IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HOLDING AND RAISING SACKS AND SIMILAR RECEPTACLES FOR FILLING, AND IN THE COMBINATION OF WEIGHING APPARATUS THEREWITH
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Wilkerson at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st February 1881.
SAMUEL WILKERSON, of Bassingbourn, near Royston, in the County of
Cambridge. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR HOLDING AND RAISING SACKS
AND SIMILAR RECEPTACLES FOR FILLING, AND IN THE COMBINATION OF WEIGHING
APPARATUS THEREWITH."
My Invention relates to improvements in apparatus for holding and automatically
raising to a vertical or nearly vertical position sacks or similar receptacles when
being filled with grain, flour, coals, artificial manure, and other substances, and
also to the combination of such apparatus with a weighing machine for weighing
the filled sacks.
For these purposes I construct the said apparatus as follows:-A cradle or frame
is provided at its upper end with a T or other shaped head carrying four hooks on
to which the mouth of the sack to be filled is hooked so as to be held open thereby ;
these hooks are by preference carried by spindles arranged and operated as
described in my previous Patent, dated 20th November 1871, No. 3137, so that by
turning a hand lever all the hooks are made simultaneously to release the sack
when filled.
The cradle or frame has at its lower part at back two rocking irons or looped
bars projecting some distance therefrom, the upper part of the loops being curved
downwards and meeting the lower part, which is straight, at an angle. To such
angular point of each loop is pivotted a stay rod passing forward towards the
cradle or frame, near to the lower end of which they are pivotted to a fixed cross
bar which forms the pivot on which the apparatus turns. To the middle of the
cross bar is hooked a support rod passing up behind the cradle or frame through
an eye projecting, through which it passes freely, being provided above such eye
with a cross head adjustable thereon by means of a screw nut. From the ends of
the cross head helical or other springs extend downwards towards the lower part
of the cradle or frame to which they are attached, the effect of this arrangement
being that when there is no load upon the cradle the said springs draw its lower
end upwards; the cradle with its rocking irons and stays rods being thus caused to
turn upon the beforementioned fixed pivots, it is canted backwards into an inclined
position.

page_text: According to another modification, which I prefer to employ, two support rods
on which are placed helical springs have their upper ends passed through the
rocking irons against which the helical springs press in an upward direction, so
that the canting of the cradle or frame is effected by springs in compression
instead of tension.
The mode of operating with the above described apparatus is as follows:-The
weight of the material that is put into the sacks at first while the cradle is in the
inclined position in falling to the bottom of the sack depresses the lower end of
the cradle or frame, and thereby automatically raises the upper end into the vertical
or nearly vertical position required, while the beforementioned springs automatically
move the cradle back into the inclined position again, when the filled sack is
removed. By adjusting the springs by the screw nuts beforementioned a greater
or less weight may be made to effect the raising of the cradle; at the lower.end
of the latter may be provided a projecting foot upon which the bottom of the sack
rests while being filled..
In combining this apparatus with a weighing machine, the before described pivots
on which the cradle and rockers turn are suspended by two links from knife edge
centres on the forked end of a weighing beam which is similar in arrangement to
a steel yard, that is to say, it rests with other knife edge centres upon bearings on
a cross beam as a fulcrum, beyond which it extends backwards some distance, and
is provided at its rear end with a weighing scale. The cross beam also bas a
back ward extension or foot-iron which is turned up at its end and formed into a
loop for the end of the weighing beam to rest in. To an intermediate point of the
foot iron is pivotted a stay bar extending upwards and connected at its upper end
by a chain or a connecting link to the before described cradle. When the cradle
is raised into the vertical position for weighing the said stay bar retains it in that
position by means of the chain, the lower part of the stay bar being made to work
in a female joint, and is so arranged as to be locked in the upright position when
the cradle or frame is vertical. On removing the sack from the cradle or frame
the latter together with the stay bar fall back into the inclined position. The stay
bar has a handle at its upper end, and at the upper end of the foot iron is a hook
or catch which drops over the stay bar and thus holds the parts in the backward
inclined position when it is required to move the apparatus from place to place.
For facilitating such removal the beforementioned cross beam of the weighing
machine is by preference mounted on wheels.