IMPROVED ELEVATORS FOR RAISING WATER AND MINERALS FROM COLLIERIES AND MINES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Alison, of Queen Street Place, Cannon
Street, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, and John Shaw, of
Smithfield, in the same County, Railway Contractor, for the Invention
of "IMPROVED ELEVATORS FOR RAISING WATER AND MINERALS FROM
COLLIERIES AND MINES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
Sealed the 7th February 1865, and dated the 12th August 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Alison and
John Shaw at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 12th August 1864.
We, ALEXANDER ALISON, of Queen Street Place, Cannon Street, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, and JOHN SHAW, of Smithfield, in the
same County, Railway Contractor, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVED ELEVATORS FOR RAISING WATER AND MINERALS FROM
COLLIERIES AND MINES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
The following is a description of one of our improved elevators. A cylinder
or tube is placed in the shaft which rises a few feet above the top of the shaft,
and reaches a few feet below the bottom of the mine; this cylinder is made
of malleable or cast iron, or other suitable metal or material, and of a diameter
according to the weight of minerals, water, or other substances to be lifted.
In this cylinder or tube a double-headed piston works, and between the two
heads of the piston a fixed or moveable receiver, or barrel, or waggon is placed
which holds the mineral or water to be raised.

page_text: An air pump worked by a steam engine or water wheel, or other power is
used for forcing air down the shaft in a tube, which air passes into the cylinder
below the under piston head. Forcing only may be used, but exhausting and
forcing may be used in conjunction. When the load is put in at the bottom
a valve is opened so that the air is introduced under the piston, which with
its load then rises to the top; on arriving at the top the load is removed,
and on an escape valve at bottom being opened the piston descends, and the
air which escapes ventilates the mine. This improved elevator not only acts
as an elevator and ventilator, but provides a safe and expeditious mode of con-
veying workmen up and down the shaft.
The other improved elevator may be described thus:-Air is forced by an
air pump worked by steam or other power down a tube into one or more
cisterns in the bottom of the shaft, into which the water of the mine runs.
The water is in this way forced up to the surface through another tube. The
cistern or cisterns are fitted with self-acting valves, which open and shut by
means of a float. As the air escapes from the bottom this elevator acts as
a ventilator as effectually as the one previously described. The foregoing will
explain the general principle of our Invention.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Alison and John Shaw in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 9th February 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ALEXANDER
ALISON, of Queen Street Place, Cannon Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, and JOHN SHAW, of Smithfield, in the same County, Railway
Contractor, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Alexander Alison and John Shaw, Her special licence that we,
the said Alexander Alison and John Shaw, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Alexander Alison and John
Shaw, our 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

page_text: Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVED ELEVATORS FOR RAISING
WATER AND MINERALS FROM COLLIERIES AND MINES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Alexander Alison
and John Shaw, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, or one of our, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alexander Alison, for myself and on
behalf of my Co-Patentee, do hereby declare the nature of our 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
accompanying Sheet of Drawing forming part of this our Specification, and to
the Diagrams drawn thereon, Figure 1 representing a sectional elevation of
our improved elevator for raising minerals and water from mines, for conveying
workmen up and down the shafts, and for ventilating the mines, and other
purposes, such for example, as elevating minerals from the bottom to the top
of blast furnaces; and Figure 2 a ground plan of said elevator and ventilator,
which we will now proceed to explain and describe.
We place in the shaft a cylinder of five feet diameter, more or less, made of
cast iron or other suitable material. This cylinder rises several feet above the
top of the shaft, and reaches down the shaft to a few feet below the bottom of
the mine. In this cylinder is placed a double or single headed piston.
Between the two heads of the piston is a receiver, made of iron or other
suitable material, which holds the mineral or water to be raised, and in which
the workmen are conveyed. This receiver may either be placed above the
piston or between the two heads of the piston as may be considered best.
The coals or other mineral may be placed in the receiver either in bulk or in
the underground waggons, and be raised to the surface within the receiver
and cylinder; the cylinder being provided with an iron door or doors at top
and bottom, and also at each of the intermediate loading places; these doors
being either hinged, slide, swivel, or of any other kind deemed suitable, and
corresponding openings are made in the receiver to admit the load, which may
be discharged at the top in any way that experience may direct. The receiver
may be held in its place, either by a lever to adjust it when it stops, or by a
groove in the cylinder and a corresponding tongue on the piston, or vice versa,
or by any other contrivance.
At Figure 1 of the accompanying Sheet of Drawing, the receiver is shewn

