US853971A - Device for collecting miners' checks. - Google Patents

Description

No. 853,971. E PATENTED MAY 21, 1907.. P. 0. GREENE.

DEVICE FOR COLLECTING MINERS-GHEGKS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I7, 1906.

WITNESSES I INVENTOR .4/W 914ml I BY fw .TW 5 9 ATYOl-P/VE) 1m: NORRIS PETERS cm, WASHINCYON. n. c.

FRANK c. GREENE, or CLEVELAND, 01-110.

DEVICE FOR COLLECTING IVHNERS CHECKS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 21, 1907.

Application filed September 17, 1906. Serial No. 385,040.

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK C. GREENE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Cleveland, county of Cuyahoga, and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Devices for Collecting Miners Checks, of which the following is a specification, the principle of the invention being herein explained and the best mode in which I have contemplated applying that principle, so as to distinguish it from other inventions.

My invention relates to an improved method of handling miners checks, and particularly to means devised for collecting such checks at the dumping station. it need scarcely be explained that in mines, especially coal-mines, the system almost universally adopted for keeping account of the work of individual miners is to supply each miner with a check, usually of metal for obvious reasons, that bears a number or other mark of identification and that is placed on each car of coal dug by that particular miner. Then the car arrives at the tipple such check is removed prior to or after dumping the car and the proper miner then credited with the weight of the cars contents. Since miners are paid in many instances not for the gross weight of the coal which they dig, but for the net Weight after the slack has been screened out, and since the proportion of slack depends to a large extent on the care exercised by the miner, it will be readily apparent that to insure justice as well as proper credit means must be provided whereby a check after being once attached to a car cannot be removed or exchanged by any one with im proper motives. To this end devices in'considerable variety have been brought forth for locking the check in the holder provided on the car and for otherwise preventing molestation of such check.

The object of my device is to do away altogether with complicated check-holders on the car without lessening the security against removal, and at the same time provide simple and wholly automatic mechanism for abstracting the check at the proper time and place. Said invention consists of means hereinafter fully described and particularly set forth in the claims.

The annexed drawing and the following description set forth in detail certain means embodying the invention, such disclosed me ans constituting but one ofvarious mech anical forms in which the principle of the invention may be used.

In said annexed drawing: the single figure there appearing shows partly in side elevation and partly in diagrammatic fashion one form of device embodying my several im provements.

As will be obvious from an inspection of this figure I contemplate securing the check, designated by A, in the car K, by simply suspending the same from a hook 7c projecting inwardly from the rear end of such car. This hook 7c is designed to be located a suffi cient distance below the level of the car to in sure its being entirely covered by the coal when the car is filled so as to not only conceal the check but to effectually preclude molestation of the same, as well. Such check, be ing put in place before the miner begins to load his car, will accordingly not be disclosed until after the car has been tilted forwardly on the tilting track-section of the dump. The coal line which before extended along 7c drops to 75 and the check can be readily removed. Obviously such removal, if to be effected by hand, would entail no little inconvenience and delay and for this reason any such method as that just described of caring for the check while en route from mine room to tipple has been heretofore considered impracticable. It is at this juncture that my device comes in and by automatically collecting the checks of successive cars as the latter are thus tilted forward makes it possible to use the above method without the difficulty supposedly associated therewith.

Of the numerous types of dumps at present in. use I have chosen only one with which to illustrate the operation of my improved check collector, this being a form of dump re cently devised. by myself in which the tilting track-section has both an oscillatory and a downward movement. An oscillatory tracksect'ion, however, is a feature of practically every type of dump, whether cross-over or track-end, and since of the dump mechanism such tilting track-section alone enters into operative relation with my device, the particular form illustrated is intended to be merely typical.

The device proper consists of an arm B pivotally mounted above the tilting trackseetion O, and so disposed as to be normally engaged by the inside of the rear end of the car, as such rear end is elevated upon the car being tilted forward. The location of hook ft on such rear end of the car, and of the pivotal axis of arm B, is furthermore such as to bring the lower end of the latter into approximate register with such hook. At another point in its path of oscillation the lower end of arm B. is designed to pass contiguously to a check receptacle B, that, where, as is usual, the weighing stand or office is at distance from the dumping station, is connected with such stand or office by a trough or conduit 1) adapted to conduct the check thereto. On the lower end of the arm, which it is thus seen passes in different parts of its path of oscillation contiguously to the car end and to the check receptacle B, respectively, is mounted an electro-magnet b. This magnet is energized by the current from a battery B or other source of electrical energy through suitable connections comprising a fixed contact member and a movable mem ber mounted on the arm B. The disposition of these contact members is such as to energize magnet 1/ at all times except when the lower end of the arm is contiguous to receptacle B.

