IMPROVEMENTS IN GETTING COMMING MINERALS AND IN ADDADATION THEREFOR
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Nisbet, of Coatbridge, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GETTING
COMMING MINERALS AND IN ADDADATION THEREFOR
Sealed the 7th October 1864, and dated the 9th April 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Nisbet at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th April
1864.
I, JOHN NISBET, of Coatbridge, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN GETTING OR CUTTING MINERALS, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR," to be
as follows:
This Invention has for its object the getting or cutting of-minerals by more
automatic and efficient means than have been used heretofore; and in one
modification of apparatus to be employed in carrying out the Invention a small
carriage on wheels is fitted with one or more cylinders and pistons, to be
worked by compressed air or other suitable motive fluid, and arranged to turn
a shaft fitted with a fly wheel, and with one or more eccentrics for working
the valves, as in an ordinary steam engine. A connecting rod from a crank
or eccentric on the revolving shaft is jointed to an arm upon a short rocking
shaft carried in suitable bearings on the carriage; and this rocking shaft has
fixed upon it a pick or like tool for cutting into the mineral. When the
revolving shaft is in motion, the pick is made to reciprocate angularly, and in

page_text: so doing it strikes and cuts into the face of the mineral. It is preferred so to
arrange the parts relatively to each other that the piston is at about half-
stroke, that is, at its most effective point just as the pick encounters the
mineral, and the blow is thus rendered as effective as possible at the moment
of impact, being also further intensified by the momentum of the revolving
fly wheel. If a horizontal cut is to be made the rocking or pick shaft is
placed vertically, so that the pick may work in a horizontal plane; but it may
be arranged in other positions, if required. In making a horizontal cut, by
this Invention, a series of comparatively shallow cuts are first formed to
produce a shallow groove along the face of the mineral; and to effect this
automatically the carriage is moved gradually along, by suitable feed-motion-
gearing acting on its wheels, and actuated by the revolving fly wheel shaft.
When the shallow groove is formed of the length that may be desired, the
carriage is returned to the starting point, and the details are adjusted so as to
make the pick enter more deeply into the mineral. The picking operation is
then repeated along the groove, thereby deepening it; after which the carriage
is again returned, and the details adjusted to cut more deeply, and so on, until
the full depth required is attained.
Various contrivances may be used for adjusting the depth of cut. Thus the
connecting rod which actuates the pick shaft may be fitted with a right and
left-hand screw coupling, by turning which its length can be altered; or the
bearings of the pick shaft may be made adjustable on the carriage, so that
the position of that shaft may be altered.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Nisbet in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 7th:
October 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
NISBET, of Coatbridge, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters:
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said John Nisbet, Her special licence that I, the said John
Nisbet, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said John Nisbet, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any

page_text: time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN GETTING OR CUTTING MINERALS AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Nisbet, 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 six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Nisbet, 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
in writing, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention has for object the getting or cutting of minerals by more
automatic and efficient means than have been used heretofore.
And in order that my said Invention, and the manner of performing it, may
be properly understood, I have hereunto appended a Sheet of explanatory
Drawings, to be herein-after referred to, and representing a modification of
apparatus as constructed with my improvements.
Figure 1 is a plan, and Figure 2 is a side elevation of the apparatus.
In the modification of apparatus represented, a small rectangular framing
or carriage, 1 is furnished with axles 2, 3, and with wheels 4, 5, 6, 7, to run
on rails 8, 9, which are to be laid down along and in front of the face 10 of
the mineral to be operated upon. Near the front of the carriage 1 there is.
fixed upon
it a cylinder 11, with its piston and rod 12, to be worked by com-,
pressed air or other suitable motive fluid, and arranged to turn a crank
shaft 13 mounted in bearings near the back end of the carriage 1. This
crank shaft 13 has fixed on it a fly wheel 14, and is provided with an eccen-
tric 15 for working the cylinder valves, just as in an ordinary steam engine.
The shaft 13 is formed with a second crank 16 disposed at right angles to the
crank acted on by the cylinder, and to this second crank 16 there is jointed a.
connecting rod 17, 18, 19, having its outer end connected by a universal
joint to an arm 20 on a short vertical rocking or picking shaft 21, carried in
bearings in massive brackets 22, 23, formed upon the front end of the car-:
riage 1., The rocking shaft 21 has fixed on it a socket 24 to receive a

