CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SWEEPING PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Darand Gardissal, of 10, Bedford Street,
Strand, London, and of 29, Boulevart St. Martin, Paris, Patent Agent,
for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SWEEPING
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Durand Gardissal
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th March 1856.
I, CHARLES DURAND GARDISSAL, of 10, Bedford Street, Strand, and of 29,
Boulevart St. Martin, Paris, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SWEEPING
STREETS AND OTHER WAYS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists, firstly, in the employment of a reciprocating broom
or brooms, attached to a bar or its equivalent, which is connected with rods,
receiving a reciprocating and vibrating motion.
It consists, secondly, in the employment of an endless apron, working trans-
versely or laterally to the direction in which the machine travels, for conveying
the dirt swept upon it by the broom or brooms from under the machine, and
depositing it in rows along the street or way.
It consists, thirdly, in the combination of the transversely or laterally working
endless apron with the reciprocating broom or brooms.

page_text: It consists, 4thly, of the combination of a lever and slot plate, by which the
working parts of the machinery may be readily thrown out of gear with the
driving wheels.
It consists, fifthly, in supporting the back part of the carriage to which the
machinery is attached by a swivel wheel, which is connected by a lever to
the back end of the draught pole, for the purpose of allowing the machinery
to turn readily.
It consists, sixthly, in elevating or lowering the broom or brooms, to com-
pensate for wear, or for other purposes, by means of a screw thread on the
swivel pivot of the swivel wheel, and a nut attached to the carriage.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Durand Gardissal in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 26th September 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
DURAND GARDISSAL, of 10, Bedford Street, Strand, London, and of 29,
Boulevart St. Martin, Paris, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Durand Gardissal, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
Durand Gardissal, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Charles Durand Gardissal, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SWEEPING STREETS AND OTHER
WAYS," a communication, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Charles Durand Gardissal, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Charles Durand Gardissal, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters & figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention consists, firstly, in the employment of a reciprocating broom
or brooms, applied and operating substantially as herein-after specified.
It consists, secondly, in the employment of an endless apron, working trans-
versely or laterally to the direction in which the machine travels, for conveying
the dirt swept upon it the broom or brooms from under the machine, and
depositing it in rows along the street or way.
It consists, thirdly, in the combination of the transversely or laterally working
endless apron with the reciprocating broom or brooms.
It consists, fourthly, in the employment of a certain arrangement of gearing
by which the working parts of the machinery may be readily thrown out of
gear with the driving wheels.
It consists, fifthly, in supporting the back part of the carriage to which the
machinery is attached by a swivel wheel, which is connected by a lever to
the back end of the draught pole, for the purpose of allowing the machinery
to turn readily.
It consists, sixthly, in elevating or lowering the broom or brooms, to com-
pensate for wear or for other purposes, by means of a screw thread on the
swivel pivot of the swivel wheel, and a nut attached to the carriage.
The Invention is fully illustrated in the accompanying Drawing, in which
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal vertical section of a street-sweeping machine, in
which the whole of the improvements are embraced; Fig. 2 is a transverso
vertical section of the same, looking to the right of the line x, x, of Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 is a plan of the same. Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding
parts in the several Figs.
A, A, is an oblong quadrangular framing or carriage, to which the working
parts of the machine are attached, the front part of the said carriage being
supported by a pair of wheels C, C, which are fitted to turn freely on an axle
B, attached rigidly to the framing, and the back part thereof being supported
by a swivel wheel C'. The wheels C, C, have spur toothed rims D, D, attached
securely to their inner sides, to gear with two small spur wheels F, F, on a
shaft E, which works in bearings secured to the carriage A, A, and by that
means the revolution of the wheels C, C, as the machine is drawn forward,
causes rotary motion to be transmitted to the shaft E, at the extremities of
which are two cranks E', E', with which are connected the front ends of two

