IMPROVEMENTS IN CRANES AND APPARATUS FOR RAISING, HAULING, AND LOWERING WEIGHTS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Percy Graham Buchanan Westmacott, of Elswick,
Newcastle-on-Tyne, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CRANES AND
APPARATUS FOR RAISING, HAULING, AND LOWERING WEIGHTS."
Sealed the 24th January 1868, and dated the 29th July 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Percy Graham Buchanan
Westmacott at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 29th July 1867.
I, PERCY GRAHAM BUCHANAN WESTMACOTT, of Elswick, Newcastle-on-Tyne,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
CRANES AND APPARATUS FOR RAISING, HAULING, AND LOWERING WEIGHTS," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the combination of hand with steam,
water, or air power by a ready means of attaching or disconnecting the
auxiliary power (whichever it may be) to the lifting or hauling chain of the
crane hoisting or hauling machine. For this purpose I employ a chain
pinion or drum which receives motion when required by means of the
auxiliary power, it may be by gearing or connecting it with a wheel, round

page_text: which an endless hand chain passes, or in other ways; the chain pinion or
drum may be driven by the auxiliary power. The hoisting chain of the crane
is arranged to pass alongside of the chain pinion or drum, and when the
auxiliary power is to be employed it is deflected from its direct course by a
moveable guide pulley mounted on a hand lever, so as to cause the chain to
bear against the chain pinion or drum and to gear with it, the links of the
chain being held by suitable recesses and projections on the face of the pinion or
drum. When the auxiliary power is not required, by shifting the guide pulley
the chain is allowed to pass clear of the pinion or drum. There is also a
break wheel and break on the auxiliary power mechanism to be used in
lowering or running back the weights.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Percy Graham Buchanan Westmacott in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 29th January 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PERCY
GRAHAM BUCHANAN WESTMACOTT, of Elswick, Newcastle-on-Tyne, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Percy Graham Buchanan Westmacott, Her special licence that I, the said Percy
Graham Buchanan Westmacott, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Percy Graham Buchanan Westmacott, 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 Chaunel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CRANES AND APPARATUS FOR RAISING,
HAULING, AND LOWERING WEIGHTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Percy Graham Buchanan Westmacott, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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

page_text: raised a distance equal to double the stroke of the ram.
All these arrange-
ments however form in themselvs no part of my Invention, and they are
ordinary and well known to engineers.
The auxiliary hand mechanism as I prefer to arrange it is shown on a
larger scale at Figure 2. f is a pulley or drum of small diameter, having
recesses in its periphery to receive and hold firmly the links of the crane chain
when it is caused to pass partly around it; this pulley or drum is mounted in
bearings on the jib, and it has on its axis a large chain wheel g, over which a
band chain h passes. k is a brake pulley on the axis of the chain pulley or
drum f, and round it a brake strap passes to a lever l on the crane post; this
lever is weighted, so that when the lever is left free the brake is taken off by
the weight. m is a chain by which the brake lever is worked. The crane
or lifting chain c however in passing direct from the pulley to the pulley b³
does not come against the chain pulley or drum f, so that the main lifting
mechanism can then be used altogether independently of the auxiliary hand
mechanism. By means of the hand lever n, which is centered to the jib and
has a small pulley at its upper end, the crane chain can be deflected, as the
Drawing shows it, from its direct course between the pulleys 6 and 6, and the
crane chain then engages with the chain pulley or drum f, and then by using
the hand chain and mechanism the crane can be used as a hand-power crane
whenever convenient to do so, or in cases of emergency produced by accidents
to the hydraulic or other power.
Although I have shown the chain pulley or drum of the auxiliary hand
mechanism arranged to receive its motion from a hand chain and chain wheel,
it may, as will be readily understood, be actuated by spur gear or in other
ways; the arrangement indicated in the Drawings is however very convenient.
The method also of giving motion to the crane chain by means of water or
liquid under pressure may be varied, or air or steam may, as is well under-
stood, be employed to apply the main lifting power to the crane chain, the
hand mechanism being auxiliary thereto; or again the main lifting power may
be applied to the crane chain, as in an ordinary hand-power crane, whilst the
chain pulley or drum f is driven by steam, water, ar air power, say, by means
of a driving band passing around a drum which replaces the chain wheel g,
or in other convenient way, for my Invention does not consist in any peculiar
mechanism for applying the main lifting power to the crane chain, but in a
ready means of combining hand-lifting mechanism and steam, water, or air
lifting mechanism, so that the one may be auxiliary to the other.
Although I have represented in the Drawings my Invention as applied to a

page_text: crane with a revolving post and jib it is also applicable in a similar manner
to raising, hauling, and lowering apparatus, in which there is no arrangement
after raising a weight to swing it round in the arc of a circle, as with a
crane.
In witness whereof, I, the said Percy Graham Buchanan Westmacott,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of
January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-eight.
PERCY G. B. WESTMACOTT. (L.S.)