AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR RAISING AND CARRYING EARTH. SAND, STONES, OR OTHER SIMILAR SOLID OR LIQUID MATERIALS FOR DREDGING, VENTILATING. OR WINNOWING GRAIN OR OTHER ANALOGOUS PURPOSES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Louis Balma, Gentleman, of Paris, France, and of
Suse, Italy, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR RAISING
AND CARRYING EARTH. SAND, STONES, OR OTHER SIMILAR SOLID OR LIQUID
MATERIALS FOR DREDGING, VENTILATING. OR WINNOWING GRAIN OR OTHER
ANALOGOUS PURPOSES."
Sealed the 11th July 1865, and dated the 20th January 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Louis Balma at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th
January 1855.
I, LOUIS BALMA, Gentleman, of Paris, France, and of Suse, Italy, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MACHINE
FOR RAISING AND CARRYING EARTH, SAND, STONES, OR OTHER SIMILAR SOLID OR
LIQUID MATERIALS, FOR DREDGING, VENTILATING, OR WINNOWING GRAIN, OR OTHER
ANALOGOUS PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
The Invention relates to a machine for raising and carrying forward
building materials, earth, sand, stones, or other analogous matters, for
unloading ships or other vessels, for dredging, raising water, for ventilating,
and winnowing grain, or other similar purposes.
The machine consists of a suitable frame composed of two strong girders,
kept parallel to each other, and at the required distance apart by means of
cross stays; these girders carry brackets or steps, in which are allowed to
turn the axis or spindles of a series of buckets or troughs. When the
materials are simply to be carried forward from one spot to another, such for
instance, as is required for transporting earth for earthworks or embankments,
the frame is kept in the horizontal position, whereas for rising materials from
one level to a superior one, the frame is to be fixed in the slanting. position
Price 8d.1

page_text: required for this purpose. Each of the troughs or buckets may turn freely on or
by means of its spindle or axis, and the entire of them is divided in two sets
or series, whilst by means of any suitable prime mover each of the said series
of buckets alternately receives a suitable circular to-and-fro or up-and-down
motion round theiraxis, so as during the upward motion to cause the contents
of the bucket of one series to fall in the nextor adjoining one of the other series.
Thus, supposing, for instance, the machine to have 12 buckets, say, No. 1
to 12, or two series of 6 buckets each, the bucket situated at the lower end of
the machine, or at the spot where the work is to begin being indicated by
No. 1, and so on till the uppermost one, which I will call No. 12, the
buckets Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 will receive simultaneously their circular
upward motion round their respective axis, after which they will descend
again, during which descending motion the buckets of the next series, viz.,
Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12, will perform their upward motion; for this
purpose I prefer to have fixed to each spindle a lever arm, the lever arms of
one series being connected to one rod, and those of the other series to another
rod, which rods alternately receive from the prime mover the required
advancing and receding motion for causing each of the series of buckets
alternately to raise or to fall. Supposing now the buckets 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11
to be raised, their contents will be emptied in the adjoining buckets 2, 4, 6, 8,
10, 12, of the next series. Thus at one upward motion the contents of
bucket 1 fall into bucket No. 2, at the next mction No. 2 at its turn rises
and empties its contents in bucket No. 3, and so ou till the materials fall at
last from bucket No. 12 at the spot where they were required to be carried;
it will be clear that always the 6 buckets of 1 series will be filled, and the
6 of the next series be empty.
When the machine is to be made use of for dredging the buckets are to
be properly perforated for allowing the water to drain off from the solid
materials, whilst for aerating and winnowing grain the wind from a suitable
fan, blower, or bellows is to be made to strike the grain in order to carry
away the impurities of less specific gravity than this latter.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Louis Balma in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th July 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LOUIS S
BALMA, Gentleman, of Paris, France, and of Suse, Italy, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters

page_text: Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant.
unto me, the said Louis Balma, Her special licence that I, the said Louis'
Balma, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I
the said Louis Balma, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should in
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, aud Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IM.
PROVED MACHINE FOR RAISING AND CARRYING EARTH, SAND, STONES, OR OTHER
SIMILAR SOLID OR LIQUID MATERIALS, FOR DRESSING, VENTILATING, OR WINNOWING
GRAIN OR OTHER ANALOGOUS PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Louis Balma, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Louis Balma, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
14.
The object of this Invention is a machine whose form, construction, and
dimensions vary according to its destination, and which may be worked by
hand, steam, hydraulic, or other power acting on levers, winches, or other
suitable mechanism, i.e., exercised in a rectilinear or circular direction.
This machine may be used for earthworks, for raising and carrying
materials, for loading and unloading ships, barges, and carts, for dragging
sand from the beds of canals, rivers, and other watercourses, for cleansing the
bottoms of seaports, basins, and reservoirs, for separating sand from pebbles,
for agricultural irrigation, for draining, for ventilating,dressing, or winnowing
grain, and for other similar purposes. Its position may be either vertical or
horizontal. If found necessary, , for draining or emptying water from a lower
reservoir to one placed above it, several machines may be placed end to end.
In that case the lowest machine would pour the water into an intermediate
trough or reservoir, where it would be taken up by the second machine, and
so on, reservoirs and machines being repeated in sufficient number according
to the height.

