US1120068A - Street-sweeping apparatus. - Google Patents

Description

J. (J. LUNDY.

STREET SWEEPING APPARATUS APPLICATION FILED JAN. 13. 1914.

1,120,068. Patented Dec. 8, 1914.

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J. G. LUNDY.

STREET SWEEPING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 13, 1914.

Patented Dec. 8, 1914 2 SHEETS-BHEET 2.

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JOHN C. LUNDY, OF BRANTFORD, ONTARIO, CANADA.

STREET-SWEEPING APPARATUS.

Application filed January 13, 1914.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that 1, JOHN C. Lonny, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and resident of Brantford, Province of Ontario, Canada, have invented certain new and use ful Improvements in Street-Sweeping Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to motor driven street sweeping machines, and has among others for its objects to provide a machine by which the streets may be effectively cleaned without previous sprinkling, and yet without creating in the vicinity of the sweeper any objectionable dust such as ordinarily arises when attempt is made to clean the streets while in a dry condition, it being understood that the dirt can be much more effectively removed from the street if cleaned while dry. This has hitherto been generally regarded as impossible, as the action of a rotary brush on a dry street creates such an amount of dust in the atmosphere as to prohibit this method of cleaning.

The invention includes the novel features of construction and arrangement and combination of parts hereinafter described and particularly defined by the appended claim.

A street sweeping machine embodying my invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a sectional elevation; Fig. 2 is a plan View; Fig. 3 is a sectional detail illustrating the shape of the dirt receiver chamber or receptacle; Fig. l is an enlarged sectional detail illustrating the pneumatic dust collectors; Fig. 5 is a detailed view of one of the dust collectors in side elevation; Fig. 6 is a plan and Fig. 7 a side elevation of the dirt elevator.

Referring by reference characters to this drawing, the numeral 1 designates a motor vehicle which, it will be understood, may be of ordinary or any desired type so far as its running gear and propelling mechanism is concerned, being provided with a seat for the driver, as indicated at 2, and an ordinary steering wheel, as indicated at 3. The motor vehicle may be driven by any type of motor desired indicated conventionally at 4 and which may be at any convenient place as beneath the drivers seat, and geared to a transverse shaft 5 from which power may be transmitted to the rear driving Wheels 6 of the motor vehicle by any suitable means such, for example, as chains 7 passing over Specification of Letters Patent.

Il.atented Dec. 8, 19.141.

Serial No. 811.862.

suitable sprocket wheels. The brush for sweeping the surface of the street is indicated at 8. which rotates in the direction of the arrow, being driven by means such as a chain 9 passing around a sprocket on the shaft 8 of the brush, and a sprocket 10 on a counter-shaft 10 driven by gearing 11 from the shaft 5. The brush, as it rotates, sweeps the dirt up between itself and the dustpan 12, and carriesitover and dropsitinto a dirt collecting trough 13, from which is it conveyed up 'ard by an endless conveyor and delivered into the dirt receptacle 1 1, which is preferably provided with a substantially V-shaped bottom, as indicated in Fig. 8.

In order to prevent any accumulation of dirt and refuse material on the conveyor, I provide a special emistruction capable of being readily and effective] y cleaned. This comprises an endless band 15 of canvas or other suitable fabric formin the base or body of the conveyer, which travels over lower and upper drums 16 and 17, and outer endless bands 18 carrying transverse slats 19. These endless bands 19, in addition to traveling over the drums 16 and 17, pass over guide pulleys 20 and 21, so that after the drum 17 is reached there is a separation of the canvas conveyor belt and the conveyor strips, the canvas belt returning directly to the lower drum and the conveyor strips leaving the belt at the upper drum and not returning into actual contact therewith until the lower drum 16 is reached, so that while the strips 18 lie in contact with th. ascending side of the eonveyer belt and serve to lift the material gathered up by the sweeper, they leave the surface of the belt as soon as the upper side of the drum 17 is reached. This enables me to provide cleaning means such as a rotary brush 22 acting continuously against the free and unobstructed surface of the canvas conveyor belt, thereby cleaning all portions of it effectively, and while a construction is provided which will effectively lift the collected material and dump it into the collection receptacle or chamber, yet when the surface of the belt reaches the point where cleaning is effected there are no corners or crevices inaccessible to the effective cleaning action of the brush. The collected dirt or other material which has been elevated by the brush drops through the slats after they have left the drum 17 down into the collection chamber 14. This chamber is provided with a doo indicated conventionally at 14*, by means of which the refuse may be removed, and if desired a spiral or other suitable form of conveyor 24 may be provided in the bottom of the collection chamber to move all the material back toward the door. The elevator 15 may be driven in any convenient manner as, for instance, by a chain 28 from the shaft 28.

In order to prevent the machine as it moves over a dry street from creating in the vicinity of the machine an objectionable amount of dust, it is necessary that the portion of the machine in which the brush operates should be subjected to a suction, or in other words, that a draft of air should be caused to pass through the space between the lower edges of the parts 12 and 13, so that the dust arising by the action of the brush will be caused to pass with this draft of air into the collection receptacle, and that at some time during said passage and before the air is again delivered to the atmosphere the dust shall be separated from the air. I have found that the ordinary mechanical separators are entirely inadequate in a machine of this type, and have devised an eflicient means of water separation which will now be described.

At a suitable point within the closed body of the machine and preferably in advance of the elevator, I provide one or more rotary suction fans, three being shown in the drawing as a convenient and effective number. These fans rotate in casings 26, the eyes of which are in communication with the interior of the said closed body, and through which the dust-laden air is drawn by the action of the fans. Each fan casing is provided with a discharge pipe 26 which leads into a water tank 27 terminating above the water level therein. In order to cause the dust to settle immediately upon its entry into the water tank, I provide means for supplying to the fans water in such a manner that it is caused to be thoroughly sprayed into and commingled with the dust-laden air by the action of the fan blades, and a convenient manner of effecting this is to mount the fan blades upon a hollow shaft 28 which is driven in any suitable manner such as hereinafter described, into which hollow shaft water is conducted from the tank 27 by Copies of this patent may be obtained for five and the centrifugal action, and thoroughly commingled with the dust-laden air, so that all the particles of the dust are thoroughly moistened and caused to settle into thewater of the water tank immediately upon entry therein, the air free from dust being delivered through the air outlet indicated at 32. While the fans and likewise the conveyer 24 may be driven in any suitable manner, I'find it more convenient to drive them from an independent motor indicated conventionally at 33, the shaft 8% of which is connected by chain and sprocket gearing indicated at 35 to the fan shaft 28. The shaft 34 is connected at its opposite end by bevel gearing 36 to the shaft 37, which at its rear end through chain and sprocket gearing indicated at 38 drives the conveyer 2a. In order to effect removal of the dirt settling in the water tank, the bottom of this tank is made sloping and provided with a removable dirt collection receptacle indicated at 39, it being understood that thecasing of the machine is provided with a suitable door or doors, not shown, to permit access to this and other interior parts.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is:

In a street sweeper, an elevated water receptacle, a dust chamber beneath the same, a hollow shaft ournaled in said dust chamher, a plurality of fans carried by said shaft, a casing surrounding each fan and having a centrally arranged opening communicating with said dust chamber and a discharge pipe passing upward into the water receptacle, awater pipe from said water tank leading into the end of said hollow shaft, said shaft having delivery openings between the fan blades;

In testimony whereof, I afiiX signa ture in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN C. LUNDY.

Witnesses:

JAMES M. SPEAK, BENNETT S. JONES.

cents each, by addressing the Gommissioner of Patents,

Washington, ID. W Y

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