US677677A - Process of storing and averaging materials in bulk. - Google Patents

Description

No. 677,677. Patenten my 2, |901.

E. VH. mssslen.. .PRDCESS 0F STORING ANU AVERAGING MATERIALS IN BULK'.

. (Application led In'. 22, 1901.) No Model.) 2 Sheets-Shouf' I.

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mi mms mins No. 677,677. Patented lluly 2, l90l.

E. H. MESSITER. PROGESS 0F STDRING AND AVERAGING MATERIALS IN BULK. (Applicaton Bled Har. 22, 1901.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

UNITED v STATES .ATENT Ormes.

EDWIN HENRY MESSITER, OF SAN LUIS POTOSI, MEXICO.

PROCESS OF STORING AND AVERAGING MATERIALS IN BULK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N o. 677,677,7dated July 2, 1901. Appiianon tied nach 22, 1901. serai No. 52,3'88. (No moan.)

To ctZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN HENRY MESSI- TER, of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Proc-v esses of Storing andAveraging Materials in Bulk, of which the following is a specication.

The invention is designed to provide for the' storage of material of a variable character in such a way that when withdrawn from storage the material withdrawn will be for all practical purposes a substantially homogeneous mixture of that which Was stored, and to do this with as little labor as possible and at as small an initial outlay as possible for bins, buildings, (itc. It is designed more especially for the storage of ores and the preparation of charges for blast-furnaces. The usual procedure in lead-smc] ting, at least, is to bed the ores by forming each kind of ore into a horizontal layer in a rectangular bin by means of wheelbarrows, the. The ores are removed from the beds by entering through doors in the sides of the bins and attempting to cut the beds down vertically. The caving of the ore causes irregularity in the resulting mixture and the expense for labor is great.

The leading feature of my process consists I in bringing in the ore by means of an elevated conveyer which is capable of discharging the material not from a fixed and definite point, but from a traveling pointV uniformly along a certain portion of its length by a sort of sowing action caused by the travel of the discharge devices, as hereinafter fully described with reference to the drawings, in which- Figure l is a side view, partly in section, of the appliances employed and the horizontally-extended bank of' materials. Fig. 2 is a plan view; Fig. 3, a cross-section; and Fig. 4; is a view looking endwise at the elongated banks of material, showing a multiplicity of the latter and an extension of my process.

In Fig. l I show a conveyera and the points b and c, between which the discharging devices CZ and e travel and discharge uniformly. Of several usual types of conveyer available for this purpose I prefer a belt discharging into achte d by means .of the pulleys e c, as shown, tllie chute and pulleys being moved back and-*forth between the points b and c in 'uniform manner with respect to the length of the travel, forming an elongated layer, a succession ofy which in parallel courses form the elongated bank f.4 (Seen in cross-section in Fig. 3.) In removing the material from storage in this bank I provide, preferably, an excavator or conveyer .of ordinary construction, such as a chain of buckets, whose longitudinal axis is arranged transversely to the bank and which excavator or conveyer is capable of motion laterally to itself and lengthwise of vthe bank on guides r r. This excavator is adapted to remove the materialin a direction at right angles to the bank,taking the material constantly from the foot of the slopes h h' h2 h3 successively as it advances, these slopes be= ing inclined at the angle of repose of the material. Said excavator orconveyer discharges the material into a conveyer Ys, of ordinary design, which conveyerk is arranged parallel with the bank and delivers the material at any desired place. The conveyer is, as shown ,Y of the endless-belt type, but may be any other form. The material being removed uniformly from the parallel slopes h2 h3 will be a practically homogeneous mixture of the several classes of material deposited in the layers of the bank. That which is removed from the extreme ends, being a relatively very small portion, will be an approximately true mixture. Obviously the removal of the material from the slopes h h', dac., may be accomplished by means of shovels and Wheelbarrows or in any other convenient manner.

