Transferring Apparatus for Coin, Parcels, Goods, or Passengers
Year: 1896

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
"Transferring Apparatus for Coin, Parcels, Goods, or Passengers."
LEWIS HOPCRAFT Orchard Dene Kelvedon Hatch, Brentwood, Essex, Engineer
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
A tube of the required length of indiarubber or other collapsable and distensible
material is mounted and kept in position by suitable means upon a rail of suitable
shape and material. A wheel, roller or sphere guided by suitable mans so as to
travel along the rail, runs above and in close contact with the beforementioned
tube which in its normal condition may be partially or wholly collapsed or flat..
The tube being distended by means of air water gas or the like under pressure
on either side of the wheel roller or sphere against which the distended tube will
press the opposite end of the tube being wholly or partially open, the wheel, roller,
or sphere, will travel on the tube in a direction opposite to that which is distended.
Carriers, buckets, trucks or the like may be attached to or supported by suitable
means to the wheel, roller or sphere & be carried along thereby & be utilised
for the transfer of coin, parcels, goods or passengers.
Dated this ninth day of October 1806
I, LEWIS HOPCRAFT, of Orchard Dene, Kelvedon Hatch, Brentwood, Essex,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement:-
A tube of the required length made of indiarubber or other collapsible and dis-
tensible material is mounted, and kept in position by suitable means upon a rail
of suitable shape and material. A wheel, roller, or sphere, guided by suitable
means so as to travel along the rail, runs in close contact with the before mentioned
tube, which, in its normal condition, may be partially or wholly collapsed or flat.
The tube being distended by means of air, water, gas, or the like under pressure
on either side of the wheel, roller, or sphere, the distended tube will press against
the wheel, roller, or sphere, and the opposite end of the tube being wholly or par-
tially open, the wheel, roller, or sphere, will travel along the tube in a direction
[Pic Sl1

page_text: away from that end thereof which is distended. Carriers, buckets, trucks, or the
like may be attached to or supported by the wheel, roller, or sphere, by any suit-
able means and be carried along thereby and be utilized for the transfer of coin,
parcels, goods, or passengers, from place to place.
And in order that the said invention may be fully understood I will proceed to
describe the same with the aid of the accompanying sheet of Drawings in which
Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the application of the invention to the purpose of actua-
ting hollow balls or spheres used for transferring coin from one place to another,
as now commonly employed in shops, for example, for delivering money to the
cashier and change to the customer, Figure 1 being a side elevation of
part of
such an apparatus, and Figure 2 a sectional elevation taken at the line W-W
in Figure 1. Figures 3 and 4 illustrate the application of the invention to a car-
riage running on rails, and which may obviously be adapted to convey goods,
passengers, or other articles, from place to place, Figure 3 being a side elevation,
and Figure 4 a sectional elevation taken on the line X-X of Figure 3.
Referring to Figures 1 and 2 A represents a hollow sphere, or a ball of any suit-
able..shape, such as is generally used in cash conveying, apparatuses, B a rail,
the cross section of which corresponds to the shape and size of the ball or sphere A,
and which acts as a guide for the movement along it of the said ball or sphere.
C is a tube of india-ruliber or other collapsible, flexible, and distensible air-tight
material mounted on the said rail 13, and retained or fixed thereon by any suit-
able means. The tube C is normally in the collapsed condition, shown in the cross-
section, Figure 2, and at the left hand side of Figure 1; but when air, water,
gas, or other suitable fluid or liquid, is forced into the tube at the other side of
the ball or sphere A the said tube becomes distendel as shown at the right-hand
side of Figure 1 and in dotted lines in Figure 2. This distension of the tube C
at one side of the ball or sphere exerts a pressure upon the said ball or sphere in
the direction of the arrow in Figure 1, which causes the ball or sphere to roll in
that direction along the rail B, which is of course continued to the place where
the ball or sphere is to be delivered. It will be understood that the end of the
tube C towards which the ball or sphere A is to be rolled is preferably kept open
so that any air or other fluid escaping past the ball or sphere can readily escape
so as not to cause distension of the tube in front of the ball or sphere, which dis-
tension would retard or prevent the forward motion of the latter.
Suitable devices such as taps, valves and so forth (not shown in the Drawings)
may be employed in connection with the tube C for the purpose of admitting air
or other fluid or liquid under pressure from any suitable source to such tube,
and it is obvious that by means of appropriate arrangements such air or other
fluid can be admitted to either end of the tube C according to the direction in
which the ball or sphere A is required to move.
Referring now to Figures 3 and 4, D represents a platform or carriage mounted
on wheels E adapted to run on rails F. A is a roller mounted on an axle G
rotating in axle boxes in the same way as the axles H of the wheels E. B is a
rail supporting the tube C upon which latter the roller A bears in a manner
somewhat similar to that shown in Figures 1 and 2, except that in the present
case the tread of the roller A is straight instead of being curved. In the arrange-
ment shown in Figures 3 and 4 the tube C is held in place or fixed by being
inserted in a groove in the rail B, and by means of fillets I secured to the rail B
and projecting laterally inwards a short distance over the sides of the tube C.
A filling piece J is inserted in the tube C for the roller to take a bearing upon,
the upper side of the tube C being interposed between the said roller A and the
filling piece J. The action of this arrangement is similar to that of the apparatus
shown in Figures 1 and 2; that is to say, the tube C is normally in its collapsed
condition as shown in section in Figure 4, and to the left-hand side of Figure 3;
but when air or other fluid or liquid under pressure is forced into the part of the
tube shown at the right-hand side of Figure 3, the upper part of the said tube