page_text: rods G, G; to the rear ends of which are secured two studs a, a, to which are
fitted two friction wheels H, HI, which are received between straight and nearly
horizontal ways or guides b, b, on the sides of the carriage. Near the wheels
Ha transverse bar I is rigidly secured by screw bolts c, c, to the two rods G, G,
for the purpose of carrying one or more brooms J, J, which extend the whole
width of the machine. In the example represented four brooms are used, all
arranged in line, so as to be equivalent to one broom extending the full width
of the machine. The rods G, G, receive from the cranks a reciprocating and
vibratory motion, which causes the brooms to sweep the ground as the rods
move forward with the lower half of every revolution of the cranks, as shown
in black outline in Fig. 1, but to be raised therefrom as the rods move back
with the upper half of every revolution of the cranks, as shown in red outline
in Fig. 1. Provision is made for adjusting the broom bar I, to give the
brooms a greater rise and fall in moving back and forth, by making slots d, d,
in the rods G, G, see Fig. 1, to change the position of the bolts c, c; and pro-
vision is also made for varying the angle of the brooms relatively to the rods
'G, G, by making curved slots e, e, where the bolts c, c, pass through the lugs f, f.
which are formed on the ends of the broom bar, to attach it to the rods G, G.
The velocity of the revolution of the shaft E, & the lengths of stroke of the
cranks E, E; must bear such relation to the travel of the carriage A, A, that
the brooms at every stroke will sweep at least as great a length of ground as the
carriage moves over. The brooms are made with stems, which are secured by
set screws j, j, in sockets g, g, which are attached by pivots h, h, to clamps i, i,
which are bolted to the bar I, the pivots h, h, being to allow the brooms to
swing back to a certain extent, if they meet with serious obstruction in sweep-
ing, and to enable them to have an elastic action given to them by springs k, k,
which are applied to keep the sockets g, g, in their place.
Immediately in front of the position to which the brooms advance in their
forward sweeping movement is placed the transversely moving endless apron K,
on which the dirt is swept by the brooms, and by which it is carried to one
side of the machine and deposited on the ground in a row, resembling what
is known as a windrow, and in rear of this apron is a flap L, which drags on
the ground, and forms an inclined plane, up which the dirt is swept by the
brooms to the apron. This flap has a hinge joint at s, see Fig. 1, which allows
it to fold up, as shown in red outline in Fig. 1, if it should meet with any
obstruction in backing the machine. The endless apron K and the flap L are
attached to a frame M, M, which is hung on the axle B, and adjusted to set
the apron as close as practicable to the ground without touching it by means
of two adjustable stop pieces 1,1, with which the upper part of the said frame

page_text: is brought in contact by the weight of the lower part, with the apron and its
appendages attached. This frame M, M, also admits of the apron rising if it
meet with any obstruction. The bottom of the apron is protected by a plate
K', which is attached to the frame M, M, and the top part is prevented
sagging with the weight of the dirt upon it by means of a board K*, which
is attached rigidly to the frame M, M, and stands within the apron. The
apron is stretched on two rollers m, m, see Fig. 2, and these rollers receive
rotary motion to move the apron from an endless chain n, see Figs. 1 and 3,
which is engaged by a chain wheel. p on the same arbor 9 as a bevil wheel
N, which gears with a bevil wheel O on an arbor 1, on which there is another
bevil wheel P, which may gear with either of two bevil wheels Q, Q', on the
shaft E, according to the direction in which it is desired that the apron shall
move, and according to which side of the machine it is desired to deposit
the dirt, it being sometimes desirable to deposit the dirt on one side and some-
times on the other side of the machine, a reversing gear therefore being
necessary to change the direction of the apron. In order to admit of the
raising and lowering of the apron with its appendages, including the arbor q
and the bevil wheels N, O, the bevel wheel P is fitted to the arbor r with
a feather and groove, so as to allow. the arbor to slide within it, and is fitted
to rotate in a swinging bearing P¹, which hangs on the shaft E.
The bevel wheels Q, Q', are fitted to the shaft E, so as to rotate with and
not independently of it, but to.be capable of a sufficient amount of longitudinal
movement to throw one or other into gear with the wheel P; and for the
purpose of enabling this change to be effected, their hubs are provided with
grooves 6, 6, see Figs. 2 and 3, to receive the forked ends of a yoke R', which
is secured to a small sliding shaft S¹, which is arranged to slide in bearings
parallel with the shaft E, and has two collars U, U, between which a lever S
is loosely fitted to it. The lower extremity of this lever S is forked, as shown
in Fig. 1, to embrace a small shaft U, to which the said lever is attached by a
pin passing through the two. This shaft U is confined in a longitudinal
direction between two plates t, t, and therefore the point of attachment of the
lever S to it serves as a fixed fulcrum to work the lever transversely to the
machine in order to slide the shaft E to change the wheels Q, Q', in gear with
the wheel P, & thereby to reverse the motion of the apron, or to throw the said
wheels both out of gear to stop the action of the apron. A T-shaped slotted
plate S is provided in the top of the carriage A, A, see Fig. 3, for the lever S
to work through; the lever being placed in the centre of the head of the slot,
as shown in black outline in Fig. 8, and also in Fig, 2, to hold the wheels both
out of gear, or shifted to either of the ends of the head of the slot, where

