US480659A - And james m - Google Patents

Description

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W. D. BWART au J. M. DODGE.

' .ELEVATOR- I No. 480,659. Patented Aug. 9, 1892.

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2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

Patented Aug. 9, 1892.

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WILLIAM D. EWART, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, AND JAMES M. DODGE, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNORS TO THE LINK-BELT EN- GINEERING COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

vELEVATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 480,659, dated August 9, 1892. Application filed November 24, 1890. Serial No. 372,419. (No model.)

Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Elevators, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates particularly to what are knownras dock-leg elevators. These :o as generallyconstructed, have been long,

heavy, and cumbersome, requiring expensive framework for the leg and its supports and more or less complicated driving4 arrange- 'nents It has been necessary to extend such' x 5 elevators to a considerable height in order to let them down into the holds of vessels about vertically and at the same time give the discharge-spout which reaches from head of elevator to bins o r other places of deposit on the 2o dock) a suiiicient length and steepness to deliver the material readily at the varying stages of Water, especially where it isA necessary to provide for a large rise and fall, owing to tide or other causes. The required degree of steepness for free delivery through the dischargespout varies withl the kinds of material handled, and with some materials-such as coalthere is more or less trouble from too abrupt a fall and consequent breakage when elevator 3o is at or near its'highest position if the spout is made steep enough for the 'material to fiow through it readily when elevator is at its lowest position. Furthermore, the ordinary form of elevator requires a comparatively high belt speed to obtain a satisfactory discharge over the head-wheels, and the consequent violence in picking up and discharging the load causes additional trouble from breakage.

The primary object of our invention is to 4o overcome the above-mentioned difficulties and furnish an elevator which will operate satisfactorily under conditions of a greatlyincreased" range of vertical and horizontal movementof the foot of the elevator to suit varying heights of water, depths ot holds in vessels, relative location of hatches, &c., a secondary object being to render the entire outfit easy of manipulation.

Our invention consists, mainly, in adapting 5o to the .uses of a combined elevator and conveyera'carrier employing two parallel strands of chain or vcable with buckets rigidly secured between them, all being arranged as more fully described hereinafter, and as more specifically-defined in the claims of this specification. Y

To enable those skilled in the art to which our improvements relate to understand and practice the same, we will now proceed to describe our invention more fully, referring to the accompanying drawings, which form part of thisv specification, and in which similar' letters and numbers refer t0 similar' parts throughout the several views.v

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a dock-leg elevator constructed in accordance with our invention. F ig. 2 is an enlarged View of a portion of the outerend of the boom, shown partially in cross-section, illustrating particularly the curved end of the conveyer-trough bottom of the boom. Fig. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the driving machinery, power appliances, shifting-levers, cables, die., by which the outfit is operated. Fig. 4 is a diagram side View of an ordinary doek-leg elevator, drawn on a small scale, illustrating different positions, as more fully explained hereinafter; and'Fig isasimilar view of an elevator made in accordance with our invention, illustrating especially the greater range of movement permitted by its construction.

A is a framework shown as securely held in an upright position by guys, as at a, and serving as a tower or mast by which the boom B is supported. The latter is a framework pivoted at C iu bearings preferably concentric with the head-shaft of the carrier-,and its outer end is raised and lowered by a chain or cable D,which passes over the top of mast A down to winding-drum E. From 4the outer end of the boom is suspended an elevator-leg -F,which is pivoted at G. BoomB and eleva- Ain greater or less engagement with the buck' ets, depending on the angle at which the boom is standing.

K are the head-wheels, K2 the foot-wheels, and K3., K4, and Kare idler wheels, over which the chains run at the junction of the elevating and conveying sections of the carrier. The slack in the carrier-chains is provided for by take-up bearings J, which lcarry the idler-shaft on which wheels K are located-.1 At its inner end the conveyer-trough bottom L of' the boom B connects with a dischargechute L3, preferably through the medium of a hinged spout end L and at the outer end it extends between the wheels K2, and is curved partially around the shaft atL2 in. such a lmanner as to form for the conveyertrough (at whatever operative angle it mayt stand) a sort of receiving-spout to take care of such material as may drop from the buckets in turning, and feed it into the trough as the buckets move forward. The direction of motion of the chains and buckets is .indicated by arrows above and belowthe boom, and shown by the positions of the buckets.

