IMPROVEMENTS IN Pile Driving Machinery
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Sissons, of the Firm of Sissons and White,
of Kingston-upon-Hull, in the County of York, Manufacturer of Steam
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
Pile Driving Machinery, for the Invention
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Sissons at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th
May 1862.
Hull,
I. WILLIAM SISSONS, of the Firm of Sissons and White, of Kingston-upon-
in the County of York, Manufacturer of Steam Pile Driving Machinery.
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR DRIVING PILES BY MEANS OF STEAM HAMMERS," to be a
follows:-
This Invention consists in an improved description of catch for lifting and
releasing the hammer to allow it to fall upon and drive the pile into the
ground, and the application in conjunction therewith of steam power to the
Also the combination of a steam
ordinary form of the hand-piling machine.
Price Sd.l

page_text: engine with framing, movable platform, chain, and catch for the purpose of
pile driving.
The frame is composed of ordinary wood guide pieces, side stays, and
back ladders, all these points resting on a platform. This platform consists of
two heights, an upper and an under one; the upper part revolves on the
lower part in a similar manner to a turntable, so as to enable the machine to
face any angle. On the upper part of this platform is fixed a steam winch,
which is provided with one or two cylinders and valves, which have slides and
eccentrics attached to them. The connecting rod of this cylinder causes a
shaft to revolve by means of a crank; on this shaft is fixed a pinion, which
gears into a cog wheel fixed on a shaft, which has a spiked barrel or drum
on it; round this drum an endless chain revolves. This endless chain is of
the pitched flat link kind. and revolves round the drum at the bottom, passes
up the machine, and is carried over a wheel at the top of the machine, and in
this manner revolves round the spiked drum at the bottom and the wheel at
the top. The hammer moves on the face or outside of the guide pieces; an
opening is made in the hammer from front to back to receive an eccentric or
crank and catch, which are fixed on an axle passing through the sides of the
hammer and the eccentric or crank. This eccentric or crank is worked by a
lever, and pushes out a bolt or catch into an open link of the pitched chain
as it ascends, and thus the hammer is lifted. The catch is released from the
chain by reversing the eccentric or crank, which is done by an opposite lever
striking against pins fixed in the guide pieces, and the hammer then falls on
the pile.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Sissons in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th November 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
Sissons, of the Firm of Sissons and White, Kingston-upon-Hull, in the
County of York, Manufacturer of Steam Pile Driving Machinery, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,

page_text: the said William Sissons, Her special licence, that I, the said William
Sissons, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Sissons, 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, lise,
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 DRIVING PILES BY MEANS OF STEAM HAMMERS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said William Sissons, 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Sissons, 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:
My Invention consists of an improved description of catch for lifting and
releasing the hammer to allow it to fall upon and drive the pile into the
ground; and also the application thereof, in conjunction with the improved
arrangements of steam power to the hand-piling machine, and likewise the
combination of a steam engine with framing, moveable platform, chain, and
catch for the purpose of pile driving.
The arrangements I propose to adopt for the adaptation of steam power to
a machine of form similar to the ordinary hand-piling machine for the com-
bination of a steam engine with framing, moveable platform, chain and catch,
for the purpose of pile-driving, and the improved description of catch for
lifting and releasing the hammer, to allow it to fall upon and drive the pile
into the ground, will be best understood by reference to the accompanying
illustrative Drawings, which I now proceed to describe, as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 (Sheet 1) shews a side elevation of the machine; Fig. 2, a sectional
Fig. 1 (Sheet 1) shows a side elevation of the machine; Fig. 2. a sectional
elevation; Figs. 3 and 4 shew a plan of the lower and upper platforms A, B,
the section of the platform being denoted by Cx, Fig. 5, the plan of the first
stage by DX, Fig. 6, and the side elevation and section of the hammer
shewing the catch, and the manner in which it lays hold of the chain by

page_text: Ex, Ex, Figs. 7 and 8. The framing is composed of ordinary wood guide-
pieces C, C, side stays D. D. and back ladder E, all these parts resting on
the platform F, which has two heights, an upper and an under one, the upper
part secured on the lower part in a similar manner to a turntable, so as 10
enable the machine to face to any angle. The upper part of the platform
has aflixed thereto a steam winch, which is provided with one or two cylinders a,
and valves b, having slides and excentrics c, c, attached to them. The con-
necting rod of the cylinders causes a shaft to turn by means of a crank, this
shaft having a pinion a affixed, which pinion gears into a toothed wheel e fixed
on a shaft, which has a spiked barrel or drum on it, over which drum an
endless chain travels. This endless chain is of the pitched flat link kind,
and turns upon the drum g at the bottom, passing upwards, and being carried
over a wheel h. at the top of the machine, and thus is kept moving by the
spiked drum at the bottom and the wheel at the top, as shown by the
Drawings. The catch, as shown at Figs. 7 and 8, E, E, is composed of an
excentrici, fixed in a cell in the middle of the hammer, the said excentric
turning on a pin this eccentric is made to turn by the lever i being drawn
downward by the cord shewn in the Drawing. so that the bolt m, attached
by a joint to the eccentric, is thus shot into the open link of the pitched chain
in its upward motion, whereby the hammer is lifted. The striking of
staple is fixed to the front of the upright guide pieces, when upon the other
end of the lever c striking against this staple, the bolt is drawn out of the
chain, and the hammer thus released falls on the pile. Provision is made
for pitching the pile p by attaching a chain q round the head of the pile, and
passing this chain over a sheaver fixed on the top of the guides C, C, and by
means of a shackle fixing it to the endless chain, which, when put in motion,
draws up the pile. Steam can be supplied from a boiler at a distance, either
fixed or portable, or on a truck travelling on the same lines as the machine,
and attached to it.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I wish to have it understood that I do
not confine myself to the precise arrangements and forms of the parts repre-
sented by the Drawings. What I claim and desire to secure by the said
Letters Patent being the application to an ordinary hand-piling machine of a
steam winch or crab and endless chain, hammer, catch, and sheaves working
simultaneously on a moveable platform or turntable, as herein-before described.
and also the peculiar catch, as herein-before described; and I claim, gene-
rally, the arrangement and combination of the several parts above described,

page_text: for the purposes set forth; but I do not claim the parts taken separately,
excepting the catch above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Sissons, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of November, in the year of our
Lord 1862.
•
Witness,
JOHN SISSONS,
49, Market Place, Hull.
WILLIAM SISSONS. (L.S.)