IMPROVEMENTS IN MINERAL AND ROCK DRILLING APPARATUS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Parke Pittar, of No. 26, Gresham Street, in tho
City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MINERAL
AND ROCK DRILLING APPARATUS."
Scaled the 3rd June 1868, and dated the 13th January 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Parke Pittar at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th January 1868.
I, PARKE PITTAR, of No. 26, Gresham Street, in the City of London,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MINERAL AND ROCK DRILLING APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain mechanical arrangements for working
more expeditiously and economically the drill or tool used in perforating
rocks or mineral substances for blasting or other purposes.
Whenever it is considered desirable to apply considerable perforating
force or power to the drill or tool, in other words, when it is decided
that the motive force should be effected by machinery, I propose to use
a cylinder having a piston working within it. The longitudinal centre

page_text: line of the cylinder and the centre line of the drilling bar should be
in a continuous straight line, the piston pressing on the drill or tool
to which it may be attached, or of which it may be independent, as
found convenient. Rotary motion is given to the drilling bar or shank
of the tool by means of a small turbine wheel or other suitable mecha-
nical appliance. The cylinder is provided at one end or at both ends
with set screws, and as one means of giving a progressive motion to the
drill I propose to apply a certain regulated pressure of water behind
the piston, a pressure which is represented either by the mere weight
of a body of water or of water subjected to any required amount of
pressure. When manual power only is employed the cutter or tool is
centred in a rest or holder analogous to that of an ordinary hand drill,
the cutter being steadied and impelled forward by the workman, and
the necessary rotary action given to it by any ordinary mechanical
appliance, such, for instance, as that suggested for the rotary action of
the more powerful apparatus, a small turbine wheel. The drilling bar
may either be shaped out of a single piece of any eligible material,
or composed of two or more parts; but whether a single, whole, or
compounded of various parts, it is to have fitted at its lower end one
or many diamonds, or other suitable material, properly adapted for
boring or cutting stone or mineral.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Parke Pittar in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 9th July 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PARKE
PITTAR, of No. 26, Gresham Street, in the City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succèssors, give
and grant unto me, the said Parke Pittar, Her special licence that I,
the said Parke Pittar, my, executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the, said Parke Pittar, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time

page_text: 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN MINERAL AND ROCK DRILLING.
APPARATUS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Parke:
Pittar, my executors or administrators, 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 same 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 Parke Pittar, 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, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My improvements in mineral and rock drilling apparatus relate to the
application and arrangement of certain mechanical means or appliances
designed to work the drill used for boring rocks or mineral substances,
whether for blasting or other purposes.
In order that the said Invention may be fully understood I shall refer
to an illustration of the way in which I propose to effect the operation
of boring by means of machinery, an illustration that may be seen on
the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the same letters of reference
indicating identical parts throughout all the Figures.
Fig. 1 represents the elevation of an apparatus consisting of a turbine
wheel with suitable gearing such as I propose to adopt for imparting
a rotary and onward motion to the drill used for boring rocks or mineral
substances; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the apparatus, Fig. 3 is a
view of the upper, and Fig. 4 a view of the lower end of the apparatus.
A is a cylinder enclosing the drilling bar B, the centre line of which
is identical with that of the cylinder; C is a piston connected with the
top of the drilling bar; D is a small turbine wheel by which it is
proposed to impart rotary motion to the drilling bar; E, set screws by
means of which the apparatus is fixed in the most convenient position;
F is an aperture for the introduction of water under a certain regulated
pressure. This pressure affecting the top of the piston C imparts a
progressive movement to the drilling bar and boring tool; G is the