N is a barge or vessel from which the elevator is receiving its load, O being the hatch through which the elevator is let down i-nto the hold.

R', R2, and R3 in Fig. -4 are diiferent positions of an ordinary dock-leg, and S, S2, and z S3 in Fig. 5 are different positions of our dockleg corrcspondingsomewhat with the preced-1 ing, but with differences to be more fully ex?, plained hereinafter. Dotted lines P', P2, and P3 show the levels of the foot of ordinary el-e. vator in positions R', R2, and R2, respectively, and Q', Q2, and Q3 show levels of the foot of our elevator in positions S S2, nd S3, respect` ively.

5 is the driving-wheel on the head-shaft of the carrier.

6 is the driving-belt connecting wheel 5 with outside driving-wheel 7, which latter isf. fitted with a clutch operated by bent lever 8, this lever in turn being moved in one direction by rope or cable 9 to throw the clutch into engagement and in the other direction' by rope 10 to throw out of engagement. Vheel 7 is on shaft 11,which drives shaft 12 by spur-.gearing arranged to increase the speed. On shaft 12 we locate two bevel-gears 13 and 14, provided with clutches operated by levers 15 and 16, respectively, so connecting the levers that one clutch cannot be thrown into engagement until after the other isf thrown out. Ropes or cables 17 and 18 con-'4 trol the movements of levers 15 and 16. Bevelgears 13 and 14 engage suitably with bevelgear 19, forming a reversible drive for shaft 20, the latter carrying worm 21, which engages witliworm-gear 22, driving the shaft on which v drum E is located. v

From the above description it will be seen that when the operator 011 the vessel wishest to raise the elevator he pulls on rope 18,2 which, working through lever 16, bevel-gears l, 14 and 19, shaft 20, and worm-gearing 21 andf 22, starts drumEto revolving in such a direction as to wind up cable D and raise the end 1 of the boom. To lower the elevator, he pulls on rope 17, which through intermediatemechanism corresponding to the above-described agencies revolves drum E in the opposite direction, paying out cable D and lowering the end of the boom. We arrangeto have an inter-mediate position for levers 15 and 16 where the clutches on gears 13 and 14 are both out of engagement, so that no motion will be transmitted tothe worm-shaft and drum when the elevator is at any desired stationary position. We also sometimes arrange to counterweight the boom and leg so as to render the above-described movements easier of Aeftectuation and permit a certain degree of hand adjustment of the elevator-leg in the hold of the vessel. To start the operation of the elevator chains and buckets, rope 9 is pulled, throwing the clutch on wheel 7 into lengagement through the medium of lever 8, thus connecting the main driving-shaft with the head shaft of the carrier through wheels 7 and 5 and belt 6. Pulling on rope 10 will stop the carrier by throwing' the clutch out of engagement. The ropes or cables run out along the boom and down the elevator-leg within easy reach of the operator on the vessel.

It is evident that any style of clutches, friction-gearing, and plain or reversible driving mechanisms can be used in the above-described work without departing from the spirit of our invention, and we have merely shown the above as a simple and effective arrangement, which we have thus far successfully adopted.

' In dock-leg elevators as usually constructed the framework of the discharge-spout serves as 1a boom, and the highest position which can be reached is shown by R in Fig. 4. The position R2 represents the highest point at which the elevator is operative in handling such material as coal without such an abrupt lfall as to cause excessive breakage, and the position Ris the lowest at which the coal will .'iow down the spout freely. The arc of the circle through which the boom moves in passing from R .to R2 and the corresponding change of' level of the foot of the elevator from P to P2 is generally utilized forgetting the elevator over the .side of the vessel into the hatch, and the remaining are of the circle and change of level in passing from R2 to R2 and P2 toP3 is required for the variations in depths of holds, height of water, &c. With our form of elevator the angle of the boom in S2 may correspond to that in R3, leaving all the change of level from Q to Q2 for adjustment of elevator over the side ot' the vessel, if desired, While the elevator by reason of our improvements is rendered operative at any position between S2 and S3, giving a change of level from Q2to Q3 and more than doubling 4the range of adj ustability for either purpose, at the same time not being limited to the position S2' as the highest operative position or as the-lowest adjustment for getting over the IOC:

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side of the vessel. The range of movement of the foot of the .elevator toward andaway from the dock, asshown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, is a furthergvadvantage, saving much of the labor of trimming in the hold of the vessel, required vin the use of the ordinary forms,which are necessarily so long as to make this adjustment inconvenient or impossible. The lightness of the outfit and ease of-manipulation made possible by our improvements render the above-described large ranges of movement practical and very useful.

The comparatively high belt speed required in ordinary dock-leg elevators to obtain a discharge by centrifugal force is Wholly unnecessary in our device, and we are enabled to run our elevator-belts at as slow a speed as may be found desirable, and thus prevent all violence in picking up and discharging the material.

As mentioned above, more or less trouble arises in the ordinary forms of4 dock-leg elevators from too steep a descent from the head of the elevator for the safe ldelivery of coal and analogous materials when elevator is at its highest point; but in our improved form the connection between head of elevator proper and the dock is the boom along which* the carrier drags the load, so that a great height for obtaining a discharge is unnecessary, and even if the rise and fall of water should at times be excessive, requiring an unusual elevation of the outer end of the boom,

the buckets would serve to retard the fall of the material enough to prevent injury to it.

If it is desired, the towerA can be arranged on wheels and tracks and made adjustable along the entire front of the dock, and this can be the more readily done because of the comparatively short and light framework of our device, which admits of the employment of lightersupports on the dock than would be required for the ordinary doek-leg elevators. If preferred, our device can of course `be attached directly to a Warehouse or other permanent structure on the dock, or it can be used in other locations-as, for instance, in the work of unloading cars instead of vessels-or Various other modifications could be adopted to snit the circumstances without departing from the spirit of our invention.

In practical operation our carrier serves first as an elevator in lifting material from the hold of the vessel, and next as a conveyer, each bucket pushing its charge along the trough-bottom formed in the boom. The

material is delivered at the inner end into the chutes or spouts L and L3 by a gradual descent and a natural and easy owing or sliding motion, thus being handled but once in the passage from vessel to dock, and by a method which invol ves no abrupt fall to cause ',breakage, the material never being thrown from the buckets.

In order to mak a permanent, substantial, and simple boot .or the elevator-leg and confine the movements of the buckets at that point to .t constant circular path, we use stationary journal-bearings for the foot-shaft instead of the adjustable bearings or takeups usually employed there, and apply the take-ups to the upper idler-shaft, as shown at J, where the adjustment will-not interfere with the carrying side of the elevator and will the more readily take care of the slack thrown into the chains as they pass olf of the head-wheels.

Some of the advantages of our improvements might be obtained by arranging to have the elevator and conveyer formed separately, the former delivering directly into the latter, or a continuous carrier could be constructed on substantially the same plan as shown above, with the exception of areversal ofthe motion' of the belting and the utilization of theupper run of the conveyer-section instead of the lower; but either of these plans would involve a more or less forcible discharge of the material, and for this reason we have preferred to construct the device in the manner which we have shown in the drawings, and which we have described hereinbefore.

That we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination of the following instru mentalities arranged and operating together in substantially the manner hereinbefore described, viz: a framework serving as aboom, provided with a conveyer-trough bottom, an elevator-leg pivotally suspended from said boom, and a continuous double-strand bucketcarrier running over suitable wheels mounted in the framework of said boom and elevatorleg, the buckets of which carrier lift the material bodily in the elevator-leg and then push or scrape it along the trough-bottom of the boom to a suitable place of discharge.

WILLlAM D. EWART.

JAMES 1VM. DODGE.

Witnesses:

H. T. AUSTIN, E. W. FARRUN.

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