Improvements in Supporting Frames for use in Shaft Sinking.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 17th Oct., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 17th July, 1893-Accepted, 7th Oct., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Supporting Frames for use in Shaft Sinking.
I AUGUST SIMON of Gnadau in the Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire,
Master Miner, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The present invention relates to the support of the walls of shafts during the
operation of sinking and digging, and has for its object the provision of simple and
easily adjusted means to this end.
The means of support according to this invention, consists of an endless metal
chain of peculiar construction, of a length equal to the circumference of the pit or
shaft which is to be shored up.
The chain is composed of links, each of which is detachable from the next, so
that the chain can be broken and rejoined at any point.
There are two kinds of links in the chain, used alternately, a slotted box link and
a double-headed link of double tee (H) form, the heads of which fit into the slots
of the adjoining box links. The size and position of the slots in the box links
determine the contour of the endless chain, which is rigid in that form which it is
constructed to assume, so as to give the support, as of a rigid frame, to the
surrounding sides of the pit to be supported; at the same time, the chain can be
broken, as already stated, by knocking one of the H heads upwards or downwards
out of the slot of the box next to it.
The box links are made of pairs of trough-like metal castings bolted together,
with the backs outside, and their hollow or trough portions inwards, the space
between the edges of troughs being the slots above mentioned for the reception of
the heads of the other links.
These chains or frames may be built up so as to form a wall, and the spaces
therein filled in with concrete, if a watertight wall is required, or with moss or tow,
if this is not the case.
DL 151 3
Liham 1002
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Supporting Frames for use in Shaft Sinking.
I AUGUST SIMON of Gnadau in the Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire,
Master Miner 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 :-
The present invention relates to an iron supporting frame or wall by the aid of
which shafts may be sunk in loose or watery earths, in such manner that before
the construction of the projected openings or chambers, the entrance of water and
loose earth shall have been effectively barred, and that after the shaft has been
sunk dry, the water may be removed from the watery earth or rock.
The supporting frame or wall is composed of hollow iron beams, with two
oppositely situated longitudinal slits, and of pieces of angle iron of H or similar
section, in such manner, that the said pieces of iron last referred to, alternate with
the said beams, the ends of the pieces of angle iron take loosely into the longi-
tudinal slits of the iron beams, and the flauges (or limbs) of the angle iron pieces
are encompassed by the beams.

page_text: In the accompanying drawings,
Figs. 1, 2 and 3 are cross sections through three forms of supporting frames,
which are made up of pairs of iron pieces united so as to form hollow beains, and
also of H pieces. These figures shew the arrangement of the wall for square,
round, and octagonal shafts.
Fig 4 shews, on a larger scale, the connection of an H iron (half of which only is
represented in the drawing) with a hollow iron beam, also shewn in part only.
The other Figures, 5, 6 and 7, represent sections through supporting walls
constructed in a somewhat different manner from those shewn in Figs. 1 to 3.
Diagrams I to VIII illustrate various forms according to the pattern of which
the several parts of the beams and the connecting angle irons may be shaped.
In Figs. 1 to 4, each hollow iron beam consists of two trough-shaped irou
pieces a and a' (see Diagram I), which are so connected the one with the other by
screw bolts or rivets c, that the limbs or flanges face each other, a clear longi-
tudinal space or slit d (Fig. 4) remaining between the free ends of the said limbs,
of somewhat greater breadth than the thickness of the central part or web of the
angle iron (Diagram IV). The distance of the rivets or bolts c from the limbs
of the beam irons, is so regulated that the flanges of the angle iron ↳ can be con-
veniently inserted in the space left between the said limbs and the bolts or rivets c.
In order to render this insertion possible, the above named longitudinal slits or
spaces d are provided, in which the ends of the web of the angle iron have sufficient
room for any necessary motion therein.
с
If the angle irons 6 have been inserted or driven, in the way described, into the
hollow beams a a', all the members, that is to say, the whole of the iron pieces b
and beams a a', are so connected together, that, on the one hand, a lateral dis-
placement or loosening of the members can only take place through the breaking
of one of the parts, and, on the other hand, every single member is moveable
vertically relatively to the others.
In rectangular shafts, the hollow beams a a', which form the corners of the
shaft, are made up (in the manner represented in Fig. 1) from one angle iron
shaped as shown in Diagram II, and one iron shaped as shewn in Diagram III, so
that the two angle irons of the section shown at Diagram IV, which are driven or
inserted into the corner pieces a a', stand at right angles to each other.