page_text: Fig. 1 represents an elevation of the machine; Fig. 2, a plan view of the
same; Fig. 3, a separate view of one of the troughs; and Fig. 4 a section of
two of these troughs taken at the moment when the passage of their contents
takes place.
The troughs i may be filled with holes, so as to allow the machine to be
used for dragging sand from the bottom of rivers, canals, and other waters,
and for cleaning their beds, as well as for ventilating or winnowing grain.
The machines may be either fixed or portable. The one represented in the
Drawings is made with wheels.
a, a', are two parallel supports, the lower ends 6 of which rest on the
ground, while the end c is provided with a leg c¹, intended for keeping the
machine in the oblique position while it works. When the machine is moved
the leg c' is folded against the supports a, a', turning on the hinge e; d is a
bar which serves for keeping the leg c¹ in place. The supports a, a', are
provided at suitable distances with small cast-iron steps f,f", bolted or other-
wise fixed, in which the pivots g turn freely; these latter bear troughs or
recipients i, the form of which may vary according to the destination of the
machine. For earthworks these troughs i will have an open form, so as to
easily pour out their contents; but if they are intended for raising or
carrying water or other liquids, they should have the form of a barrel, cut as
shown, Fig. 3, so as not to begin to pour out their contents with the first
movement given to them. All these troughs receive alternately, two by two,
the same movement. The troughs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, are moved by means of the
levers j, k, the latter k being united to a bar worked by the connecting
rod m, whose pivot is fixed to the plate n. The other troughs 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
work by means of the levers o, p, the latter p being united to a bar or rod q
worked by a connecting rod r, whose pivot is fixed to the plate 8. The
levers k, p, each turn on the extremities of the axis 1 fixed to the supports a, a
The axis of the plates n, s, which each work half the troughs i is provided
at one end with a wheelt worked by a pinion t¹ mounted on the axis of the
fast and loose pulleys t", t, moved by any suitable motive power. To effect
the purposes of the machine, the lower trough 16, should be filled, and the
contents are then passed from trough to trough as far as the end, where they
are discharged. The red lines of Fig. I, and the Fig. 4, show two juxtaposed
troughs at the moment when the passage of the contents of the one takes
place preparatory to the return of the empty trough for a new load. The
troughs i articulated on the axis g are provided at one or other of thei
extremities with a lever and balance weight u', which may be placed at
greater or less distance from the axis or shaft g, in order to counterbalanc
"
.
!

page_text: the said troughs. It may be remarked that the balance weights of the empty
troughs add their action to that of the balance weights of those which are
full, in order to aid in raising these latter. This effect is caused by the con-
nection of the plates and s, which transmit the movement to the troughs.
My machine is provided at the back end with a sort of box v, intended for
the reception of the sand, earth, stones, water, grain, or other materials, in
order to supply the troughs while they are in motion. These materials fall
by the opening a into the troughs 16, and are aided or pushed forward by a
sort of shovel or rake yjointed at the point y', aud moved by a connecting
rod y mounted on the excentric pin of the plate s near the connecting rod r.
The box v may be done away with and it would then suffice to place above
the trough i6, a funnel or shoot, or to place the materials directly in this
trough 16. If the machine is used for dragging, a kind of rake may be
placed at the lower end, in order to facilitate the working of the first trough
which takes up the sand. This rake would be set in motion by a connecting
rod depending on the plates n and s. For certain materials I reserve the
right of placing at the foot of the machine an articulated sho vel, on which
the materials may be placed, in order to be poured by this shovel into the
first trough. The wheel t may be provided outside with the excentric pin of
the connecting rod m, thus doing away with the plate n. 61, 611, are two pairs
of wheels fixed to the machine for facilitating its transport.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manuer in
which the same is to be performed, I claim the general construction and
operation of the troughs, which, while fixed on their pivots, transmitmaterials
in the way and for the purposes above described, as well as the different
modifications indicated or necessitated by the different uses of which said
machine is susceptible.
In witness whereof, I, the said Louis Balma, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
LOUIS BALMA. (L.S.)