Improvements in and relating to the Feeding, Discharging, and Elevating or Conveying of Minerals, Grain, or other Material."
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application; 8th Mar., 1899
Complete Specification Left, 8th Dec., 1899-Accepted, 8th Mar.,.
1900
注
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to the Feeding, Discharging, and
Elevating or Conveying of Minerals, Grain, or other Material."
'
I, STEPHEN HULME, of 184, Swanston Street, Bridgeton, in the County of the
City of Glasgow, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my invention to be
as follows:-
This invention has reference to an improved method of feeding, discharging,
elevating or conveying any material such as coal or other minerals, chemical,
fibrous or like materials and which it will deal with either uniformly or inter-
mittently and will take them long distances, discharging any required quantity
at place or places it may be required and will adopt its position to
to the
irregularities of height, distance, or breadth in an automatic manner.
In carrying this invention into effect I employ an endless chain or band carry-
ing. a series of buckets or other conveyor attachments that will be mounted to
swivel from one position to another that may be required through the irregularity
of the material it has to deal with, an adjustable counterweighted lever being
fitted on the swivelling chain frame that carries the chain.
This swivel arrangement I mount on a carriage which may run on rails, or other
suitable carriers. The chain of buckets or other conveyor attachments on this
carriage will take up the material either regularly or intermittently and will place
it in any position and when it has given out the quantity that may be required it
will move to any other position requiring serving and when changing from one
position to another, it will continue to serve the material through a conveyor or
trough on the carriage and if this conveyor should get filled and no position
requires its attention the material will automatically pass through a return trough
on to the heap which it has originally taken it from.
Attached to this conveyor is a shutter or door so that when it commences to
move from one place to another it closes the lower end of this conveyor and when
it comes to any other position that requires serving or otherwise it will open.
1.
The horizontal travel of the carriage and the vertical travel of the chain of
buckets or other conveyor attachments would be each controlled intermittently
through clutch or equivalent mechanism and the door on conveyor would be
automatically operated by a sliding plate actuated by a balanced shutter. on which
the weight of material acts, the plate having stops to act on levers that operate
the clutch mechanism. Clutch or equivalent mechanism would also be fitted to
change the forward and return horizontal travel motions of carriage.
It will be seen that. by this improved method the conveyor will pick up the
material it has to deal with carrying it any distance, or it will cease to pick up
during traversing at will and will follow backwards and forwards any material
it has to deal with through being unevenly placed.
It will give the required quantity to one or any number and will automatically
attend to any requirements it is set to do.
In carrying these improvements into effect under one arrangement two bevel

page_text: wheels would be mounted loose on the shaft which gives the travelling motion
to carriage. A clutch is fitted to engage with either of these wheels, and a lever
on this clutch is acted on by a stop at the ends of its traverse, and travels the
clutch from the one wheel to engage with the other, and automatically reverse
the notion of shaft and travel of carriage, the travel of carriage being effected
by a worm on shaft engaging with a worm wheel on the travelling shaft of
carriage.
Bell crank or equivalent levers have rod or link connections to the coal or
other hoppers, and when a hopper is emptied or requiring to be filled an arm of
one of these levers comes against a clutch lever on carriage and puts the worm
gear out of action and so stops the further travel of carriage until this hopper
gets filled, when the latter will by its weight automatically tilt the bell crank
levers out of action with carriage lever and the clutch of the latter will be reversed
to put the worm wheel into gear again and the traverse of carriage will go
on until stopped by the next lever.
1000
W. R. M. THOMSON & Co.,
96, Buchanan Street, Glasgow, Agents.
Improvements in and relating to the Feeding, Discharging, and
Elevating or Conveying of Minerals, Grain, or other Material.
I, STEPHEN HULME, of 184, Swanston Street, Bridgeton, in the County of the
City of Glasgow, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement in writing, reference being made to the
accompanying sheets of drawings:-
This invention has reference to an improved method of feeding, discharging,
elevating or conveying any material such as coal or other minerals, chemical,
fibrous or like materials and which it will deal with either uniformly or inter-
mittently and will take them long distances, discharging any required quantity
at place or places it may be required and will adapt its position to the
irregularities of height, distance, or breadth in an automatic manner.
