US545976A - Ufacture of electric or other conduits - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-She&t l. E E. L. RANSOME.

MANUFACTURE OF ELECTRIC OR OTHER GONDUITS.

Patented INVENTOH (No Model.) 3 SheetsSheet 3.

E. L. RANSOME. MANUFACTURE OF ELECTRIC OR OTHER GONDUITS;

M 0 0 O O Patented Sept. 10 1895;

0 o 0 0 0000 wek NGOOOGOON INVENTOR WITNESSES:

UNITE TA'IES nnnns'r LESLIE nANsoME, or CHICAGO, ILLINoIs.

MANUFACTURE. OF ELECTRIC OR OTHER CONDUlTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 545,976, dated September 10, 1895.

Application filed November 23, 1894:. Serial No. 529,739. (No model.)

To etZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Ennns'r LESLIE RAN- SOME, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Electric or other Conduits; and I hereby declare that the following is a specification thereof.

The object of my invention is to provide a method and means for making an assemblage or group of electric or other conduits monolithically; and it consists of a process of manufacture and the machinery wherewith it is performed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a plan with part of the devices below the driving mechanism omitted to avoid the confusion of lines. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section on line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is, a front elevation. Figs. 4 and 5 are transverse sections on lines 4 4. and 5 5, respectively, of Fig. 2. Fig. 6 is a diagram of the gearing for driving cores, the pitch-line of the gears being represented by dotted lines. Fig. 7 is a section of the gearing on line 7 7 of Fig. 6. Figs. 8 and 10 are modified forms of the rotating cores. Fig. 9 is a perspective view of a portion of the structure molded by the machine. Fig. 11 is a diagram showing the direction of rotation of the cores in the molded structure.

The common construction of such an assemblage of conduits is not monolithic. They are usually built up of short single pieces of terra-cotta, each piece having one or more conduits running longitudinally through it. These pieces are butted end to end, so that each conduit in each piece forms with its relative conduit in the other pieces one continuous passage throughout the total length. of the pieces. Often a number of such lengths are aggregated together by placing the pieces side by side, as well as end to end. This is usually done upon a foundation of concrete common to all the pieces, and they are generally walled in and covered over with concrete also. By making such an assemblage of passages vln situ within one monolithic continuous block of concrete the advantages are great, both in a saving of cost and in ob= taining a better result. This is so obvious that many attempts to constitute them thus have been made; but heretofore the difficulty of forming a continuous monolithic block having a number of longitudinal passages therein closely contiguous to one another has been unsurmounted. The obstacle has been in the molding of the narrow partition between the passages; and for economy of cost and space it is desirable that they should be narrow. It has been found that ordinary cores grouped together and simultaneously drawn forward along the line of work would often grip between them the material of which the block was being made and draw it along instead of leaving it behind. Other difficulties in the construction and working of a molding-machine prevent drawing the cores along one by one or in small groups.

In my present invention these diffieulties are overcome by giving to each of the cores of the molding-machine, in addition to their forward movement, a rotary movement and I arrange the driving mechanism for this movement so that the adjacent core-surfaces shall move in opposite directions.

The molding-machine is drawn along continuously in the trench in which the monolith is to be formed after the usual manner of molding monolithic subway structures.

This machine consists of the following principal parts, namely: frame A, the bearingblock B for the cores, cores G, and gearing D S H R K for drawing the machine along in the trench and rotating the cores. The hauling-rope E is attached ahead of the machine to a stake in the trench. It is brought down to the machine, passed through the hole F,

thence around the sheave G to drum H. This drum is turned by the worm and wheel K, operated in the usual way. The bottom plate of the machine J fits the bottom of the trench. It extends back to apoint about midway of the bearingblock l3 and forward to the point where it connects with the floor-plate L, which dies into the front plate M. The sides of the machine extend out to the front between the bottom plate J and the floor-plate L. From the wall M they go back to the partition N for the full height and depth of the machine. From the partition N they taper off atthe bottom and back plate 0, as shown. To the back plate 0 and side is attached a plate or trowel P. In the front end of the machine are at tached the cutting-bars Q. The cores for forming the passages in the monolithic block are placed into the core-block B and are rotated by power conveyed by chain belt from sprocket-wheel R to sprocket-wheel S, which, with its gear S, is on a stud T. This gear engages four other gears U, these being upon studs V, each of which also carries another gear WV, that engages with the gears, one of which is on the end of each core.

The process and operation of the machine are as follows: Power being applied, the machine is moved forward by Winding the rope upon the drum, and at the same time, by means of the gearing, the cores are rotated. As the machine moves along the trench, the bottom of which has been graded to the required level, the sides of the trench are trimmed to the right wid th by the cutting-bars Q, or in case of hard or rocky ground they are trimmed by hand, the cutting-bars Q acting then principally as guides. Concrete is fed to the cores through the hopper Y and is packed down between them in the usual way or as hereinafter described. As the mold moves alonga continuous multiperforated monolithic structure is being deposited behind it, the bottom and sides of which are bounded by the bottom and sides of the excavation, while the top is determined and formed by the trowel or plate P, the passages therein being formed by the rotating cores. These cores all rotate in the same direction, and therefore the adjacent core-surfaces move in opposite directions. The object of this arrangement is to neutralize the triotional displacement effect of each core with its surrounding material by the contrary movement of adjacent cores, asillustrated in Fig. 11. By preference, also, each horizontal row of cores is made longer than the row immediately above it. Spiral wings or other projections may be added to one or more of such cores, as shown in Fig. 8, for the purpose of assisting in the consolidation of the concrete, or for a similar purpose the cores may be recessed, as shown in Fig. 10.

In all such machines great difficulty is experienced from the cement of the concrete working into the bearings of the cores and preventing them from turning freely. To overcome this, Iplace in the rear of the bearing-block B a screen Z, which for convenience is an extension ofthe partition N. This screen prevents nearly if not all cement from entering the bearing-block B, for such cement as passes along the cores through the partition falls down the forward side thereof and passes out at the bottom as the machine moves forward, and, the screen being made of thin iron, but little friction is occasioned against the cores. As an additional precaution the bearing Bis also, by preference, made hollow and with its rear end cut away at B to provide a means of exit for any cement that might by chance work into the block alongside of the cores.

I do notlimit this invention to the particulararrangement of gears as shown. Sprocketwheels or any other suitable gearing might be used.

hVhat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The method of forming multiperforated monolithic subway structures, which consists in packing concrete into the spaces between a group of cores, in giving said cores a rotary movement the quality of which is that adjacent core surfaces move in opposite direction and in simultaneously with such rotary movement causing the said cores to advance axially along the trench in which the monolithic structure is being formed.

2. In a continuous subway molding machine agroup of rotating cores the common rear end of which slopes downward.

3. In combination with a group of rotating cores and core support, the auxiliary guard plate N, substantially as described.

4. In combination with a group of rotating cores the core block B, having an outlet under its rear end substantially as described.

5. In a molding machine the recessed rotating core 0, Fig. 10, substantially as described.

ERNEST LESLIE RANSOME. Witnesses:

STEPHEN T. MATHER, THOS. THORKILDSEN.

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