page_text: above the filling piece J becomes distended as shown in full lines in that Figure
and in dotted lines at C* in Figure 4, and a pressure is thereby exerted against
the lower part of the roller A, which causes the latter to roll forward and to carry
with it the carriage D, the main weight of which is carried by the wheels E
bearing on the rails F.
The tube C may be made of stretchable airtight material not liable to burst
under the pressure of air, water, or other fluid or liquid forced into it, but if made
of material not strong enough to resist such bursting pressure it is preferably
enclosed in a restraining cover or envelope C₁ of more or less non-stretchable
but flexible material, such as canvas, leather, and so forth, the upper part of
which remains folded down or collapsed on to the upper part of the tube Cas
shown by full lines in Figure 4 until air, water, or other fluid or liquid is forced
into the tube C when the upper part C of the latter is distended and stretches
into the form shown by dotted lines in Figure 4, carrying the said upper part
of the restraining cover C₁ with it, as shown by dotted lines at Cs in Figure 4,
until such upper part of the cover C is tightened to such an extent as prevents
the further expansion and ultimate bursting of the tube C.
By the use of the arrangements above described in connection with Figures 3
and 4 the wheel A bears only upon a flat surface of the tube C or C, as the case
may be, and never upon the folded lateral edges of such tubes, as it would do
were the tube or tubes merely laid flat on the rail B without the groove or recess,
filling piece J and fastening fillets I, thereby avoiding the wear and tear at those
edges due to their frequent folding and unfolding.
A similar effect is obtained by the arrangements shown in Figures 1 and 2.
In the arrangement shown in Figures 1 and 2 the tube C may be made of
extensible material enclosed in a more or less non-stretchable and separate flexible
restraining tube C¹.
In the apparatus above described the ball, sphere, wheel, or roller bears verti-
cally downwards upon the tube C; but it is obvious that it may be made to bear
against the tube horizontally, vertically upwards, or at any angle to suit various
purposes to which the apparatus may be applied, the rail B or other support for
the tube being fixed in a corresponding position.
I desire to have it understood that the arrangements of apparatus shown in
the Drawings are given by way of example only, and that I do not limit myself
to those particular arrangements as they may be varied both as to general structure
and details to suit various purposes and circumstances without departing from the
nature of the invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I desire to have it under-
stood that I am aware that the idea of propelling a wheel, roller, ball or sphere
by forcing air or other fluid into a tube on which such wheel, roller, ball, or
sphere rolls is not novel, and that I make no claim generally to devices constructed
on that principle, but I declare that what I do claim is:
First. Transferring apparatus for coin, parcels, goods, or the like which con-
sists of a wheel, roller, ball or sphere, and a suitably supported and fixed collap-
sible and distensible tube, combined and operating substantially as described with
reference to Figures 1 and 2 of the Drawings.
Second. Transferring apparatus for coin, parcels, goods, or passengers, which
consists of a carriage provided with a wheel or roller A, a collapsible and disten-
sible airtight tube C contained within a flexible restraining tube C and con-
taining within it a filling pièce J, all combined and operating substantially as
described with reference to Figures 3 and 4 of the Drawings.
Third. In transferring apparatus of the kind herein referred to the use of an
inner distensible tube C provided with a filling piece J which more or less com-
pletely fills the said tube when the same is collapsed, and an outer flexible restrain-

page_text: ing tube C which limits the distension or expansion of the inner tube substan-
tially as described with reference to Figures 3 and 4 of the Drawings.
Dated this 9th day of August 1897.
L. HOPCRAFT,
per W. H. Beck, Agent,
115 Cannon Street, London, E.C.