US3455081A

US3455081A - Methods of staying vertical poles,masts and like structures and apparatus for use therewith

Info

Publication number: US3455081A
Application number: US614655A
Authority: US
Inventors: Alfred Ernest Lund
Original assignee: POSTMASTER GENERAL UK
Current assignee: POSTMASTER GENERAL UK
Priority date: 1966-02-11
Filing date: 1967-02-08
Publication date: 1969-07-15
Anticipated expiration: 1986-07-15
Also published as: GB1153191A

Description

July 15, 1969 A. E. LUND 3, METHODS OF STAYING VERTICAL POLES, MASTS AND LIKE STRUCTURES AND APPARATUS FOR USE THEREWITH Filed Feb. 8, 1967 a sheets-sheet 1 ALFRED-flaw INVENTORI v ATTORNEY July 15, 1969 A. E. LUND 3,455,081

- METHODS STAYING VERTICAL POLES, MASTS AND LIKE STRUC ES AND APPARATUS FOR USE THERE H Filed Feb. 8, 19s? heats-Sheet 2 ALF/E50 L, Lang INVENTOR ATTORNEY July 15, 1969 A. E. LUND 3,455,081 METHODS OFS'IAYING VERTICAL POLES, MASTS AND LIKE STRUCTURES AND APPARATUS FOR USE THEREWITH Filed Feb. 8, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 ALFRED. ELI/ lNVENTOR BY 7M,

ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,455,081 METHODS OF STAYING VERTICAL POLES, MASTS AND LIKE STRUCTURES AND APPARATUS FOR USE THEREWITH Alfred Ernest Lund, Tilehurst, Reading, England, assignor to Her Majestys Postmaster General, London, England Filed Feb. 8, 1967, Ser. No. 614,655 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Feb. 11, 1966, 6,160/ 66 Int. Cl. E04h 12/22 US. Cl. 52-741 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A method of and apparatus for staying vertical poles using an anchoring head for attaching a stay wire to a stay rod, the head being used in conjunction with a preformed wire grip for attachment to the stay wire, and the head containing a passageway therethrough for concealing the lower end of the stay wire after the staying process has been completed.

Background of the invention This invention relates to methods of staying vertical poles, for example poles carrying overhead conductors, masts and like structures, and to apparatus for use therewith.

Known techniques presently employed for staying poles use stay wires which are attached to anchoring devices by means of preformed wire grips. Before being wrapped into the wire grip, the stay wire can be tensioned by a tensioning device mounted upon the stay rod and attached to the stay Wire by means of a by-pass tail, or, as disclosed in British Patent No. 858,830, by a tensioning device mounted on the stay wire and co-operating with first and second clamping members also mounted on the stay Wire. Apart from the bulkiness of the tensioning apparatus in both cases, the above methods are not entirely satisfactory in that, in the first case, the by-pass tail impedes the wrapping into the wire grip of the tensioned stay wire, and, in the second case, the complications of the tensioning arrangement necessitates the wire grip being wrapped round two lengths of the stay wire. In both cases cutting off of the surplus stay wire always leaves an exposed sharp jagged end.

Summary of the invention It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for staying poles, masts and the like structures which use more suitable tensioning means and do not require a by-pass tail for attaching the tensioning means to the stay wire, the apparatus containing means for concealing the jagged lower end of the stay wire after the staying process has been completed.

Accordingly, such a method comprises the steps of:

(i) Attaching the one end of a stay wire to the structure to be stayed;

(ii) Passing the other end of the stay wire through a passageway in a head at the upper end of an anchoring device, the head having a body portion with a longitudinal axis and an external surface, and said passageway having an entrance and an exit, the entrance of the passageway being located at one end of the longitudinal axis of the body portion and the exit of the passageway being located in the external surface of the body portion at a position spaced along the surface of the body portion away from the entrance;

(iii) Tensioning the stay wire; and

'ice

(iv) Attaching the stay wire, whilst under tension, to the head.

Preferably the stay wire is attached to the head by means of a preformed wire grip which is wrapped round the stay wire whilst the stay wire is under tension.

In one particular method embodying the invention, the tension in the stay wire is increased after the preformed wire grip is in position round the stay wire to facilitate the cutting off of the excess stay wire at a point which permits the cut end of the stay wire to be drawn into the passageway after the excess stay wire has been cut off.

A head for attaching a stay wire to a stay rod comprises a body portion having a longitudinal axis and an external surface; a transverse eye formed through the body portion; and a passageway formed in the body portion, said passageway having an entrance and an exit; the entrance of the passageway located at one end of the longitudinal axis of the body portion and the exit of the passageway located on the external surface of the body portion at a position spaced along the external surface away from the entrance. The spacing of the exit from the entrance is such that any substantial change in direction of the wire as it passes through the passageway is avoided.

The passageway is preferably straight with its longitudinal axis inclined to that of the body of the head at an angle lying within the range 0-45 (both limits included) and preferably within the range 15 -30 (both limits included). When the head is in use, the entrance to the passageway lies at the upper end of the longitudinal axis of the head.

