IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR ASCERTAINING WEIGHTS AND STRAINS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ann Brooman, of Camberwell, in the County of
Surrey, Widow and Sole Administratrix of the late Clinton Edgcumbe
Brooman, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of
166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR ASCERTAINING WEIGHTS
AND STRAINS." -A communication from abroad to the said Clinton
Edgcumbe Brooman by Joseph Jasper and Company, of Liège,
Belgium.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Clinton Edgcumbe
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 19th June 1869.
I, CLINTON EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Broo-
man, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agents, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-

page_text: MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR ASCERTAINING WEIGHTS AND STRAINS," to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is to obtain directly the weight or strain
of all bodies suspended or acted upon by cranes or other instruments.
The essential features of the Invention are the means for uniting the
dynamometer to the crane or other instrument, the principal or traction
springs, the flexion multiplier, and the gearing mechanism with the dial
and hand. The grooved pulley which receives the chain of the crane or
other suspending or drawing instrument is composed of two parts united
by bolts, and it is mounted and turns upon a metal piece, rounded in the
middle and square at the extremities, so as to serve as supports for
the traction springs. The principal or traction springs are of equal
thickness; they are fitted at their upper ends into the square ends of the
metal piece, in which they are firmly held so as to prevent play of any
kind by keys. These springs are more or less in number according to the
strength desired, and they are traversed in the square portion of the
metal picce, into which they are fitted by a bolt or key which firmly
binds them therein. The springs are bowed outwards at their centres,
and bent inwards at their upper and lower ends; their lower ends are
fitted in the same manner as their upper ends into a metal piece pierced
in the middle to receive a hook or link. The middle of the principal
springs have flat pieces serving as resting places for the pieces con-
necting the principal springs with the multiplying springs. Upon one
of these pieces is mounted a straight spring, the extremity of which is
fixed to one end of an oblique piece, the other end of which receives one
end of a second straight spring, the other end of which is fixed to the
straight piece at the middle of the other principal spring. The end of
the oblique piece also carries a curved piece, which by the aid of a little
spring upon a point at the centre of the first-named straight spring
operates a toothed sector, which is centred at the point just mentioned.
By this arrangement the connection of the parts of the dynamometer
is invariable, and no time is lost in action. The sector gears into a
pinion mounted upon an axis, on which the hand of the dial is fitted.
The hand of the dial has two points, a longer and a shorter one; the
latier points to the divisions corresponding to the second turn of the
pinion. The apparatus may be enclosed in a box or case, which is firmly
attached to the upper metal piece in which the pulley of the crane'
revolves, while it is left free at the bottom. The springs are arrested