page_text: pick 25, or other suitable tool for cutting into the mineral; and the rotation
of the crank shaft 13 causes the pick to reciprocate angularly (in a horizontal
plane in the present example), and in so doing it strikes and cuts into the face
of the mineral. The pick 25 is represented as in its outermost position,
whilst the cylinder piston is at about half-stroke moving inwards; and the pick
moves inwards partly whilst the piston is completing its stroke inwards, and
partly whilst the piston is moving outwards again. The pick encountering
and cutting into the mineral at the latter part only of its stroke, that action
has the important advantage due to the pistons then moving through the
middle and more effective part of its stroke, and the blow or cut is thus
rendered as effective as possible at the moment of impact, being also further
intensified by the momentum of the revolving fly wheel 14. In making a
horizontal cut by this Invention, a series of comparatively shallow cuts are
first formed to produce a shallow groove along the face of the mineral, and to
effect this automatically the carriage 1 is moved gradually along by suitable
feed-motion-gearing acting on its wheels, and actuated by the revolving
shaft 13. When the shallow groove is formed of the length that may be
desired, the carriage 1 is returned to the starting point, and the details are
adjusted so as to make the pick enter more deeply into the mineral. The
picking operation is then repeated along the groove, thereby deepening it;
after which the carriage is again returned, and the details adjusted to cut more
deeply, and so on, until the full depth required is attained.
Various contrivances may be used for adjusting the depth of cut. Thus the
connecting rod which actuates the picking shaft 21 may be made, as shown,
in two pieces 17, 19, united by an intermediate right and left hand screw
coupling piece 18, by turning which its length can be altered; or the
bearings of the picking shaft 20 might be made adjustable on the carriage 1,
so that the position of that shaft might be altered. The axle 3 of the hind
wheels 6, 7, is made adjustable by means of screws 26 tapped into the axle
boxes which are formed in the framing, and by these means the back end of
the carriage can be raised or lowered a little when it is wished to make the
cut at a slightly lower or higher level. The automatic movement of the
carriage along the face is effected by means of one of the hind wheels 7,
which is formed with teeth gearing into rack teeth formed on the rail 9. The
wheel 7 is formed with an outer ring of worm wheel teeth, and is actuated
by a worm 27 on a shaft 28, having its front end supported in a swivelling
bearing 29, whilst its back end is supported in a bracket 80 mounted on the
axle 3. The shaft 28 is fitted with a star wheel 31, which is actuated by a
wiper 32 on the crank shaft 18; but the star wheel can be put out of gear

page_text: when necessary by means of a lever 33, and rod 34; and the worm shaft 28
can be worked by a handle 35; or, in order to back the machine quickly, the
handle 35 may be shipped upon the spindle of a spur wheel 36 in gear with
a pinion on the worm shaft 28. These feed-motion details may obviously
be modified in various ways, and more than one wheel may be acted upon
thereby, if found desirable.
The arrangements herein-before described relate to the forming of a hori-
zontal groove into the bottom of the mineral face, in order that the blocks
thus under cut may be broken down by the superincumbent weight, or by
wedging, as is well understood.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described or delineated, and that I do not claim to
have invented.every separate detail herein described and delineated, but that
what I believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the getting or
cutting of minerals by means of apparatus the parts of which are arranged
or combined together and work substantially in the improved manner herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Nisbet, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT, Patent Agent,
28, St. Enoch Square, Glasgow.
JOHN NISBET. (L.S.)