US1299500A - Machine for treating explosive material. - Google Patents

Description

A. HAM. l

MAcHlNE Foa m xPLoslvE MATERIAL.

v APPLICATI DEC.17, 19|]- 1,299,560, l Patented Apr. 8, 1919.

. 2 SHEETS-SHEET-l- 47m/MEM' v APPLICATION FILED DEC. 171 19|]- Patented Apr. 8, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

W/TNESS.'

rus mums uns co., Maremma, wAsmNamN. n. :4

ARTHUR J'. MOXI-LAM, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

MACHINE FOR TREATING- EXPLOSIVE MATERIAL.

Application led December 17, 1917. Sera1No.i207,435.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ARTHUR J. MoxHAM, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at New York city, county of New York, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Machines for Treating Explosive Material, of which the following is a full, clear, and-exact vdescription, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

In the manufacture of explosives, a frequent cause of accidental explosions is the sparking that sometimes occurs in and around moving' machinery due to friction between the parts.- The object of my invention is to prevent sparking in such moving machinery and thereby eliminate one important cause of accidental explosions and thus` render the manufacture of explosives more nearly absolutely safe.

The result sought is accomplished by immersing all parts of the machinery in which sparking may be apprehended, such as bearings, gearing, or other intermeshing, rolling or sliding parts, in water or other suitable non-spark-propagating liquid and by constructing the wearing parts of material which will be self-lubricating and will not be injuriously affected by continuous immersion in the liquid.

Examples of constructions embodying my invention are shown in the accompanying drawings, in Which- Figure l is a plan view of a shell carrying carriage on its track in a trough.

Fig. 2 is a cross section through same, and

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section.

Fig. 4L is a side elevation of a mixer.

Fig. 5 is a more or less diagrammatic end View of same.

Fig. -6 is a plan view of one of the gear pits.

The carriage a of Figs. l, 2 and 3 is mounted on wheels b, which travel on rails c embedded in a concrete or `other waterproof trough d, the side walls of which extend up to above the tops of the wheels b. A socketed projection c depending from the bottom of the car is engaged by a plug 7 on the chain g, which travels longtudinally through the trough (l. The chain g is carried by one or more wheels h which travel on an iron rail z' embedded in the bottom of the trough.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 8, 1919.

All bearings and other parts needing lubrication are constructed of a self-lubricating material which will not be affected by immersion in the water with which the trough is filled. to about the level .9c-m. I

prefer to make these parts of brass containing pressed plumbago, they lubrication of which is not effected by the water.

It will be observed that all intermeshing or coacting parts the relative movement of which might, under ordinary conditions, produce friction from which a spark might be developed, are under the'water level and' it is therefore impossible to develop a spark.

In Figs. 4:, 5 and 6 is represented a mixer 70 such as is used in the manufacture of ammonium nitrate. The stationary drum m is mounted upon a rotating shaft n, which carries, within the drum, two spirals 0 and p,

one spiral 0 being outside the other p and 75 reversely arranged so that the material being mixed is fed in one direction by one spiral and in the other direction by the other spiral. The shaft a is carried at its opposite y ends by solid bearing wheels r, each of which rests upon a. pair of smaller supporting wheels s. A relatively small driving gear wheel at .each end of the mixer is 'in driving engagement with a large gear wheel u on the shaft n. Rotation of gear t rotates the gear u and shaft n andk operates the spirals as described. After the material has been properly mixed it can be taken out through van opening in the lower part of the drum, which is closed at other times by a slide fw. The drum may be charged through a similar opening in the upper part of the drum having a similar slide y.

Wheels s, gears t and driving connections therefor are located in pits o. sents the desirable water level for the apparatus described, all parts of which likely to produce sufficient friction to cause a spark being thus immersed in water.

z-e repre- The specific construction shown and described illustrateknown machines modified to adapt them to be so far immersed in water as to avoid the possibility of sparks produced by the friction of coacting parts. The invention is not only adapted, without involving any complication of mechanism, to those machines in which such parts are exposed and in dangerous proximity to the explosive material undergoing treatment, but

it is also adapted to those machines in which the actuating mechanism is driven from the top, such machines readily lending themselves, usually with some advantage in the way of simplicity of construction, to such, alteration as would be involved in locating such mechanism below the leveloftheexplosive materials, whereby7 as in the examples herein given, it is practicable to immerse such mechanism in water. s

VIt will be understood that vin specifying immersion in a body of liquid I do not mean tobe confined to anything in the nature of a pool of water coniined within a trough or the like, it being evident that a current vof water flowing horizontally, or dropping vertically, or continuously sprayed, or otherwise applied, so as to maintain friction-producing partsY so covered with water as to prevent the formation or propagation of sparks, accomplishes the same results in substantially the same way and is an equivalent of the specific and preferred embodiment of the invention herein mo-re particularly described.

Having now fully described my invention,

what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

l. In machines for treating explosive material, the combination with the means for directly operating upon such material, of actuating mechanism for saidV means, and abody of liquid in which are immersed parts of said actuating mechanism whose frictional action would` otherwise tend ,to produce sparks.

2."v In machines for treating explosive material, the combination with the actuating mechanism, of a spark-extinguishing liquid inwhich are immersed parts of said actuating mechanism whose frictional action would otherwise tend to produce sparks, said Copies of this patent may be obtained forrfve cents each, by addressing the Commissionero Patents, n

partsv being composed of self-lubricating ma-I terial. Y

3. In machines for treating explosive materiahrthe combination with actuating mechanism comprising parts which if exposed would tend by their frictional action to produce dangerous sparks, of a body of sparkextinguishing liquid immersing said parts whose level is below that part ofthe mechanismy which is in direct contact with the explosive material.

4, In a machine for treating explosive material, the combination with actuating mechanism comlprising parts whose Vfrictional action would, if'exposed, tend Vto produce dangerous sparks, of Va body of water in which said parts are immersed, said parts being composed of brass containing" pressed plumbago. Y y

5. In machines forv treating explosive material, the combination with the means for directly operating upon such materiahof actuating mechanism for saidmeans, and a body of liquid maintained in contact with parts of said actuating, mechanism whose frictional action would producesparks and maintainedout of contact with the means for directly operating upon the material.

6. In machines for treating explosive ma- Ateriahthe combination with the means for directly acting upon such material, of actuating mechanism for said means all the parts of-which whosev frictional action would produce sparks are arranged entirely below the level of said' means, and a body of liquidin which said parts are completely immersed.

In testimony of which invention, I have Y hereunto set my hand, at New York, N. Y., on this ith day of December, 1917.

'ARTHUR J. Mo'xi-LM.`

Washington, D. C.

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