IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR VENTILATING COAL AND OTHER MINES
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Smith Taylor, of Longdon Mills, ncar
Wellington, in the County of Salop, Miller, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR VENTILATING COAL AND
OTHER MINES."
Scaled the 7th February 1873, and dated the 7th December 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Smith Taylor
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 7th December 1872.
I, RICHARD SMITH TAYLOR, of Longdon Mills, near Wellington, in
the County of Salop, Miller, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR VENTILATING
COAL AND OTHER MINES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in
the construction and arrangement of machinery or apparatus for ven-
tilating coal and other mines, by the use of which improvements the
firedamp commonly found in coal mines and the choke damp commonly
found in coal and other mines are effectually removed, and the danger
of explosion from firedamp and suffocation from choke damp thereby
obviated.

page_text: I will describe my Invention in connection with a coal mine. On the
face of the earth, and by preference near the mouth of the mine shaft, I
fix a rotating fan, to which motion is given either by the colliery engine
or by an independent small engine. This fan is enclosed in a drum or
case, as is usual with respect to fans for producing currents of air. The
exhaust side of the fan, drum, or case is connected with a vertical flue
or channel extending from the top to the bottom of the mine shaft.
The said flue or channel may either be let in the shaft on one side
thereof, so as to lie flush therewith, or may consist of a pipe or tube
occupying a portion of the shaft. To the lower end of the vertical flue
or channel branch pipes are connected, one of the branch pipes extending
to the upper portion of the workings, and the other branch pipe to the
lower portion of the workings. To these branch pipes smaller
supplementary pipes are connected at the required intervals, the said
supplementary pipes being supplied with valves or stop-cocks. The said
supplementary pipes ramify into all the principal upper and lower
portions of the workings. By means of the valves or stop-cocks
described any portion or portions of the workings can at pleasure be put
into communication with the vertical flue or channel in the mine shaft,
and by the exhaust'action of the fan, the air may be rapidly removed
therefrom.
Fresh air to replace the foul air removed descends by the mine shaft,
and in its passage to the point at which the foul air is being exhausted
effects the ventilation of the mine.
Fresh air to replace the foul air removed may be supplied to the mine
by a second vertical flue or channel, but for ordinary purposes the
descent of a current of air by the shaft itself is sufficient. The air thus
withdrawn from the mine may be delivered by the fan into the open
air or into the chimney stack of the colliery or other engine.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 30
filed by the said Richard Smith Taylor in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 21st May 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
SMITH TAYLOR, of Longdon Mills, near Wellington, in the County of
Salop, Miller, send greeting.
35

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand ciglt hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Richard Smith Taylor, Her special license
that I, the said Richard Smith Taylor, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard Smith Taylor, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter 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, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR VENTILATING COAL AND OTHER MINES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Smith
Taylor, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Richard Smith Taylor, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in
the construction and arrangement of machinery or apparatus for ven-
tilating coal and other mines, by the use of which improvements the
firedamp commonly found in coal mines and the choke damp commonly
found in coal and other mines are effectually removed, and the danger
of explosion from firedamp and suffocation from choke damp thereby
obviated.
I will describe my Invention in connection with a coal mine. On the
face of the earth, and by preference near the mouth of the mine shaft I
fix a rotating fan, to which motion is given either by the colliery engine
or by an independent small engine. This fan is enclosed in a drum or
case, as is usual with respect to fans for producing currents of air. The
exhaust side of the fan, drum, or case is connected with a vertical flue
or channel extending from the top to the bottom of the mine shaft.

