IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR EXCAVATING LAND,
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Florent Joseph Vandenvinne, of No. 37, Rue aux
Laines, Brussels, in the Kingdom of -Belgium, Manufacturer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR EXCAVATING LAND, MAKING
Sealed the 19th April 1864, and dated the 2nd November 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Florent Joseph Vandenvinne
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd November 1863.
I, FLORENT JOSEPH VANDENVINNE, of No. 37, Rue aux Laines, Brussels, in
the Kingdom of Belgium, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR EXCAVATING LAND, MAKING
CUTTINGS, AND OTHER EARTHWORKS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for excavating
land, making cuttings, and other earthworks. The machinery is intended to
make cuttings in mountains and hills for railways, roads, canals, or other
works. For this purpose a framework mounted on wheels and running on
rails or on a tramway is employed, this carries a small steam engine of
sufficient horse-power to work the apparatus. On the front part of the frame
or carriage are placed two vertical shafts in wrought iron, working in bearings
bolted to the frame, these shafts are furnished with a number of arms carrying
picks with steel points, they are fitted and wedged to the shafts, and the picks
are placed on the shafts so as to form the blades of the helice or screw; so that

page_text: only the points of one set of picks of each shaft touch at the same time
the earth to be removed, and the sets of picks succeed each other without
interruption. These shafts work in opposite directions, so that the picks cross
one another continuously, and the arms on the upper ends of the shafts are
longer than at the lower ends, so that they make in working a sloping cutting.
The shafts with the picks are actuated by gearing and driving belts from the
engine. This apparatus cuts and detaches the earth and throws it into
buckets fixed on an endless chain; the buckets take the earth up to the top
of the frame, and empty it down an inclined plane into waggons for removal;
these waggons may be placed either on the right side or left, or behind the
frame, as most convenient. The frame is worked forward by a shaft with
a screw working with a worm wheel on the axles of the carrying wheels,
the whole apparatus is thus moved forward so as to keep the picks continually
in contact with the earth.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Florent Joseph Vandenvinne in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th April 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FLORENT
JOSEPH VANDENVINNE, of No. 37, Rue aux Laines, Brussels, in the Kingdom
of Belgium, Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Florent Joseph Vandenvinne, Her special licence that I, the said Florent
Joseph Vandenvinne, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Florent Joseph Vandenvinne, 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, 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 MACHINERY FOR EXCAVATING LAND, MAKING CUTTINGS, AND
OTHER EARTHWORKS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Florent Joseph Vandenvinne, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-

page_text: tion, 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 Florent Joseph Vandenvinne, 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, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for excavating
land, making cuttings, and other earthworks. The machinery is intended to
make cuttings in mountains and hills for railways, roads, canals, or other
works. For this purpose a framework mounted on wheels and running on
rails or on a tramway is employed, this carries a small steam engine of
sufficient horse-power to work the apparatus. On the front part of the frame
or carriage are placed two vertical shafts in wrought iron, working in bearings
bolted to the frame, these shafts are furnished with a number of arms carrying
picks with steel points, they are fitted and wedged to the shafts, and the picks
are placed on the shaft so as to form the blades of the helix or screw, so that
only the points of one set of picks of each shaft touch at the same time the
earth to be removed, and the sets of picks succeed each other without
interruption. These shafts work in opposite directions, so that the picks cross
one another continuously, and the arms on the upper ends of the shafts are
longer than at the lower ends, so that they make in working a sloping
cutting. The shafts with the picks are actuated by gearing and driving belts
from the engine. This apparatus cuts and detaches the earth and throws it
into buckets fixed on an endless chain; the buckets take the earth up to the
top of the frame and empty it down an inclined plane into waggons for removal;
these waggons may be placed either on the right side or left, or behind the
frame, as most convenient. The frame is worked forward by a shaft fitted
with a screw working with a worm wheel on the axles of the carrying wheels,
the whole apparatus is thus moved forward so as to keep the picks continually
in contact with the earth.
And in order that my Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into effect I will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a side view, and Figure 2 a plan view (with some of the
parts removed), of a machine constructed in the manner I prefer for carrying
out my Invention. No. 1 is the framing of the machine, composed of four hori-
zontal bars of timber bound together by suitable cross bars and iron fastenings;

page_text: at the rear end of the frame is placed a small steam engine and boiler, No. 2;
at the front part of the framing are placed two wrought-iron vertical shafts
carried in bearings, marked No. 3, that are holted to the frame; the shafts J
are each furnished with a number of picks L; each of the picks is composed
of a wrought-iron arm fitted to the vertical shaft by a collar or otherwise, and
each of the arms at its outer end is furnished with a point of steel. The arms
are fixed around the shafts in such manner as to form a spiral helix or screw,
as is shewn in the plan view, Figure 2; thus when the machine is at work only the
points of one set of picks of éach.shaft act on the earth at the same time; the
fixing the picks or cutters around the shafts so that they will act in this manner
forms an important part of my Invention. The two shafts revolve in opposite
directions, and the shafts are at such a distance apart that the picks cross
each other continuously; the arms at the upper end of the shafts are, as is
shewn, longer at the upper end of the shafts than at the lower end, and so a
sloped cutting is formed by the machine; .the earth cut away by the picks is
also, according to my Invention, received as before mentioned in the buckets
of an endless chain, by which the earth is raised and deposited into waggons.
I will now describe the manner in which, according to the arrangement
shewn in the Drawings, the different parts of the apparatus have motion
transmitted to them from the steam engine. A is a pulley on the shaft of the
steam engine; this pulley transmits motion to a pulley C on the shaft E; on
this shaft is another pulley C¹ which transmits motion to the pulley D on the
shaft B; this shaft carries the octagonal drum K, around which the upper
portion of the endless chain of buckets M, which removes the earth cut away
by the picks, passes; the lower portion of the endless chain passes around the
drum W; on the shaft. B is also a pulley D¹, which transmits motion to the
pulley F; on the axis of this pulley are two bevilled pinions H, H; one of
which transmits motion to a bevilled wheel G on one of the vertical shafts J,
and the other bevilled pinion to a similar wheel G on the other vertical shaft.
On the axis of the steam engine is another pulley N, from which motion is
transmitted to a pulley O on the axis P of the worm Q; this worm works in a
worm wheel R on the axis S, and this axis transmits motion by worms U and
worm wheels V, as is shewn at Figure 1, to the axis of the wheels. T which
support the hinder end of the apparatus, and the apparatus is thus constantly
moved forwards when at work. The wheels which support the hinder end of
the apparatus are by preference made suitable for running on rails, as shewn
in the Drawing, and when the machine is at work the rails are continuously
laid down to receive these wheels as the machine moves forwards; the front
end of the machine is supported by a roller I, this roller also serves to level

page_text: any earth not removed by the buckets. In the arrangement shewn in the
Drawing the earth that is cut away by the revolving cutters and is carried up
by the buckets of the endless chain M, is deposited on to an endless apron X,
by which it is carried to the rear end of the machine, and is dropped down the
incline Y into waggons for removal; the endless apron X has motion imparted
to it from the pulley on the axis E.
In witness whereof, I, the said Florent Joseph Vandenvinne, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
FL. J. VANDENVINNE. (L.S.)