IMPROVED SELF-ACTING APPARATUS FOR CUTTING OR GETTING COAL, BORING ROCKS OR OTHER SUBSTANCES, WHICH APPARATUS IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO STEAM HAMMERS, MORTISING MACHINES, AND OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Routledge and Frederick
Francis Ommanney at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 12th November 1866.
We, WILLIAM ROUTLEDGE and FREDERICK FRANCIS OMMANNEY, of Salford,
in the County of Lancaster, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVED SELF-ACTING APPARATUS FOR CUTTING OR GETTING
COAL, BORING ROCKS OR OTHER SUBSTANCES, WHICH APPARATUS IS ALSO APPLICABLE
TO STEAM HAMMERS, MORTISING MACHINES, AND OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES," to
be as follows:-
The body of the apparatus for getting coal consists of a.cylinder, valve box,
and side passages, all of one piece, the cylinder being at one end permanently.
closed, and at the other end fitted with a gland or nut having a hole, in which
is placed a tool or cutter holder. In the interior of the eylinder there is a
long-piston having its ends fitting the cylinder, the intervening space between
the ends being of less diameter for forming a chamber between it and the
cylinder, which chamber communicates with passages leading to both ends of
the valve box, and also by a hole in the cylinder with the atmosphere. The
valve box has a circular bore and is fitted with a circular valve with the
necessary passages, the box being provided with a pipe or hole for the supply
of compressed air, steam, or other motive power, and a pipe or hole for the
exhaust. At one side of the cylinder and valve box there is as passage com-
municating with an opening in the cylinder near its closed end, and at another

page_text: side a passage communicating with an opening at the other end of the
cylinder, and also with an opening leading to the tool or cutter holder.
When compressed air is supplied to the valve box it passes through an
opening in the valve and through the passage near the closed end of the
cylinder, and acts with power on the head of the piston, so as to force its
other or foot end against the head of the tool or cutter holder, thereby driving
the tool or pick into the seam, and cutting or getting the coal, the exhaust
air having previously passed through the exhaust passage and through the
exhaust pipe. When the valve is shifted the operations are reversed, the
compressed air passing to the tool end of the cylinder and shifting back the
tool and piston to their original positions, and so on continuously. The valve
is shifted to and fro by the working of the piston, which in its forward and
backward movements uncover & cover the passages leading to both ends of
the valve box, and allows a portion of the exhaust air to act alternately on
both ends of the valve and shift it at each stroke of the piston.
The principle worked out in this machine is the obtaining of the coal by a
succession of rapid blows, instead of the long and powerful strokes of most
other machines, and for this purpose it is reduced to a size convenient for
handling, and may be used in all directions, it being equally effective when
held horizontal, vertical, or angular, and as there are no outside working
parts it may receive all the hard usage of a mine without injury; it will
either bore or pick, it being the only duty of the workman to keep it well up
to its work, and the equilibrium arrangement for returning the tool at each
blow prevents any difficulty in keeping it at work, and at the same time it takes
much of the pressure off the workman. The piston itself may be attached to
a tool where variety in working or inconvenience of position may require it;
and these machines may also be used for various purposes, such as squaring or
surfacing stone, or working out the minute details of stone carving, boring
rocks, and for performing the work for which steam hammers are employed.