US1093708A - Sliding track for skip-roads. - Google Patents

Description

O. LIEBER 6v C. A. GIBBS.

SLIDING TRACK POR SKIP ROADS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 3, 1913.

' Ptented Apr. 21, 1914 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

- COLUMBIA PLANoGRM-'H c0..W^SHlNGToN. D. c.

0. LIEBER & C. A. GIBBS. SLIDING TRACK FOR SKIP' ROADS.

APPLIGATION FILED JUNE s, 1913.

1,093,708. Patented Apr. 21, 1914,

NTTED sTATEs PATENT oFErcE.

OTTO LIEBER, OF HANCOCK, AND CHESTER A. G-IBBS, OF HOUGHTON, MICHIGAN.

SLIDING TRACK FOR SKIP-ROADS.

To all 107mm it may concern.'

Be it known that we, OTTO LIEBER and Crrrs'ine A. Grens, citizens of the United States, residing at Hancock and Houghton, respectively, in the county of Houghton and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sliding Tracks for Skip-Roads, of which the following is a specification.

@ur invention relates to new and useful improvements in shaftJ sinking mechanism and more particularly to the construction of a skip road for shafts and the primary object of our invention is to provide a skip road of the usual type having spaced tracks upon which the skip runs and provided at the lower end of the shaft with a sliding track section movable along the rails of the skip road proper which may be raised into a higher portion of the shaft when blasting is being done at the bottom of the shaft and which may then be lowered to rest upon the bottom of the shaft and so permit the lowering of the skip to receive the ore or earth loosened by the blast.

Under present conditions the skip road either does not extend to the bottom of the shaft or if so extended, must be partially ripped up and removed before a blast as otherwise the rails, ties, etc., making up the lower portion of the road, would be injured. In either case the lower portion of the track must be relaid after each blast. On the other hand, with our improved sliding track section this is not necessary as the lower end of the permanent track is always located at a point sufliciently above the bottom of the shaft toprotect it frpm injury through blast, being extended only as the shaft is sunk. v

In carrying out the above object we provide a sliding track section including a pair of spaced rails and a further object of our invention is to so construct this sliding track section that it may slide along the permanent rails of the skip-way and at all times be held against disengagement therefrom.

A still further object of our invention is to provide means for binding the upper ends of the rails of the sliding track section against the rails of the permanent track in such a manner that the wheels of the skip may pass readily from one track section to the other.

With these and other objects in view, our invention will be more fully described, illus- Specification of Letters Patent.

Application led .Tune 3, 1913.

Patented Apr. 21, 1914.

serial No. 771,570.

trated in the accompanying drawings, and then specifically pointed out in the claims which are attached to and form a part of this application.

In the drawings: Figure l is a sectional view taken through a shaft provided with our improved skip-way, showing the track in longitudinal section; Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken in a plane at right angles to that of the sect-ion shown in Fig. 1 and showing the track in plan view; Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view on the line .33 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the sliding track section removed from the permanent track; Fig. 5 is a fragmentary plan view of the upper end of said track section, certain portions being shown in section to more clearly disclose the construction.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the following description and indicated in all the views of the drawings by the same reference characters.

In order to insure a clear understanding of our invention we have illustrated a skip road or track l0 of conventional type located in a shaft 11. This skip road includes spaced ties 12 and parallel spaced rails 13 to receive the wheels 14 of a skip 155 this skip being raised and lowered in the shaft by means of a cable 16 in the usual manner.

It will be noted that the skip road above described terminates a considerable distance short of the bottom of the shaft and our invention consists in the provision of a sliding skip road section, indicated as a whole by the numeral 17, which extends to the lower end of the shaft when in operation and which at all times partially overlaps the lower portion of the main or permanent skip road.

Referring more specifically to Figs. 3, 4 and 5 of the drawings, it will be seen that this sliding skip road section includes a pair of spaced apart parallel rails 18 held in spaced relation by cross bars 19 and braced to secure the necessary rigidity by diagonally extending braces 20. These rails are mounted for sliding movement upon the heads of the permanent rails of the skip road by inverting the rails 18 in such a manner that their heads rest upon the inner flanges of the permanent rails and against the inner faces of the webs thereof, while the outer flanges of the sliding rails bear upon the heads of the permanent rails. The inner flanges of the sliding rails are cut-away in a plane with the webs as shown, in order to permit the flange wheels of the skip to pass along the track thus formed by the webs and outer flanges of the sliding rails.

As is well known the wheels of a skip engage the rails of the skip road very loosely as the road is roughly constructed and for this reason, although the sliding track section is slightly narrower gaged than the permanent section', the wheels of the skip will pass readily from one section to the other. The webs of the sliding tracks are apertured to receive reduced tongues 21 formed upon the ends of the cross braces 19 and the braces thus serve to prevent inward movement of the rails toward each other. Rivets, bolts or other suitable devices 22 are passed downwardly through the adjacent portions of the cross braces 19 and through the heads of the sliding rails. The diagonally extending braces 20 connect opposite ends of adjacent cross braces as clearly shown in Fig, l of the drawings. 1t will of course be understood that this sliding skip road section is made up wholly of two parallel rails and these rails are preferably braced adjacent their lower ends and at a point between their center and upper ends by a set of cross braces and diagonal braces. The heads of the sliding rail sections, engaging as they do beneath the heads of the permanent rail sect-ions, prevent disengagement of the sliding portion of the skip road from the permanent portion, while at the same time the sliding portion may be drawn upwardly along the rails of the permanent portion or lowered upon the same. For this reason the uppermost cross brace 19 is provided adjacent each end with a chain 23 and the ends of these chains are preferably connected by a ring 24 to receive the end of a lifting cable or hook of a lifting chain 25 by which the sliding track section may be raised or lowered.

