Hoisting apparatus.

Application filed January 26, 1910. Serial No. 540,134.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Malcolm McIntyre, a citizen of the United States of America, residing in the city of New York, in the ' g borough of Manhattan, in the State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Hoisting Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

In apparatus for loading and unloading 10 boats and other hoisting apparatus, it is common to carry the load-hauling rope or ropes over a traveling sheave and to provide means whereby at the proper times in hoisting or lowering, this sheave shall be 15 caused to travel inboard or outboard to the loading or the dumping point. The more usual form of such an apparatus is one in which the traveling sheave is mounted upon a trolley running on an overhanging track 20 on a boom or other suitable structure, the trolley with the sheave being caused to travel inboard and outboard at the proper times to bring the bucket or load to the desired points. In another form of such ap25 paratus the trackway is omitted and the traveling sheave is suspended by a rope or ropes leading to a point of suspension or to a suitable counterweight, but means are provided as in the more usual construction for 30 causing the traveling sheave to travel inboard and outboard at the proper times.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a simple and efficient means for automatically controlling the movement of 35 the load in these and other hoisting mechanisms, and a further object is to so construct the mechanism that the extent of the travel may be readily varied for varying requirements.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of one form of the present improvement; Fig. 2 is a plan view, drawn to a much larger scale, showing the two drums for hoisting and controlling ³ 45 the travel of the trolley; Fig. 3 is a side elevation of an adjustable controlling drum; Fig. 4 is a diagram illustrating a modified arrangement of the trolley - controlling means; Figs. 5 to 9 inclusive are diagrams 50 illustrating other modifications.

In Fig. 1 the present invention is shown as embodied in a structure comprising a skeleton tower T built upon the edge of a wharf W, and having a trackway on a - 55 boom B, which is suspended from the top of the tower and overhangs the water, so that it may be adapted to the loading and unloading of vessels V, brought alongside the wharf. In this view, the apparatus is shown as for unloading the vessels, a hopper _coH being indicated on the tower to receive the load dumped from the hoisting skip or bucket L, which has been loaded in the hold of the vessel V. This skip or bucket L may be of any well known or suitable construe- θ5 tion, to be suspended from the hauling or hoisting rope 6, and if the bucket were of the clam-shell type for example, the usual closing rope in addition to the hoisting rope would be required, but for the sake of sim- 70 plicity.and clearness there have been indicated simply a tipping bucket and one rope. This hoisting rope (j passes over a sheave 8 on the trolley t, which runs in this case on a suitable trackway on the boom B, and the 75 rope 6 thence passes over the sheave 7 on the frame (boom or tower) and is wound onto the driven hoisting drum D.

The bucket L, which I will hereafter refer to as the load merely, will thus tend, by 80 the angle made by the rope 6 in passing over the trolley sheave 8, to draw the trolley inwardly or inboard toward .the tower T. To counteract this and to control the inboard and outboard position and travel of the trol- 85 ley t on the boom, there is secured to the outer end of the trolley t a rope 9, which thence is passed around a sheave 10 at the outer end of the trackway and thence over a sheave 11 near the inner end of the track- 90 way or on the tower, and thence it is controlled, by a compound drum E, driven with the hoisting drum D.

In Fig. 1 the end of the rope 9 is shown as secured to a flying block 12, over whose 95 sheave runs the bight of a rope 13, 14. The ends 13 and 14 of this rope are wound on different parts of the compound drum or drums E, geared or otherwise connected to the drum D, so as to rotate with the latter. 100 In this specification this compound drum E will be spoken of as one drum, although as ; described in the patent of Augustus Smith, No.. 929,508, this, drum need not be single.

It is shown in simple form in Fig. 2, and 105 there it consists of a spirally grooved drum having a short large diameter 17, a longer small diameter 15 and an intermediate conical part 16 connecting the large and small diameters. The end of the rope 14 is connected 110

1,004,451 to the large diameter 17 of the compound drum at a suitable point, as x, and is coiled in one direction in the spiral grooves, while the other end is coiled on the small diam5 eter 15 in the opposite direction and. has its end secured as at y to this small diameter. Thus when the drum is rotated, one end, say 14, will be paid off as the other end, say 13, is wound up. This compound drum E is 10 shown as geared to the hoisting drum D through the gear wheels cl, e, Fig. 2..