page_text: The said flue or channel may either be let in the shaft on one side
thereof, so as to lie flush therewith, or may consist of a pipe or tube
occupying a portion of the shaft. To the lower end of the vertical flue
or channel branch pipes are connected, one of the branch pipes extending
to the upper portion of the workings, and the other branch pipe to the
lower portion of the workings. To these branch pipes small supple-
mentary pipes are connected at the required intervals, the said
supplementary pipes being supplied with valves, stop-cocks, or air regu-
lators. The said supplementary pipes ramify into all the principal upper
and lower portions of the workings. By means of valves or slides or stop-
cocks any portion or portions of the workings can at pleasure be put into
communication with the vertical flue or channel in the mine shaft, and by
the exhaust action of the fan the air may be rapidly removed therefrom.
Fresh air to replace the foul air removed descends by the mine shaft,
and in its passage to the point at which the foul air is being exhausted
effects the ventilation of the mine.
Fresh air to replace the foul air removed may be supplied to the mine
by a second vertical flue or channel, but for ordinary purposes the
descent of a current of air by the shaft itself is sufficient. The air thus
withdrawn from the mine may be delivered by the fan into the open air
or into the chimney stack of the colliery or other engine.
The accompanying Drawing represents a sectional diagram of a mine
and mine shaft provided with ventilating machinery or apparatus con-
structed according to my Invention. In the said Drawing a represents
the air shaft of the mine, and 6 the workings of the mine. At the side
of the said air shaft a is a vertical flue or channel c extending from top
to bottom of the shaft a. This flue or channel a is made of lengths of
pipes of galvanized iron or other material joined together by flanges or
otherwise, and supported by stays projecting from the side of the shaft.
The junctions of these pipes are made as air-tight as possible to ensure
the efficient working of the apparatus. The bottom of the vertical flue
or channel c opens into the exhaust chamber d on the floor of the mine,
and the upper end of the said. flue or channel c is connected with the
exhaust side of the case of the rotating fan at e, situated external to and
near the mine shaft a. The fan at e is worked by a driving band f
passing over the pulley 9 on the axis of the fan. The driving band ƒ
may be worked by the colliery engine or by a small independent engine.
The outlet in the drum or case of the fan e for the exhaust air is

page_text: marked h. From the exhaust chamber d in the mine branch horizontal
pipes i, k, pass to the principal workings, and connected with the said
branch pipes i, k, are supplementary pipes. Two only of these supple-
mentary pipes 1, 2, are shown in the Drawing.
The branch pipes i, k, passing to the different workings of the mine
may be laid on the floor of the mine, or they may be fixed on the roof
of the workings, and the ends of the said pipes may open into the
workings at the highest point, so as to exhaust the foul air therefrom.
As the workings extend other branch and supplementary pipes are laid
-down in the new workings.
The supplementary pipes 1, 1, passing to the roof of the workings arc
furnished at top with a valve or regulator, by which the air passing
through the pipes may be controlled or shut off. For this purpose the
end of the pipe is made of a box form, the outside of which is perforated,
and within the box a rotating disc or plate, also perforated works. This
regulator resembles the ordinary ventilator, and is marked m.
By turning the disc or plate of the regulator, so as to make its per-
forations coincide or not with those in the box, the quantity of air
passing through the pipe may be controlled or cut off. I do not limit
myself to this kind of valve, as any other kind of valve may be used.
A. slide or other valve may also be placed in any of the branch or
horizontal pipes to facilitate the opening or cutting off of the communi-
cation between the exhaust apparatus and any required portion of the
mine.
By the exhaust action of the fan at e, and the arrangement of the
vertical flue or channel c and pipes i, k, l, the foul air from the several
workings is rapidly removed, fresh air to replace the said foul air
descending by the mine shaft a. For an ordinary sized mine the vertical
flue or channel c may be made of about 18 inches diameter and the fan
of six feet diameter, but other proportions may be used.
When the mine has no air shaft the flue or channel c is fixed in the
working shaft. The said flue or channel in this case is let into the shaft
on one side thereof, so as to be protected from being injured by the
ascending and descending skip or cage.
Although I have represented the branch pipes as resting on the floor
of the mine, and the communication with the upper part of the work-
ings by means of vertical pipes, yet where convenient the horizontal

page_text: branch pipes may be supported at or near the roof of the workings, in
which case no vertical pipes are required, the ventilators or valves
through which the air is drawn from the mine being fixed directly on
the said horizontal pipes. When the branch or horizontal pipes are on
the floor of the mine they may be covered or let into a channel, or run
along the lower angle of the working, so as to interfere as little as
possible with the operations of the miner. When several branch pipes
are not required to radiate in different directions from the flue or
channel.c the exhaust chamber d may be dispensed with, and the branch
pipes be connected directly with the main channel c.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that
I do not limit myself to the precise details herein described and illus-
trated, as the same may be varied without departing from the nature
of my Invention; but I claim as my Invention, the improvements in
machinery or apparatus for ventilating coal and other mines, herein-
before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings, that is
to say, ventilating coal and other mines by the combination of a rotating
exhaust fan external to the mine and mine shaft with a vertical flue or
channel in the air or working shaft of the mine, the said flue or
channel being in communication with branch pipes or with branch and
supplementary pipes passing to the several workings of the mine, the
.said pipes being provided with ventilators or other valves for opening
and closing at pleasure communication with any part or parts of the
workings, substantially as described and illustrated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Smith Taylor, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of May, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
Witness,
JOHN TAYLOR,
Admaston,
nr. Wellington,
Salop.
RICHARD SMITH TAYLOR. (L.S.)