page_text: cither by means of articulated rods or tringles procceding from above
and terminating at the bottom by an oval eye, which receives a tenon
fixed in the lower metal piece, or by the box or case itself, which is
pierced for the purpose at the bottom with oval holes, which receive the
tenons, so that at the maximum of the charge the lower metal piece
aids the tenons either through the rods, or tringles, or the box.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said Ann
Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 19th January 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANN
BROOMAN, of Camberwell, in the County of Surrey, Widow and Sole
Administratrix of the late Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, of the Firm of
Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City
of London, Patent Agents, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Ann Brooman, Her special licence that I,
the said Ann Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Ann Brooman, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR ASCERTAINING
WEIGHTS AND STRAINS," (communicated to the said Clinton Edgcumbe
Brooman from abroad by Joseph Jasper and Company, of Liege,
Belgium,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Ann
Brooman, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
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 seven calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings here-
unto annexed, that is to say:-
The object of this Invention is to obtain directly the weight or strain
of all bodies suspended or acted upon by cranes or other instruments.
The essential features of the Invention are, the means for uniting the
dymamometer to the crane or other instrument, the principal or traction
springs, the flexion multiplier, and the gearing mechanism with the
dial and hand. The grooved pulley which receives the chain of the
crane or other suspending or drawing instrument is composed of two
parts united by bolts, as shewn at a, a, Figure 2. It is mounted and
turns upon a metal picce A, B, rounded in the middle and square at the
extremities, so as to serve as supports for the traction springs. The
principal or traction springs R are of equal thickness; they are fitted at
their upper ends into the square ends of the metal piece A, B, in which
they are firmly held so as to prevent play of any kind by keys c. These
springs are more or less in number according to the strength desired,
and they are traversed in the square portion of the metal piece A, B,
into which they are fitted by a bolt or key c, which firmly binds them
therein. The springs are curved outwards at their centres and bent
inwards at their upper and lower ends, as shown in Figure 1, g, h, and
their lower ends are fitted in the same manner as their upper ends into
a metal piece C, D, pierced in the middle to receive a hook or link. The
middle of the principal springs have flat pieces m, n, serving as resting
places for the pieces connecting the principal springs with the multi-
plying springs. Upon one of these pieces ma straight spring vis
mounted at the point p; the extremity q of this spring is fixed to one end
of an oblique piece 8, the other end of which receives one end of a
second straight spring o', the other end of which is fixed to the straight
piece at the middle of the other principal spring. The end of the
oblique piece also carries a curved piece, which by the aid of a little
spring, shewn separately in Figures 4 and 5, fixed upon a point j at the
centre of the first-named straight spring operates a toothed sector E,
the centre of which coincides with the middle of the spring in its
normal position. By this arrangement the connection of all the parts
of the dynamometer is invariable, and no time is lost in action. The

page_text: sector E gears into a pinion a mounted upon an axis on which the
hand C of the dial V is fitted. The hand of the dial has two points, a
longer and a shorter one; the latter points to the divisions corresponding
to the second turn of the pinion.
Figure 3 shews the position of the multiplicator for the maximum
charge, the two points m and n, are brought near one another, the two
springs and having been compressed, as shewn. The diagonal q, 8,
which unites the ends 7 and 8 of the springs v and v¹ is inclined at an
angle which may reach 25 degrees, and the curved piece u to which it is
attached describing this angle round the point I as a centre draws the
sector by the little spring v. It is thus that two turns of the pinion and
needle are produced. At the same time the movement of the sector
proceeds more rapidly than the drawing together of the points m and n,
and the effect is similar to that of a crank and winch, the circular
movement of which is accelerated as it approaches the dead points. The
apparatus may be enclosed in a box or case, which is firmly attached
to the upper metal piece A, B, in which the pulley of the crane revolves,
while it is left free at the bottom C, D. It has a door in order to shew
the dial. The springs are arrested either by means of articulated rods
or tringles proceeding from above, and terminating at the bottom in an
oval eye, which receives a tenon fixed in the lower metal piece C, D, or
by the box or case itself, which is pierced for the purpose at the bottom
with oval holes, which receive the tenon, so that at the maximum of
the charge the lower metal piece C, D, aids the action of the tenons
either upon the rods or tringles or the box.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention for
improvements in apparatus for ascertaining weights and strains, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
First. The means or apparatus, substantially as hercin-before
described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings, for uniting
the dynamometer to the crane or other instrument so as to directly
weigh the loads upon the latter.
Secondly. The arrangement, substantially as herein-before described
and represented in the accompanying Drawings, of the principal or
traction springs.
.
Thirdly. The arrangement, substantially as herein-before described and
shewn in the accompanying Drawings, of multiplying apparatus whereby

page_text: the effects of the compression of the principal or traction springs are
communicated in an intensified degree to the dial mechanism.
Fourthly. The gearing mechanism with dial and hands for enabling
the effects of the compression to be read off, substantially as herein-
before described and illustrated in the Drawings.
And, fifthly. The combination of the above organs or the general
construction and arrangement of the apparatus for ascertaining weights
and strains, substantially as herein-before described and represented in
the Drawings annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ann Brooman, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of January One thousand
eight hundred and seventy.
Witness,
H. GARDNER,
166, Fleet Street,
London.
ANN BROOMAN. (L.S.)