Assuming the trolley t to be in its inboard position, as for example with the load L over the hopper H, the rope 14 will then 15 have been more or less unwound from the larger diameter 17 of the drum E, while the rope 13 will have been wound, up on the smaller diameter 15. If now it is desired to lower the bucket to the vessel V, the drum D 20 is caused to rotate as in the direction of its arrow Fig. 2, to pay out the rope 6, and at the same time the compound controlling drum E will be rotated in the direction of its arrow, Fig. 2, to wind up the rope 14 on 25 the large diameter 17 and pay out the rope 13 from the small diameter 15. This will cause the trolley to be given an outboard movement, and these diameters are so proportioned that the trolley will be drawn out 30 at any desired ratio to the speed at which the hoisting rope 6 is paid out, and consequently the load L will travel outwardly, in a prescribed path of definite location with respect to the trackway until the rope 14 35 reaches the coned part 16 of the drum E.

Then it will be drawn in at a gradually flower relative speed, and the trolley will, therefore, slow up with respect to the motion of the load suspended from rope 6, un40 til when rope 14 reaches the small diameter of the drum E and is wound up exactly as fast as the rope 13 is paid out, the trolley will be held stationary in its outboard position and the load will be lowered in a verti45 cal path., Exactly the reverse action will take place and the load will be caused to follow a like path in the reverse direction, when the hoisting drum D is driven in the (reverse direction to raise the load L. In 50 other words, the load will be automatically caused to follow a path substantially such as indicated by one of the dotted lines p, Fig. 1. In Fig. 1 are indicated several of these paths to show how the vertical path may be ar55 ranged nearer to or farther from the tower, depending on the part of the vessel’s hold desired to be reached by the bucket. To effect this change of vertical path, means are provided for changing the point on the drum 60 at which the winding of the rope 14 begins.

Thus in Fig. 3 there is shown how the extreme end of the rope 14, instead of being secured to the drum E directly, is secured to a pin f on the wheel e to overhang the 65 drum, and the latter is secured on the shaft s by a key and feather or a squaring of the shaft, so that while the drum may. be adjusted on the shaft longitudinally of its axis, the drum must revolve with the shaft. This longitudinal adjustment may be effected.by 70 a hand lever F and locking means and a link connection g to a collar y¹. By moving the drum E toward the wheel e, for example, before the outboard travel of the trolley begins, that is, before beginning to wind up 75 the rope 14 on the large diameter of the drum, this rope 14 will be caused, to begin winding into say the second or third spiral groove, instead of the first, and consequently the rope will that much sooner begin to wind 80 up onto the conical part, the outboard travel of the trolley t will be less and the vertical descent of the load will be that much nearer the tower T. Other means may be employed for effecting this change of the winding 85 point, and the details of my apparatus may be changed in other .particulars. Thus in Fig. 4 is shown a construction in which the bight of the ropes 113 and 114 instead, of being carried over a sheave 12 on a flying 90 block is passed around a sheave 112 on a block directly attached to the outer end of the trolley t, instead of through intermediate ropes, as before. One end 113 of this controlling rope passes around a sheave .108 on 95 the outer end of the boom (which in this Fig. 4 is shown arranged horizontally), and thence around a sheave 110 on the structure >to the small diameter of the drum E. In this case, the drum E is shown as on the 100 same shaft with the hoisting drum D. The other end 114 of the controlling rope passes from the sheave 112 over a sheave 109 on the boom B, and thence over a pulley 111 to the . larger end of the drum E. The operation is 105 the same as in the case of the construction, Figs. 1 and 2.

