US707487A

US707487A - Apparatus for elevating or conveying and transferring ice, &c.

Info

Publication number: US707487A
Application number: US537000A
Authority: US
Inventors: Edgar A Wright
Original assignee: AULTMAN Co
Current assignee: AULTMAN Co
Priority date: 1900-02-15
Filing date: 1900-02-15
Publication date: 1902-08-19
Anticipated expiration: 1919-08-19

Description

No. 707,487. Patented Aug. l9, I902.

E. A. WRIGHT.

APPARATUS FOR ELEVATING 0B CONVEYING AND TRANSFEBBING ICE, 6w.

(Application filed Feb. 15, 1900.) (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet I.

No. 707,487. Patented Aug. l9, I902.

E. A. WRIGHT.

APPARATUS FOR ELEVATING 0R CONVEYING AND TRANSFERRING ICE, 6w.

(Application filed Feb. 15, 1900. v

3 Shasta-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

m: Norms PETERS co. pumaumo. msummou, D. c.

Patented Aug. l9, I902.

E. A. WRIGHT. APPARATUS FOR ELEVATING 0R CONVEYING AND TRANSFERRING ICE, 8w.

(Application filed. Feb. 15, 1900.)

3 Sheets-Sheet 3 (No Model.)

@Vu'ueooea ms PETERS co, wcwaumo WASHINGYON, n c.

ITED drafts PATIENT FFICE.

EDGAR A. W'RIGHT, OF CANTON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE AULTMAN COMPANY, OF CANTON, OHIO, ACORPORATION OF OHIO.

APPARATUS FOR ELEVATING OR CONVEYING AND TRANSFERRING ICE, (to.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent M0. 707,487, dated August 19, 1902.

Application filed February 15, 1900. $erial No. 5,370. (No model.) A

To (0Z7, whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDGAR A. WRIGHT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Canton, in the county of Stark and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Elevating or Conveying and Transferring Ice and for other Purposes, of which the following is a specification, reference beinghad therein to the accompanying drawings.

The object of my invention is to simplify and improve the construction of ice elevating and transmitting or transferring machinery, to the end that the same may be operated with great rapidity and to a large extent automatically without permitting the escape from the storage-chamber of the ice-house of cold air or the entrance of warm air.

In order to make myinvention more clearly understood, I have shown in the accompanying drawings means for carrying the same into practical efiect without limiting my improvements in their useful applications to the particular construction which for the sake of' illustration I have delineated.

In said drawings,Figure 1 is a front elevation of so much of an ice elevating and transmitting or transferring mechanism embodying my invention as is necessary for an understanding of the latter. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional View, partly in elevation, of the same. tion.

Referring to the drawings, 1 indicates one or more ice receiving and conveying or elevating platforms, bars, orfingers attached to an endless carrier 2, the latter being carried around drums or pulleys 3, one of the latter receiving power from any suitable source. (Not shown.) This elevating device is situated, preferably, in what is known as the freezingchamber F of the ice -storage warehouse or plant. This roomF may be considered as typical of any room orspace where the ice is produced or deposited preliminary to the storing operation.

I indicates a block of ice shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1 as being elevated by one of the platforms 1. I may state that it being the usual and preferred practice to handle the ice while resting on its edge, the form of Fig. 3 is a plan View, partly in seemy invention herein illustrated and described has been specially designed for such mode of operation, although by simple modification without departure from my invention the apparatus may be applied to the handling of ice while resting upon one of its fiat sides or adapted for other useful purposes.

4 is an elevator guide-frame situated near and parallel with the path of the platforms 1, in which frame is mounted and adapted to be adjusted and after adjustment to move vertically a cage or frame 5. The latter is provided with any suitable hoisting mechanismsuch as traveling and stationary pulleys 6 7 7, a rope S, and a Windlass 9, with or without a counterbalancing or partly counterbalancing weight 10. Said Windlass may be operated by hand or by any preferredgnechanical power.

11 is the platform of the transferring-cage 5, arranged, as hereinafter described, to be tilted to discharge the ice at the desired place of delivery. The first operation, however, is to automatically transfer the ice, which has been loaded in any desired manner upon one of the platforms 1, and thereby elevated to a certain point, to the platform 11 of the transmitting or transferring cage 5. To this end I combine with the cage 5 a transferring means, the operation of which is caused, when the block of ice is at a proper height, substantially on a level with the platform 11, by the movement of the ice itself or of the elevating devices 1 2, by which it is at that time carried. In the preferred construction of such automatic transferring devices which I have illustrated 12 indicates one or more projecting bars rigidly attached to the cage or frame 5 and extending into the path of the block of ice When the latter is being elevated by one of the platforms 1. It will be understood that the bar orbars 12 and the platforms 1 are of such relative construction that the bars offer no obstruction to the vertical movement and passage of said platforms. The block of ice I will, however, encounter the bar or bars 12 at substantially the moment when the bottom of the ice is on a level with the top of the platform 11, thereby lifting the cage 5 in its frame 4.

