Improvements in Apparatus for Conveying and Loading Coal.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 29th Feb., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 29th Nov., 1892-Accepted, 21st Jan., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Conveying and Loading Coal.
I, DAVID DAVY of Broom Croft, Parkhead, Sheffield, in the County of York,
Coal Owner, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to improved apparatus for conveying coal from the pit and
loading it into railway wagons or other conveyors, and it has for its principal
object to enable this operation to be accomplished without subjecting the coal to
violent concussion, thereby avoiding as far as possible the formation of small coal or
"smudge."
My invention relates first to the rotating or partially rotating tippler by which
the corve or tub is inverted for the purpose of discharging its load on to a screen
or travelling belt. According to my invention, the tippler is provided with a hood
or cage of curvilinear form in cross-section which partly surrounds the corve and
receives the load therefrom, when the tippler and corve are inverted and to gently
deposit the coal on to the screen, shoot, or belt beneath. This hood or cage may
be concentric with, or eccentric to, the axis of rotation of the tippler and it may
extend at one edge close up to the side or end of the corve at which the load is
tipped, whilst the opposite edge revolves in close proximity to the screen, shoot, or
belt. The hood may be constructed of plates which may or may not be perforated,
or it may be a cage constructed of circumferential or cross bars or otherwise
adapted to act as a revolving screen in the operation of tippling, thus relieving the
screen proper on to which the coal is delivered by the tippler. The tippler may
be moved at a constant speed about its axis of motion, but it is preferred to move
it at a variable velocity such that whilst the whole operation of tipping discharging
and returning to the initial position is performed as quickly as though the velocity
were constant, the velocity is lower during the time the coal is being delivered
than at the beginning and end of the operation so that the coal is deposited gently
and breakage avoided as far as possible. This variable velocity may be imparted
by eccentric gearing or by hydraulic power, the tippler being in the latter case
made to itself control the admission of water to the engine so as to automatically
vary the velocity of rotation of the tippler.
My invention relates, secondly, to an improved endless travelling belt for the
conveyance of coal. Such belts as heretofore inade are constructed of chains carrying
flat metal plates which constitute the carrying surface of the belt. The joints
between these plates although practically close where the belt is flat, necessarily
open as the plates in passing round the drums, pulleys, or sprocket wheels, assume
an angular position with regard to each other and it is impossible in practice to
place a shoot or screen at a proper angle and sufficiently close to this polygonal
part of the belt to receive the coal therefrom without spilling and without allowing it
to drop to such an extent as to cause breakage. To obviate this I curve the plates
to such an are that the plates in passing round the drums, pulleys, or sprocket
wheels, present a smooth continuous cylindrical surface with close joints, their
adjacent edges being made to coincide as nearly as possible with the joint centres of
the chain links. By this construction of the belt, am enabled to place the lip of
the shoot or screen on which the coal is to be received from the belt at such an
angle so nearly tangential and so close to the cylindrical surface of the belt as to
form practically a continuation of the carrying surface so that the coal will glide
easily from the one to the other. The plates at the straight or carrying part of
the belt form a series of convexities which do not interfere with the carrying
capacity of the belt whilst owing to their buckled form the plates may be made
thinner, the belt being both lighter and stronger.

page_text: My invention relates, thirdly, to the loading of the coal into railway wagons, and
it has for its object to avoid the breakage caused by the falling of the coal from
the shoot by which the coal is usually delivered to the wagon. This shoot is
necessarily 'placed at a considerable height above the wagon to allow the train of
trucks to pass clear beneath it, and to avoid the drop, particularly when the wagon
is empty, provide a trough-like skip suspended in position to receive the coal
from the shoot by pairs of chains so operated by crab-barrels or pulleys that either
or both pairs may be lowered in order that the loaded trough-like skip may either
be tipped sidewise or end wise or lowered bodily into the wagon and tipped sidewise
in order to deposit.the coal gently in the wagon. Instead of crab-barrels or pulleys
for operating the trough-like skip, I may use direct-acting steam or hydraulic gear,
provided with suitable valves and handing levers.
Dated this 29th day of February 1892.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements' in Apparatus for Conveying and Loading Coal.
