IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DISTRIBUTING OR SCATTERING SAND, GRAVEL OR SALT ON ROADWAYS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Denton Abel at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th June 1883. Communicated to
him from abroad by Eduard Lesur of Paris, in the Republic of France.
CHARLES DENTON ABEL of No 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane in
the county of Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DISTRIBUTING OR
SCATTERING SAND, GRAVEL OR SALT ON ROADWAYS." [Communicated to him from
abroad by Eduard Lesur of Paris, in the Republic of France.]
This invention relates to the construction of apparatus for distributing or
scattering sand, gravel or salt on roadways, in particular during frosty weather,
either for melting the snow and ice or for counteracting slipperiness.
This apparatus has the advantage over those before proposed, firstly, in being
of very simple and inexpensive construction; secondly, in effecting the scattering
of the material in advance of the travel of the machine, so that the operator always
walks upon the sanded part of the road; thirdly in effecting the scattering over
a much greater area than was possible heretofore, and thereby rendering the
apparatus much more effective and practically applicable.
The apparatus consists of a receptacle or hopper containing the sand or salt
and mounted on a frame carried by an axle having two road wheels, one of which
is fixed to the axle while the other runs loose thereon. The hopper has a long
narrow opening at its lower end regulated by a moveable slide, below which is a
horizontal shaft, which may be the before mentioned axle itself, or separate
therefrom and driven thereby and which carries a number of blades or vanes
projecting therefrom at an angle to the radius and extending the whole length of
the opening. Thus, as the shaft and blades revolve, the sand etc, passes from the
hopper into the spaces between the blades, and is delivered thence on to the vanes
or blades of a rapidly revolving drum, carried by the frame, and driven by means
of a pitch-wheel and pinion and endless chain from the shaft or the axle of the
road wheels.
The blades or vanes are arranged in rows on the drum, there being several in
each row, and each blade is capable of being adjusted to a varying angle relative
to the axis of the drum, so that as they receive the sand &c from the blades of

page_text: the upper shaft, they scatter the same in any required direction over the roadway,
the scattering being made to take place over a larger or smaller area according as
the outer blades of each row are set at a greater or smaller angle to the axis.
Instead of allowing the material to fall directly from the blades of the upper
shaft on to those of the distributing drum, it may pass from the former on to a
shoot which conducts it on to the latter, so that the distributing drum may be
situated well in advance of the hopper and clear of the road wheels.
The machine is propelled by means of a handle projecting from the rear end of
the frame, which also carries a hand lever at that point for regulating the before-
mentioned slide.
Although I have described the machine as being propelled by hand from behind,
yet, when constructed of large dimensions, it may also be drawn by a horse in
front, the distribution being then effected behind.