13 indicates the transferring device proper,

consisting,preferably,of downwardly-extending and laterally-movable fingers suitably connected with and supported from the cage 5, so that lying normally behind the initial path of the ice I, as shown in dotted lines, Fig. 1, they maybe caused by the above-described upward movement of the cage 5 to press laterally upon the ice and shove the same from the platform 1 to the platform 11. (See full lines in Fig. 1.) This movement I clfect by supporting the fingers 13 rigidly upon two or more horizontal bars 14 and connecting the latter by links 15 with the top horizontal bar 16 of the cage 5. By this construction the parts 13 may have a horizontal, lateral, or parallel movement without departing from their vertical positions. Such horizontal movement may be effected in various ways. I have provided for this purpose ropes or chains 17, attached at 18 to the frame 4, passing over a pulley 19 and connected at 20 with one of the supporting-bars of the transferring device 13. It results from this arrangement that the above-described vertical movement of the cage 5 will cause the bar 14 to be pulled on or held relative to the cage by the rope 17, and thereby cause the

parts

13, 14, and 15 to be swung laterally from the position shown in dotted lines to that shown in full lines in Fig. 1, which will carry the block of ice I forcibly and positively from the platform 1 to the platform 11.

It will be understood that the carrying or elevating means 1 2 may be of any desired height and that the receiving and transferring cage 5 may be placed on the outside of the closed ice-storage chamber S and near an openings, leading from the freezing-chamber into the storage-chamber. This opening being of small size and situated at or near the top of the storage-chamber will permit very little exit of cold air from the storage-chamher or entrance of warm air thereto, even if left open; but such opening may be provided with a door 21, preferably of an automatic-v ally-operating character, such as a swingdoor hung on a horizontal hinge 22. The next operation is the delivery of the block of ice I from the receiving-cage 5 through the opening .9 to an elevator or chute within the storage-chamber and at the inner side of the openings, by which last elevator or chute the ice is conducted to the desired place of storage either by gravity or by a positive operation of the elevator within the storage-chamber. I have illustrated an elevator 23, with suspended hooks 24 and traveling by means of endless ropes, chains, or belts 25, as a suitable receiving lneans for the ice within the storage-chamber; but this elevator is to be understood as typical of any desired or preferred means for receiving the ice and transferring it to its ultimate point of storage in the chamber S. As the ice leaves the platform 11 and by its own gravity and movement opens the door 21 and passes through the opening .9 into the storage-chamber S it is received upon a support or supporting bars or fingers 26, arranged to alternate with and permit the free passage of the elevating-hooks 24. 27 is a stop which arrests the block of ice upon the support 26 in position to be engaged by the hooks 24 and transferred to its ultimate point of storage or to a chute at any desired point on the path of travel of the elevator 23, by which chute the ice may be ultimately delivered.

It remains to describe the means for causing the block of ice to be automatically delivered from the platform 11 of the transferring-cage 5. A convenient and preferred means for this purpose consists in mounting the platform 11 pivotally on its cage 5 on a horizontal axis 28 at that side of the cage which is next to the opening 5. At its other end or any suitable point the platform 11 is suspended from a convenient part of the frame 4 by chains or ropes 29, which are a little too short to allow the platform 11 to assume a horizontal position when the cage 5 is at its lowermost point. (See full lines in Fig. 1.) When, however, the ice I encounters the bars 12 and lifts the cage 5, (while at the same time the transferring device 13 is caused to force the ice onto the platform 11,) the rope 29 is slackened by reason of the elevating of the hinge 28 relative to the frame 4, and said piatform 11 is permitted to assume a horizontal position just above the sill of the opening 8. Now as the ice slides horizontally from the platform or elevating-fingers 1 the upward pressure of the ice upon the bars 12 will cease, the platform 1 will pass upward by the cage 5, and the latter will drop to its lowermost adjusted position. The proportions of theparts will be such that this will bring the hinged edge of the platform 11 just at or slightly above the sill of the opening 3, Fig. 2. The rope 29 being a little'too short, as already explained, to allow the outer edge of the platform 11 to drop as far as the hinged edge, this dropping of the cage 5 will tilt the platform 11, as shown, and cause the block of ice to slide by gravity through the opening 3 to the receiving devices within the storage-chamber.

