IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING COAL, CANNEL, OR OTHER SUBSTANCES TO GAS RETORTS OR OVENS AND FOR WITHDRAWING THE SAME AFTER DISTILLATION
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James William Butler, William
David Butler, and James Dunbar at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 9th June 1870.
We, JAMES WILLIAM BUTLER, of Stonebridge Park, Willesden, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, WILLIAM DAVID BUTLER, of
Princes Street, Hanover Square, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, and JAMES DUNBAR, of Vicarage Road, Camberwell, in the
County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of our
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING
COAL, CANNEL, OR OTHER SUBSTANCES TO GAS RETORTS OR OVENS AND FOR
WITHDRAWING THE SAME AFTER DISTILLATION," to be as follows:―
This Invention relates to certain improvements upon, and modifications
of the machinery or apparatus described in the Specification of Letters
Patent granted to James Dunbar and Richard Nicholson bearing date
the 6th of April 1868, No. 1152,and consists in so arranging such
apparatus as that the combined charging scoops and withdrawing
apparatus shall be capable of being introduced into and withdrawn from
the retorts opposite which they have been brought without imparting
any forward or backward motion to the carriage or cradle which supports
the scoop or scoops. This may be accomplished in various ways, for
example, according to one arrangement the scoop or scoops may be

page_text: carried on the side of the main supporting frame so that when withdrawn
from the retort they will project but little, if any, beyond the front of
such frame, in lieu of, as heretofore, projecting at least the full length
of the retort beyond the front of the supporting frame, whereby con-
siderable economy of space is effected. The scoops may be worked
either singly, or, which we prefer, in sets of three or more arranged
either in a horizontal or a vertical row; these sets of scoops are carried
in supplementary frames which connect the scoops together and maintain
them at the proper distance apart. The supplementary frames are con-
nected by two or more horizontal or vertical parallel levers centred
either at the upper or lower ends to the main supporting frame or to a
sliding frame carried thereby; these parallel levers have a sufficient
throw to give the requisite forward and backward motion to the scoops,
each scoop moreover is made capable of swivelling horizontally on its
frame round a central pivot. The parallel levers may be caused to reci-
procate to-and-fro by means of worms and worm wheels in combination
or not with pitch chains.
The several scoops with their parallel levers and the gearing for
actuating such levers may be made capable of being raised and lowered
readily in the main framing or supports of the apparatus, in order to
accomodate the scoops to retorts set at different heights. This may be
effected by carrying the parallel levers and their gearing in a vertical
sliding frame which is raised and lowered by means of a rack and
pinion or other equivalent mechanical contrivance. In lieu of carrying
the scoops in and out of the retorts by means of parallel levers we
propose sometimes to effect this by means of endless chains acting upon
the back ends of the scoops. The scoops are combined with rakes or
scrapers and are constructed and turned over or reversed so as to
discharge their contents or bring their rakes into action when inside
the retorts in a similar manner to that described in the Specification
of the said Patent herein-before referred to. The cradle is mounted
upon a travelling carriage which runs along rails extending the whole
length of the retort house, so as to bring the apparatus opposite each
bench of retorts.