When it is desired to use several storagebanks in conjunction with each other, my process can be used to even greater advantage. For this purpose an arrangement of apparatus` similar to that shown in Fig. 4 might conveniently be used. This figure presents an end view of four banks in different stages. In Fig. 4 the material is represented as being brought in by a conveyer Z, adapted to discharge at will into either of the conloo Say, every two minutes without difficulty. It will t ning at right angles with them,which conveyer fm will deliver the material to any desired place. A return-conveyer q1, maybe provided adjacent to and parallel with the conveyer m, which conveyer n may be used to return, by means of the chute o, any material which may inadvertently have been allowed to pass by all of the conveyers cr'- a2 CL3. a4, as well as to return the extreme end portions of any stor-V age-bank to the con veyer l, by means of which such material will be incorporated in the bank which may be in process of formation at the time. In Fig. 4 the conveyer Z is represented as delivering into the conveyer d3, which is distributing the material in the storage-bank 3. At the same time the excavator g' is sup,-- posed to be removing material from the bank f'lthrongh conveyers 7c and m. Simultane-- ously excavator g2 is represented as removing an end portion of the b ank f2, the material from which end portion is being conveyed,

bymeans of conveyers 7a2, n, Z, and d3, to the bank f3. The object in redistributing the ends of the banks is that the end of a bank,

being conefshaped, will not give a homogeneousA mixture by a straight cross-cutof the excavator. Bank f* is in reserve.

rlhe conveyer d, Fig. l, may by the travel of its discharge chute d be made todischarge over the entire length of a bank containing, ten thousand 'tons of ordinary material thus be seen that the mixing of the material is accomplished by my processwit-h the utmost accuracy, for the material removed'from any slope, as h3, Fig. l, will be composed of layers ofthe. material deposited during, say, every two minutes of the 'time during which the bank was being formed.

The irregularity of the mixing occurring at i the extreme ends of the storage-bank will be so slight and the proportion of the material affected by it will' be so small that it will be inappreciable in the practice of preparing fur.- nace charges or in any ordinary operations. Where several banks are used, however, the redistribution of the material from the extreme ends is so readily accomplished, as heretofore described, that I have illustrated it as f process an extension or modification of my which may be used in special cases. My improved process, considered with reference to a single storage-bank or with several storagebanks independent of each other, is complete for practical purposes. Obviously when seva4 by ordinary means, each of eral banks are used the material may be delivered to the conveyers a o? a3, dsc., in. any convenient way Whatever other than by the conveyer Z; also, obviously, the material may be removed from the slopes h' h2 71,3, &c., in any convenient way Whatever.

My process may be used for the simple storage and removal from storage of material not necessarily requiring to be mixed, and also for the purpose of adding to a storage-bank partially formed other material to bring the whole to any desired average composition.`

` Il'am aware of the Patent No. 662,063, in which the averaging, mixing, and storing of materials are effected in a series of stratified `conical piles, each pile being formed as it grows in height by bringing into action a higher discharge-orifice, and in which the storage .of the material is in bins. In my inven-V tion no, bins are requiredV and the storage in bulk is not in conical piles, but in prolonged horizont-al prisxnatic banks of materialvhich are formed by imparting to the discharge spout orA chute a longitudinal travel that sows or distributes the material along a definite '.path, forming a horizontally-extended bank ;of unlimited length, which avoids the neces :sity of bins, the mixing being effected by a transverse cutting action of a laterally-trav;` eling excavator, as described. l

Having thus described my invention, what il claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The process of storing and averaging s materials in bulk, which consists in distrib- ;uting the materials in horizontal layers lonz gitudinally in an elongated bank, said layers being of different quality and then removing the material uniformly from a cross-section 'iof said elongated bank, substantially asset forth.

2. The process of storing and averaging smaterials in bulk, which consists in distrib- :uting the materials in horizontal layers lon-Y gitudinally in an elongated bank, said layers "abeing of different quality and then removing 'the materials uniformly'from a cross-section along planes inclined at the angle of repose fsubstantially as described.

3. The process 'of storing and averaging jmaterials in the preparation of furnace charges, which consists in distributing the materials in horizontal layerswith respect to the length of an elongated prismatic bank, said layers being of different quality and in removing thematerials uniformlywith respect `to a transverse section of said bank `substantially asset forth.V

4:. The process of storing and averaging materials, which consists in distributing the materials in horizontal layers longitudinally tin an elongated bank, said layers. being o f :ditterent quality, and in removing thend ,lportions of said bank to a second bank, and thenremoving thematerials from'theremainder of the elongated bank uniformly with respect to a transverse section thereof, substantially as set forth.

5. The process of storing and averaging materials, which consists in distributing the materials in horizontal layers longitudinally in an elongated bank, said layers being different quality, and in removing the end p0rtions of said bank, and redistribu ting the materials from said end portions in a second 1o elongated bank, and in removing the materials from both banks uniformly With respect to the transverse sections of said banks, substantially as set forth. EDWIN HENRY MESSITER. W`itnesses:

JAS. CALDWELL, H. W. WILSON.

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