IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING, LOWERING, AND STORING CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS OR MERCHANDIZE
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Austin William Hay, of 5 and 6, Bucklersbury, in the
City of London, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR RAISING, LOWERING, AND STORING CASKS AND OTHER
VESSELS OR MERCHANDIZE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Austin William Hay at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st May 1880.
AUSTIN WILLIAM HAY, of 5 and 6, Bucklersbury, in the City of London.
IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING, LOWERING, AND
STORING CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS OR MERCHANDIZE."
My Invention is chiefly applicable to the raising or lowering and storing of casks
containing beer, wine, or other liquid, but may also be applied to the raising or
lowering and storing of other vessels or merchandize. It consists in the com-
bination with an ordinary hydraulic lift or ram of two or more moveable tables,
running in suitable guides and supported one above the other by moveable struts.
On each of these tables is placed a full cask on a suitable rest or stand.
The whole of the machinery or apparatus is so arranged that when the top cask
is empty it can be removed together with the table and struts that supported it.
The tables and casks are then raised by the hydraulic lift until the second one
takes the place of the first; they are then supported by a catch or by other suitable
means, and the lift being lowered the first table with its struts is inserted just
above it, ready to receive another full cask.
The same object may be attained by emptying the bottom cask first, and then
lowering the tables and casks until the ono above it takes its place. The bottom
cask would then be removed, and the table and struts be placed at the top ready to
receive another full cask.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Austin William Hay in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 1st
November 1880.
#
AUSTIN WILLIAM HAY, of 5 and 6, Bucklersbury, in the City of London.
IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING, LOWERING, AND
STORING CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS OR MERCHANDIZE."
My Invention is chiefly applicable to the raising or lowering and storing of casks
containing beer, wine, or other liquid, but may also be applied to the raising or
lowering and storing of other vessels or merchandize. It consists in the com-
bination with an ordinary hydraulic lift or ram of two or more moveable tables,
running in suitable guides and supported one above the other by moveable struts.
On each of these tables is placed a full cask on a suitable rest or stand.
The whole of the machinery or apparatus is so arranged that when the top cask
is empty it can be removed together with the table and struts that supported it.
The tables and casks are then raised by the hydraulic lift until the second one
takes the place of the first; they are then supported by a catch or by other suitable
means, and the lift being lowered tho first table with its struts is inserted just
above it, ready to receive another full cask.
The same object may be attained by emptying the bottom cask first, and then
lowering the tables and casks until the one above it takes its place. The bottom
cask would then be removed, and the table and struts be placed at the top ready to
receive another full cask.
Having described the nature and object of my Invention, I will now proceed to
describe it more particularly by the aid of the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of one of a series of cask hoists or lifts, shewing one
hydraulic lift or ram with four tiers of tables and casks; Figure 2 is a side view of
the same, shewing the struts for supporting the tables, and Figure 3 is a section
through the line a, b; Figure 4 is a front elevation on an enlarged scalo of one of
the tables and the rest or stand for the cask; Figure 5 is a plan of a table with the
rest or stand removed in order to shew the means provided for tilting the cask
when necessary; Figuro 6 is a section through the line c, d, and Figure 7 is a plan
of the rest or stand for the cask.
Figure 8 is a plan, and Figure 9 a front elevation shewing on a small scale the
arrangement of two series of three cask hoists or lifts having four tiers of casks.
Figures 10 and 11 shew a front elevation and plan of another mode of raising
the casks and tables, videlicet, by means of a square threaded screw worked by hand
power by means of a reversible rachet bracc.
The reference letters apply to the same parts in all the Figures. A¹, A', &c.,
are the tables; B, B, and C, C, the guides; "D1, D2, &c., the rests or stands, and
E, E, &c., the casks; F, F, &c., the struts for supporting the tables; G, G, are
bars of iron passing through the guides B, B, and C, C, respectively for supporting
the three tiers of tables and casks while tho lift or ram is being lowered and the
other table with its struts and a full cask inserted; H is the hydraulic lift or ram ;
I is a beam or girder connected to the top of the ram for the tables and casks to
rest upon when being lifted; J is a stop valve on the pipe from the pump, which
may be opened or shut so that either lift or ram may be worked without affecting
the others; K, Figure 8, is the pump for working the hydraulic lifts or rams; the
line L, L, in Figures 1 and 9, shews the level of the floor above the cellar.
The machinery or apparatus is operated as follows:-As soon as the top cask E¹
is empty it is removed with the table A' and struts F', F'; the stop valve J is then
opened, and the pump K being worked the lift or ram is raised until the table A'
and cask E³ take the place of those just removed; the iron bars G, G, are then

page_text: passed through the guides B, B, and C, C, to bear the weight of the casks and tables
while the lift or ram is lowered. The table A being placed upon the beam or
girder I, and the struts F, F, fitted in between the tables A¹ and A', which latter
will then be in the position occupied by table A°³ in the Drawing, a full cask may
be placed upon table A¹ at any time before another cask is emptied and it is
required to raise the lift again. The advantage gained by these means is that the
wine or other liquid with which the casks are filled is left undisturbed for some
time before it is used.
The guides B, B, are preferably made of angle iron, and the guides C, C, of iron
of the section shewn in Figure 3; they are firmly fixed to a sole plate on the floor
of the cellar, and may also be secured in any suitable manner to the building in
which the apparatus is fitted.
The tables are made by preference of wrought iron, and of an oblong form, as
shewn in Figure 5; pieces of angle iron e, e, &c., are rivetted to it in order to keep
the struts in their places, as shewn in Figure 3; f, f, are parts of two hinges fixed
to the front of the table, the other parts being fixed to the rest or stand D', the
latter forming the ends of a flat bar of iron bent, as shewn in Figure 7, and
strengthened by a tye bar g. These bars form the frame work of the rest or stand
for the cask, two pieces of wood shaped to fit the cask being fastened on the top of
the said frame work, and another flat bar being fitted to the underside of it to carry
a roller h for the tilting apparatus.
The tilting apparatus is secured to the table by means of the plates i and k, and
consists of a block of iron or other suitable material travelling upon two guide
rods m, m, and actuated by means of the screwed rod n, which is fitted with a
collar on each sido of the plate i and is worked by an ordinary crank handle fitting
on to the end of the rod. This rod works through the nut o, which is fitted
loosely into the block and takes on to the guide rods m, m, as shewn at o in
Figure 5. The top side of the block forms an inclined plano upon which the
roller rests, and as the block is caused to move towards the front of the table by
means of the screw it causes the rest or stand to turn upon its hinges, and the cask
is gradually tilted.
I have described my Invention as applied to the raising, lowering, and storing of
casks, to which it is chiefly applicable, but with some modifications it may be
applied to the raising, lowering, and storing of other vessels or merchandize; and
I wish it to be understood that I do not limit myself to the exact details herein
described and illustrated, as the said details may be modified in various ways if
necessary. For instance, any other power may be used in place of the hydraulic
lift or ram for the purpose of raising or lowering the casks and tables, or endless
chains may be used for supporting the tables instead of the struts herein described,
but what I claim is,―
Firstly. The arrangement and construction of machinery or apparatus,
substantially as herein before described, for the purpose of raising, lowering, and
storing casks and other vessels or merchandize.
Secondly. The arrangement and construction of the rest or stand, substantially
as hereinbefore described, for the purpose of tilting the casks when necessary.
In witness whereof, I, the said Austin William Hay, have hereunto set iny
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty.