Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Nov., 1886.
Complete Left, 22nd Aug., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 23rd Sept., 1887.
We, HENRY CLAUDE WALKER and ROBERT CAREY both of the Newington Iron
Works Falmouth Road London S.E. Engineers do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:
Our invention relates to improvements in hydraulic suspended lifts of the single
acting class in which the pressure water acts on the down stroke to lift the cage the
return stroke being effected by the weight of the cage or other attachment.
Our invention has for its object an improved method of counterbalancing the cage
and of rendering more uniform the nett power of lifting.
In carrying out our invention we preferably balance the cage in the following
manner :- -We bore the cylinder and provide it with a watertight piston. We close
the top of the cylinder and admit the pressure water thereto its inlet and outlet being
controlled by a suitable valve or valves. We also close the bottom end of the cylinder
and provide it with a channel or pipe having a suitable non-return valve opening
outwards into a tank or other convenient receptacle. This valve allows any water
that may leak past the piston or any air to be discharged and prevents any air or
water returning when the piston ascends the return of the air being effectually
prevented by arranging the outlet from the cylinder below the water-level of tank.
The effect of this appliance is that when the cage is lowered and the piston therefore
ascends a vacuum is formed underneath it thus balancing the cage either wholly or
in part. In the latter case we generally load the piston rod or its connections to
make up the difference.
We render uniform the nett lifting power on the cage in the following manner :-
In order to lower the cage when the piston is at the bottom of the cylinder the
column of water above the piston has to be lifted and as the piston rises the length of
this column becomes gradually less. To produce the varying power thus required we
preferably attach one end of a chain to the piston rod and the other end to a tapered
barrel having a spiral groove and connected to a drum to which is attached a chain
having a counterweight tending to draw the piston rod upwards. The counterweight
and the taper of barrel are so adjusted that the former has in all positions of the
piston just sufficient power to overcome the weight due to the column of water in the

page_text: cylinder and the friction of the apparatus together with the amount necessary to cause
the
cage to lower at the requisite speed. The counterweight is lifted at the same time
as the cage by the pressure water admitted on top of piston and the action of the
tapered barrel is such that as the radius of chain gets smaller and therefore the
resistance of counterweight greater the weight of water on piston is increasing in
like ratio so that the nett result on cage is almost uniform.
We do not confine ourselves to the use of ordinary chains but may use ropes
pitch-chain or any other convenient medium. We may also use two or more ropes
or chains etc. in place of the onc. Or in place of the tapered barrel with a spiral
groove we may use a short drum only long enough for one coil of chain so that the
various coils of chain lie one over the other and so produce the same result as the
tapered barrel.
As a modification of this arrangement we propose in some cases to make the barrel
of even diameter thoughout its length and get the same result as before by causing
the resistance of the counterweight to vary in different parts of the stroke. To attain
this we make it heavy enough to balance the column of water in cylinder when the
piston is at the bottom and arrange it so that as the piston rises and the counterweight
falls it becomes immersed in a tank of water and by this means loses as much effective
weight by displacement as is lost by the column of water above the piston and vice
versa as the piston descends.
In cases where the outlet of the exhaust is at a much lower level than top of
cylinder we propose to utilise the vacuum formed above the piston by the weight of
water in the pipes to accomplish either wholly or partially the lowering of the cage
and make the counterweight correspondingly lighter.
Dated this 30th day of November.
HENRY CLAUDE WALKER.
ROBERT CAREY.

