Process of or Means for Removing the Material Composing Storage Piles or Heaps of Coal or other Granular or Divided Material.
Year: 1889

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A Process of or Means for Removing the Material Composing
Storage Piles or Heaps of Coal or other Granular or Divided
Material.
I JAMES MAPES DODGE of 127 South Fourth Street in the City of Philadelphia
State of Pennsylvania one of the United States of America Mechanical 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—
The objects of my Invention are to remove a pile of coal or other material in a
constant stream derived from the base of the pile to prevent as much as possible, the
disintegration or breakage of the coal during the process of removal, to dispense
with the usual cumbersome elevators and to do away entirely with hand labour at
the pile.
Coal or analogous material is usually stored in piles, generally under trestlework,
but has lately been stored in immense piles without the use of trestlework by a
process for which I have filed application for British Patent to date the 12th day of
April 1889.
In removing piles of coal, it is the common practice to employ men, who shovel the
coal into wheelbarrows and wheel it to the point of delivery, but this method is very
expensive, as all hand-labour must be, when the operations involved are on a very
extensive scale.
The plan of removing coal by what is known as the elevator system is also
objectionable, as the coal must be fed to the elevator, or if an elevator of the bucket
type (such as is used in excavators) is employed for removing the pile of coal, the
position of the entire elevator must be continually changed in order to keep it up
to its work. I overcome all these difficulties by the process according to my
Invention.
In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a perspective view of a pile of coal
illustrating my improved process for removing the same. Figure 2 is a plan, and
Figure 3 is an end view of one style of machine for carrying out my said process,
Figure 4 is an enlarged sectional view the section being taken on the line 1, 2 Figure 2.
Figure 5 is a section on the line 3-4. Figure 2 and Figure 6 is a view shewing the
apparatus in its simplest form.
Referring to Figure 1 the coal is shewn as having been piled by the process set
forth in the Specification of my aforesaid application the coal in some instances
forming a cone say about eighty feet in height, the angle of said cone being the angle
of repose of gravitating granular material and it is required to remove the coal
quickly and economically for reloading cars or vessels as the case may be.
In carrying out my process, I use what may be termed a conveyer, the said
conveyer being of any suitable construction and being open at one side and at the
top throughout its entire length. The conveyer may for instance be constructed as
shewn in Figures 2, 3 and 4 in which A is a trough having one side removed. In
this trough travels a series of plates or "flights" d secured to a chain or rope e driven
in any well known manner. In the drawing the rope is shewn as being driven from
a driving shaft a which is connected to suitable power mechanism.
The trough A in the present instance is pivotted at b to a second trough B. This
trough B is pivotted at a stationary point c and can travel in the arc of a circle,
having the pivot point c as its centre, while the trough A can travel in the arc of a
circle having the pivot point 6 as its centre,

page_text: These troughs can be moved by suitable windlasses f connected to chains or ropes g
attached to any suitable fixture.
In Figures 2 and 3 I have represented the pile of coal to be removed at one side of
a trestle-work D having tracks thereon. The coal has been dumped from these tracks
and shoveled or otherwise removed to the point indicated between the conveyer
troughs and the trestlework.
At one side of the trestlework D is a track E on which are the cars to be loaded
through the medium of the conveyer.
The conveyer flights attack the coal at the base of the pile, in the present instance
at two points as shown, that is to say, along one side and along one end, and convey
the coal to the elevating conveyer C which has flights h similar to the flights in the
conveyors A and B those flights being attached to a chain cord or rope i which passes
around a suitable driving pulley i¹ at the top and around a suitable pulley 2 at the
bottom.
The coal is dumped onto this Conveyor which has a botton c¹ and the coal is
carried by the flights h to the top of the trestle work F and is allowed to pass
into the chute ; which directs the coal into the car or other receptacle to be
filled.
The trestlework F instead of being placed in close proximity to the track may be
placed on a wharf and the chute may direct the coal into vessels to be loaded or
the chute may be so constructed as to direct the coal into a second conveyer or
chute and carry it to a distant point if necessary.
I have given a brief description of one of the machines for carrying out my
process in order to clearly set forth the process but it will be understood that other
forms or styles of machines may be used without departing from my Invention.
In Figure 6 I have shewn a conical pile of coal piled by the mechanism
set forth in the Specification of my aforesaid application and I have shewn
merely the conveyer B pivoted at a fixed point c dispensing entirely with the
Conveyer A.
It will be understood that in piling the coal the piles will vary according to the
locality, and the extent of ground available for the purpose so that different styles
of conveyers must necessarily be used to accord as much as possible with the shape of
the pile to be removed and therefore I do not limit myself to the precise construction
of mechanism shewn.
The Conveyer attacks the pile of coal as shown in Figure 1 along its base and
disturbs the integrity of the pile, in fact eats into the pile throughout the entire
extent of contact of the Conveyer and not at a single point, as in the case of
shovelling by hand or by an excavating machine. The coal as soon as disturbed by
the action of the conveyer passes by gravity into the Conveyer trough and is carried
along by the flights of the conveyer to the point of delivery.
It will thus be seen that the coal is operated on gently and flows onto the
Conveyer by gravity when the angle of repose is broken and when once on the
conveyer the coal is carried to the point of delivery without any breaking or
disintegration of the same as would be the case in carrying out the processes usually
employed prior to my Invention the direction of removal being laterally past and
away from the pile and the conveyer being advanced towards the constantly receding
point of supply until the entire pile has been disposed of.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this Inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
The herein described process of or means for effecting the removal or distribution
of storage piles of coal or like gravitating granular or divided material by continually
attacking the pile along one side of its base thus causing the material to pass by gravit

page_text: on that side of the pile which is attacked catching the said material and removing it
laterally in contact with and past the pile to a predetermined point of delivery all
substantially as herein before described.
J. H. JOHNSON & Co.,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, Agents.