IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES OR MACHINERY FOR BORING OR WORKING ROCK AND OTHER MATERIAL, AND IN STANDS FOR SUCH ENGINES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Smith Crease, of Plymouth, in the County of
Devon, Mining Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES
OR MACHINERY FOR BORING OR WORKING ROCK AND OTHER MATERIAL, AND IN
STANDS FOR SUCH ENGINES."
Sealed the 80th July 1867, and dated the 2nd February 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Smith Crease at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd February 1867.
I, EDWARD SMITH CREASE, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Mining
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ENGINES OR MACHINERY FOR BORING OR WORKING ROCK AND OTHER
MATERIAL, AND IN STANDS FOR SUCH ENGINES;" to be as follows:-
According to the Invention described in the Specification of my former
Patent No. 2624, dated 24th October 1863, the feed and exhaust ports of
the piston valve are so arranged that the piston of the boring machine must
go nearly the entire length of the stroke before the steam or other motive
power can act upon the piston valve to give it the necessary motion; but as
it is desirable that the piston should sooner receives its momentum, I accom-

page_text: plish this either by enlarging the mouths of the piston valve, steam and
exhaust ports in the direction of the cylinder ordinary steam and exhaust
ports; or, what 1 prefer, by opening two other ports in the same direction con-
nected with the piston valve steam passages, and at such suitable distances
from the original ports that with the piston correspondingly suitably adjusted
in length, and recessed so that when the steam or other motive power enters
the cylinder and gives the piston motion, in its course it opens the nearest
piston valve steam port, and simultaneously the piston valve exhaust at the
further end of the recess in the piston, thus admitting the steam or other
fluid sooner into and exhaust earlier out of the smaller cylinder than other-
wise would be the case under the previous arrangement.
In order to obtain the rotary motion of the borer and feed motion of the
machine I place a ratchet brace, the ratchet of which is fixed, and the brace
works loosely on the spindle entering the back of the machine. The paul of
this ratchet, which is made with a spill on the lower end of it is dropped into
a hole bored into the lever underneath the ratchet, and an opening is left in
the lower end of the lever, through which a spiral spring is introduced and
'forced up round the spill, which has the effect of preserving the use of the
spring should it accidentally break in one or more places. The plug which
fits into this lever works in an opening in a rod connecting two pistons in a
small supplementary cylinder attached to the back of the boring machine. Air
or any other motive power is introduced to work the same in the following
manner I either connect each end of this cylinder by means of pipes to the
ordinary steam passages of the main cylinder, or, in preference, as the chief
power is only required on one side of the cylinder I connect that end to the
nearest ordinary steam passage, thus securing the inlet and exhaust to that
end, and on the other end of the supplementary cylinder instead of connecting
with the other main ordinary steam passage; to obtain a reciprocating motion
to the piston I connect to the feed direct, and thus secure a constant pressure
on that end of the piston which is only made to present as much superficial
surface as the pressure of steam or other fluid on it would suffice to bring it
back to the other end of the cylinder.
I obtain the feed motion for the machine by substituting a crank pin and
crank for the excentric motion on the spindle at the back of the machine,
attaching the same by a rod to the lever and ratchet on the feed screw, as
described in the Specification of my said former Patent, or I adopt for this
movement the following plan:-Instead of varying the rate of feed by altering
the leverage on the feed screw ratchet lever 1 obtain the power of varying
the rate of feed motion from the spindle by means of a rod connected at one