page_text: We HENRY CLAUDE WALKER and ROBERT CAREY of the Newington Iron Works
Falmouth Road London S.E. Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Our invention relates to improvements in hydraulic suspended lifts of the single-
acting class in which the pressure water acts on the down stroke to lift the cage the
return stroke being effected by the weight of the cage or other attachment.
Our invention has for its object an improved method of counterbalancing the cage
and of rendering more uniform the nett power of lifting.
In the accompanying drawings the same letters indicate the same parts and the
various views shew different arrangements of our apparatus.
Fig. 1. shows the manner in which we preferably carry out our invention and
figs. 2 and 3 show alternative methods of rendering uniform the nett lifting power on
the cage.
A is the lifting cylinder closed at the bottom and connected to tank B by pipe C.
This pipe is closed at one end by a valve b opening outwards into tank B. The top of
cylinder is also closed and is in communication with the controlling valve D operated
by hand-rope d. The cylinder is provided with a watertight piston E fixed to the
piston rode which passes through the stuffing box e and is connected at the top to
the crosshead F which carries the sheave G. The lifting chain y is connected at one
end to cage H and passes over pulley I and under sheave G and is fixed at the other
end g¹ to the framing.
jis the balancing chain fixed at one end to crosshead F and coiled round drum J
figs. 1 and 2. k is the counterweight chain connected at one end to counterweight
and coiled round a tapered spiral drum K mounted on shaft L which also carries drum J.
In fig. 2 the spiral drum K is replaced by a narrow drum M upon which the chain
coils, one coil over another. In fig. the balancing chain j instead of being coiled
on drum J passes over sheaves N N and under sheaven connected to counterweight O
and is fixed to the framing at 7. The counterweight O is immersed in a tank P of
water.
The balancing of the cage is carried out in the following manner- -When the
piston first descends the air and water under it are discharged through the valve into
tank B the air escaping through the water. When the piston ascends the return of
the air is effectually prevented by the water in tank over valve so that a vacuum is
formed underneath the piston thus providing a counterbalance for the cage both in
ascending and descending. Any water that may leak past the piston is discharged by
the piston when it reaches the bottom of its stroke.
The action of the apparatus for rendering uniform the nett lifting power on the cage
as shewn in fig. 1 is as follows:-
When the piston is at the top of cylinder and cage is to be lifted water is admitted
of sufficient pressure to lift the load. As the piston descends the pressure on it
increases such increase being due to the weight of the lengthening column of water
above it. In lifts of ordinary construction this superabundant power is not utilised

page_text: but in the apparatus here shewn it is stored up in the following manner. When the
crosshead F is drawn down by the pressure water it pulls the chain causing the
drums J and K to revolve and so lifting the counterweight. The taper of barrel K
and weight of counterweight are so adjusted that enough power is stored in the
counterweight in its ascent as is necessary when it descends to overcome the weight
due to column of water in cylinder and the friction of the apparatus together with the
amount necessary to cause the cage to lower at the requisite speed equally at all parts
of the stroke. By this means the extra power developed by the column of water
directly above piston in its descent is utilised to lift the said column when piston
ascends.
In Fig. 2 the narrow drum M replaces the tapered spiral drum K but the action is
the same.
In Fig. 3 instead of varying the leverage of the counterweight during different
parts of the stroke we keep the leverage constant and cause the effective weight of the
counterweight to vary. As the piston rises and the counterweight therefore falls it
becomes immersed in the tank P of water and by this means loses as much effective
weight by displacement as the column of water above piston loses and vice versa
when piston ascends.
In cases where the outlet of the exhaust is at a much lower level than the top of
cylinder we propose to utilise the vacuum formed above the piston by the weight of
water in the pipes to accomplish either wholly or partially the lowering of the cage
and make the aforementioned counterweight correspondingly lighter.
We do not confine ourselves to the use of ordinary link chains but may use ropes
pitch-chains or any other convenient medium. We may also use two or more ropes
or chains etc. in place of the one mentioned. In some cases we vary the arrangement
of drums shewn and connect the tapered or narrow drum direct to the crosshead and
the parallel drum to the counterweight. In the lift shewn the piston has a stroke
equal to half that of the cage but where convenient the stroke of the cage could be
made any multiple of that of the piston in the usual manner. In cases where
the vacuum under piston is not sufficient to balance the cage we load the piston rod or
its connections to make up the difference.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we wish it to be
particularly understood that we do not bind ourselves to the exact details herein
described and illustrated but we do declare that what we claim is :
1. In hydraulic suspended lifts the arrangement substantially as shewn in Fig.
for maintaining a vacuum under piston for the purpose of balancing the cage either
wholly or in part.
2. The arrangement and construction of apparatus for storing up the surplus power
in descent of piston and utilising this power in the ascent of piston by means
of a counterweight or counterweights acting at a varying leverage in conjunction with
the arrangement hereintofore described for maintaining a vacuum under piston
substantially as shewn and described.
3. The arrangement and construction of apparatus for storing up the surplus power
in descent of piston and utilising this power in the ascent of piston by means of a
counterweight or counterweights acting with varying effect by means of immersion
in a suitable tank of water in conjunction with the arrangement hereintofore described
for maintaining a vacuum under piston substantially as shewn and described.
Dated this 20th day of August 1887