' It will be understood that there may be a series of openings 8 one above the other along the elevator-frame 4, so that the storing of the ice may begin at a low level and the said openings permanently closed one after the other as the level of the stored ice rises in the chamber S. It is thus insured that the storage-chamber shall at no time have even a temporary opening below the level of the stored ice, which is a positive and invariable requirement with the managers of some plants. It will be observed that the transferring-cage 5 is adapted to be adjusted by the'windlass 9 and hoisting devices 6 7 8 to the proper height to operate in the manner hereinbefore described for the automatic delivery of the blocks of ice through any one of the vertical series of openings .9. After IIO the cage 5 is thus adjusted the attachmentpoint 18 of the chains 17 will be located so as to allow the transferring device 13 to have the free initial position shown in dotted lines at Fig. 1. Also the rope 29 will be attached at such point on the frame 4 relative to the height of the cage 5 as will give the platform 11 the necessary slant when said cage is in its lowermost position. It will be observed that the vertical movement of the cage 5 in the course of its automatic operation in connection with any one of the openings .9 will be substantially the same as the horizontal thickness of the block of ice. Thus if the cake of ice is eleven inches thick it will require a vertical movement of about eleven inches of the cage 5 to transfer the block from the platform 1 to the platform 11, and after the block has disengaged from the platform 1 the cage 5 will drop down eleven inches, more or less. hen necessary, the adjustments of the various parts of the apparatus may be made to correspond with the thickness of the ice which is being handled; but ordinarily one adjustment will serve for blocks of ice of considerable variation as to thickness.

It will be observed that important features of my invention consist in its capability of rapidly storing ice through an opening at or near the top of the storage-room, at the top level of the ice within such room, and of operating to a great extent automatically, eliminating much expensive labor.

Vhat I claim is 1. The herein-described apparatus for elevating and transferring or storing ice, con sisting of the combination of an elevator and an automatic transferring device having means for engaging the ice at its farther side for removing the ice from said elevator.

2. In an apparatus for elevating and trans ferring ice, and for other purposes, the combination of an elevator, a receiving means within the storage-chamber or otherwise suitably situated, and an automatic laterally-acting transferring device having means for engaging the ice on its farther side while on said elevator, to remove it therefrom, and transfer it to said receiving means.

3. The combination of an elevator, a cage for receiving the ice from said elevator movable in the direction of movement of the ice, a means for engaging and transferring the ice carried bysaid cage and operated by the movement of the cage, a bar or stop carried by tilting platform hinged on said cage and connected with a fixed point, means for engaging and transferring the ice from said conveying means to said platform operated by the movement of the cage, and a bar or stop carried by the cage and adapted to be engaged by a part moved by said elevating means to operate said cage.

6. The combination with the storage-chamber having a receiving-opening s of a frame situated near said opening, a cage movable in said frame, an elevator, and means for antomatically transferring the ice from said elevator to said cage, and means for automatically delivering the ice from said cage through said openin 7. The combination of the storage-chamber having a series of openings 5 one above the other, a frame extending by said openings, a cage movable in said frame and adjustable with respect to each of said openings, an elevating or conveying device, means for automatically transferring the ice from said conveying device to said cage, and means for antomatically delivering the ice from said cage to one of said openings.

8. The combination of a storage-chamber having an opening 5, a frame extending by said opening, a receiving-cage movable in said frame,an automatic transferring device adapted to engage the ice and movable toward and from the cage, means for delivering the ice from the cage to said opening, and a conveying or elevating means adapted to carry the ice and acting to actuate said transferring device.

9. The herein-described apparatus for elevating and transferring or storing ice, consisting of the combination of an elevator and an automatic reciprocating transferring device having means for engaging the ice at its farther side for removing the load from said elevator.

10. The herein-described apparatus for elevating and transferring or storing ice, con- IOS IIO

sisting of the combination of a'receiving-elevator, a discharging-elevator and a reciprocating automatic transferring device operated by the movement of one of said elevators and acting to remove the load from the re ceiving-elevator and permit its transfer to the discharging-elevator.

11. The herein-described apparatus for elevating and transferring or storing ice, consisting of the combination of an elevator, an automatic transferring and draft device having means for positively engaging the ice to draw the same from the elevator platform or support, and means whereby the movement of the elevator is caused to actuate said device.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EDGAR A. WRIGHT.

\Vitnesses:

MELVILLE B. 00X, WM. A. LYNCH.