I, DAVID DAVY of Broom Croft, Parkhead, Sheffield, in the County of York,
Coal Owner, 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 relates to improved apparatus for conveying coal from the pit and
loading it into railway wagons to other conveyors, and it has for its principal object
to enable this operation to be accomplished without subjecting the coal to violent
concussion and thereby avoid as far as possible the formation of small coal or
smudge."
66
My invention relates, first, to the tippler by which the corve or tub is inverted
for the purpose of discharging its load on to a screen shoot or belt beneath, and
my invention consists in providing the tippler with a hood or cage which revolves
therewith and receives the load from the corve as the latter becomes inverted and
transfers it to the screen or conveyor beneath, the arrangement of the hood or cage
being such that the load is transferred therefrom in a gentle manner, the hood
being preferably constructed to act both as an intermediate means of transfer and
also as a preliminary screen whereby the subsequent screening or hand picking of
the coal is greatly facilitated.
The invention relates, secondly, to an improved endless travelling belt for the
conveyance of coal. Such belts, as heretofore made, are constructed of a pair of
endless chains carrying flat metal plates which constitute the carrying surface of
the belt. The joints between these belts although practically close where the
belt is flat, necessarily gape as the plates in passing round the supporting and
driving pulleys or wheels deviate from the plane of the carrying surface. Owing
to the angular position assumed by the plates towards one another and to the
gaping joints, it is impossible in practice to place the screen or shoot on to which
the belt discharges sufficiently close to the belt to enable it to receive the coal
therefrom without spilling and without allowing the coal to drop so far as to cause
considérable breakage. To obviate this defect the plates are curved in the
direction of length of the belt to such an arc that the plates in passing round the
supporting and driving drums, pulleys, or sprocket wheels, will present a smooth
continuous semi-cylindrical surface with close joints, admitting of the lip of the
receiving shoot or screen being placed so nearly tangential and so close to the said
semi-cylindrical surface of the belt that it will form practically a continuation of the
belt-carrying surface on to which the coal will easily glide.

page_text: Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this
Specification, wherein Figures 1, 2, and 3, are end elevations, shewing the improved
rotary tippler at different periods of its operation. Figure 4 is a side elevation,
and Figure 5 a plan of the same. Figure 6 is an elevation, Figure 7 a plan of the
improved conveyor belt, and Figures 8 9 and 10 are detail views of parts thereof,
on a larger scale. The same letters of reference denote like parts in all the
igures.
The rotating tippler is constructed of a pair of disc-like heads A coupled by
cross-bars a and supported by the peripheries of the heads A. resting upon pairs of
guide rollers B by which the rotary motion is imparted to the tippler, the heads A
having apertures to give passage to the corve C and supporting rails between
which the wheels of the corve are received, all in the usual manner.
D is the hood or cage which constitutes the essential feature of my invention.
It is constructed preferably of bars running circumferentially as shewn, braced by
the cross-bars a and set at such a distance apart as to let the small coal pass
between them but the bars of the hood may be transverse or the hood might be
made of a solid or perforated plate, if preferred. It extends from the one head A
to the other and around about one half of the circumference of the tippler, and is
provided at the leading end with an inwardly projecting lip d which approaches
close up to the side (or end) of the corve C just at or below the upper edge
thereof, so as to prevent the spilling of any coal between the corve and the hood
when the tippler commences to rotate in the direction of the arrow, as shewn in
Figure 2. The other or delivery edge d' of the hood terminates as near the
circumference of the tippler as is practicable, in order that on arriving at about
the position shewn in Figure 3 it may discharge the coal by a sliding motion on to
a shoot E by which it is conducted to a screen or travelling belt immediately
beneath. The wheels of the corve run upon rails a' which have slight depressions
in them to act as stops to the wheels when the corve has been run into position in
the tippler and the wheels pass beneath a pair of bars a² which retain the corve
during the rotation of the tippler, all as usual in such apparatus. The tippler is
rotated (either continuously through a single revolution or partially in one
direction and partially in the other direction to return the empty corve to the
upright position) by power applied to a gear wheel F on the shaft of one or other
pair of rollers B, with which shaft the wheel is geared by a clutch operated by a
hand lever G through a rock shaft g which also operates a stop which when the
tippler is in the upright position engages in a notch in the adjacent head A of the
tippler, the withdrawal of the stop and the setting in motion of the tippler, or vice
tersú, being effected at one motion of the lever G. In order to diminish the
concussion of the coal in transferring it from the corve to the hood or cage D the
corve is not placed centrally within the tippler but towards the receiving side d of
the hood or cage, or the corve might be central and the hood or cage eccentric, its
receiving side being curved inwards towards the corve whilst the delivery edge d'
extends as before, as near as possible to the circumference of the tippler. It is
preferred to make the hood of circumferential bars, as shewn, so that it may act as
a screen to permit the small coal to escape during the revolution of the tippler. If
the tippler discharge on to a conveyor (such for instance as that hereafter described)
the small coal will be deposited in advance of the large coal and thus the operation
of hand picking during the transit of the coal on the conveyor is facilitated, whilst
if the tippler discharge on to a vibrating screen the screening operation is facilitated.