In an embodiment of the invention, the passageway comprises first and second portions, the first portion lying along the longitudinal axis of the body portion between an end face of the body portion and the transverse eye, and the second portion communicating with the first portion and having its entrance on the interior surface of the part of the body portion surrounding the first portion ofthe passageway and its exit on the external surface of the body portion at a position spaced along the external surface away from the entrance.

The body portion of the head may be of elongated form, for example, substantially cylindrical with first and second end faces; and have a transverse eye formed through the body portion and positioned substantially midway between the end faces of the body portion; and a passageway formed in the body portion having its entrance positioned centrally in the first end face of the body portion and its exit located on the curved wall of the body portion at a position spaced along the curved wall of the body portion away from the entrance.

A preformed wire grip may be used to attach the stay wire to the head, in which case the surface portions of the body bounding the eye are curved to receive the preformed wire grip.

The upper end of a stay rod may be rigidly attached to the body portion, convenient means for this rigid attachment being, for example, welding, screwing or bolting. Alternatively, the stay rod may be attached to the body portion of the anchoring device by means permitting the head to swivel around the axis of the rod, such means being, for example, a rod with an expanded head fitted through a hole in the second end face of the body portion at the other end of the longitudinal axis opposite to the entrance of the passageway.

Brief description of the drawings By way of example only, embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of the swivel head,

FIG. 2 is a medial section through the swivel head of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of stay wire tensioning apparatus,

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a part of a stay wire, swivel head, part of a stay rod. and stay wire tensioning apparatus,

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the swivel head of FIG. 1 with a stay wire attached to it,

FIG. 6 is a medial section through a second embodiment of the swivel head,

FIG. 7 is a side view of the swivel head of FIG. 6, and

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of the head with a stay rod rigidly attached thereto.

Description of the preferred embodiments Referring to FIGS. 1-5, the swivel head has a body 1 which is of generally cylindrical shape, an eye 2 being formed transversely of the longitudinal axis of the body. The contour of the body above the eye 2 provides a curved thimble 3 intended to receive a preformed wire grip, whilst below the eye is an axial passageway 4 of circular transverse cross-section leading from the eye and in which is located the upper end of a stay rod 6.

The swivel head has a further passageway 7 also of circular transverse cross-section whose entrance 8 is located at the upper end of the longitudinal axis of the swivel head at the upper end of the cylindrical body 1. The exit 9 of the passageway 7 is located on the curved face of the cylindrical body 1 and is spaced along the surface of the body portion away from the entrance.

The overall length of the swivel head is 3% inches whilst the diameter of the head is 1 inches. The diameter of the passageway 4 is inch and the length of the passageway is /2 inch. The diameter of the eye 2 is inch and the overall length about 1 /2 inches. The diameter of the passageway 7 is about /2 inch. The dimensions just given are, of course, by way of example only and are suitable for a limited range of stay wire and rod sizes. Taller poles and masts may require larger diameter stay wires and rods.

The procedure for staying a telegraph pole follows existing techniques until the stage is reached at which it is normally necessary to tension a stay wire before securing it to the upper end of a stay rod. At that stage the following procedure is used.

A stay wire 10 is passed through passageway 7 and fixed to a suitable tensioning device of which one example is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

The tensioning device comprises a curved metal grip 11 adapted to fit over the stay rod in the manner shown in FIG. 4 and to be secured in position by a retaining pin 12. The grip 11 has a tensioning lever 13 pivotally secured to it by means of a mounting pin 14.. A spring-controlled pawl 15 on the lever 13 co-operates with a ratchet wheel 16 fixed to the pin 14 to hold the lever 13 in a particular tensioning position as will be clearer later. The lever 13 also mounts jaws to grip a stay wire during tensioning. The jaws comprise a wheel 17 having a knurled gripping edge and a co-operating manually-operable eccentric 18.

After the stay wire 10 has been passed through passageway 7, the wire is located between wheel 17 and eccentric 18 and the latter rotated to grip the wire. The stay wire is taut before being clamped to the lever 13 to ensure that a requisite tension can be applied before the lever 13 reaches its limit of movement in the direction of arrow 19 (FIG. 4). Lever 13 is then rotated in the direction of the arrow 19 to tension the stay wire. When the required tension has been applied, the lever 13 is automatically locked against return to its initial position by the pawl and ratchet so that the stay wire is held under tension and can then easily be secured to the swivel head by means of well known preformed wire grips such as 20 (F G. 5 The stay Wire tension i then increased slightly 4 to move the loop 21 of the wire grip 20 away from the surface of the thimble 3 and the stay wire then cut flush with the surface of the swivel head adjacent the exit 9 of the passageway 7. The stay wire, on being cut, springs back slightly and the cut end is withdrawn into the passageway 7 and is concealed.

The tensioning device is then removed and the procedure repeated for the next stay wire.

It will be understood that other forms of stay wire tensioning device could be used and might be manually operated by levers or pulleys or in some other suitable way or the device might be hydraulically operated.

