AN IMPROVED SAFETY CAGE AND APPARATUS FOR MINERS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Andrew Smith, of Princes Street, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED SAFETY
CAGE AND APPARATUS FOR MINERS."
Sealed the 30th March 1855, and dated the 6th October 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Andrew Smith at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th October 1854.
I, ANDREW SMITH, of Princes Street, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED SAFETY CAGE AND APPARATUS FOR MINERS" to be as follows:-
My improvements consist in the application of elastic stays or elastic angular
connecting rods to support the cage or car in which men or materials may be
raised from or lowered into a mine or other underground working.
Guide rails, of timber alone, or of timber plated with iron, or with a serrated
bar on its edge, attached to each, with its saw-like teeth presented upward,
and other similar arrangements, have been proposed to be erected and fixed
in the winding shaft of a mine, to guide the bucket, cage, or corve in its
ascent or descent, and in the event of the rope or chain breaking, gravity, or
in some cases centrifugal force, during the falling of the bucket, cage, or
corve, calls into action suitable lever arms, tongues, or pawls, and causes

page_text: them to take into the serrated edges of guide bars, and the bucket, cage,
or corve is securely held, and its further fall and the consequent damage to
life or property prevented. Other arrangements have also been adopted for
the same purpose.
I, however, prefer to use two of my patent iron wire ropes as guides,
instead of timber or ironed guides, and to prevent the damage done to the
cage, the guides, the materials, or the men when an accident does occur
from the breaking of the rope or chain, by reason of the great and sudden jerk
or strain produced thereby, when all the parts are rigid and unyielding, so I
arrange the suspending bars between the end of the rope and the cage diago-
nally, and insert or attach coiled or other springs, to give the necessary or
required elasticity to the several parts.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Andrew Smith in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd April 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANDREW
SMITH, of Princes Street, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Andrew Smith, Her special licence that I, the said Andrew Smith,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Andrew
Smith, 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 "AN IMPROVED SAFETY
CAGE AND APPARATUS FOR MINERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Andrew Smith, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Andrew Smith, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My said improvement consists in the application of elastic stays or elastic
angular connecting rods to support the cage or car in which men or materials
may be raised from or lowered into a mine or other underground working,
and so arranged that in the event of the breaking of the rope or chain, they
act in arresting the descent of the car or other means of conveyance.
And for the better understanding of my said Invention, I will now proceed
to describe the details thereof, reference being had to the annexed Drawings,
in which the same letters refer to like parts throughout.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of the framework and the shaft of a mine,
with my improved miners' safety cage or car ready for being lowered.
Figure 2 is a view of the situation of my improved miners' cage arrested in
its descent on the breaking of the winding rope.
Figure 3 is an enlarged view of the binding levers and adjacent parts before
an accident; and Figure 4 is a like view after the occurrence of an accident.
A is the common winding rope, passing over the usual drum, attached to
the framework over the mouth of the shaft, and is attached to the two chains
B, B, which are shackled to the two cross connecting elastic lanyards C, C,
secured to each end of the cage, as at D, D; E, a stretcher shackled to the
chains at each end a, a, and serving to keep the chains in a right line with the
eccentric jamb levers F, F, jointed to the cross bar G, at b, b, leaving sufficient
space at each end for their free passage up and down along the iron rod or
wire rope guides H, H, H, H, extending on each side from the top to the
bottom of the shaft.
I would here observe that when the winding rope happens to break; as
shown in Figure 2, the elastic lanyards C, C, each acting by an internal spiral
spring, contract and pull down the levers F, F, into a. horizontal position,
thereby causing their ends c, c, to press or jamb the eccentric jointed ends
against the guide rods or ropes, as represented at H', H', thus stopping the
further descent of the cage. In the enlarged view, Figure 3, is shown the
position of the levers F, cross bar G, and guide rod or rope H, when freely
working up and down; while Figure 4 is a like view, showing the position of
the lever F, cross bar G, and guide rod or rope H, when the winding rope is
broken; from which it will be seen that the cage is prevented from descending

page_text: any further down the shaft by means of the action of the lever F, which under
such circumstances jambs or presses hard against the iron rod or wire rope
guides on each side of the shaft.
Having thus fully described one mode of carrying out my said Invention, I
desire.it to be understood that I do not limit myself to the precise form,
dimensions, or materials for the several parts, so long as the mechanical opera-
tion is agreeable to my said improvement; and I do declare that what I claim
as my Invention is, namely, the novel construction of miners' cage with
safety apparatus operated by spring lanyards, for preventing accidents in
working mines, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Smith, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this, Twenty-eighth day of March, in the year of our
Lord 1855.
ANDREW SMITH. (L.S.)