Improvements in Hoisting and Conveying Apparatus.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 1st June, 1897--Accepted, 31st July, 1897
[Communicated from abroad by JEREMIAH CAMPBELL, of Chelsea, in the County of
Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, United States of America.]
Improvements in Hoisting and Conveying Apparatus.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, 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:-
This invention relates to improvemements in hoisting and conveying apparatus
and is illustrated by the accompanying drawings in which
Figure 1 is a view partly in elevation and partly in vertical section of a hoisting
and conveying apparatus containing the features of my invention.
Figure 2 is a view principally in elevation, illustrating a modified form thereof.
Figure 3 is a detail view in cross section and elevation, illustrating one way of
supporting the trolley tracks hereinafter referred to.
Figure 4 is a view in plan of the engine forming a part of the apparatus.
The invention comprises a suitably supported track or cable, a trolley movable
thereon, a steam shovel, an engine with winding drums, a rope or ropes actuating
the steam shovel and extending from it over the trolley sheave or sheaves and over a
suitable guide sheave or sheaves to it or their drums on the engine, and a trolley
actuating rope extending from the trolley in the opposite direction from the shovel
actuating rope or ropes, and over a guide sheave or sheaves to its drum on the same
engine.
It is of the
A represents the trolley. It is mounted upon the tracks a (see Figures 1 and 3)
It extends from
or upon a cable a¹, (see Figure 2). B is the trolley moving rope.
one end of the trolley forward or in a direction away from the operating engine,
parallel with the trolley tracks or wire to the sheave b, then backward parallel with
the trolley tracks or wire to the sheave b', over or adjacent to the engine, and then
to the winding drum B¹ of the engine. C represents the steam shovel.
type known as the clam-shell shovel, and it is represented in Figure 1 as operated by
the ropes c, c¹, which extend over the sheaves c³ carried by the trolley A, and from
thence directly to the winding drums C', C2 Figure 4 of the engine, passing over the
sheaves x located at or near the engine. One of these ropes is a hoisting rope, and
serves to lift and lower the steam shovel. The other rope serves to open and close
the shovel.
The invention is especially adapted for use in hoisting materials and carrying said
materials horizontally some distance, and it is desirable that the various operations
of transferring the shovel to, for instance, a position over a hatch way of a coal
barge, (see Figure 1), holding the trolley stationary in such position, while the
shovel is being lowered, closed and elevated, then transferring the shovel and the
trolley as a unit to the other end of the trolley tracks or cable, or another discharging
point, and at any height desired, without varying its relation to the trolley, and then
discharging the same, be done by a single operator working through a single engine;
and to obtain uniformity of action or movements, and simplicity of construction

page_text: necessary in so operating the shovel by a single operator, I have provided as a part
of the apparatus an engine having the three winding drums B₁, C1, C2, Figure 4.
Each of these drums has independent connection with the driving mechanism of the
engine, and means for engaging and disconnecting it therefrom at the will of the
operator.
The three drums are of the same diameter, and they are run at the same rate of
speed, and when all are in operation they take up or pay out the same extent of rope,
and a uniform relation between the shovel and the trolley is then maintained.
It will be understood that in transferring the trolley from one point to another,
either the trolley rope drum winds up the trolley rope B, or unwinds it, and in
opposition to the winding action of the other drums, and particularly the drum used
in connection with the shovel hoisting rope, so that in transferring the trolley and
steam shovel in one direction, the trolley rope drum B¹ will wind, and the other two
drums will unwind, and to the same degree, and in transferring the trolley and
steam shovel in the opposite direction the action of the drums will be reversed; that
is, the trolley rope drum will then pay out and the other drums will wind.
It will be understood that in transferring a loaded or charged shovel, that its two
ropes operate in opposition to the trolley rope, and as they are wound and the trolley
rope unwound move the trolley and shovel towards the drum, or upon the reverse
action of the drums, permit the trolley and loaded shovel to be moved in the opposite
direction. If the shovel is not closed during the transferring movements, the shovel
hoisting rope co-operates with the trolley rope in the movement of the trolley and
the shovel, the shovel closing and opening rope not then assisting to the extent of
the shovel hoisting rope, and having not much more than its slack taken care of
during the transferring movement; that is, while operated by its hoisting drum.
During the operations of charging and discharging the shovel, the trolley rope
drum B is held stationary, or practically so, by preventing or withholding the
movement of its winding druin, and the hoisting and opening and closing ropes
are then operated by their respective drums, and either to close and hoist the
shovel or to open and lower it.
As the three drums are of the same diameter and a part of the same engine,
and turn at the same rate of rotation, it follows that a definite relation between the
steam shovel and trolley may be arrived at and maintained during their transfer ;
and this is of very great consequence in hoisting and conveying devices having
relatively long, horizontal travel, and but relatively little room below the trolley rails
or cable for the passage of the shovel.
It will be understood that where the shovel hoisting rope also performs the office
of opening and closing the shovel either directly or indirectly in connection with
another agency, that the closing and opening rope may be dispensed with. The
engine may be a stationary one as represented in Figure 1 and located at one end of
fixed trolley tracks or a fixed cable, or it may be contained upon a inovable platform
and this construction is preferable where the work done by the shovel is
or car,
progressive.
It will be seen that as the winding drums form a part of a single engine or
mechanism, it becomes possible to have them of the same diameter and rotate them
at the same rate of speed, and to bring their actuating levers or devices together in
a bank or line, where they are easily under the control of the same operator.
It will also be seen that the horizontal movement of the trolley and shovel is due
to the paying out or taking in of the shovel hoisting rope at the same rate of speed
that the trolley operating rope is taken up or paid out.
In Figures 1 and 3 I have represented a form of structure for supporting the
trolley rails which is well adapted for certain structures or classes of work. It
comprises the inclined supports D, D' united at their upper ends, braced together by
cross braces d at their lower ends and braced apart near their tops by the stringers a,
which support the trolley tracks or form them, and which are connected with the
supports D, D' by the hangers d² extending downwards from the cross braces ds and
having the cross sections d¹ upon which the stringers bear. This forms a cheap

page_text: structure, and one providing uninterrupted space for the travel of the shovel and for
a sidewise movement of it as well.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. In a hoisting and conveying device the combination of a horizontal track or
cable, a sheave b at one end of said track or cable, the sheaves b¹, x at the other end
of said track or cable, a trolley movable on said track or cable, the rolls c² carried
thereby, a trolley actuating rope B extending from the trolley in one direction only,
around the end sheave b and from thence backward over the sheave b¹ to a winding
drum B', the steam shovel C of the character specified, its closing and opening
ropes c¹ and hoisting and lowering rope c both extending over the rolls c² of the
trolley to the sheave x and from thence to the winding drums C', C2, the said winding
drums B¹, C¹, C² of the same diameter and adapted to be run separately and together
at the same speed, whereby all the said ropes B c c in transferring the shovel and
trolley travel at the same rate of speed and thus maintain a constant relation between
the shovel and trolley during its transferring movement, and whereby also the rope B
moves the trolley in one direction and the ropes c, c¹ or one of them also serve to
move the trolley in a reverse direction without changing the relation of the shovel,
substantially as described.
2. The hoisting and conveying apparatus herein shown and described.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.