page_text: end to the feed screw ratchet, and attached as close as is convenient to the
centre of the feed screw, with the other end working on a pin connected with
a movable nut, through which is a screw working in a convenient bed fixed
firmly on the end of the machine spindle; and the variation of the feed to
meet the different kinds of rock bored through is effected by simply turning
the screw so as to vary the distance of the movable crank pin nearer to or
further from centre of the machine spindle as may be required at the pleasure
of the operator. When the machine has worked itself down to the limit
of travel of the feed screw instead of winding it back by hand ready for
boring again I adopt the following plan, viz. :-Between the spindle and feed
screw I fix a toothed wheel at the back of the supplementary cylinder, and
working into it, on the spindle is another wheel as well as one below on the
feed screw.
Either of these two latter wheels is made movable, and is
thrown in and out of gear at pleasure, and when it is required to wind back
the machine the movable wheel is thrown into gear, and without stopping it
will work back the machine again into position ready for boring deeper. To
prevent the feed screw acting irrespective of the feed motion, which it is liable
to do in consequence of the vibration attendant on the working of the machine,
I place a ratchet on it with the paul fixed to the guide stay at the back of the
supplementary cylinder with the same number of teeth as the lever ratchet
which gives the required feed. Instead of making use of set screws for holding
the borer in the end of the piston rod, as I have hitherto done, I recess one or
more sides of the borer head, and screw a cap on the end of the piston rod,
into which I place one or more bolts. I make these bolts with sufficient
openings down their centres to admit of V-shaped springs, which extend
through the covers which keep the bolts in their places, with catches on each
of the arms of the springs arranged so that when the bolts are forced into the
recesses made for that purpose on the borer head the catches will find a
holding space under the covers. To take out the borer when required it is
only necessary to press the arms of the springs together and withdraw the
bolts out of the head of the borer; or I secure the borer without springs in
the piston head by screwing the heads of the bolts into their covers, and
secure them by thumbscrews; or I insert set screws through the covers to
keep the bolts in position for holding borer head. The piston rod is bored
down to suit an ordinary sized borer nearly to the piston, and is then filled
with hard wood to within a few inches of the piston rod head to allow the
necessary space for holding the borer, by this means the piston rod is tightened,
and the concussion on the machine is eased when the machine delivers its
blows

page_text: I construct the air pump by means of which the air is compressed to work
the machine in the following manner-It is made double-acting to work
either vertically or horizontally. At each end of the cylinder there is an
india-rubber annular inlet valve, with the orifices round the cylinder covers to
admit the air as near as is convenient to the cylinder sides. By this means
I obtain ample space for admission of air to the cylinder, and at the same
time bring in the cold air directly on those parts of the cylinder which are
most heated by the process of compressing the air, and thereby cool them.
The outlet valves are metal disc heat valves placed as near as possible one on
each end of the cylinder, and connected together as is usual by a bridge pipe.
The outlet valves may be made with cup and ball valves.
I construct the stand in the following manner :-The bed is of solid cast
iron of sufficient weight that by its own gravity in addition to its being secured
firmly by cramps to two of the beaviest constructed bridge rails on which it
rests while in position it will bear firmly all the vibration of the machine
whilst boring; in casting it two hollow spaces are left lengthwise with open-
ings at the ends to allow of four levers being inserted therein, to the outside
extremities of which four ordinary tram wheels are fitted; pins are inserted
through these levers from the sides of the bed as near the ends as is conve-
nient, which form pivots, the other ends rest on nuts in each centre of the
hollow openings, and through these nuts screws work from the top of the
bed. By turning these screws the bed is raised when required, so that the
wheels take the whole load of superincumbent weight, or lowered at the
pleasure of the operator when he requires the machine in position for boring;
he then screws down the bed firmly on the rails by the cramps which are fixed
behind each of the wheels; these cramps are detached on raising the bed.
On the sides of each rail angle irons are riveted with holes bored through
them at convenient distances, into which the cramps are inserted. I make use
of the usual pillar bar and sockets for travelling on the pillar and holding the
bar, but in order to obtain an easy mechanical control over their motions,
and secure them firmly in any position required, I make keyways the entire
height of the pillar and length of travel of the bar. Into these keyways I fit
keys, which are held inside toothed wheels encircling the pillar and bar, and
attached loosely to the sockets, on which are fixed worms working into these
toothed wheels. By turning the worm on the pillar I can thereby obtain any
position, and hold it laterally, that may be needed for the bar, and by turning
the worm on the bar I can bring the machine into position, and hold it at any
angle that may be required that the bar will make on its own axis.
To facilitate the movement of the bar in and out of its socket I place a

page_text: loose collar on each end of it; these collars have loops which hold the ends of
a screw working through a nut fixed on the socket, and the screw is worked
by a handle at the end of the bar opposite the machine.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edward Smith Crease in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd August 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
SMITH CREASE, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Mining Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Edward Smith Crease, Her special licence that I, the said Edward Smith
Crease, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Edward Smith Crease, 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 Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ENGINES OR MACHINERY FOR BORING OR WORKING ROCK AND OTHER
MATERIAL, AND IN STANDS FOR SUCH ENGINES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that 1, the said Edward Smith Crease, 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
the saine to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Smith Crease, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say:-
According to the Invention described in the Specification of my former
Patent, No. 2624, dated Twenty-fourth October One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-three, the feed and exhaust ports of the piston valve are so arranged

