Elevated cableway for observation of nature
A fixed, elevated cableway having a plurality of intermediate supports for transport of persons for nature observation is described. One or more self-powered trolleys may travel simultaneously on a common cable span between two intermediate supports. Intermediate supports may join separate cable spans and/or allow tight turns. The trolley possesses one or more speed-governing devices, locks to the support cable and to intermediate supports. Combined features produce a slow-speed elevated cableway having minimal impact on the environment while providing improved installation flexibility for the purpose of nature observation.
My related (and copending) Provisional Patent Application No. 60/008,199 was filed on Dec. 19, 2007. That filing date is claimed for this application.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENTNot applicable
Perry, D. R. An arboreal naturalist explores the rain forest's mysterious canopy. Smithsonian Magazine, June 1980:42-52.
Perry, D. R. The Canopy of the Tropical Rain Forest. Scientific American, November 1984:138-147.
Perry, D. R. The Rain forest Aerial Tram and Trails. Project Description; Newton, Massachusetts 1991.
Anderson, Ryan. Human-Powered Vehicle for Stationary Overhead Rail or High-Tension Cable. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONNature observation is becoming a larger component of the worldwide tourism industry. This increased numbers of nature oriented tourists can negatively impact the environment. Foot traffic causes erosion; vehicles, such as air-boats and land rovers, are typically noisy and disturb wildlife; and various cableway systems for thrill seekers are not suited for nature observation and may cause negative impacts on natural communities. My tramway is quiet, slow paced, and has minimal negative environmental impact. It is an improved design over existing cableways for serving the eco-tourism industry, seniors and the general public.
Access to nature often is limited to ambulatory individuals. While parks and reserves may have trails that conform to the American Disabilities Act, these trails are few in number compared to non-ADA accessible trails. Loopholes in the ADA accessibility guidelines allow public parks to not upgrade trail systems when these improvements damage habitat and/or are cost prohibitive. The applicant's tramway has less negative impact to the natural environment than an ADA accessible trail, is less costly, and provides better access to nature than do trails. The applicant's tramway offers park engineers, administrators and designers a versatile ADA solution to improved accessibility to natural habitats.
Various types of cableways are increasingly in use to carry visitors into nature, most often forested areas. This activity is a growing market of the nature tourism industry. Following the publications of Perry (1980, 1984) a simple cableway known as a zip-line, a type of fixed, elevated cableway, has grown in popularity in ecotourism. In 1991 I introduced the first ski-lift cableway that provides access and observation of the rain forest canopy to the physically challenged and general public. Such installations are increasing in number.
At this time no elevated cableway used in the ecotourism industry has been specifically designed for nature observation. Zip-lines are high speed and do not permit close observation of nature. Zip-lines rely on gravity for power limiting their application to areas of steep terrain. Ski-lift cableways have negative impact on natural habitats because forest must be cleared away from the tramway negatively removing the habitat the nature tourist seeks to observe. Neither ski-lifts nor zip-lines nor other fixed elevated cableways allow the passenger(s) to stop the trolley to observe nature.
Callecod 1979 and Davis 1977 patented a playground zip-line ride that provide human transport along fixed, elevated cableways. The child hangs suspended by hand from handles of the trolley and rolls down an inclined cable. This basic system is used in eco-tourism and is sometimes called a “canopy tour”. Canopy tours are often staged dozens of feet off the ground and the passenger is suspended in a harness, reducing the danger of a fall. As with playground recreation cableways these zip-line rides were designed for high speed and thrill, not slow-paced nature observation.
For reasons of safety, only a single trolley (harness, chair, cabin) per cable span is permitted on a zip-line cableway. However, nature tourism often takes place in groups where a guide provides nature interpretation. If multiple trolleys were used on either the Callecod (1979) or the Davis (1977) cableways trolleys would collide, which could lead to serious injury. This danger is exacerbated by the higher speeds designed into the Albrich (2002), Remington (1993), and
Marvin (1982) systems. A stuck or stopped trolley on these would become a deadly obstacle for passengers descending at high-speeds. Additionally; animals may be disturbed or frightened away by high-speed movement; high speed limits the ability to observe nature and wildlife; and high speed makes the use of nature-tourism essentials—i.e. cameras and binoculars—difficult or impossible. Therefore the designs of existing downhill cable and railway rides do not address the needs of nature observation.
