IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE BLOCKING OR FORTIFICATION OF TUNNELS OR SUBWAYS
Year: 1884

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
I, RICHARD ROPER, of Lewisham High Road, in the County of. Kent, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of said Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS
AND APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE BLOCKING OR FORTIFICATION OF
TUNNELS OR SUBWAYS" to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improved means and apparatus to be employed
in the blocking or fortification of tunnels or subways, and consists in an addition
to a former patent granted to me, N° 554, Jany 3, 1884. In lieu of the abutment
caisson, or portcullis, mentioned therein, I would also provide a chamber or hopper
formed above, or at an angle above, the tunnel, with its base closed by a suitable
hinged or other stop. I propose that the hopper should contain stones, ballast, or
other material, which on the opening of the aforesaid door, would enter and
effectually block the tunnel.
This door may be sliding, or it may be hinged, and kept in position by a
controllable stop in the one case, or in the other it may be actuated by any
suitable mechanism, from a distant point instantaneously, by electricity or other
agency, and may also operate in combination with the abutments and caissons
referred to in my aforesaid patent.
Dated this 3rd day of January 1884.
"
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
Patent Agents,
22, Southampton Buildings, W.C.,
Agents to the Applicant

page_text: I, RICHARD ROPER, of Lewisham High Road, in the County of Kent, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my invention for "IMPROVED MEANS
AND APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE BLOCKING OR FORTIFICATION OF
TUNNELS OR SUBWAYS and in what manner the same is to be performed to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
"
This Invention has for its object, improved means and apparatus to be employed
in the blocking or fortification of tunnels or subways. It consists in addition to a
former specification, N° 554, dated January 3rd, 1884, and is applicable, under
similar circumstances, to those set out therein.
Instead of the revolving, sliding, descending, or ascending portcullis described in 1
the specification above mentioned, I construct a chamber, or hopper, either
immediately, or at an angle, above the tunnel, at any one or more points thereof, it
may be desired to control, and communicating therewith by a throat controlled by
one or a pair of sliding or hinged trap doors, The chamber is of considerable
capacity, and is charged with stones, ballast, or other similar loose and heavy
material, in sufficient quantity to effectually block the tunnel, when discharged
through the throat of the chamber, on the withdrawal or release of the door. The
effect of the aforementioned throat is to concentrate the discharge, of the ballast, so
as to effect a closure of the tunnel as quickly as possible.
When hinged doors are used, the retaining stops may be withdrawn by any
suitable agency; e.g. electricity or other rapidly acting power, and when sliding
doors are used, any efficient device or gearing suitable, for the purposes of my
invention may be adopted.
In order that my invention and the means of putting the same into successful
operation may be thoroughly understood, I will proceed to describe the same in
detail, reference being had to the accompanying drawings which are to be taken as
part of this specification, and read therewith, and in which corresponding parts are
marked throughout the figures in which they occur with the same reference..
Figure 1 illustrates in sectional side elevation, and Figure 2 in transverse
sectional elevation, my invention with the ballast chamber or hopper immediately
over the tunnel, its throat being controlled by a pair of hinged trap doors.
In the former figure the trap is shown as open, and the ballast falling into the
tunnel. In the latter figure the doors are shewn closed, the dotted lines indicating
the arcs described in their fall.
A is the ballast hopper, B the ballast, C is the throat of the hopper, controlled
by the rebated trap doors D. E is the tunnel; and F and G the up and down lines
respectively.
Figure 3 is a sectional side elevation, and Figure 4 a transverse sectional
elevation, illustrating my invention. The position of the hopper is the same as
that described with reference to the foregoing figures, but the door, H, is a sliding
one, working in a suitable frame I.
When it is more convenient, from any cause, to fix the hopper in a position not
immediately over the tunnel, I arrange the several parts as illustrated in
Figures 5. 6 and 7.
Figure 5 is a transverse sectional elevation shewing the trap door open, and the
ballast falling. Figure 6 a vertical section taken at the line a-b in Figure 5.
The door, J, is a single-hinged trap, and falls before the ballast into a recess, K,
formed in the underside of the throat. Figure 7 is a transverse sectional elevation,
shewing the trap door closed, and the hopper ready charged.

page_text: I have not shewn, in any of the drawings, any device actuating the trap doors
or their retaining stops, as such devices are well known, and their adoption and
application may be modified according to the circumstance of the particular case.
The invention described herein can be used in combination with any modification
of that described in my before mentioned specification, N° 554, of A.Ď. 1884.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
The use of a hopper containing ballast or other similar loose and heavy material,
communicating by a throat with the crown of a tunnel, said throat being controlled
by a suitable trap, for the purpose of blocking the tunnel, as herein before described
with reference to the accompanying Drawings.
Dated this 3rd day of October 1884.