page_text: that the piston of the boring machine must go nearly the entire length of the
stroke before the steam or other motive power can act upon the piston valve
to give it the necessary motion; but as it is desirable that the piston valve
should sooner receive its momentum I accomplish this either by enlarging
the mouths of the piston valve, steam and exhaust ports in the direction of the
cylinder ordinary steam and exhaust ports, or what I prefer by opening two
other ports in the same direction as shown at a, b, in Figure 1 of the accom-
panying Drawings; these two other ports are connected with the piston valve
steam passages, and are at such suitable distances from the original ports that
with the piston correspondingly suitably adjusted in length and recessed, so
that when the steam or other motive power enters the cylinder and gives the
piston motion in its course, it opens the nearest piston valve steam port and
simultaneously the piston valve exhaust at the further end of the recess in the
piston, thus admitting the steam or other fluid sooner into and exhaust earlier
out of the smaller cylinder than otherwise would be the case under the
previous arrangement.
In order to obtain the rotary motion of the borer and feed notion of the
machine I place a ratchet brace c, Figure 2, the ratchet d of which is fixed,
and the brace works loosely on the spindle e, entering the back of the engine.
The paulf of this ratchet, which is made with a spill g on the lower end of it,
is dropped into a hole bored into the lever h underneath the ratchet, and an
opening is left in the lower end of the lever, through which a spiral spring is
introduced and forced up round the spill, which has the effect of preserving
the use of the spring should it accidentally break in one or more places. The
plug which fits into this lever works in an opening in a rod i connecting two
pistons j,j, in a small supplementary cylinder k attached to the back of the
boring machine. Air or any other motive power is introduced to work the
same in the following manner :-I either connect each end of this cylinder by
means of pipes to the ordinary steam passages of the main cylinder, or in
preference, as the chief power is only required on one side of the cylinder I
connect that end (that is to say the end marked 1) to the nearest ordinary
steam passage, thus securing the inlet and exhaust to that end and the other
end m of the supplementary cylinder, instead of connecting with the other
main ordinary steam passage to obtain a reciprocating motion to the piston, I
connect to the feed direct, and thus secure a constant pressure on that end of
the piston, which is only made to present as much superficial surface as the
pressure of steam or other fluid on it would suffice to bring it back to the
other end of the cylinder.
I obtain the feed motion for the machine by substituting a crank pin and

page_text: crank for the eccentric motion on the spindle at the back of the machine,
attaching the same by a rod to the lever and ratchet on the feed screw, as
described in the Specification of my said former Pateut; or I adopt for this
movement the following plan, as seen in Figures 3 and 4:-Instead of varying
the rate of feed by altering the leverage on the feed screw ratchet lever, I.
obtain the power of varying the rate of feed motion from the spindle e by.
means of a rod o, connected at one end to the feed screw ratchet p, and.
attached as close as is convenient to the centre of the feed screw with the
other end working on a pin q connected with a movable nut, through which
is a screw working in a convenient bed or block s fixed firmly on the end of
the machine spindle e, and the variation of the feed to meet the different
kinds of rock bored through is effected by simply turning the screw r, so as to
vary the distance of the movable crank pin q near to or further from the
centre of the machine spindle e as may be required at the pleasure of the
operator. When the machine has worked itself down to the limit of travel of.
the feed screw, instead of winding it back by hand ready for boring again, I
adopt the following plan, viz:-Between the spindle e and feed screw I fix a
toothed wheel t at the back of the supplementary cylinder k, and working into
it on the spindle is another wheel u as well as a wheel below on the feed
screw. Either of these two latter wheels u and v is made movable, and is
thrown in and out of gear at pleasure; and when it is required to wind back
the machine the movable wheel is thrown into gear, and without stopping it.
will work back the machine again into position ready for boring deeper. To
prevent the feed screw acting irrespective of the feed motion, which it is liable
to do in consequence of the vibration attendant on the working of the machine,
I place the ratchet or stop wheel p¹ (Figure 4") on it, with the paul fixed
to the guide stay at the back of the supplementary cylinder k, with the same
number of teeth as the lever ratchet p which gives the required feed. Instead
of making use of set screws for holding the borer in the end of the piston rod,
as I have hitherto done, I recess one or more sides of the borer head, as
shewn at Figures 5, 6, and 7, and screw a cap a on the end of the piston rod,.
into which I place one or more bolts y.
I make these bolts with sufficient
openings down their centres to admit of V-shaped springs z, which extend
through the covers a', which keep the bolts in their places with catches on
each of the arms of the springs, arranged so that when the bolts are forced,
into the recesses made for that purpose on the borer bead, the catches will
find a holding space under the covers. To take out the borer when required!,
it is only necessary to press the arms of the springs together and withdraw
the bolts out of the head of the borer; or 1 secure the borer without springs