The'outer flanges ofthe sliding rail section, at their upper ends, are tapered as shown at 26 to points above the inner side of the permanent rail heads and the webs of the sliding rail sections, at their upper ends, are formed with a shorter taper27 whereby the upper ends ofthe sliding rail sections come to a point as at 2S flush with the inner faces of the permanent rail section heads. This permits the wheels of the skip to pass freely from the permanent rail to the rails of the sliding skip section.

In order to insure a close engagement of the upper ends of the sliding rails against the inner face of the permanent rails, a rod or shaft 29 is reduced at one end as at 30 for outward passage through the web of one of the sliding rail sections adjacent itsV upper end and said reduced portion is then headed over or otherwise secured toV lock the shaft against rotation. The opposite end of the shaft is threaded as at 31 for engagement in the threaded socket of a cylindrical sleeve 32 having a closed conical end 33, the point of which engages in a bore 34 formed in the web of the opposite sliding rail. It will be apparent that rotation of the sleeve 32 will thus force the upper ends of the sliding rails away from each other and consequently into close engagement with the rails of the permanent track section. The sleeve may be provided intermediate its length with angularly disposed faces 35 to facilitate the application of a wrench or other implement for rotating the same. To put this sliding skip road section in place in the skip road, one of the permanent shaft iails 13, near the lower end of the skip road, is removed, the sliding track section applied and said rail replaced. rThe lower rails of the permanent skip road section should, however, be spiked to the tie only upon their outer sides in order to permit the free sliding of the sliding section thereon, said section serving to prevent inward movement of the permanent rail sections toward each other.

Durino' drilling and blasting in the bottom of the shaft, the sliding track section is raised either by an independent cable or by the skip cable or chain, the spreading device 29-32 being first loosened and when raised g5 is secured in place by chaining the same to a tie or other timber of the shaft. After the blast., the sliding track section is released and lowered until the lower ends of the rails 18 rest upon the earth or ore in the bottom 100 of the shaft when the spreading device is again tightened. The skip may then be lowered to the very bottom of the shaft to directly receive the earth and ore loosened by the blast.

As the shaft is deepened the sliding rail section may be raised completely upon the permanent rails and the permanent track extended toward the bottom of the shaft and the sliding track then lowered to operate 110 upon the new portion of track so laid, the lower end of the permanent track, in all cases, being kept suiiiciently above the bottom of the shaft to protect it from injury during blasting.

`We have installed the above described skip road in two different shafts one of seventytwo degrees dip and the other of fifty-six degrees dip and find it entirely satisfactory in operation. le do not wish, 12o however, to limit ourselves to the specific details of construction illustrated in the drawings and described in the speciticatop, as various minor changes, within the scope of the appended claims, may be made at any time 125 without in the slightestdegree departing from the spirit of our invention.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

1. In skip roads for sinking shafts, a perla@ inanent track including spaced rails, and a sliding track including rails braced in spaced relation and having interlocking engagement throughout their length With the rails of the permanent track.

2. The combination With the rails of a skip road of a. shaft, of inverted rails having their inner fianges positioned between the first rails and with their heads bearing below the heads of the first rails and against the Webs thereof, and braces maintaining said inverted rails in spaced relation, Whereby said inverted rails and braces may be slid up and down the permanent track.

3. A sliding rail section for skip roads including rails, braces connecting the rails in parallel spaced relation7 said rails being adapted for interlocking engagement With the rails of the skip road, and means for spreading the upper ends of said rails to force them into engagement with the inner faces of the skip road rails.

a. A sliding rail section for skip roads including rails, braces connecting the rails in parallel spaced relation, said rails being adapted for interlocking engagement With the rails of the skip road, and means for spreading the upper ends of said rails to force them into engagement With the inner faces of the skip road rails, said means including a threaded rod secured by one end to the inner face of one of the rails, and an internally threaded sleeve engaging about the threaded end of said rod and having a conical terminal seating in a bore formed in the web of the other rail.

5. The combination with spaced rails of a skip road, of rails engaging against the inner faces of the first rails, said latter rails being braced and held in spaced relation and in engagement with lthe former rails, the upper ends of said latter rails being tapered to form inclined Wheel iiange engaging faces merging With the inner faces of the first rails, and means for spreading the upper ends of said rails to force the same into engagement with the first rails.

In testimony whereof We affix our signatures in presence of two Witnesses.

OTTO LIEBER. CHESTER A. GIBBS. vWitnesses MILTON R. Dickens, GUsTAv JUNEMANN.

L. s] [n s] Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.

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