by the fact that the dust and small coal being first deposited escapes through the
screen before the large coal is deposited, instead of remaining entangled in the
latter.
Referring now to Figures 6 to 10 my improved conveyor is constructed of a pair
of endless pitch chains. H: running on sprocket wheels as usual and of plates K
corresponding in width to the pitch of the chains, the abutting edges of adjacent
plates coinciding as nearly as possible with the centre lines of the chain joints as
hereafter explained. These plates instead of being flat as usual are curved in the

page_text: 1.11,
direction of the length of the travel of the conveyor, to arcs of the pitch circle of
the sprocket wheels I so that in passing round said sprocket wheels the plates
present a continuous semi-cylindrical surface with close joints radial to the sprocket
wheel shafts, whilst at the straight or carrying part of the belt the plates present a
series of convexities which do not however interfere with the carrying capacity of
the belt. The buckled form of the plates ensures greater transverse stiffness and
by enabling thinner plates to be used the belt may be made both lighter and
stronger. In order that the joints may be close and the entry of coal be prevented
at all parts of the belt, the edges of the plate should meet as nearly as practicable
by their upper arrises at the centre lines of the chain joints, as shewn, so that the
joints will gape only at the underside in the straight position of the conveyor, but
with plates but a quarter-inch in thickness the amount to which they will thus open
out will in any case be insignificant. The links of the chains are cast or forged
with lateral extensions corresponding in curvature to the plates and to which the
ends of the latter are rivetted. The plates may be supported under the weight of
the load carried, by slide blocks & rivetted to their undersides riding upon a central
guide rail L supported on cross-bars fixed to the side girders M upon which the
sprocket wheel shafts are mounted, or more than one set of slide blocks k and
rails L may be used, according to the width of the belt. Owing to the continuous
semi-cylindrical surface presented by the plates at the point where they pass over
the sprocket wheels it is possible to place the shoot N on which the coals are
received from the conveyor tangential to, and with its edge in close contact with,
'the said surface, as shewn, whereas it has heretofore been usually necessary to place
the, said shoot wholly below the conveyor at the delivery end, thereby involving
such a height of fall as to cause considerable breakage, which by the form of plates
herein described is entirely avoided.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what. I
claim is-
1. The combination, with a rotating tippler for coal corves, of a partially cir-
cumferential hood approaching close up, to, and partly enclosing, the corve so as
to receive the coals therefrom and deliver them by the rotation of the tippler,
substantially as specified.
2. The combination, with a rotating tippler for coal corves, of a partially cir-
cumferential perforated hood or open-work cage approaching close up to the side
or end of, and partly enclosing, the corve so as to receive the coals therefrom,
screen them, and deliver them by the rotation of the tippler, substantially as
specified.
.**..
3. An endless, chain conveyor for coal, constructed of plates curved to conform
to the pitch circle of the belt carrying sprocket wheels or drums, the plates having
close radial, joints coinciding with the centres of motion of the chain links,
substantially as specified.
4. An endless chain.conveyor for coal, constructed of plates curved to conform
to the pitch circle of the belt carrying sprocket wheels or drums and having close
radial joints, as described, in combination with a shoot, placed tangentially to, and
in contact or nearly so with, the semi-circle of plates at the delivery end of the
convexor. substantially as specified.
Dated this 29th day of November 1892.
"
Dated this 29th day of November 1892.
D. DAVY,
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.