And in order that my said invention and the manner of carrying same into
practice may be properly understood, I have hereunto appended two sheets of
explanatory drawings in which the same reference letters are used to indicate
corresponding parts in all the figures where shown.
Figure 1, is a side elevation, Figure 2, is a partial front elevation and Figure 3,
a plan view of mechanism illustrating how my improvements are carried into
practice.
Referring to these drawings:-
-
In carrying this invention into effect I employ an endless chain or band A,
carrying a series of buckets A', or other conveyor attachments that will be
mounted to swivel from one position to another that may be required through the
irregularity of the material it has to deal with.
The frame B carrying the chain and buckets A, A', is mounted to swivel on the
shaft C on the underhanging part 7, of the carriage Z. Toothed quadrants C¹,
are mounted at each end of the shaft C and engage with corresponding
quadrants D, mounted on studs D', to which is fitted counterweighted levers D².
The carriage Z is run on rails z mounted on girders 2¹, or other suitable carriers.
The chain of buckets A, A', or other conveyor attachments on the carriage Z, are

page_text: mounted between the wheel b at bottom of swivelling frame and its main driving
wheel A2, on the shaft F. Propeller blades 62, are preferably fitted on the shaft b₁,
of the wheel b, to keep the material agitated for uniform feed. The buckets A¹,
will take up the material either regularly or intermittently and will place it in any
position and when it has given out the quantity that may be required it will move
to any other position requiring serving and when changing from one position to
another it will continue to serve the material through a conveyor trough or
shoot on the carriage Z and if this conveyor Z2, should get filled and no position
requires its attention the material will automatically pass through a return
trough Z on to the heap which it has originally taken it from.
A counterweighted tray or auxiliary conveyor Z, is fulcrumed
on the
carriage Z above the main conveyor Z to conduct the material to said conveyor Z.
Small projections a, on the buckets A', come in contact with conveyor Z at the
point after the material has been delivered on to same and throws the
conveyor Z, out of position to enable buckets to pass in their downward travel,
while the conveyor 2, is brought back by the counterweighted lever 7.
Attached to the conveyor is a shutter or door I, for retaining the material
within said conveyor when the carriage carrying all the mechanism is moving
from one place to another this shutter or door closes the lower end of the
conveyor until coming to any position that requires serving or otherwise when
it is opened in a manner to be hereinafter described. The door I, is attached .to
bellcranks I, I, fulcrumed at I³, at each side of conveyor. To the underside of
conveyor, is secured a bracket, to which is fulcrumed a double quadrant ',
and round each side of this quadrant is secured a chain, having its other end
attached to the arms I³, of the bellcrank levers. The door I, in the example
shown in the drawings is actuated by a stop j, on a balanced tray J, fulcrumed
on a bracket secured to the hopper of a mechanical stoker, through the medium
of a tail piece ³, on the aforesaid double quadrant 2, when the tray J, is in the
position shown in full lines on the drawings. That is:-The stop coming in
contact with the tail piece tilts the double quadrant to one side causing a
pull on chain which is attached to arm of bell crank lever, tilting the arm I'
and with it the door I to its open position. But immediately the door I, is opened
and the hopper of say one of a range of boilers is served, the weight of material
tilts the tray J, which freeing the stop from the tailpiece, allows the carriage Z
with all the mechanism to proceed to the next stop. Levers j to which is secured
the stop, are pivotted at and fulcrumed at 3 for adjusting same; while
buffers J, J, would be fitted in the position shown for cushioning the shock as
the tray J, travels from the one position to the other.
It will be seen that by this improved method the conveyor will pick up the
material it has to deal with carrying it any distance, or it will cease to pick up
during traversing at will and will follow backwards and forwards any material
it has to deal with through being unevenly placed.
It will give the required quantity to one or any number and will automatically
attend to any requirements it is set to do.
