Improvements in Drop Hammers.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 27th May, 1892
Complete Specification Left, 27th Feb., 1893-Accepted, 27th May, 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Drop Hammers.
I, HENRY WILLIAMS, of 93 Aston Brook Street, Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my invention to be as
follows:-
My invention has for its object improvements in the mode of raising drop
hammers whereby the hammer is much more expeditiously raised and the arrange-
ment for so raising is much simplified. Hitherto drop hammers have been either
raised by hand by means of a rope passing over a revolving pulley upon a shaft or
else by a very expensive and complicated steam arrangement but with neither of
these methods can the same result be attained as can be by my invention which
allows the hammer to be manipulated much quicker whilst it is much more accurate
in its work and utilizes its full extent of power besides being a much cheaper
arrangement. My invention is carried into practise as follows:-
I mount a frame upon or near the top of the stamp or hammer. In the centre
of this frame is the shaft which is revolved by steam or other motive power and
upon this shaft I mount a friction pulley such as will be hereinafter described but
any suitable friction pulley may be used. The band or rope to lift the hammer is
attached to the friction pulley by means of screws or other equivalent and to the
hammer in the ordinary manner. Inside the frame is cut away and a toothed
wheel is fitted and at any convenient position I make a projection or as I shall
hereafter term it a stop, this toothed wheel is geared with a worm screw at the top
of the frame which adjusts the distance the hammer is desired to fall, another stop
is secured on the friction pulley which works inside the frame so that when the
hammer is raised to its desired distance the stop which can be adjusted upon the
friction pulley comes against the stop upon the before mentioned toothed wheel and
so liberates the hammer and allows the hammer to drop. A second stop is made
on the friction pulley so that when the hammer has fallen so far it cannot go any
farther but causes the working part of the pulley to come into friction again and so
raises the stamp ready for falling again.
The friction pulley which I have found to be the best to accomplish the object
of my invention and is really a part of my inventions is composed of three
main parts. Ist a centre part which is keyed upon the shaft. 2nd a sort of
annular cap which is fitted fast to the centre part and upon this cap I have four or
more tapered slots. 3rd a simple flat kind of broad wheel which runs either loosely
upon the shaft or on the centre piece and has four or more pegs which fit into the
four or more tapered slots in the 2nd piece and upon these third piece are the two
beforementioned stops. As will be understood the action will be so that when the
hammer is falling the pegs will automatically work in the taper slots and cause the
third piece to disengage from the first and second pieces and thus of course there
would be no friction at all. In some cases I attach a small spring to the 2nd or
3rd piece for the purpose of doing away with what little friction there might exist
but as soon as the hammer has fallen its distance the one part of the pulley is
reversed in its action and the pegs gradually move in the tapped slots and brings
the third piece tighter and tighter into friction with the first and second pieces. Of
course it will be understood that I could make this pulley somewhat different for
instance 1 might make it with 4 pieces but without any pegs, and tapered holes
but with serrated faces on the two centre pieces to gear into each other and a
spring attached in somewhat a similar way for the same purpose as described in the
first case.
It will be seen that the hammer automatically causes friction and by means of

page_text: the adjustable stop upon the toothed wheel can be raised to its desired height and
as soon as it has arrived at the point strikes against the stop upon the friction
pulley and so disengages the friction and thereby allows the hammer to drop
according to its own gravitation, i.e. the hammer has nothing to impede its action
excepting an equivalent to a loose pulley working upon its oiled bearing.
Dated this 26th day of May 1892.
HENRY WILLIAMS.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Drop Hammers.
I, HENRY WILLIAMS of 93 Aston Brook Street Birmingham in the County of
Warwick Engineer 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:-
My invention has for its object improvements in the mode of raising drop hammers
whereby the hammer is much more expeditiously raised and the arrangement for so
raising is much simplified.
Hitherto drop hammers have either been raised by hand by means of a rope
passing over a revolving pulley upon a shaft or else by a very expensive and com-
plicated steam arrangement, but with neither of these methods can the same results
be attained as can by my invention which allows the hammer to be manipulated
much quicker whilst it is much more accurate in its work and utilizes its full extent
of power besides being a so much cheaper arrangement.
My invention is carried into practice as follows.
I mount a frame upon or near the top of the stamp or hammer.
In the centre of
this frame is the shaft which is revolved by steam or other motive power and upon
this shaft I mount a friction pulley such as will be hereinafter described.
The band or rope to lift the hammer is attached to the friction pulley by means
of screws or other equivalent and to the hammer in the ordinary manner.
Inside
the frame is cut away and a toothed wheel is fitted and at any convenient position
I make a projection or as I shall hereafter term it a stop this toothed wheel is
geared with a worm screw at the top of the frame which adjusts the distance the
hammer is desired to fall; another stop is made upon the friction pulley which
works inside the frame so that when the hammer is raised to its desired distance the
stop which is upon the friction pulley comes against the stop upon the before
mentioned tooth wheel and so liberates the hanımer and allows the hammer to drop.
A second stop on the friction pulley so that when the hammer has fallen so far it
cannot go any farther but causes the working part of the pulley to come into
friction and so raises the stamp ready for falling again. Of course it will be
understood that I could make the pulley somewhat different, for instance I might
make it with four pieces but without any pegs and tapered holes but with serrated
faces or inclined planes on the two centre pieces to gear into each other and a spring
attached in somewhat a similar way for the same purpose as described in the first
cases.
It will be seen that the hammer automatically causes friction and by means of
the adjustable stop upon the toothed wheel can be raised to its desired height and
as soon as it has arrived at the point strikes against the stop upon the friction
pulley and so disengages the friction and thereby allows the hammer to drop
according to its own gravitation i.e. the hammer has nothing to impede its action
excepting an equivalent to a loose pulley working upon its oiled bearing.
In order that my invention may be more clearly understood and carried into effect
I have appended hereunto two sheets of drawings upon which
Figure 1 is a front broken off elevation of an arrangement for a small hammer
and Figure 2 is a side elevation of the same.

