IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN SINKING PIT Shafts.”
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Galloway, of Paisley, in the County of
Renfrew, Mining Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS TO BE USED IN SINKING PIT Shafts.”
APPARATUS TO BE USED IN SINKING PIT Shafts.”
Scaled the 19th April 1876, and dated the 28th October 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Galloway
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 28th October 1875.
I, WILLIAM GALLOWAY, of Paisley, in the County of Renfrew, Mining
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN SINKING PIT SHAFTS," to be as
follows, that is to say :-
This Invention comprises improvements whereby apparatus used in
sinking pit shafts is rendered more efficient, expeditious, and safe in use,
and the operation generally facilitated, and consists principally in
providing suitable guides and accessory details arranged to meet the
peculiar circumstances of a variable depth from the surface,

page_text: Two wire ropes, which are by preference used as the guides, are at
their lower ends attached to two beams fixed in the shaft at a suitable
distance apart, and at a convenient point near the bottom of the shaft;
or the ropes may be attached to a cage, cradle, or stage, hanging in the
shaft. In any case a clear space is arranged between the ropes and the
beams, or in the centre of the cage for the passage up and down of the
bucket used for conveying materials. The cage or stage when used may
be supported by the guide ropes or by separate ropes, or by beams resting
in recesses formed for them in the sides of the shaft. The guide ropes
pass over two pulleys at a convenient height above the surface, and are
thence led upon drums or bobbins by unwinding or winding which the
portions of them in the shaft can be lengthened or shortened.

page_text: means herein-before, described removes all the danger and inconvenience
arising from the tendency of an unguided bucket to swing across the
shaft.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Galloway in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 27th April 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GALLOWAY, of Paisley, in the County of Renfrew, Mining Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Galloway, Her
special licence that I, the said William Galloway, my exccutors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Galloway, 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 APPARATUS TO BE USED IN SINKING PIT
SHAFTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Galloway, 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 Galloway, 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 in writing, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-

page_text: My said Invention comprises improvements whereby apparatus used
in sinking pit shafts is rendered more efficient, expeditious, and safe in
use, and the operation generally facilitated, and consists principally in
providing suitable guides and accessory details arranged to meet the
peculiar circumstances of a variable depth from the surface.
In carrying out my Invention I employ two or more wire ropes as the
guides, and according to one modification these ropes are attached at
their lower ends to two beams temporarily fixed across the shaft at a
suitable distance apart and at a convenient point near the bottom of the
shaft.
According to another modification which I now prefer the two guide
ropes are attached to a cage, cradle, or stage hanging in the shaft. In
any case a clear space is arranged between the guide ropes and the
beams or in the centre of the stage or cage, for the passage up and down
of the bucket used for convoying materials. The stage or cage when
used may be supported by the guide ropes or by separate ropes,
or by beams resting in recesses formed for them in the sides of the
shaft.
An essential part of my improved apparatus, and which may be termed
a rider, consists in its simplest form of a horizontal bar or collar with
two vertical legs. The legs are fitted with rings which embrace the
guide ropes, and the collar is formed with a central hole up through
which the winding rope of the bucket passes. The winding rope can
move freely through the hole in the collar, excepting for a catch or
enlargement fixed or formed on the rope near the bucket. The rider
does not descend lower than the cage or stage, but the bucket can do
SO. On being raised however the bucket rope carries up the rider with
it as soon as the bucket passes up through the stage, and the bucket is
then steadily guided in its further upward movement and all swaying or
shaking prevented.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing
a simple modification of my improved apparatus. In these Drawings
the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts
wherever they are repeated.

page_text: Figures 1 and 2 arc vertical sections of the entire apparatus as at
right angles to each other; and Figure 3 is a plan of the rider. Over
the mouth of the pit or shaft 1 there is erected a framing or scaffolding 2
which at its highest point supports the pulley 3 for the rope 4 used for
raising and lowering the bucket 5. At a lower level the framing 2
supports two pulleys 6, over which there pass the two guide ropes 7
proceeding from a winding barrel 14 on the surface, and having their
lower ends attached by branching chains or rods 9 to a stage 10, which
in this example is supported by them in the shaft 1. At the place of
attachment of the guide ropes 7 to the bottom chains or rods 8 the
former are kept at a proper distance apart by a ring or open frame, or by
a suitable disposition of the branching chains 8. The rider 11 is in this
example a rectangular frame which may be of wood bound with iron,
and which is fitted with rings or oyes 12 at the sides for the guide ropes 7
to pass through and with central holes for the bucket rope 4 to pass
through. When the bucket 5 is being drawn up from the position in
which it is shown in Figures 1 and 2, the rope 4 passes up through tho
rider 11 until that piece is reached by a catch at a convenient distance
above the bucket handle, and then the rider is carried up during the
rest of the movement and guides and steadies the bucket. Doors 13
(shown only in Figure 1) are fitted to the opening in the cover of the
shaft 1, and the overhead pulleys 3 and 6 are placed sufficiently above
the surface to allow the bucket 5 to be raised so far that the doors 13
can be closed and a truck or trolley be run upon them under the bucket to
receive the bucket or its contents. As the shaft 1 is deepened the guide
ropes 7 are unwound from the barrel 14, so as to lower the stage 9 as
far as required, and if the stage is not heavy enough to hold the guide
ropes with the desired tightness the stage can be jammed or otherwise
fixed in each position to which it is successively lowered.
In some cases the guide ropes 7 may be coiled on reels or bobbins at
the stage 9 to be uncoiled by men on the stage in proportion as they
wish to lower the stage.
The stage 9 which may be constructed in various ways may be used
for timbering or walling the shaft or examining the sides from time to
time, or to carry a reservoir for holding water, or as a support for boring
machinery or other apparatus.
In a similar way two or more stages may be used one above the other
in the shaft, as the guiding of the bucket, or it might be buckets, by

page_text: the means herein-before described removes all the danger and incon-
venience arising from the tendency of an unguided bucket to swing
across the shaft.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict
myself to the precise details herein described or delineated, but that
what I believe to be novel and original and claim as the Invention
secured to me by the hercin-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
providing of guides and a rider or equivalent apparatus for use in
sinking pit shafts, substantially in the manner and for the purposes
herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Galloway, have here.
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of April,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-