page_text: in the piston head by screwing the heads of the bolts into their covers, and
secure them by thumbscrews; or I insert set screws through the covers to
keep the bolts in position for bolding the borer head. The piston rod is bored
down to suit an ordinary sized borer nearly to the piston, and it is then filled
with hard wood b¹ to within a few inches of the piston rod head to allow the
necessary space for holding the borer; by this means the piston rod is
lightened and the concussion on the machine is eased when the machine
delivers its blows.
I construct the air pump, by means of which the air is compressed to work
the machine, as shown in Figures 8 and 9. It is made double-acting to work
either vertically or horizontally. At each end of the cylinder A there is an
india-rubber annular inlet valve B, with the orifices C round the cylinder
covers to admit the air as near as is convenient to the cylinder sides; by this
means obtain ample space for admission of air to the cylinder, and at the
same time bring in the cold air directly on those parts of the cylinder which
are most heated by the process of compressing the air, and thereby cool them.
The outlet valves D are metal disc beat valves placed as near as possible one
on each end of the cylinder, and connected together as is usual by a bridge
pipe E. The outlet valves may be cup and ball valves.
Figure 10 represents a stand for supporting boring engines. The bed I
prefer to make of cast iron of sufficient weight that, by its own gravity, in
addition to its being secured firmly by cramps, as hereafter explained, to two
bridge rails G, G, on which it rests while in position, that it will bear firmly
all the vibration of the machine whilst boring. I form two hollow spaces in
its under side with openings at the ends to allow of four rock levers H being
inserted therein, to the outside extremities of which four ordinary tram wheels
I are fitted. Pins K are inserted through these levers from the sides of the
bed on which the levers move as fulcrums; the inner ends of the levers rests
on nuts L about the centre of the hollow openings, these nuts are acted upon
by screws M worked from the top of the bed F. By turning these screws in
one direction the bed is raised so that the wheels take the whole load of super-
incumbent weight to enable the stand to be moved on the rails. When it is
required to fix the machine in position for boring the screws M are turned in
the contrary direction, which allows the bed to rest upon the rails, and by the
aid of the cramps N which are fixed behind each of the wheels, the whole is
firmly fixed thereto; these cramps are released or detached when necessary for
raising the bed. On the sides of each rail angle irons P are riveted with
holes bored through them at convenient distances into which the cramps are
inserted.

page_text: The pillar O which supports the sockets Q, and bars R which carry the
engine, I make plain as usual, but in order to obtain an easy mechanical
control over their various motions, and secure them firmly in any position, I
make grooves or keyways the entire height of the pillar and length of travel
of the horizontal bar; into these keyways I fit keys or feathers which are
connected to or held inside toothed wheels S encircling the pillar or bar; these
wheels are attached loosely to the sockets Q, on which are fixed worms T
working into these toothed wheels. By turning the worm on the pillar I can
obtain any position laterally that may be needed for the bar, and by turning
the worm on the bar I can bring the machine into any position and angle that
may be required that the bar will make on its own axis.
To facilitate the movement of the bar in and out of its socket I place a
loose collar U on each end of it; these collars have loops V, which hold the
ends of a threaded rod W working through a nut X fixed on the socket,
the rod W can be worked by a handle at the end of the bar opposite the
engine.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as my "Improve-
ments in Engines or Machinery for Boring or Working Rock and other
Material, and in Stands for such Engines,-
First, the arrangement or arrangements herein-before described for causing
the piston valve of boring engines to sooner receive its momentum, that is to
say, either by enlarging the mouths of the piston valve, steam, and exhaust
ports in the direction of the cylinder ordinary steam and exhaust ports, or by
opening two other ports in the same direction connected with the piston valve
steam passages, as herein-before explained.
Second, the arrangement or arrangements substantially as berein-before
described for obtaining the rotary motion of the borer and the feed motion of
the machine.
Third, the arrangement substantially as herein-before described for pre-
venting the feed screw acting irrespective of the feed motion.
Fourth, the several arrangements substantially as herein-before described
for holding or securing the borer or tool in the end of the piston rod.
Fifth, constructing pumps for compressing air for working boring engines,
substantially as herein-before described.
Sixth, the general arrangement or arrangements of parts of stands for
boring engines, substantially as herein-before described.
Seventh, the arrangement for moving the sockets on the pillar of boring

page_text: engine stands, and of moving the bar in the horizontal socket by means of
threaded rods and nuts, substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Smith Crease, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Thirty-first day of August, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-seven.
EDWP. S. CREASE. (L.S.)