In carrying these improvements into effect as shown in the drawings:-two
bevel wheels E, E¹, are mounted loose on the shaft F, which gives the travelling
motion to carriage. A clutch G, is fitted to engage with either of these wheels E,
or E, and a forked lever G, mounted on a rocking shaft G2, operates this clutch
by a weighted lever G, which is acted on by a stop 22, at the ends of its traverse,
and travels the clutch G', from the one wheel E, or E, to engage with the other
through the loose power transmitting wheel 12, and automatically reverse the
motion of shaft F, and travel of carriage Z. The travel of carriage is effected
by a worm H, on shaft H, engaging with a worm wheel H2, on the shaft F. The
shaft H, is actuated by an endless band X, and pulley X', from any adjacent
prime moving shaft. Power is transmitted from the shaft H, through the
shaft F, by a worm F', which in turn conveys motion by a worm wheel Fº, to a

page_text: train of wheels F³, Fª, F³, which communicate the power to the axles-F6, of the
wheels of travelling carriage Z.
The action of the apparatus would be as follows. The carriage 'Z, Z'; contain-
ing all the mechanism also the elevator buckets is actuated and driven to and fro
in front of a range of boilers by means of the gearing as before described driven
by an endless band X-from any prime mover but preferably from the same motive
power as is used to drive the-feeding mechanism within the hoppers of the boilers.
This to and fro motion is obtained by the shifting of the clutch G on to either
of the bevel wheels E or E', by the lever G when said lever comes in contact
with the stops at either end of the range of boilers. It will be seen that the
worm wheel H and bevel wheel E are on the same hollow shaft while the bevel
wheel El and sprocket wheel A2 are also on a hollow shaft-to allow of shaft-F
being reversed when the carriage has arrived at the end of its travel.
Should the tray J-shown in Figure be in the position indicated by the dotted
lines the carriage Z, Z, with all the contained mechanism, would travel to and
fro without stopping and any coal lifted by the buckets during said travel would
after the conveyor Zwas filled merely go back by the shoot Z to the heap again.
When the tray-of'any-hopper of a range of boilers is however in the position
shown in full lines Figure 1, the projection on the double quadrant coming
in contact with projection jon tray Jis sufficient to stop the travel of carriage Z
Z and contained mechanism while at same time the doors on conveyor Z²
would be opened to supply coal to the tray J. After sufficient coal has been
supplied to tilt the tray J into the position shown in dotted lines the projection j
on tray being released from stop allows the carriage and mechanism to proceed
on. its travel until stopped by another projection' on hopper requiring serving or
is reversed at end of its travel by the lever G coming in contact with the pro-
jections on girder z¹.
:3 * 1
The main driving band when the carriage and mechanism is stopped slips or
rides over the pulley X, the machine being so balanced that it starts again
immediately the projection is released from the projection jon tray J on hopper
of boiler.
Instead of the driving gear and reversed mechanism being mounted on
carriage Z same may be located at any fixed part of building and the motion be
transmitted to carriage through a belt or chain.
'Bell crank or equivalent levers may have rod or link connections to the coal
or other hoppers, and when a hopper is emptied or requiring to be filled an arm
of one of these levers would come against a clutch lever ou carriage and put the
worm gear out of action and so stop the further travel of carriage until this
hopper gets filled, when the latter will by its weight automatically tilt the bell
crank levers out of action with carriage lever and the clutch of the latter will be
reversed to put the worm wheel into gear again and the traverse of carriage will
go on until stopped by the next lever.
1.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
!.
First. The method of feeding, discharging; elevating or conveying minerals,
grain, or other material either uniformly or intermittently in an automatic
manner, substantially as herein described in reference to and by way of application
shown in the accompanying drawings.
I
'
Second. The arrangement in combination of the parts, of mechanisni for
automatically feeding, discharging, elevating or conveying minerals, grain, or
other material, substantially as herein described in reference to and shown in
the accompanying drawings:
11.2°
12
Third. In a method of automatically feeding discharging elevating or convey-
ing minerals, grain, or other material, the combination of swivelling frame-with

page_text: endless chain and buckets and counterweighted lever, substantially as herein
described in reference to and shown in the accompanying drawings.
Fourth. In a method of automatically feeding, discharging, elevating or
conveying minerals, grain or other material the combination of travelling carriage
with reversing mechanism and delivery conveyor, substantially as herein described
in reference to and shown in the accompanying drawings.
Fifth. In a method of feeding, discharging, elevating or conveying minerals,
grain or other material, the combination of conveyor with automatically operated
door, substantially as herein described in reference to and shown in the accom-
panying drawings.
Dated the 7th Decambor 1999
W. R. M. THOMSON & Co.,
96, Buchanan Street, Glasgow, Agents.