US1133818A - Cableway. - Google Patents

Description

W. J. A. RANKIN.

Patented Mar. 30, 1915.

4 SHEETS-SHEET l.

THE NORRIS PETERS 60.. PHOTC-LITHQ, WASHINGTON, D. C.

W, J. A. RANKIN.

GABLEWAY.

12211101111011 111 121) 11110.14, 1912. 1,133,818, Patented Mar. 30, 1915.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

1 Q 1 y k WU R N.

- wva Q6 2 @31 mien 121 A i,

THE NORRIS PETERS 60.. PHOTO-LITHQ. WASHINGTON. u. 1.

W. J. A. RANKIN.

GABLEWAY. APPLICATION FILED DEO.14, 1912.

4 SHEETS"SHEET 3 Patented Mar. 30, 1915.

THE NORRIS PETERS 60.. PHOTQ-LITHQ, wA'sHlNGTvN. D, (L

. RANKIN.

GABLBWAY. APPLICATION FILED DBO. 14, 1912.

Patented Mar. 30, 1915.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

THE NORRIS PETERS 50., PHOTO-LITHQ, WASHINGTON. D. C.

FFKQE.

WILLIAIE JAMES ALEXANDER RANKIN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO LIDGER- WOOD MANUFACTURING COMPANY, 01'? NEW YORK, N. Y., A. CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

GABLEWAY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 30, 1915.

Application filed December 14, 1912. Serial No. 736,670.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM JAMES ALEXANDER RANKIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York city, borough of Manhattan, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cableways, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates broadly and generally to new and useful improvements in cableways for hoisting and transporting loads, and more particularly to that type of cableway in which a plurality of supports are employed between which are stretched a plurality of cables in tandem. In tandem cableways it has been usual to employ end supports and one or more intermediate supports, the supporting cables being fixed to the intermediate support or supports and carried over the end supports and anchored beyond said end supports. This construction necessitates large factors of safety, extensive guying of the intermediate supports so that they will not be swung or tipped from the perpendicular, which guys, in order to have their greatest efficiency, must necessarily extend in directions to interfere with the operation of the cableway, and the intermediate support or supports are subjected to the full pulling strains of the load tending to tip them from vertical position. The objections just stated are particularly present when the intermediate support or supports must necessarily be built of great height so that the guying or bracing is complicated, and said support or supports are more likely to be tipped or wrecked under the weight of the load than where shorter lengths of supports are used. Also in the tandem cableways, an excess of load on one cable over that on another often tips the support toward the greater load and if the strain is great enough may wreck or disable the support.

It is the object of my invention to provide means in a tandem cableway whereby the intermediate support or supports will not be subjected to the full strain of one of the cables pulling thereon in one direction, but such strain will be compensated for in such a manner as to be distributed upon another cable, or other cables, and be resisted by the end towers or the end anchorages for the cables, and so that the strains on the intermediate support or supports in opposite directions will be equalized, thereby preventing excess of load on one cable from tipping or wrecking the support.

The invention consists in the construction of parts, and their arrangement in operative combination to be more fully de scribed hereinafter and the novelty of which will be particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed.

I have fully and clearly illustrated my invention in the accompanying drawings to be taken as a part of this specification and wherein:

Figure l is a diagrammatic view in side elevation of a cableway illustrating one em bodiment of the invention. Fig. 2 is a similar View illustrating the invention, showing diagrammatically one type of cableway system to which the invention is adapted. Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic plan view of the structure shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is an enlarged diagrammatic plan view of an intermediate tower such as is shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3. Fig. 5 is a top plan view of the head or top portion of an intermediate tower or support illustrating the arrangement of the compensating means. Fig. 6 is a vertical central section view on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a section on the line 77 of Fig. 5.

Before proceeding with a detailed description of one embodiment of my invention I desire to state that I do not limit myself to the application or embodiment of the invention in any particular type of cableway system as far as relates to the method of traversing the load along the cableway and hoisting and lowering the load, as the invention is capable of use, and is intended to be used, in any form of tandem cableway.

Referring to the drawings by characters of reference, and particularly Figs. 1, 2 and 3, 1, 2 designate end supports in the form of. towers which may be of any height and construction to suit them to the purposes for which they are intended, or the conditions of the installation may require, and 3 designates an intermediate tower arranged between the end towers l, 2. In the particular installation upon which this application is based and exemplified by the drawings herein, the end tower 1 is 150 feet in height, the tower 2 is 165 feet in height and the intermediate tower is 230 feet in height. The distance, or span between the towers 1 and 3 is 1510 feet, and from the tower 3 to the tower 2 is 1525 feet.

4, 5 designate the main supporting cables stretched between and supported. by the towers 1, 3 and 2, 3, respectively, said cables at their outer end portions being carried over the end towers 1, 2 and connected at their ends to suitable anchorages 6 (see Figs. 2 and These cables 4, 5 are arranged in longitudinal alinement or in tandem, as clearly shown in the drawings, and have their inner or adjacent ends connected to the intermediate support 3 in such a manner that the intermediate support or tower will not be subjected to the full stress of the load on one of the cables pulling on the support in one direction, but such stress or load will be distributed so as to be sustained in part by both cables, or all of the cables, if more than two are employed, and resisted by the anchorages at the ends of the cables so that the pulls on the support in opposite directions are balanced. I accomplish the result just stated by connecting the inner ends of the cables 4, 5 to a compensating device mounted upon the intermediate tower so that an excess strain on one of the cables, instead of being entirely directed on the tower, is transmitted through the compensating device to the other cable so that the latter in effect resists the pull on the cable sustaining the load and transmits the strains to the head towers and to the anchorages for the cable and exerts a pull on the inter mediate tower tending to counterbalance the excessive strain. This compensating means is clearly illustrated in Figs. 5, 6 and 7 and will now be described.

