IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EXCAVATING TUNNELS, LEVELS, OR GALLERIES
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Dickinson Brunton, of Great George Street, in the
City of Westminster, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING
TO MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EXCAVATING TUNNELS, LEVELS, OR
GALLERIES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Dickinson Brunton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th April 1881.
JOHN DICKINSON BRUNTON, of Great George Street, in the City of Westminster.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EXCAVATING
TUNNELS, LEVELS, OR GALLERIES."
My Invention relates to the combination with machinery or apparatus for
excavating tunnels, levels, or galleries, of peculiar appliances for collecting the
fragments of rock or the broken up earth or material produced in the operation of
excavating and for delivering such material, and it consists in the employment of
scoops placed on the circumference of a revolving conical or cylindrical drum, by
means of which the fragments of rock or the broken up earth or material produced
in the operation of excavating tunnels, levels, or galleries is collected, and is
deposited on an endless travelling band by which it is delivered into waggons.
The Invention is chiefly applicable as an adjunct to tunnelling machines, and
especially to those which cut out tunnels of a cylindrical form.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Dickinson Brunton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th October 1881.
JOHN DICKINSON BRUNTON, of Great George Street, in the City of Westminster.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR EXCAVATING
TUNNELS, LEVELS, OR GALLERIES."
My said Invention relates to the combination with machinery or apparatus for
excavating tunnels, levels, or galleries, of peculiar appliances for collecting the
fragments of rock or the broken up earth or material detached in the operation of
excavating and for delivering such material, and it consists in the employment of
scoops placed on the circumference of a revolving conical or cylindrical drum, by
means of which the fragments of rock or the broken up earth or material detached
in the operation of excavating tunnels, levels, or galleries is collected, and is
deposited on an endless travelling band by which it is delivered into waggons.
The said Invention is chiefly applicable as an adjunct to tunnelling machines,
and especially to those which cut out tunnels of a cylindrical form.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose shall refer to
the several Figures on the annexed Sheet of Drawings, the same letters of
reference indicating corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings represents a side elevation of a portion
of a tunnelling machine of the description known as Brunton's, with the peculiar
collecting and delivering apparatus applied thereto; Figure 2 is a plan of the same
corresponding to Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a sectional elevation, the apparatus
being represented, as arranged, in a tunnel in course of formation, which is shewn
in section in all the Figures.
A represents the ordinary hollow screw shaft of the machine, on the front énd
of which shaft is secured a cross head which carries the bearings for the arbors of
the cutter chucks in the usual manner, these parts being however for the sake of
simplicity omitted in my Drawings; B represents the shaft which passes through
the hollow screw shaft A, and imparts through the intervention of gearing an
axial motion to the cutter chucks, whilst they receive an orbital motion from the
shaft A, all as is well understood. According to my present Invention, I mount
loose on the front end of the shaft A a drum C, having attached to its outer
periphery a series of scoops D adapted to the circumference of the tunnel. In
connection with the scoops is arranged a shute E and an endless travelling band F.
The end of the endless travelling band F is situate immediately beneath the
lower end of the shute E; whilst its other end f¹ is elevated so as to bring it above
the height of a waggon G. The band which is mounted upon rollers H and
suitably supported, has a travelling motion imparted to it from the machine by
means of a belt and pulleys, one of which latter is indicated at I. The drum C
carrying the scoops D receives rotary motion from the machine through the inter-
vention of a worm and worm wheel or other gearing, a worm wheel C¹ being shewn
secured on the boss of the drum C for this purpose.
When the machine is at work the fragments of rock or the broken up earth or
material detached in the operation of excavating are collected in the scoops D as
the drum C rotates in the direction of the arrow, and such debris are discharged
through the shute E on to the endless travelling band F, which delivers the same
into the waggon G to be conveyed away where required.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into

page_text: effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein before
in part recited Letters Patent is,―
The combination with machinery or apparatus for excavating tunnels, levels, or
galleries of peculiar appliances for collecting and delivering the debris or materials
detached in the operation of excavating, substantially as herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Dickinson Brunton, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of October, One
thousand eight hundred and eighty one.
JOHN DICKINSON BRUNTON. (L.S.)