Oscillation of arm B is effected in unison with the movementsof the tilting track-section O through suitable connecting means here shown as comprising simply a cord or cable b passing over a fixed pulley and attached at one end to the arm and at the other to the track-section.

The manner of operation of the device should be readily apparent from the foregoing description.

Arm B normally hangs substantially vertical and at a sufficient distance above the car to clear the forward end of the same as it ad vanees onto the tilting track-section of the dump. As such car, however, tilts forward its rear end is elevated, exposing the check A on hook 7c, and bringing such check into juxtaposition with the electromagnet Z/ on arm B. The magnet immed iately seizes the check, which should of course be made of iron, and as the car settles back to its former level, withdraws the same from oil hook 7;. Further movement of the track-section, including, in the case in hand as has been stated, a downward as well as oscillatory motion, is calculated through the medium of connecting cord Z) to swing such arm into proximity with receptacle B. The magnet l) is simultaneously (lo-energized by the breaking of connection between contact members 6 b and the check A is thus left free to fall into the receptacle and roll to its final destination.

Oscillation of arm B at the proper time may of course be effected by other means than the cord connection shown between it and the dump; in fact with another type of dump, wl'iere the movements of the tilting track-sectirm varied from those here assumed, a modification in this particular would be nocessitated. A system of connecting levers might be, for instance, substituted for the cord and pulley even in the case in hand, and the engagement of the car with a movable member might be utilized to ellect the desired result, instead of the connection with. the track-section direct, or for that matter where an operative is required any how at the dumping station a cord would enable him. to conveniently swing the lever to discharge the check when necessary.

Having thus described my invention in detail, that which I particularly point out and distinctly claim is:

1. The combination with the movable track-section of a dump; of a pivotally mounted arm adapted to swing contiguously to a car on said. track-section, and a magnet borne by said arm.

2. The combination with. the oscillatory track-section of a dump of a check receptacle; a pivotally n'iounted arm adapted to pass in different parts of its path of oscillation contiguously to a car on said track-section and to said receptacle, respectively, and a magnet borne by said arm.

3. The combination with the oscillatory track-section of a dump; of a swinging arm connected to operate in unison with said track-section, said arm being disposed to swing contiguonsly to a car thereon; and a magnet borne by said arm.

a. The combination with the oscillatory track-section of a dump; of a swinging arm. connected to operate in unison with said track-section, said arm being disposed. to swing contiguously to a car thereon; an electro-magnet mounted upon said arm, and means for energizing said magnet.

5. The combination with the oscillatory track-section of a dump; of a swinging arm opcra-tively connected with said track-section, said arm being disposed to swing contiguously to a car thereon an electro-magnet mounted upon said arm; and electrical connections for energizing said magnet during a part only of each oscillation of said arm.

6. The combination with the oscillatory track-section of a dump; of a check receptacle a swinging arm operatively connected with said track-section and. disposed to pass in different parts of its path of oscillation contiguously to a car upon said track-section. and to said check receptacle, respectively; an electro-magnet mounted upon said arm; and electrical connections for energizing said magnet at all times except when said arm is contiguous to said. receptacle.

7. The combination with the oscillatory track-section. of a dump; of a check receptacle a swinging arm disposed to pass in different parts of its path of osoillationoontiguremove a check from said car and to de-enerously to a car upon said track-section and gize the same to drop such check into the re- IO to said check-receptacle; means operatively ceptaole. connecting said arm with said track-section Signed by me, this 5th day of Sept, 1906.

to swing the same in unison with the move- FRANK C. GREENE. ments of the latter; an eleotro-magnet Attested bymounted upon said arm; and electrical con 0. V. GREENE,

nections adapted to energize said magnet to GEORGE M. GARRETT.

Images