A trackway is not absolutely necessary, and any equivalent device for supporting the weight of the guiding sheave to control 110 the horizontal position of the load such as a rope or ropes to a fixed support or. to a counterweight, may be substituted without affecting the operation of my controlling device. Thus in the modification, Fig. 5, there 115 is shown an apparatus without a trolley and trackway for the traveling sheave.

The bucket or load L may be lifted by the rope 6 passing around the hoisting drum D, which is geared as before to the compound 120 drum E. The inboard and outboard position of the load L is controlled by the position of the traveling and guiding sheave 8, which is suspended by the rope B¹ leading to a point of attachment at the top of the 125 mast T¹. The sheave is moved in and out by drawing in or paying out on the rope 9, which is attached to a flying block 12 and operated by ropes 13 and 14 on the compound drum E, as in Fig. 1. In this case 130

1,004,451 the rope B¹ replaced the trackway, and a boom or strut B² is employed to hold sheave 10 out far enough to give the proper angle of pull to rope 9.

In another case the load could obviously be caused to travel outward as it was hoisted instead of inward, or in fact, any desired path could be maintained by suitably forming component parts of the compound 10 drum E.

It is obvious also that if the load-hauling rope 6 acted on the load in a horizontal direction, the controlling means would be equally applicable to control the vertical po15 sition of the said load. Thus in the construction shown in Fig. 6, the load-hauling rope 66, is led to the drum D around a sheave 77 at the end of the boom so as to impart a horizontal motion to the load L.

In this case a tail rope 66¹ wound in the opposite direction on drum D, can be used to draw the load L back in the opposite direction. The rope 99 controlled by the drum E which rotates with the drum D, 25 wotild in this case determine the vertical position of the load L, and for this purpose this rope 99 might be led over a sheave 11 from the flying block 12 controlled as before by the compound drum E. From the sheave 30 11, the rope 99 would pass over sheave 20, on a trolley running on trackway B, thence passing in a loop around the sheave 21 on a block supporting the load L, thence over a pulley 22 on the trolley and thence have its .35 outer end secured as at 23 to the other end of the boom or trackway. In this case the horizontal position of load L would be directly controlled by the operator through drum D, while the vertical position would 40 be automatically controlled by the compound drum E, causing the load to follow a definite curved path indicated by the dotted line p. The position of this path as a whole could be shifted as before by varying the point at. 45 which the rope 14 begins to wind up on drum E. In the modification shown in Fig. 7, the sheave 212 in the block supporting the load L takes the place of the flying sheave 12 to receive the bight of the rope 213, 214, : 50 which in this case is passed around sheave 211 on the frame, sheave 208 on the end of the boom B, and sheaves 22 and 20 on the trolley 7¹ running on a trackway on the boom. In this case, when the rope 213 was ;55 paying out as fast as 214 was being wound up on the compound drum E, the sheaves 20, 22 and 212 would travel along the boom just as fast as rope 66 ivas wound in by the drum D.

6Q The axes of motion of the hoist and control need not be vertical and horizontal. Thus in Fig. 8 I show an inclined boom. In this case the axis of what for convenience is called the load-carrying or directly con65 trolled motion is approximately in the straight line joining the leading sheave 77 with the drum D, while the axis of automatically controlled motion is approximately at right angles to the trackway B.

In the construction shown in Fig. 9, no 70 trackway or trolley is employed, but the load L is controlled in one direction by the rope 66¹ passing around the drum D and sheave 77, while in the other direction the position of the load is controlled automat- 75 ically by means of the rope 9, the flying block 12 and the ropes 13 and 14, paid out and wound up on the compound drum E driven by the hoisting drum D, thus forcing the load to follow a prescribed path which 80 may be that indicated by the dotted line. In other words, the principle of my improvement is the provision of means to guide a load through a prescribed curved path in space by mechanically and automatically 85 varying the abscissas of the said curve to correspond with the varying ordinates, to use a geometrical expression, or vice versa, to vary the ordinates mechanically and automatically to correspond with varying ab- 90 scissas.

In the following claims I use the term “ hauling ” in a general sense as a convenient way of distinguishing the drum D and its rope 6 or 66 from the compound drum E 95 and its rope.