Improvements in Apparatus for Elevating and Conveying Coal, Grain and the like.
Year: 1899

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Elevating and Conveying Coal, Grain
and the like.
I, REUBEN JEFFREY MELIUS, of Mineral Street, Bath-on-Hudson, Rensselair
County, New York State, U.S.A., Inventor, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to apparatus for raising coal, grain or other substances
from railway trucks, barges, landing stages etc., and conveying it to suitable
places for storage, consumption or use.
The object of the invention is to provide certain new and useful improve-
ments whereby said apparatus is rendered exceedingly efficient and expeditious
in its operation, and the general construction simplified and, consequently, made
less likely to get out of order.
An elevating and conveying apparatus constructed in accordance with my
improvements, comprises a suitable guide-frame which is arranged at an inclina-
tion and may consist of side-pieces, arranged parallel, and connected, at intervals,
by transverse stays. The spaces between the stays are fitted with doors capable
of opening inwards.
Sprocket-wheels are journalled at the upper and lower ends of the frame,
and an endless chain, carrying buckets, travels over them. The backs of the
buckets are hinged at their upper ends to open inwardly, by the action of
gravity, when they arrive opposite to one of the doors in the frame which has
been opened, and to be closed by contact with the next stay which it passes
as it travels.
A trough or chute is arranged with one of its ends between the chain, and is
capable of being tilted or otherwise adjusted to any desired height to catch
the contents of the buckets as they pass any one or more of the doors which
are opened, and to convey said contents to any desired place of storage or use.
Dated this 19th day of December 1899.
P. R. J. WILLIS,
Agent for Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
0 Improvements in Apparatus for Elevating and Conveying Coal, Grain
and the like.
I, REUBEN JEFFREY MELIUS, of Mineral Street, Bath-on-Hudson, Rensselair
County, New York State, U.S.A., Inventor, do hereby declare the nature of
017

page_text: this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particu-
larly described and ascertained in and by the following statement ; —
This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for elevating and convey-
ing coal, grain and the like and consists in providing the elevator with a
chute having a tiltable bottom which is arranged in such manner in relation to
the elevator mechanism that coal or other commodities raised by the elevator
can be discharged at either side of the latter; and it also consists in providing
the guide-floor for the elevator with a series of openings through which the
material raised by the elevator can be automatically discharged at different
elevations, and providing such openings with removeable shutters for closing
them when said openings are not required for use.
In the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification and which
are herein referred to, Figure 1 is a side elevation of an elevator embodying
my improvements, a portion of said figure being shewn in vertical section;
Fig. 2 a front elevation of Fig. 1 with portions broken away to shew underlying
parts and Fig. 3 an end elevation of one of the elevator buckets detached from
the chain.
As illustrated in the drawings. A designates sprocket wheels secured to
shafts B in the usual manner and provided with horns C, adapted to engage
in endless chains D, which are common to this class of elevator.
E designates open-top buckets secured at stated intervals to the chains D
by the usual means of securing such parts, so that the chains can be flexed,
and for that purpose each of said buckets is provided with a transverse rod F
at its upper and lower sides, and, as shewn in Fig. 1, the uppermost rod serves
as a pivot on which a swinging door G is hinged to the bucket E, and the lower
edge of said door is preferably provided with a curved lip H, which closes over
the lower rod, as shewn in Fig. 3, so as to slide freely over the parts on which
the bucket moves.
I designates string-pieces which are arranged between the upper and lower
sprocket wheels A and on which the chains D are moved. Said string-pieces
are connected together by cross-ties J to give stability to the frame so formed.
The cross-ties J of the uppermost string-piece I are arranged below the outer
face of said string-pieces to allow the thickness of the removable shutter K
to lie even with the upper side of the string-pieces J, said removable shutters
forming a guide-floor for the buckets E of the elevator.
L is an open ended trough which is attachable to the string-pieces I directly
under each opening M through the guide-floor N. The bottom of said trough
is made shorter at each end of the latter than the side pieces of the trough, so
as to form stops for limiting the movements of a tiltable chute that is carried
by the trough L, as shewn in the drawings. In the drawings only one of the
openings M is shewn uncovered: but several such openings may be provided,
and the trough L should be adapted to be attached directly under either of the
openings formed through the guide-floor N. A chute O which is tiltable, is
journalled on a rod P. arranged across said trough, so as to be at the middle,
or nearly so, of the chute, so that when the latter is tilted in either direction
the depressed end of the chute will take against the corresponding end of the
bottom of the trough L and will be supported thereby.
The chute C is arranged so that the material raised in the buckets E will be
discharged from the latter directly into the chute. Then if said chute is in
the position shewn in full lines in Fig. 2 said material will pass out of the
depressed end of the chute: but if said chute is tilted into the position shewn
in dotted lines in Fig. 2 the discharge will occur in the opposite direction from
the one just referred to, and in this manner coal and other material can be
dumped at either side of the elevator at the option of the operator.
The swinging door G should be made to conform to the shape of the peri-
phery of the rim of the sprocket wheels A over which the buckets E are carried.

page_text: As shewn in the drawings, said swinging door is curved, but when polygonally
formed tumblers are substituted for said sprocket-wheels said doors can be
made flat.
The operation of my invention is as follows:-
The chute O being tilted into a required position, the necessary motion is
imparted to the sprocket wheels A to carry the buckets on the descending part
of the chains D into the material to be raised. Thereby the buckets E will be
successively filled and moved upwardly by the ascending parts of said chains.
As each bucket reashes an uncovered opening M in the guide-floor N the weight
of the material in the bucket will force open the door G, as shewn in Fig. 1,
thereby permitting the contents of the bucket to fall out of said bucket into
the chute O, from whence the material will slide out to the place that is pro-
vided to receive it.
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:-
(1) In an elevator, the combination with an inclined guide-floor, N, composed
of removable shutters, K, which form closures for openings, M, in said guide-
floor; said shutters being supported in place by string-pieces, I, and cross-
ties, J, as herein set forth, of an elevator bucket, E, having, at its back, a
swinging door, G, and adapted to be moved on said floor; said door being
arranged to be opened by gravity when the bucket is passing over an uncovered
opening M in the guide-floor, and to close automatically by contact with the
closed part of said floor, all substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore
set forth, and illustrated in the drawings hereunto annexed.
(2) In an elevator, the combination of an inclined guide-floor, N, provided
with an opening or openings, M, formed therethrough, an elevator bucket, E,
having a swinging door, G, hinged to cover its rearmost side; said bucket
being arranged to be moved on said guide-floor, an open ended trough, L, and
a tiltable chute, O, journalled transversely between the sides of said open ended
trough L, whose bottom forms stops for limiting the movement of said chute
in either direction; said chute being arranged directly under an opening, M, in
the guide-floor, and so that the contents of said bucket will fall directly into the
chute and be discharged from the depressed end of the latter substantially as
and for the purposes herein before set forth, and illustrated in the drawings
hereunto annexed.
(3) The combination of a trough, L, having its opposite ends open and having
a bottom that is shorter than the sides of the trough, so as to form a stop at
each end thereof, and a tiltable chute, O, transversely pivoted at, or near, its
mid length to said trough and arranged to be tilted so that either end of said
chute can be depressed until it takes against the corresponding end of the
bottom of the trough, all substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore
set forth, and illustrated in the drawings hereunto annexed.
Dated this 18th day of September 1900
P. R. J. WILLIS,
Agent for Applicant.