page_text: boring tool, either affixed to the lower end of the drilling bar or forming
an integral part of it, and is fitted with diamonds or other suitable
cutting material; H is a feather on the turbine wheel which fits in a
slot way cut in the drilling bar, so that when united the drilling bar]
may be forced to rotate with the turbine wheel, but at the same time
permitted to move freely in an upward or a downward direction.
throughout its whole length.
Having thus pointed out and described the chief parts of which my
apparatus is composed I will now proceed to explain the action and
operation of the said apparatus.
The apparatus is first fixed in any required position by means of the
set screws E, and then it is proposed by the employment of any ordinary
motive power to direct a certain amount of hydraulic force to act upon
the turbine wheel, so as to give a rotary movement to the drilling bar.
At the same time it is proposed to inject water under a certain pressure
through the hole F into the chamber immediately above and open to the
piston affixed to the upper end of the drilling bar. The pressure thus
brought to bear upon the piston C gives a directly progressive onward
movement to the drilling bar and cutting tool. Thus then I accomplish
by the application of a regulated combination of the two forces just
described an effective drilling action. If it be found undesirable to give
rotary motion to the piston C a slight modification of the foregoing
arrangement will effect this object. Instead of making the piston an
inseparable part of the drilling bar I propose to centre the drilling
bar in the under side of the piston, so that it may act upon it as a pivot,
the end of the drilling bar being always in contact with the piston and
turning within it, without imparting to it a rotary action. An effective
drilling operation may also be obtained by substituting an ordinary
pulley in place of the turbine wheel, and forcing it to rotate at a
calculated velocity. Cogged gear may also supply the place of the
turbine wheel, and in either case. the piston C and the drilling bar B
may, be impelled forward by supplying air pressure, instead of water
pressure behind the piston.
The second part of my Invention needs but a brief description. When
the drilling bar is to be impelled forward by manual labour. the upper
end is centred in a small turbine wheel, the case of which is so con-
structed as to form a rest and holder for the workman; and as the
drilling bar is merely a prolongation of the axis of the turbine wheel

page_text: it follows that the former will rapidly rotate with the latter. In the:
present case neither the cylinder A nor the piston C. are: used, tho,
difference between this and the former part of my Invention consisting
in the substitution of manual labour in place of the water or air pressure;
behind the piston in the manner previously, described. The other
mechanical appliances for giving rotary motion to the drilling bar;,
which have been described as suitable for effecting the rotary action,
are as applicable to the second as, to the first, part, of my Invention.
The drilling bar may either be shaped out of a single piece of any
cligible material, or composed of two, or more. parts; but whether a
single, whole, or, compounded of various parts, it. is to have. fitted at its
lower end one or many diamonds, or other material suitable for boring
or cutting stone or mineral.
The lower end of the drilling bar or of the boring tool, G which is
also termed the head of the crown piece, may be shaped and fitted with
diamonds in the following manner:-Fig. 5 is an elevation, and Fig. 6
is a plan view (full size) of the extreme end of the crown piece. The
boring tool may have any number of diamond holder plate projections L.
The cutting, diamonds are to be attached to these plates with mastic,
or in a way similar to that employed by lapidaries for-polishing their
stones. In order to increase the stability of the diamonds in their
position, a plate or washer M is placed on the exposed side of the
diamond cutter or cutters opposite the projections L, and the inter-
mediate part not occupied by the diamond or diamonds is filled with
mastic or other suitable matter, and the whole is then tightened by a
screw P which passes through the washer M into the projection Lon
the opposite side of the diamond or diamonds.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same may be carried into effect, I now observe
in conclusion that I do not confine myself to the precise details or
arrangements which I have had occasion to describe, as many variations
may be made therefrom without deviating from the main features of my
Invention; but what I consider to be novel and original, and therefore
claim is,―
Firstly. The application of a turbine wheel to effect the rotary action
of the drilling bar and cutting tool used for boring rocks or mineral
substances, whether the said turbine wheel effect the necessary rotary
action of the drilling bar and cutting tool through the medium of

page_text: suitable driving gear, or by being in direct communication with the said
drilling bar and cutting tool, substantially as herein-before described.
Secondly. The application of mechanical power, whether represented
by apparatus similar to those herein-before described; or by other
suitable mechanical appliances for imparting a rotary motion to the
drilling bar and cutting tool used for boring rocks or mineral sub-
stances when the advancing and in part directly impelling movement
of the tool is effected by manual labour, substantially as herein-before
described.
Thirdly. The special manner, herein-before described, of fixing the
cutting diamonds to the end of the boring bar or crown piece.
In witness whereof, I, the said Parke Pittar, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eigth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.