US1085676A - Street-sweeper. - Google Patents

Description

n. H. PINOH. STREET SWEEPBR.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 20 1912v Patented Feb. 8, 1914.

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if attozwu a D. H. FINGH.

STREET SWEEPER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 20, 1912.

Patented Feb. 3, 1914 2 SHEETS-SHEBTL.

u N [M m Tl \v% mg NM N q/vi/tmeowo DWIGHT H. FINCH, 0F MANCHESTER, IOWA.

. STREET-SWEEPER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 3, 1914.

Application filed Kay 20, 1812. Serial No. 695,558.

cially to street sweepers; and the object of the same is to produce a trailing street sweeper which may be attached to the back of a wagon orcart and which will deliver into the latter'the sweepings as Well as the dust extracted from the air stirred up by the brush, and will purify the air separated from the dust before the former is passed out of the machine back into the atmos-' phere. This and other objects are accomplished by the construction hereinafter more fully described and claimed, and as shown in the drawings wherein- Figure l is a side elevation of this ma chine complete; Fig. 2 is a cross section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a central vertical longitudinal section.

In the drawin s the numeral 1 designates a frame mounted on wheels 2 and dragged by a tongue 3 or other connection with a Wagon or cart indicated'at L and into which the dirt and dust is to be delivered, and on the frame is mounted an engine 5 (preferably driven by gasolene) which furnishes the motive power for the machinery to be described. 1 The shaft of this engine is connected by bevel gears and shaft 6 to the shaft of a large rotary brush 7 which is driven in the direction of the arrow beneath an upwardly curved sheet metal hood 8, andthe dirt so picked up from the street by the brush is delivered across an apron 13 to an elevator 9 consisting of buckets or blades fast on an endless belt moving within a casing as shown, and by the same is dropped into the wagon box 4. ,The belt at its lower end passes around-a pulley 10 fixed at the center of a shaft 11 which carries spiral conveyors 12 at opposite-sides ofv the pulley, each mounted within a trough l3 extendin across the front of the hood 8, and one en of the shaft 11 has a sprocket connected by a belt 12 with another sprocket on the shaft of the brush. With this construction the rotation of the latter tosses the dirt into the trough 13, where it is engaged by the conveyer, and earned to the center under the pulley 10, and there it is taken up by the buckets-or flights on the belt 9 and raised through the elevator casing and dropped into the wagon box. This detail of construction permits me-to use a rather long brush, possibly eight feet in length, from which it will be seen that the path cleanedby this street sweeper is considerably wider than the path traveled by a wagon of ordinary width.

In rear of the brush and its hood is situated a suction nozzle or chamber 15 whose walls converge downward to a point near the ground behind the rear wall of said hood 8; and this nozzle by preference carries rollers 16 standing just in rear of the brush, capable of traveling on the ground and permitting the open end of the nozzle to stand adjacent thereto. The upper end'of the nozzle or chamber 15 communicates with a suction fan 17, preferably driven from the same engine or source of power 5, and the dust-laden air drawn upward through the nozzle 15 by the fan 17 is-delivered into a pipe 18 by which it is conveyed tangentially into the upper end 19 of a dust collector. Herein it swirls around and around until its momentum is spent, when the dust falls through the tapering body 20 to its apex, which through a flexible connection 21 delivers it into the elevator so that it joins the dirt being carried upward therein and is finally dumped into the wagon box 4. The upper end 22 of the collector is closed except for an outlet 23 for the air, from which a pipe 24 leadsdownward into an open topped chamber 25 containing water and disinfectant, after striking upon which the air may pass out the top of the chamber into the outside atmosphere. By preference I employ a spray nozzle 30 directed upward into the lower end of the outlet pipe 24, and

the air-moving down such pipe is sprayed by means of water forced upward through the nozzle by a pump 31 driven from the same source of power; and the water falls back into the chamber. When this detail is employed theair issuing from the dust collector is thoroughly moistened (and possibly also disinfected) and is therefore delivered 11 able means for washing or cleansing the air,

. raised lector where the dust proper is separated :1

washed and delivered back into the atmosmay beemployed without departing from the principles of my invention, as it relates more particularly to the street sweeper proper. v. a

The action of this machine will now be clearly understood. As it passes over the pavement or ground the sweepings from the rush are tossed across. the apron and car:

ried upward bythe elevator and the dust 'y'the brush is conveyed into the colfro n'. the air which latter is afterward phere'. The suction nozzle 15, in addition to picking up the dust raised by the brush, is carried so near to the surface of the ground or pavement by the small rollers 16, that what dust or dirt is not brushed up by the brush 7 is taken up by thesuction of air so that the ground or pavement is left comparatively clean after the passage of this machine. I

All parts are of course of the desired sizes, shapes, proportionsand materials, and

changes in details may be made without departing from the essential principle.

What is claimed. as new is:

In a street cleaning machine, the combination with the runnin gear, the rotary brush, and a dust-collector aving an inlet conduit Whose receiving end stands adjacent said brush; of a hood overlying the brush with its rear wall'connected to said receiving end and its front wall inclined forward and downward, thence bent to the rear in a trough standing parallel with said brush, and thence extended rearward and down- Ward toward the brush to. form an apron, a double-spiral conveyer within said trough,

and an upwardly inclined elevator whose casing is in communication with the discharge end of said dust collector and whoselower end is in communication with the center of the trough between said conveyers- In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

DWIGHT H. FINGH.

Witnesses:

- A. M. CLOUD,

F. A. LUNDELL.

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