of or Means for Piling Coal or other Granular or Divided Material.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application (in United Kingdom), 20th Aug., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 20th Aug., 1889-Accepted, 26th Apr., 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION..
Process of or Means for Piling Coal or other Granular or Divided
Material.
I JAMES MAPES DODGE of 127 South Fourth Street in the City of Philadelphia
State of Pennsylvania one of the United States of America Mechanical Engineer do
hereby declare the nature of this Invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
One object of my Invention is to dispense with the trestlework and bins usually
employed in storing large quantities of coal a further object being to prevent the
disintegration or breakage of the coal during the process of storing.
These objects I attain by piling the coal in a heap in the manner fully described
hereafter.
It has been customary in storing coal, to erect a series of trestles on which
the cars are run, and to build under the trestle work, bins into which the coal is
dumped from the cars as it is received at the terminal points from the mines.
This trestlework covers a large area of ground, usually valuable property, close to
a railroad or along a water front, the trestle work usually being about twenty feet
high, so that it is impossible to form the coal naturally into piles exceeding that
height. The trestle work cannot be constructed much more than twenty feet in
height, owing to the fact that the initial fall of the coal from the car
on the
trestle would at a greater height break the coal into small fragments, and the coal
which is one size in the cars would have to be screened after being stored in the
bins, and separated into several different sizes; therefore the lower the trestlework
the less liability there is to the coal being broken, but the storing capacity is
correspondingly decreased, whereas if the trestle be a high one the storing capacity
is increased, but the percentage of breakage of coal is also increased to an
unprofitable extent.
The bins, moreover, have to be so formed and located that the coal can be readily
removed therefrom for replacement upon trains or vessels.
In some cases, the coal as it is dumped from the cars has been shovelled aside,
so as to permit the dumping of more coal from the cars, but this handling of
the coal is, of course, expensive, and is in many cases on that account not
resorted to.
By my process I am enabled to dispense with the usual trestlework and bins, and
store the coal in piles of any desired height, so that a given amount of coal occupies
much less space than usual, while owing to the peculiar formation of the pile I can
readily remove a part or the whole of it, and load cars therefrom on the level so that
it will be seen that the piling can be done away from railroads or wharves, on
comparatively inexpensive ground.
I will now describe the process and the mechanism which I prefer to use in
carrying out my improved process. In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a
sectional diagram of a pile of coal and a piler, showing the mode of forming the pile.
Figure 2 is a plan view of Figure 1 shewing the gradually increasing base line of the

page_text: :
pile Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6 are diagrams illustrating the successive stages in the lift
of the coal; Figures 7, 8 and 9 are diagram side views, showing the pile of coal in
different stages of formation; Figures 10 11 and 12 are plan views respectively, of
Figures 7, 8 and 9 and Figure 13 is a view illustrating another form of apparatus
which can be used in carrying out my improved process.
The apparatus which I prefer to use is constructed as follows:-
Suitably planted in the spot on which it is desired to form the pile is a pole, say,
for instance, about eighty or ninety feet in height, and suitably stayed by guy ropes,
as shown in Figure 1 and secured to this pole in any suitable manner is a carrier for a
wheel a over which passes an endless chain or rope carrying suitable "flights," in
the present instance in the form of blades. The chain or rope passes around a
suitable wheel a¹ at or near the ground, as shown, this wheel being driven in
any suitable manner, or the top wheel may be driven in order to give motion to
the flighted chain or rope which forms the conveyer for piling the coal.
The coal is fed to the conveyer through a suitable hopper or trough situated by
preference directly under the track on which the car to be unloaded is situated, this
hopper or trough guiding the coal to the lower line of flights of the conveyer.
This point where the flights receive the coal to be carried up over the previously
formed pile of coal, is a fixed point, as it must be remembered that the apparatus
which I prefer to use in carrying out the process is merely a conveyer, and receives
the coal which is to be conveyed to the apex of the pile always at the same point, and
does not act as a dredge or digging machine to cut into the mass of coal to be
piled.
It will be understood, however, that other apparatus may be used for elevating the
coal and forming the pile, for instance, a screw conveyer may be used, as shewn in
Figure 13, the flights in this case being continuous.
To better illustrate the formation of the pile I have shewn a series of diagrams,
Figures 7 to 12, Figure 7 shewing the first stage of formation of the pile, Figure 8
the pile in a more advanced stage of formation, and Figure 9, the complete pile.
It will be seen that after the pile is once started, each successive supply of coal is
carried up and over the coal previously piled, which thus supports these successive
supplies until they reach the apex of the pile, whence they fall by gravity and aid in the
growth or formation of the pile, the mass assuming the angle of repose, and the apex
of the cone-shaped pile thus produced being at the point at which the supply of coal is
delivered by the conveyer.
Thus, as load after load is carried up to the apex this apex constantly recedes and
rises, so that a new cone is practically formed by each load of coal deposited.
During the whole operation of piling, the coal is acted on gently and the percentage
of breakage is infinitesimal as compared with the breakage in the ordinary manner of
piling, as the coal is gently fed to the base of the cone, and is carried therefrom up
and over the cone, and allowed to fall by gravity to the angle of repose without the
least crushing effect, and consequently the coal is, for commercial purposes, in the
same condition as when it left the cars.
It will be seen that by the above described process I am enabled to pile upon a
comparatively small area of ground an enormous quantity of coal.
Although I have named coal the Invention may be applied to the piling or heaping
of other granular or divided material.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is :-
.
The herein described process of or means for progressively and continuously forming
a pile of coal or other granular or divided material, by delivering the material to be
piled to a conveyer at a fixed point at or near the ground, then carrying the said
material upward at an inclination not exceeding the natural angle of repose until the
material discharges itself to form an initial conical pile, and progressively carrying
fresh material along the surface of such previously formed pile, and at the same

page_text: constant angle of inclination, and leaving such material at the top of the already
formed pile to distribute itself by gravity and form a new, a higher, and a constantly
receding apex, for a conical pile or mass.
n
1
0
1000
J. H. JOHNSON & Co.,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, Agents.