For round shafts (Fig. 2), the bolts or rivets are placed at a greater distance
from the limbs or flanges of the pairs of trough-shaped bars a a', so that there may
be sufficient play or space for the flanges of the intermediate bars b, in order that
these latter bars may be placed at the proper angle to the pairs of trough shaped
bars constituting the hollow beams.
In octagonal shafts, the outer trough-shaped bars a of the corner beams have a
greater breadth than the inner ones, and the two bars are suitably connected
together, as seen in Fig. 3.
In Fig. 5, the hollow beams are shown as formed-not out of two trough shaped
bars, as in Figs. 1 to 4, but of one trough shaped bar a and a flat bar a'. Both
bars are so connected together, either by stay bolts e, as shown to the right of
Fig. 5, or by two iron struts c, of the section shown to the left of the same figure
and at Diagram V, that a longitudinal space d will remain in each of the two
narrower sides of the beam, or, in other words, in the two sides of the said beam
opposite to each other.
The struts c are only of the short length of, say, about 200 millimetres, and are
connected on each side with the bars a a¹ by means of four rivets c'. The beams
will receive greater rigidity by means of these struts, than by the employment of
the stay bolts before mentioned.
Both struts and stay Lolts are placed at certain regulated distances, so that the
longitudinal spaces d remain in the same relative position with respect to the
interior space of the hollow beams.
The connection of two such hollow beams, is effected by means of an inverted
trough shaped barb of the section shown at Diagram VI, one limb or flange of

page_text: which takes into one hollow beam, and the other limb or flange into the next
succeeding hollow beam, the inverted trough shaped connecting bar 6 being capable
of longitudinal motion, as required.
These beams may further be constructed of two bars of the section represented
by Diagram VII, as shewn at Fig. 6. These two bars a a¹ are connected together
by stay bolts e, or iron struts and rivets c', in the same way as described with
reference to the previous figures. For connecting two such beams together
according to this arrangement, a bar b of the section shown at Diagram VII, is
employed, the flanges of which take into the hollow beams.
Instead of using the above section of bars for connecting beams consisting either
of two trough shaped bars (Diagram 1 and Figs. 1 to 4), or of two bars of the
section of diagram VII (Fig. 6), bars of the sections shown at Diagrams VI
and VIII may be employed, as represented at Fig. 7.
The above described supporting wall offers the following advantages:-
1. When employed in clayey earths, after the apparatus has been standing for
some considerable time, the separate parts of the supporting wall can be freed by
playing upon them with water, as the water can be forced into every part of the
hollow beams, and the whole wall can be played unon to any depth.
2. After the supporting wall is fixed in the solid ground bordering on the loose
ground, the hollow beans are packed with rough mortar or concrete, oakum, or
moss. By this means is produced (before the construction of the projected spaces)
a perfectly water-tight wall, and a correspondingly complete preventative of the
entrance of water to the mine. The projected spaces can then be completely dried
without necessitating the use of any water raising machinery.
3. In working brown coal, it is sometimes necessary or desirable to draw off the
water contained in the overlying ground. When this is the case, the hollow beams
are packed with moss only. When the pit or shaft is complete, and the permanent
pumps erected, the moss can then be removed, and, according to the number of
hollow beams to be emptied, it is easy to regulate, according to the capacity of the
pumps, how much water shall be allowed to flow into the mine." In case of
interruptions in the working of the pumps, or when they are too much monopolised
for other uses, by repacking the hollow beams again the water can be completely
shut out.
Finally, be it remarked, that the above described supporting wall can also be
applied for use in building sluices, bridges, and other hydraulic works, more
particularly as regards the construction shewn in Fig. 6, composed wholly of bars
of the shape shown in Diagram VII, when the foundation is finished, can be better
made use of in the continuation of the work.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
d
A supporting wall for use in sinking shafts, as also for building foundations,
composed of bollow metal beams a a' provided with 2 longitudinal slots or spaces
opposite each other, and of bars shaped in cross section as shown in Diagrams IV
VI or VIII, in such manner, that the bars alternate with the hollow beams a a¹,
and grip into the same, whilst yet allowing of a given amount of play, and the
flanges or edges of which are embraced by the hollow beams a a'.
Dated this 17th day of July 1893
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.