg are much
less than they are when the power is transmitted through the axis of the upper
drum or pulley, and consequently the framework of the elevator leg may be of
a lighter and cheaper construction, and the cost of conveying the power to the

page_text: upper end of the elevator is saved. Two cylinders acting alternately may be
employed.
In moveable elevators such as are employed in dredging wheat and other cargoes
out of the holds of ships it is convenient to give motion to the endless series of
buckets by means of a rope or chain descending from an overhead pulley and
carrying a weight or monkey working up and down in guides and provided with a
catch so that in its upward movements it engages with the endless chains or bands
carrying the buckets, whilst it releases them when the return movement commences.
The lifting rope may be worked by a steam or hydraulic jigger in a lighter along-
side or otherwise conveniently placed. In the case of unloading ships these
arrangements present a further advantage in that the lifting rope can at any time
be disconnected from the weight or monkey and employed in lifting out merchandise
in bales, boxes, or sacks, and this may be done if desired without removing the
elevator leg from its position in the hatchway. I also effect a considerable
reduction in the length and weight of the elevator leg by causing it to deliver into
a receiver to which a tipping movement can be imparted in place of making the
elevator leg long enough to deliver the grain at a sufficient elevation to flow away
at once.
In the case of discharging cargo from a ship this receiver is of a scoop like
form and its body rests upon the deck, whilst its stem which is hollow or trough
like rests upon the rail or bulwark of the ship, and is there suitably secured, but
leaving the receiver free to tip, so that when a charge has been delivered into it
from the buckets it may be lifted at the inner or body end until the grain pours
out when it is conducted by inclines into the lighter or vessel along side. Similarly
where a ship is along side a quay this tipping receiver may discharge the grain at
once on to the quay or into the granary or store. The tipping receiver may in the
case of floating elevators take its motion from a rope attached to it and passing
around an overhead pulley and thence to a jigger or winding apparatus upon the
elevator lighter or vessel. The rope by which motion is thus imparted to the
tipping receiver is available for lifting out cargo in bales, boxes, or sacks, when the
tipping receiver is not at work. My method of actuating the endless series of
elevating buckets by means of a monkey and rope enables me to form the elevator
leg as a part wholly separate from the actuating inechanism. When out of use the
leg lies along the deck of the elevator lighter, and when required for use it is lifted
into the ship by any tackle which may happen to be available, it is dropped through
the hatch way and a spar or tackle is rigged over it to carry the over head pulleys
for the winding ropes. This complete detachment of the elevator leg from the
actuating mechanism is not practicable where the driving is continuous and is
effected by endless driving belts or shafting.
It is obvious that the ropes which I employ to impart intermittent motion to
the endless series of buckets can be led in any direction which may be required,
all that is necessary being an arrangenent of suitable guide pulleys.
It will in some cases be convenient that grain ships should carry their own
elevator, which then when required for use is rigged where it may be wanted, and
the actuating rope working the monkey is taken to the steam winch. If a tipping
receiver be employed this also may be worked from the winch.
The intermittent motion of the elevator also adapts itself very conveniently to
the trimming the cargo in the hold of the vessel. For this purpose I continue the
actuating rope down from the monkey and pass it beneath a sheave at the lower
end of the elevator leg. This rope terminates in a snatch block.
The trimming of the grain is performed by a grain plough to which a rope is
attached; it is led from the plough through the snatch block, and then back to the
plough, to which the attendant makes the rope fast wherever he wishes the
plough to be drawn towards the elevator. At other times the plough is free and
is easily taken about from place to place. In a similar way the plough may be
worked by the rope by which the tipping receiver is actuated.
In some cases, as for elevators upon a quay wall to pass grain direct from the
ship into the warehouse, I employ an endless series of buckets of greater length,

page_text: and the elevator leg which carries them is jointed so that from a point a short
distance above the deck it may take an inclined direction leading over the quay
wall into the warehouse.. The endless chains or bands carrying the buckets receive
a direct motion in the manner already described from a reciprocating rope, rod, or
chain. A similar arrangement is applicable to floating elevators; the jointed
elevator leg is then carried by a derrick upon the lighter and the buckets deliver
the grain at such an elevation that it can pass at once to the weighing and cleaning
appliances. For some purposes in place of providing the endless chains or bands
with buckets they are made to carry claws or sack holders or other instruments
adapted to the nature of the articles or bodies which have to be raised or
conveyed.
Also in some cases it may be convenient to actuate the endless series of buckets
or carriers by means of a cog wheel at the lower end of the elevator leg gearing
with the links of the chain to which the buckets or carriers are attached.
In the case of floating elevators I provide the elevator lighter with steam power
which is available for propelling and also for pumping into accumulators
working hydraulic jiggers, and also for driving and electro-magnetic apparatus
by which electricity is generated, available when the elevator is working at
night for the production of electric light both on board the lighter and in the
hold of the ship from which the cargo is being removed.