IMPROVEMENTS. IN HOISTS OR ELEVATORS
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd January 1872: A communication from abroad by Thomas
Silver, of the City and State of New York, United States of America,
Gentleman.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co.,
Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS. IN HOISTS OR ELEVATORS," a
communication, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to apparatus for raising and, lowering heavy
bodies or objects either vertically or on inclined planes.. It will suffice
here however to describe it as a hoist or elevator for use in buildings of
various kinds.
Such apparatus differs from most others. in. use for like: purposes,
inasmuch as the weight being, raised by it, does not. rest upon a rope or
chain. A.rope, chain, or other device hereafter referred to in the present
instance serving only to give motion to the mechanism by which the
load is moved.
In my improved elevator I employ generally one obliquely set wheel
or disc secured firmly to a shaft or spindle and having upon its outer

page_text: face a screw thread radiating and increasing its radius in equal degrees
at any turn in a tangential or rectangular direction from its axis of
motion; this disc is carried by the platform or cage and is operated
by a rope, chain, or other device, with the screw thread or flange resting
upon racks or antifriction rollers arranged at equal distances from each
other to suit the pitch of the screw,
and in one side of the opening in
which the cage is to move.
The periphery of the disc is grooved to receive an endless rope for the
purpose of giving it motion, which rope also surrounds a driving pulley.
Instead of a rope or chain a vertical shaft, either feathered or made
square throughout its whole length, passes from the bottom of the
elevator well or opening up through the platform or cage, and also
through a screw or pinion which is carried with the cage and gears
into the periphery of the screw disc or other wheel fast upon the screw
disc shaft. This screw or pinion gears into other pinions which carry
with them friction discs, that are operated by a bar or handle for the
purpose of controlling the movement of the cage.
Antifriction guide rollers are placed at the corners for maintaining
the position and guiding the movements of the platform or cage. Such
rollers work in grooves or ways so that they will bear strain in
opposite directions to counteract the tendency of the top of the cage
to fall from its bearing whilst the bottom is pressing in the opposite
direction.
When it is considered desirable, racks or antifriction bearing rollers
may be arranged on the sides of the opening in which the elevator works,
a screw disc operating on each, their shafts or spindles are connected at
the inner ends to a ball or universal joint to accommodate their inclined
position when rotating.
When used on inclines or railway grades, the line of antifriction
rollers may be arranged between the two rails, and for the purpose of
obtaining strength two or more screw discs may be placed one before
another, and instead of using ropes, chains, or the shafting above