FIGS. 6 and 7 which have components similar to those of FIGS. 1-5 similarly referenced, illustrate a second embodiment of the swivel head. In this embodiment, the passageway comprises first and

second portions

22 and 25. The first portion 22 has its entrance 23 in an end face of the body portion of the swivel head and is formed along the longitudinal axis of the body portion to exit at 24 into the eye 2. The diameter of this portion of the passageway is so chosen that it is possible to withdraw therethrough the stay rod 6 and head 5, such that upsetting of the anchoring device is facilitated. The passageway is completed by the second portion 25 whose entrance is located as shown at 26 in FIG. 6 at a point in the first portion 22 of the passageway and whose exit 27 is located on the curved surface of the body portion at a position displaced along the surface of the body portion away from that of the entrance 23. The angle of the passageway 25 with the longitudinal axis of the body is again such that no substantial change in direction of the wire occurs as it passes through the head.

The same staying process as for the embodiment of FIGS. 1-5 is used.

FIG. 8 illustrates the embodiment of FIG. 1 with the stay rod 6 rigidly attached to the body 1. This rigid attachment is achieved by a welding process, although screwing or bolting together of the head of the stay rod and base of the body may be used to form the rigid joint therebetween. These methods of rigid attachment can also be applied to the embodiment of FIGS. 6 and 7.

I claim:

1. A method of staying poles, masts and like structures by means of an anchoring device having a head at the upper end thereof, the head having a body portion with a longitudinal axis and an external surface, a transverse eye formed through the body portion, and a passageway within the body portion, the passageway having an entrance and an exit, the entrance of the passageway being located at one end of the longitudinal axis of the body portion and the exit of the passageway being located in the external surface of the body portion at a position spaced along the surface of the body portion away from the entrance, the method comprising the steps of:

(i) attaching the one end of a stay wire to the structure to be stayed;

(ii) passing the other end of the stay wire through the passageway in the head of the said anchoring device, said passageway being independent of the said transverse eye;

(iii) tensioning the stay wire, and

-(iv) attaching the stay wire, whilst under tension, to the head by means of a preformed wire grip passing through the transverse eye.

2. A method of staying poles, masts and like structures as claimed in claim 1 in which the preformed wire grip is wrapped around the stay wire whilst the stay wire is under tension, the tension then being increased and the excess stay wire cut off at a point which permits the cut end of the stay wire to be drawn into the passageway on release of the said increase in tension.

3. A head for use in performing the method of claim 1, the head comprising a body portion having a longitudinal axis and an external surface; a transverse eye formed through the body portion, a d a pass g ay formed in the body portion, said passageway being independent of the said transverse eye, the passageway having an entrance and an exit, the entrance of the passageway being located at one end of the longitudinal axis of the body portion and the exit of the passageway being located on the external surface of the body portion at a position spaced along the surface of the body portion away from the entrance.

4. A head as claimed in claim 3 in which the passageway is straight with its longitudinal axis inclined to that of the body portion of the head at an angle lying within the range 0-45 5. A head as claimed in claim 3 in which the passageway is straight with its longtiudinal axis inclined to that of the body portion at an angle lying within the range 15 30.

6. A head as claimed in claim 3 in which the body portion has an end face and the passageway comprises first and second portions, the first portion =lying along the longitudinal axis of the body portion between said end face of the body pontion and the transverse eye, and the second portion communicating with the first portion and having its entrance on the interior surface of the part of the body portion surrounding the first portion of the passageway and its exit on the external surface of the body portion at a point spaced along the external surface away from the entrance.

7. A head for use in performing the method of claim 1 comprising a substantially cylindrical body portion having first and second end faces, a transverse eye formed through the body portion and positioned substantially midway between the end faces of the body portion, and a passageway formed in the body portion, the passageway being independent of the transverse eye and having its entrance located centrally in the first end face of the body portion and its exit located on the curved wall of the body portion at a position spaced along the curved wall of the body portion away from the entrance.

8. A head as claimed in claim 3 in combination with a preformed wire grip to attach the stay wire to the head, the surface portions of the body bounding the eye being curved to receive the preformed wire grip.

9. A head as claimed in claim 3 in combination with a stay rod, in which the upper end of the stay rod is rigidly attached to the 'body portion of the head.

10. A head as claimed in claim 3 in combination with a stay rod, in which the upper end of the stay rod is attached to the body portion of the head by means permitting the head to swivel around the axis of the rod.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,258,140 3/1918 Pleister 52-148 1,430,623 10/ 1922 Cornpbell 254-77 1,637,587 8/ 1927 Peltz 254-77 1,946,830 2/1934 Blackburn 24-123.1 2,071,694 2/1937 Howe 52-741 2,291,649 8/ 1942 Roberts 24-123 2,792,560 5/1957 Bollmeier 24--l31 X 3,080,631 3/1963 Ruhlman 24-131 3,323,185 6/ 1967 Maras 24-123 3,239,900 3/ 1966 Bottoms 24-123 3,295,311 l/1967 Butz et al. 24-131 FRANCIS K. ZUGEL, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R.