Rising from the head or top of the tower 3 are spaced vertical plates or standards 7 connected at their tops by a connecting member 8, and braced and stiffened in any suitable manner so as to withstand the strains to which they are subjected. Mounted at its ends in these side plates 7 is a transversely-extending horizontal pin 9 upon which are pivoted suspension members 10 spaced from the side members 7 by means of collars or sleeves 11 on the pin 10 and from each other by means of an intermediate sleeve 12. These members 10 are arranged to depend from the pin 9 and to swing freely in a vertical plane through the space between the members 7, 7 to either side of a vertical line through said pin 9, as clearly indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 7 of the drawings, in which figure the member is shown as swung to the right.

Pivotally connected to the members 10 below their point of suspension, and preferably adjacent the lower end thereof, are connecting members 13, 13 extending in opposite directions to the outer ends of which members, 13, 13 are connected couplings 14, 14 for the main cables 4, 5. The pivotal connection between the members 10 and 13 may take a number of forms, but I prefer to employ a pivot bolt 15 passing through the members 10 and the inner ends of said members 13 which are located between the members 10. By this arrangement it will be seen that, should there be an excess of load upon one of the cables 4 or 5 over that on the other cable, instead of said excess of load operating to tip or to tend to tip the tower 3 toward the cable of greater deflection, the compensating device will permit the cable carrying the greater load to in effect lengthen, as the members 10 will swing toward the cable carrying the greater load, and this will serve to stretch or tighten the cable sustaining the lesser load and thereby increase its tension, and its pull on the support, so that said latter cable will in part resist and sustain the load on the other cable and the opposing pulls on the tower will be counterbalanced to a sufiicient extent to relieve the tower of any dangerous strains tending to tip the same. In Fig. 2 I have indicated the greater load as being on the cable between the towers 2 and 3, which will necessarily cause this cable to sink and thereby tighten up. and increase the tension in the other cable between the towers 1 and 3, which is sustaining the lighter load, the latter cable and its load thereby serving to oppose the heavier load and counterbalance the strains on the center tower so that there is substantially an equal pull exerted thereon by both cables- By the-above arrangement I am enabled to do away with the extensive system of guyswhich would ordinarily be required for the tower 3, some of which guys would extend in the general direction of, or parallel to, the cableway, so that the space between the towers is free for operation of the hoisting and transporting means. In the form shown I may use guys 16 extending laterally from the tower 3 to resist tipping strains in the general direction of the cableway, but they may have their ends anchored laterally out of the path of the cableway so as tobe out of the way of the hoisting and transporting means. I may also employ wind guys 17 to prevent side tipping of the towers under force of the wind.

In the present embodiment illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4 I have shown the center tower as having two compensating arrangements so that the installation will apply to the parallel cables of a dual cableway in which the main cables arearranged in tandem. In

this arrangement the pins 9 may be connected by a suitable connecting bar 18 to brace and sustain the support for the compensating means.

While, as above stated, the invention is not limited to any particular system for hoisting and transporting the load, I have described it above as applied to the main or supporting cable for a load carriage, and have illustrated a system including a carriage 19 adapted to travel on the main cable, said carriage being operable by an outhaul line 20 passing over the end tower, as at 21, and having its end portion wound on a drum of a suitable hoisting engine 22, the outer end portion of the outhaul line passing over a sheave 23 journaled in the upper portion of the frame 7 on the intermediate tower whence said rope passes down and around a sheave 2% on said frame, whence it is carried parallel to the main cable and connected to the carriage, as at 25. An inhaul rope 26 is connected to the carriage, at 27 and passes therefrom over a sheave 28 on the end tower and thence down to the engine 22. 29 designates the hoisting rope extending from the engine 22 over a sheave on the head tower, and thence to the main carriage, where it passes over suitable sheaves and blocks and may be provided with means for lifting the load. A button rope 30 may also be provided for supporting fall rope carriers (not shown). In view of the fact that the particular system of cableway forms no part of my invention I do not deem it necessary to enter into a further description of the same.

It will be understood that the compensating member 10 may be of such a length as to cause the strains to be balanced sufficiently to protect the support, or to substantially equalize the strains, but in the present embodiment I have made the member 10 two feet nine inches in length from its pivot center to the cable connections with the said member, which is sufficient length to provide for such compensation or counterbalancing as will distribute the loads on the cables so as to relieve the support of excessive strains,

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the but my invention is intended to cover all degrees of compensation from one which is practical and satisfactory under given conditions to one which is substantially a true counterbalance.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In a cableway, in combination, an intermediate support, a member pivoted on the intermediate support and depending from its pivot, and cables each connected at one end to said member below its pivot and having their opposite ends connected to a support.

2. In a tandem cableway, end supports, an intermediate support, a pivoted member on the intermediate support depending from its pivot and cables supported by the end supports and connected to said member below its pivot.

3. In a tandem cableway, in combination, outer supports, an intermediate support, a horizontal pin on said intermediate support, a rigid member pivoted to said pin, connecting members pivoted to the rigid member below said pivot pin, and cables arranged in tandem and connected to said connecting members and supported by said outer supports.

4:. In a tandem cableway, in combination, outer supports, an intermediate support, a horizontal pin, a compensating member pivoted on said pin and suspended therefrom, cables supported by said outer supports, and means for pivotally connecting said cables to the compensating member.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM JAMES ALEXANDER RANKIN.

Witnesses:

M. E. MCNINCH, C. G. HEYLMUN.

in combination,

Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G.

Images