page_text: notches v, v, see Fig. 3, are provided to receive and hold it to bring one or
other of the wheels into gear. The same lever S serves to throw the spur
wheels F, F, out of gear with the shaft E, to stop the operation of the brushes,
and of all the machinery, to enable the machine to be run from place to place
without sweeping. These spur wheels F, F, are fitted loosely on the shaft E,
and are connected therewith, so as to give rotary motion to it by means of
double clutches V, V, which are fitted to the shaft with a feather and groove
or some other device, which admits of their motion longitudinally on the shaft,
but compels them to rotate with the shaft. These clutches have teeth at one
end to engage with corresponding teeth on the hubs of the spur wheels F, F,
and at the other end have teeth to gear with single clutches V, V', which are
secured to the shaft E. The engagement of the latter clutches is so deep as to
continue, whether the clutches on the spur wheels F, F, are in or out of gear.
The ungearing of the clutches is effected by the plates t, t, see Figs. 1 and 3,
which are attached to the carriage in such a way as to operate as levers, and
are bent slightly at their points of attachment or fulcra. The rear ends of these
plate levers t, t, enter notches t¹, t, in the sliding clutches V, V. As has been
before stated, the shaft U is confined longitudinally between these plates, and
hence, by bringing the lever S to its central position in the head of the T-shaped
slot, and then drawing back its handle back along the tail part of the T-shaped
slot, as it is indicated by the position of the lever, which is shown in Figs. 1
and 3 in red outline, the shaft S' becomes the fulcrum of the said lever, and
the shaft U is swung back, and the ends of the latter shaft in passing along
the faces of those parts of the lever plates in front of the fulcra or points of
attachment to the carriage throws them aside, as indicated in Fig. 3, in red
outline, thus moving the opposite ends of the said plates, which enter the notches
t', t, towards the centre of the machine, and moving the clutches out of gear
with the spur wheels F, F, and so disconnecting the said wheels from the shaft
E, thus allowing the said wheels to receive rotary motion from the toothed
rims D, D, of the driving wheels C, C, without giving motion to the shaft E.
When the handle of the lever S is moved forward again, the sliding clutches
V, V, are thrown into gear again with the spur wheels F, F, by means of small
spiral springs w, w, which are applied between them and the fixed clutches
V, V: The ends of the sliding clutches V, V, which gear with the spur wheels
F, F, and the corresponding toothed faces of the hubs of the said spur wheels,
are made with beveled or ratchet wheel teeth, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, so
that in backing the machine, even though the clutches may not have been
thrown out of gear by the lever S, the wheels will not engage with them, by
reason of the teeth of V, V, passing over each other. The cranks E', E', aro

page_text: provided with counterbalances E*, E*, for the purpose (when the shaft E is
out of gear) of throwing up the cranks, as shown in red outline in Fig. 1, and
thus raising the brushes off the ground.
W is the draught pole, to which are connected the horses or other drawing
power. This pole, of which only the rear portion is shown, is attached at its
rear end to an upright shaft X, which connects it with the machine. To the
upper end of the shaft X an arm ✗¹ is securely attached; and to the upper end
of the swivel pin Y of the swivel wheel c' an arm Y is attached. The arms
X and Y are connected by a long lever Z, which works on a fixed fulcrum
pin Z, and by that means when the draught pole is turned to turn the machine
the arm X is turned in the same direction, and the arm Y in the opposite
direction, as shown in red outline in Fig. 3, thus turning the swivel wheel in
a direction to turn the machine in the direction in which the draught pole is
turned. The lever Z has a slot y to admit of its necessary movement thereon
in a longitudinal direction. Y* is a wheel, the hub of which constitutes a nut,
which fits to a screw thread on the swivel pin Y. The hub of this wheel is
fitted to turn in a fixed bearing 4, see Fig. 1, attached firmly to the carriage
A, A. By turning the wheel Y* by hand to work its nut up or down the
screw on the swivel pin, the rear end of the carriage may be raised or lowered
at pleasure, which raises or lowers the brushes. A spring catch 5 is applied to
enter any one of a series of notches in the under side of the rim of the wheel Y*
to confine it when the nut is adjusted. 7 is a curtain of leather, canvas, or
other suitable material, which is buttoned to the machine to protect the gearing
from any dirt that may be thrown up by the brushes; this curtain is shown
partly torn away in Fig. 3 to expose the endless chain p.
Having thus described the nature and particulars of my Invention of my
improvements in machinery for sweeping streets and other ways, I desire it to
be distinctly understood that I do not confine myself to the precise details
herein described, as such may be varied or modified without departing from the
principle of action thereof; likewise, I do not confine myself to the strict figure
or form of any apparatus or portions of the apparatus herein described; but I
claim as new and of my Invention,―
First, the employment of a reciprocating broom or brooms J, J, attached to
a bar I, or its equivalent, which is connected with rods G, G, receiving a
reciprocating and vibrating motion, substantially, as herein set forth.
Second, the employment of a transversely or laterally moving endless apron
K placed under the machine for the purpose of receiving the dirt from the
broom or brooms conveying it from under the machine, and depositing it in a
row or rows along the street or way, substantially, as herein specified.

page_text: Third, the combination of the endless apron K and the reciprocating broom
or brooms J, J, arranged as herein described.
Fourth, placing the spur wheels F, F, loosely upon the shaft E, and operating
the sliding clutches V, V, by means of plate levers t, t, applied and operating
substantially, as herein described, for the purpose of throwing the working parts
of the machine out of gear with the driving wheels C. C.
Fifth, the connection of the swivel wheel C¹ with the back end of the
draught pole by a lever Z, substantially, as and for the purpose specified.
Sixth, elevating or lowering the broom or brooms by means of a screw thread
on the swivel pin Y of the 'swivel wheel, and a nut Y turning in a fixed
bearing attached to the carriage or framing of the machine, substantially, as
herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Durant Gardissal, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred & fifty-six.
C. D. GARDISSAL. (L.S.)