Improvements in Conveyers or Elevators for Passengers.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 15th Mar., 1892-Accepted, 16th Apr., 1892
COMPLETE DIECIFICATION
[Communicated from abroad by JESSE WILFORD RENO, of No. 140, East 27th
Street, New York, United States of America, Engineer.]
Improvements in Conveyers or Elevators for Passengers.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine Lake & Co. Patent
Agents, 45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The object of this invention is, in particular, to provide a mechanical incline or
conveyer to be used in place of vertical elevators, or lifts, and stairways, where
large numbers of persons are to be transferred from one floor or level to another,
cither upward or downward.
In the accompanying drawings,
Figure 1, is a side clevation of a part of the conveyer at its lower end, with a
part of a moving hand rail, each of said parts at a suitable angle or inclination.
The said hand rail may be omitted if desired, as it is not essential to the operation
of the other parts of the conveyer.
Figure 2, is a side elevation of the upper end of the conveyer, showing a
passenger's foot thereon.
Figure 3, is a diagram of the device in general outline.
Figure 4, is a cross-section taken through the line a, b of Figure 2.
The conveyer or elevator, consists of a continuous or endless travelling platform
or belt, formed of sections preferably of cast iron as shown at 2, Figures 2 and 4,
These sections are
in connection with suitable landings hereinafter described.
hinged together as shown at 12 and are formed with a grooved surface as shown in
cross-section in Figure 4. Into the grooves of said surface, which may be made
about one inch wide by one inch deep, the prongs 5, of the comb-like landings, 14,
extend. These landings, preferably made of cast steel, are rigidly fixed so that
their prongs, 5, have a clearance of preferably say, not exceeding one-fourth of an
inch between the bottoms and sides of the grooves in the sections, 2, of the endless
platform. The said platform, made up of the said sections, is turned upon the two
pairs of sprocket wheels, 3, all of similar design, the notches, 17, about their
circumferences forming seats into which the rounded parts of the hinges, 12, rest.
The power for moving the platform or belt is preferably applied to the wheels, 3,
at the top of the conveyer; but power may be applied at the bottom of the con-
veyer, if desired, in which case the platform may be supported on its return, upon
guides or tracks, from the top to the bottom. Between the pairs of wheels, 3, at
the top and bottom of the conveyer the moving belt is supported and rolls by
means of the wheels 22, upon two I beams 4, the middle hinged parts 23, between
the parts 12, of each section of the belt fitting into a planed groove, 15, in each of
the sprocket wheels 3, which grooves thus prevent lateral motion of the belt.
As it will add to the feeling of security and comfort of the passengers to grasp
a hand rail, as they ascend or descend, a moving hand rail, 10, is provided as shown
in the drawings. A conveyer would be complete for a single file of passengers
with but one moving hand rail, but for a conveyer on which two passengers can
stand abreast a moving rail on each side of the same may be, preferably, provided,
in Figure 4, the moving hand rail is shown at 10, and a fixed hand rail on the
opposite side at 21. But a plain wall, or guard of any kind, may of course take
the place of the rail 21.

page_text: Referring to Figure 1, it will be observed that the moving hand rail is made in
short joints or sections, 10, hinged together, which construction permits the said
rail to bend around the sprocket wheels, 6. The said sprocket wheels are preferably
made of the samne radius as the gear-wheels, 3.
Motion may be imparted to the sectional railing 10, by passing the same around
a sprocket wheel similar to wheel 6, suitably secured on shaft 13, Figures 3
and 4.
In Figure 4, at 7, 8, 10, is shown a section through the jointed moving hand-
rail 10, and the fixed support 7, on which said hand-rail slides, the steel plates 8,
secured to each individual rail piece 10, sliding in a groove in the rail-support 7, as
clearly illustrated in said figure. Said plates 8, are preferably cemented in slots in
the hand-rail pieces 10, and are held to each other by the steel links 9, (Figure 1)
although this exact construction is not necessary so long as proper flexibility of
rail is preserved.
The lower parts of said plates 8, are provided with notches 18, so that as the rail
sections, 10, travel the said notches fit and mesh into the teeth 19, on the circum-
ferences of the wheels 6. The faces of these wheels 6 may be channelled similarly
to the channels in the rail-support 7, so as to hold the plates 8, securely in position
when passing around the said wheels. The rail pieces 10, are preferably turned
from hard wood, alternately light and dark in colour, so as to attract the attention
of passengers.
Of course the same result as that effected by the continuous channels and
notched ridges upon the belt's upper surface can be obtained by substituting rows
of pegs which would also pass through or in the spaces or channels between the
prongs 5 of the comb like landings. The belt or platform being perfectly balanced,
much friction is thereby obviated and the surfaces, along the I-beams and in the
notches or teeth in the sprocket wheels, 3, may be thoroughly protected from
falling grit or dirt.
At the upper and lower landings the sprocket wheels 6, of the moving railing are
enclosed in casings which may extend over segments of the moving rail as shown
at 20 in Figure 1.
It can now be seen that, by this invention a continuously moving endless inclined
platform, or elevator and hand rail is provided. The passenger who steps upon the
said platform will be carried by it either up or down as the case may be without
effort on his part and, as the apparatus is automatic, an accident in ascending or
descending will be impossible. The platform and its hand-rail will each preferably
move at the rate of an average walk-about 200 feet per minute-thus giving a
maximum capacity of six thousand passengers per hour in single file. A person
.stepping upon the platform will experience no change in his motion and on arriving
at the top or bottom of the conveyer, as the case may be, will be transferred to the
comb shaped landing without any special attention on his part.
It is purposed to have the platform set at an inclination of about 25 degrees
with the horizontal, and its ridges forming the sides of its channels, provided with
a notched or serrated upper surface. The conveyer can thus be used by passengers
with ease, especially when grasping the, travelling hand rail, which will be moving
at the same rate of speed as that of the platform.
Where more than one of these conveyers are used instead of reversing the
direction of the travelling platform one or one set of platforms with their hand
rails may be run to elevate from one floor level to another and one or one set of
platforms, with their hand rails, may be run to descend and convey passengers
from one floor level to a lower level, so that there will be no stopping of the con-
veyers, and no change of direction in the movements of their travelling platforms,
and crowds or streams of persons may pass each other in opposite directions without
confusion or detention. In this case the weight of the descending passengers will
tend to balance the ascending ones when the two machines are connected by suit-
able gearing.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent I declare that what I claim is,
First. A passenger conveyer consisting of a travelling, endless platform, a
travelling endless hand rail and landings for entering upon and leaving the said
platform the whole operating as described with reference to the several figures of
the drawings.
Second. The combination of a travelling platform, composed of channelled links
or sections hinged together, and a channelled or combed landing, or, landings, for
said platform.
Third. The travelling, endless hand-rail hercin described and operating as and
for the purposes set forth.
or the purposes set forth.
Dated this 15th day of March 1802.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.
Dated mis on day of March 100
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.