page_text: Figure 3 is a view of the frame and friction pulley but shewing that the hammer
band or strap passing over another revolving pulley.
Figure 4 is a section through the one friction pulley herein before described and
which in working out my invention I have found to be the most effective.
I will proceed to explain the working of the hammer according to my new mode
of as illustrated by Figure 1 and 2 A is the frame which I mount upon or near the
top of the stamp or hammer. In the centre of the frame A is the shaft E which
is revolved by steam or other motive power and in the centre of frame A I mount
a friction pulley B which will be more fully described hereinafter.
a
The band or rope C is attached to the friction pulley by means of screws or
other equivalent and to the hammer D in the ordinary manner G is an ordinary
mode of applying a kind of brake to grip the band and so hold up the hammer.
The inside of the frame A is cut away and two toothed wheels are fitted therein
which have projections or as I shall hereinafter call them stops, one of these stops
only can be seen on the drawings viz. a' these toothed wheels are geared by
wormed screw a³ actuated by the hand wheel a' and are for the purpose of adjusting
the distance the hammer D is desired to fall. Another stop a² is made upon the loose
ring B2 of the friction pulley afterwards to be described which works upon the
sleeve B of friction pulley B inside the frame A so that when the hammer D is
raised to its desired height the stop a² upon the loose ring B2 engages with the
stop a upon the before mentioned toothed wheel and so liberates the hammer and
allows it to drop in the following manner-the friction pulley composed of four
pieces B' B2 B3 & B4 the two outside pieces B and B are keyed to the shaft E
while the two inside pieces or loose rings B2 & B3 run loose upon the sleeve B7
when the hammer is falling. The strap or belt is affixed to the loose ring B³
which is grooved to allow the belt to lie flush. The loose rings B2 and B³ have
the serrated faces or sides or inclin planes B and B as will be seen in Figures 5 6
& 7 which causes them both to wedge or jam themselves to the outer or revolving
portion of the pulley B and B for raising the hammer this wedging is effected by
one of the loose rings moving a little in advance of the other by reason of the
stop a² on the loose ring B2 coming in contact with the stop a which is attached
to and actuated by the toothed wheel F. When the hammer is falling the two
serrated sides B and B are slightly apart as seen in Figure 5 and is kept in this
position by the spring H which is attached to the inside of the rings B³ and B2 by
pins g and g until the stop a¹ comes in contact with the stop a² upon the loose
ring B2 this allows the ring B³ to move a little in advance of the other by reason
of the weight of the hammer D and causes the serrated sides B and B to wedge
and so engages B³ and B2 with B and B which as will be seen reverses the rotary
motion of 13 and B2 as seen by arrows 1 & 2 in Figure 7 the ring B³ revolving in
the direction of the arrow 2 whilst the shaft is revolving in the direction of the
arrow 1 when the hammer is falling.
The action of raising the hammer is as follows:
The stops a having engaged with the stops a¹ the disc B³ is thus stopped while
the disc B³ is carried by the force of the drop of the hammer a sufficient distance
for the inclined planes B and B to open the two discs B² & B³ sufficiently apart
for them to wedge with the sides B and B which form one with the driving
shaft E and which are constantly revolving in the reverse direction i.e. the right
direction for raising the hammer D which is thus raised by reason of the friction
at B and B being sufficient to bring up the hammer until such time as the other
side of the stop a² engages with the reverse side of the stop a¹ upon which
the friction at B' carries on the disc pulley B³ sufficiently for the two inclined
planes B and B to come together which releases the inner discs from the
friction with the outer ones and thus allows the hammer to drop by its own weight
the action of raising being then repeated as before described. The disc B³ is
prevented from travelling too far by means of the spring H.
It will be understood that Figure 1 and 2 only illustrate my mode of raising a
drop hammer or stamp head on a small scale and that the mode can be easily

page_text: adapted to any size hammer and could be used in conjunction with another revolving
pulley as illustrated Figure 3 and by the help of this other revolving pulley a
smaller friction would answer the purpose of a heavy hammer.
Having now particularly described and ascertained my said invention what I
claim is
1st. The drop hammer or stamp head raising mechanism consisting of a friction
pulley and frame with adjustable stops as herein before described as and for the
purpose specified.
2nd. The friction pulley B as shewn by Figure 4 and having serrated faces or
inclined plane as herein before described.
Dated this 25th day of February 1893
HENRY WILLIAMS.