page_text: at the bottom at one of the intermediate loading places, and at the top of the
cylinder, and to avoid misconception we would here observe that the cylinder
contains but one receiver and not three, as would appear from a cursory glance
at the Diagram.
A steam engine or other power is placed at the top of the mine for the
purpose of forcing air down the shaft in a tube of cast iron or other material
of twelve inches diameter more or less. Two air vessels are shewn
on the annexed Sheet of Drawing, but one either above or below ground
would do, or even none at all. The forced air passes into the cylinder below
the piston, which it raises with its load to the top. Two valves are placed at
the bottom of the mine, the one on the supply pipe, and the other on the
escape pipe. By opening the supply valve and shutting the escape valve, the
platform or piston rises by the pressure of the air beneath, and by opening
the escape valve and shutting the supply valve the platform or piston descends
by its own weight, and the mine is ventilated by the air thus discharged from
the cylinder. The complete ventilation of the mine is effected by conducting
the escaping air at the bottom through the levels to the extremities of the
mine by pipes of iron or other material, or in any other way that may be
thought best. The air let out at the extremities of the mine drives the foul
air before it, which escapes up the air shaft. There is thus a constant supply
of fresh air entering the mine which forces out the foul air.
'
We recommend that both the escape valve and the supply valve should be
placed at the bottom of the mine and worked there, and at the intermediate
loading places; but they may be placed otherwise if it is thought desirable.
When placed at the bottom, a bell to communicate to and from the top may
be used. We recommend that forced air be used, but if exhausted air be
preferred, or both forcing and exhausting, either plan will answer the purpose.
We also recommend that two shafts be used, one for the cylinder and one for
ventilation; nevertheless, one shaft in two compartments, as represented on
the annexed Sheet of Drawing will do. This elevator is suitable for shafts of
any depth, and also for many purposes above ground.
The benefits of our elevator are great and numerous.
of our apparatus is not likely to exceed the cost of that now in use, the annual
cost of maintaining it compared with the present method of lifting by means
of ropes and buckets will be reduced one-half at the least. The work will be
done much more effeciently and economically, and without risk of life or limb.
The mortality amongst the miners in England, which is shewn by the
report of the Government Commission lately published to be fifty per cent.
greater than the average of the kingdom, and to be caused by bad ventilation
While the first cost

page_text: and the use of ladders and ropes for going up and down the shafts, will be
lessened by the complete removal of these causes consequent upon the adoption
of our Invention.
In our Provisional Specification we state that we have invented another
elevator therein described as follows:-"Air is forced by an air pump worked
by steam or other power down a tube into one or more cisterns in the bottom
of the shaft into which the water of the mine runs. The water is in this way
forced up to the surface through another tube. The cistern or cisterns are fitted
with self-acting valves which open and shut by means of a float. As the air
escapes from the bottom this elevator acts as a ventilator as effectually as the
one previously described." Further experiment not having enabled us to bring
the same to the perfection desired and anticipated, we wish it to be distinctly
understood that we lay no claim to the said proposed elevator as forming part
of the Invention secured to us by the above in part recited Letters Patent.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and means by
which we carry it into practical effect, we would have it distinctly understood
that we do not confine ourselves to the precise details herein given or illustrated
on the annexed Sheet of Drawing, as such may be varied to suit the circum-
stances of particular cases without in any way departing from the principle of
our Invention which we declare to be, and we claim,--
Firstly, the raising of minerals or water from collieries or mines inside an
air-tight cylinder or tube by means of air.
Secondly, a machine for lowering and raising workmen and others up
and down the shafts of mines and collieries inside of a close cylinder by
means of air.
Thirdly, and lastly, the ventilation of collieries and mines by the use of an
apparatus worked by a piston in an air-tight cylinder, the whole length of the
depth of the shaft, the whole substantially as herein-before described, and in
part illustrated by the Diagrams on the annexed Sheet of Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Alison, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
ALEXANDER ALISON.
(L.S.)