A NEW OR IMPROVED SELF-ACTING COUNTERBALANCING APPARATUS FOR PORTABLE CRANES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Wilhelm Georg Brunner, of No. 53, Gracechurch
Street, in the City of London, for the Invention of "A NEW OR
IMPROVED SELF-ACTING COUNTERBALANCING APPARATUS FOR PORTABLE CRANES."
-A communication from abroad by Messrs. Schnabel & Henning,
£ Denahral in the Toning of Germany
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Wilhelm Georg
Brunner at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 11th February 1875.
I, WILHELM GEORG BRUNNER, of No. 53, Gracechurch Street, in the
City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "A NEW OR IMPROVED SELF-ACTING COUNTERBALANCING APPARATUS FOR PORT-
ABLE CRANES," to be as follows :—
The Invention relates to an arrangement of apparatus by means of
which a moveable weight is shifted automatically by the action of the

page_text: load suspended to the jib of the crane into such a position as to counter-
balance the weight of such load, and thus to prevent the upsetting of
the crane.
The said arrangement of apparatus consists in hinging or pivoting the
jib of the crane at its lower end, and so connecting it at its upper end,
by means of suitable levers and connecting rods or links to a moveable
counterbalance weight that the load suspended to the jib, in depressing
the upper end of such jib to an extent proportionate to the weight of
such load, imparts motion through the intervention of the aforesaid
levers and connecting rods or links to the counterbalance weight, shifting
it out from the centre or pivot of the crane far enough to counterbalance
the weight of the load suspended to the jib on the opposite side of such
centre or pivot.
The said counterbalance weight is by preference caused to roll inwards
or outwards by the means and apparatus above described on a rail or
rails so shaped that the counterbalance weight maintains the equilibrium
of the crane for all loads within the limit for which such crane is
designed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Wilhelm Georg Brunner in the Great Seal Patent a
Office on the 11th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILHELM
GEORG BRUNNER, of No. 53, Gracechurch Street, in the City of London;
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 2
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Wilhelm Georg Brunner,
Her special licence that I, the said Wilhelm Georg Brunner, my a
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Wilhelm Georg Brunner, my executors, administrators, and assigns,

page_text: 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED SELF-ACTING COUNTER-
BALANCING APPARATUS FOR PORTABLE CRANES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Wilhelm Georg Brunner, 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 Wilhelm Georg Brunner, 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, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings, and to the letters marked thereon, that is to
say:
:
The Invention relates to an arrangement of apparatus by means of
which a moveable weight is shifted automatically by the action of the
load suspended to the jib of the crane into such a position as to counter-
balance the weight of such load, and thus to prevent the oversetting of
the crane.
.
The said arrangement of apparatus consists in hinging or pivoting the
jib of the crane at its lower end and so connecting it at its upper end by
means of suitable levers and connecting rods or links to a moveablo
counterbalance weight that the load suspended to the jib, in depressing
the upper end of such jib to an extent proportionate to the weight of
such load, imparts motion through the intervention of the aforesaid levers
and connecting rods or links to the counterbalance weight, shifting it
out from the centre or pivot of the crane far enough to counterbalance
the weight of the load suspended to the jib on the opposite side of such
centre or pivot.
The said counterbalance weight is by preference caused to roll inwards
or outwards by the means and apparatus above described on a rail or rails

page_text: so shaped that the counterbalance weight maintains the equilibrium
of the crane for all loads within the limit for which such crane is
designed.
The Drawing represents a side elevation of a crane constructed in
accordance with the Invention. A is the portable truck on which the
crane is mounted; B, the central pillar or pivot; C, the jib of the crane
pivoted at its lower end on the horizontal pivot D adapted to swivel
round the central pillar or pivot B in the usual manner. The upper end
of the jib O is connected by the rod E with a bell-crank lever F turning
on a horizontal fulcrum G, also adapted to swivel round the central pillar
or pivot B. The lower end of the bell-crank lever F is connected by a
link H with a weight I capable of rolling upon a guide rail J fixed to or
forming part of the tail frame of the crane.
It will now be understood that when the crane is unloaded the various
parts will be in the positions shown in black lines in the Drawing, but
when a load is applied at the end of the jib the parts will assume positions
illustrated by the red lines, that is to say, the upper end of the jib will
be more or less depressed according to the weight of the load, drawing
the bell-crank lever F by means of the rod E into the position indicated
by the red line, thereby pushing the weight I outwards along the guide
rail J into a position behind the pillar B, in which it counterbalances the
weight applied to the jib in front of the pillar B.
The guide rail J should be so shaped and the various other parts of
the self-acting counterbalancing apparatus so proportioned that any
weight not exceeding the limit for which the crane is designed being
applied at the jib end shall cause the weight I to move outwards to such
a distance measured horizontally from the centre of the pillar B that its
weight multiplied into such distance shall be equal to the weight of the
load suspended from the jib multiplied into its horizontal distance from
the centre of the said pillar.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention and the manner
in which the same is to or may be performed, I would have it understood
that what I claim as the Invention to be secured by the herein-before in
part recited-Letters Patent is, the apparatus for counterbalancing auto-
matically the weight of the load suspended to the jib by the action of

page_text: the said load itself, arranged and adapted substantially as herein described
and illustrated in the Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Wilhelm Georg Brunner, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of July,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.