Improvements in Automatic Safety Devices for Lifts or Cages.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 7th July, 1892
Complete Specification Left, 7th Apr., 1893-Accepted, 13th May, 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Automatic Safety Devices for Lifts or Cages.
We, WILLIAM SCHERMULY of No. 62, Stainsby Road, Poplar, in the County
of Middlesex, Rope Splicer, and EDMUND BRANDRAM JONES, of No. 134, Gower
Street, in the same County, Solicitor, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
This invention relates to improvements in safety devices for automatically
stopping a lift or a cage after the suspension or winding rope is broken.
In carrying our invention into effect, a safety device is applied to both the lift or
cage, as the case may be, and to the counterweight.
The device consists of a clutch or detent which is pivotted or otherwise connected
to the lift. The counterweight is likewise provided with one.
The clutch is adopted to engage with the guiding chains or bars at stated
intervals thereupon, under the action of an engaging spring, or of the weight of the
clutch, or by any other agency which would be released by, or as a result of, the
breaking of the suspension or winding rope. The outer or one end of the clutch is
connected directly to the winding rope, or through a line or a link, in such a way
that the tension on the rope suffices to keep the clutch or detent disengaged. So
soon as the tension is off, the clutches or their equivalents are engaged with the
chains or bars which serve as guides.
The clutches or detents may be adapted to engage with the bars now used as side
guides.
With a bar guide, a
They may be of any suitable type as may be desired.
detent and rack combination may be adopted. The minor details of the necessary
combination may be of any suitable kind, provided that the clutches or detent be
held inoperative by the tension, and engaged with the side guides by an automatic
device as soon as the rope is broken.
Eyes are provided on both lift and counterweight which embrace the side guides,
and it is preferably on these that the devices above described are mounted.
The invention does not confine us in respect of the number of devices which are
fitted on one lift.
CL1000
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicants.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Automatic Safety Devices for Lifts or Cages.
We, WILLIAM SCHERMULY, of 62, Stainsby Road, Poplar, in the County of
Middlesex, Rope Splicer, and EDMUND BRANDRAM JONES, of 134 Gower Street,
in the same County, Solicitor, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to improvements in safety devices for automatically
stopping a lift or a cage (hereinafter included in the word 'cage') for the purpose
of preventing its fall down the respective well or shaft (hereinafter included in the
word 'shaft) after the suspension or winding rope or chain has broken.
In order that the invention and the means by which it is to be carried into
practical effect may be thoroughly understood, we will now describe it and them iu

page_text: detail, referring in so doing to the accompanying drawings which are to be taken
as part of this Specification and read. therewith.
Fig. 1 is a front elevation illustrating the present invention and its use with
central chain guides.
Fig. 2 is a detail on a larger scale and illustrates the engagement of the clutch
with a chain guide.
Fig. 3 is a side elevation of Figure 2 omitting the clutch chain.
Fig. 4 is a plan of Figure 2 omitting the clutch chain.
Fig. 5 is a front elevation illustrating the use of the invention with central
timber guides.
Fig. 6 is a side elevation of timber guide and projections.
a is the cage. bis the suspension chain. The cage is made fast to it as heretofore.
c is a vertical and central timber guide. All of these are of the well known or any
other convenient construction.
d is a vertical and central chain adapted to serve as a guide for the cage. Its
ends are made fast at the top and bottom of the shaft in any suitable way. There
may be, and we prefer that there should be, a chain guide on each of two opposite
sides of the shaft. The links of the chain are straight, that is, each one is in a
plane at right angles to that in which the links, respectively above and below it,
stand. d' is a vertical socket fixed fast to the side of the cage in such a position
thereon that its axis coincides with that of the chain d. It is essential to the
operation of the present invention that the chain guides shall always present their
alternate links edge on to the clutches as the latter are carried downwards. For
this reason, the bore of the socket is, instead of being circular in plan-a shape
which would have provided for the rise and fall of the cage, cross-shaped to
correspond with the chain. No more play is left between the chain and the bore
than is sufficient to prevent undue friction. This relationship between the bore of
the socket and the chain is clearly illustrated in Figure 4.
e is a lever. It is pivotted upon a horizontal fulcrum e¹ which has its seat in a
pair of lugs d² on the socket d', and consequently works in the vertical plane.
That end of the lever which is nearest to the chain d is forked, the two bifurca-
tions 2, 3, being of the same length and strength. They are parallel and separated
by a distance rather more than the thickness of a link but much less than the
width of one.
In point of length, they are long enough to project through the
chain and beyond it when they occupy a horizontal position. It is this bifur-
cated end of the lever which is elsewhere referred to as a clutch. The outer
end of the opposite and heavier arm of the lever is connected to the end of the
suspension chain by a chain f. This latter is short enough to be always in
tension so long as. the cage hangs from the suspension chain. That tension con-
sequently holds the forked end of the. lever clear of the chain d, as illustrated by
the full lines of Figure 1 and the dotted lines of Figure 2.
g is a bar spring. It is made fast by its top end to the socket above the
fulcrum e so that its operative end projects into the path of a shoulder e³ upon
the adjacent, edge of the lever e. The projection of the shoulder and the resilience
of the spring are enough to provide for the latter throwing the lever forcibly
away from the socket as soon as the tension is taken off the clutch chain f.
.
The operation of the invention constructed as above described is as follows. As
soon as the suspension chain b breaks, the spring g throws the lever e forcibly away
from it and so moves the nose of the clutch between two of the links which stand'
sidewise to it. The drop of the cage forces the clutch between the link below it
and the socket d above it, thereby stopping the cage. The clutch chain feither
drops on the cage or hangs from the lever end. The advantages of a chain d and
clutch on each of two opposite sides of the cage are twofold. The cage is prevented.
from sagging to one side, and the safety of the device is doubled.
According to the modification illustrated in Figures 5 and 6, the chain d and the
socket d' are dispensed with, and the latter replaced by two series of flat topped.
projections on opposite faces of the guide c. These projections are on the face

page_text: next to the cage and on the opposite one. Each projection bears the same relation,
for the purpose of the present invention, to the clutch as does a transverse link of
the chain d. The spaces between the projections provide for the entrance of the
clutch between them in the same way as do the edge-on links of the chain d.
In either of the constructions of guide described above, the clutch engages in
spaces between the links of a chain, or between a pair of projections. It is to be
understood that we do not confine ourselves in this respect, but may adapt the
clutch to enter one of a series of sockets or holes in a solid guide or into one of
the side-on links of the chain guide.
The spring 9 may be replaced by any mechanical equivalent. We wish to
draw particular attention to the following feature of our invention. In consequence
of the construction of the latter, when the clutch or clutches stop the cage and all
the time that it or they are supporting it, the strain upon the chain or chains d or
the guide or guides c; as the case may be, is downwards in the direction of their
length and in a line with their points of fixation to the shaft, instead of being at
right angles therewith or of, in other words exerting an outwardly thrusting strain
against them.
The invention described above may be applied to the counterpoise of any cage
when there is one used.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. The combination of cage, clutch adapted to be held out of engagement by a
chain or its equivalent which is maintained in tension by the integrity of the
suspension chain and released by its breaking, and interspaced series of projections
sockets or holes aligued vertically between any two of which latter the said clutch
is forced by a device which is set free to act by the breaking of the suspension
chain, as set forth.
2. The herein before described combination of devices adapted to transfer the
weight of a cage from the suspension chain to fixed vertical guides when the said
chain breaks, so that the weight of it shall be downwards in the direction of
the length of the said guides and in a line with their points of fixation to the shaft,
as set forth.
Dated this 7th day of April 1893
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicants.
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicants.