IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR BORING THROUGH COAL, ROCK, OR OTHER MATERIAL WHERE COMPRESSED AIR, GAS, OR WATER ARE EXPECTED TO EXIST OR TO BE ENCOUNTERED, AND FOR RESCUING ENTOMBED MINERS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION loft by Alfred Upward at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd May 1877.
ALFRED UPWARD, of No. 8, Queen Anne's Gate, in the City of Westminster,
Civil Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR BORING THROUGH COAL, ROCK,
OR OTHER MATERIAL WHERE COMPRESSED AIR, GAS, OR WATER ARE EXPECTED TO
EXIST OR TO BE ENCOUNTERED, AND FOR RESCUING ENTOMBED MINERS."
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for boring through
coal, rock, or other materials, &c., and is especially applicable in cases where
compressed air exists or is expected to be encountered, and for delivering food, pure
air, oxygen, or other necessaries to persons imprisoned in such compressed air, or
under any other circumstances, and for safely extricating persons so imprisoned, also
for safely boring through coal, rock, and other material in advance of the miners'
workings, for ascertaining the condition of the said advance workings and for warning
the miners of any approaching danger, and yet having full command over the same.
For this purpose I employ a drill which passes through a packed gland in the centre
of a hollow chamber, which is made to fit gas and water tight on to a cylinder.
On the side of this cylinder there is fixed a slide valve, which is made to move
across the cylinder after the hole is made through the coal, &c., &c., and the drill
brought up into the hollow chamber. On the bottom of this hollow chamber, just
below the slide valve, there is a flange for the purpose of forming a gas or water
tight joint between it and the face of the coal, rock, or other material (about
to be operated upon) by means of an interposed packing of soft material. This
apparatus is to be securely fixed to the face of the coal, rock, or other material by
any convenient means, but I suggest its being so fixed by means of two pieces of
strong timber or T iron bar let into the floor and roof of the mine, and securely fixed
thereto, and thus forming two perpendicular struts which will form sufficient
resistance, against which the apparatus can be wedged or otherwise fixed against
the face of the coal rock, &c., &c., which is about to be operated on. As the
boring progresses the stem of the drill may be lengthened from time to time; the
materials also which are cut away by the drill may from time to time be removed
from the boring. The drill may be worked either by manual labour or by steam or
other power.

page_text: After the coal, rock, &c., &c., has been bored through and the desired communi-
cation with the imprisoned miners has been established, and the drill removed into
the hollow chamber, and the slide valve closed across the cylinder, the hollow
chamber and the drill may be removed, and the said hollow chamber again replaced
on the cylinder, and the slide valve opened; the cylinder having been previously
provided with a case containing food, which is now to be pushed forward to the
imprisoned men by means of a rod passing through the packed gland of the hollow
chamber, and along the hole which has been formed in the coal or rock, &c., by the
operation above named; by this means food or any other necessary can be supplied
to any person imprisoned in compressed air or under any other circumstances; or if
the hollow chamber, cylinder, and slide valve be made of sufficient size to allow of a
man entering it, the miners may enter a case or the hollow chamber, to be withdrawn
from their entombment without allowing of the escape of the compressed air con-
tained in the workings of the mine in either case.