A search of the existing literature has produced no prior art where a fixed elevated cableway has been designed with the features needed for slow paced nature observation, which often takes place in groups. A search of the existing literature has produced no prior art where a fixed elevated cableway allows multiple trolleys, groups of trolleys, on a single span. Nor has a search of the existing literature produced prior art and/or patents where suspended trolleys for human transport are equipped with an automatic speed-limiting mechanism(s) to guard against collisions and provide for stopping.
Whereas all existing fixed elevated cable and railways are designed for high speed the applicant's cableway is designed for slow speed. Combined with automatic speed-limiting devices, this allows multiple trolleys to use the same cable span simultaneously. One such device, a centrifugal brake, has proven effective in applications where objects must be lowered slowly, such as life boats on ships. Frankel (1981) patented the use of a centrifugal brake to stop elevators and cable cars in emergencies. However, centrifugal brakes have not been used to govern the speed of trolleys on fixed elevated cableways. Other speed limiting devices include an electric brake, and hand brake. Use of one or more speed limiting devices by the applicant's trolley allows one or more trolleys to move safely along a single cable span to minimizing collisions and to provide stops for observation.
The Callecod (1979) playground ride highlights an additional limitation of zip-line cableways. The trolley has to be manually disconnected and then reconnected to each successive cable span. Zip-lines commonly employed for adventure rides in nature are composed of two or more cable spans (sometimes ten or more spans) where the pulley with its suspended passenger is sequentially detached and then connected to the next span. Guides oversee the transfer from cable to cable, which usually takes place on platforms built high above ground. Typically, these platforms are designed to hold the weight of ten or more people. Since passengers my fall from platforms during transfer, multiple transfer stations introduce additional safety issues, as well as expense to construction, maintenance, and operations. Eliminating transfers at intermediate supports improves safety.
Albrich (2002), Anderson (1999) and Marvin (1982) systems allow the smooth passage of a trolley over an intermediate support to each successive cable span. But these cableways differ from the applicant's cableway in that the Albrich and Marvin cableways are railways supported by a support cable. The applicant's system, like Anderson's, is an elevated cableway not an elevated railway. While the Albrich cableway has an inductive device to inhibit excessive speed, neither it or the Marvin trolley have automatic or manually operated brakes that allow a trolley to come to a complete stop on the cableway. Nor do these cableways have the same design features. As a result these high speed systems permit but a single trolley on the system at a given time, whereas the applicant's slow-paced cableway allows a multiplicity of trolleys at one time, an essential design requirement for nature observation.
The Albrich, Marvin and Anderson cableways are linear systems—they do not form a closed loop whereupon the trolley returns directly to its start position. (Ski-lifts form closed loops but these are not fixed elevated cableways.) The Albrich and Marvin systems require that the trolleys must be returned by some means back to the start station. The applicant's system has the design versatility to be linear like the above systems or more significantly to form a closed loop where trolleys ride the cableway back to the start position without leaving the cableway.
It should be stated that Marvin (1982) claims to be both a cableway and a monorail, but the Marvin patent diagram, description, and art depict only a monorail. No aspect of the design describes a cableway. Further someone knowledgeable in the art of manufacture of cableways would find it impossible to manufacture a Marvin monorail.
The trolleys of the Albrich (2002) and Marvin (1982) elevated railways cannot travel uphill. In fact these systems utilize steep slopes to power their downhill rides. The applicant's cableway is designed to travel uphill and to access various topographies.
The capacity to make tight turns is a desirable design feature for a nature-observation tramway. The Albrich (2002), Anderson (1999) and Marvin (1982) intermediate supports do not make tight turns. All make broad sweeping turns. The Anderson intermediate supports are straight and do not allow turns.
The Vogel and Taitt (1913) intermediate support produces a turn, but only a wide turn, not a tight turn. The applicant's intermediate support is a novel advancement over the Vogel and Taitt intermediate support both in providing for tight turns and greater control of tensile forces of the cableway. Grabinski (1953) patented an intermediate support for joining two cables to make a single span for elevated cableways. However, the applicant's intermediate support joins two separate support cable spans and these remain separate spans as after passing through the support the cable (wr) may end at a ground or other anchor (FIGS. 4,5 & 14).
A search of prior art and patents found no fixed, elevated cableway system where trolleys can pass over intermediate supports and those trolleys lock to the cable and intermittent supports. Anderson banana tramway (1999) does not lock to the cable or intermittent supports. Also that tramway lacks an automatic speed-governing device, and lacks an intermediate support that allows tight turns. Further the Anderson peddled trolley was designed for high speed travel not nature observation and it is not ADA accessible.
Government regulation mandates ADA accessibility when new constructions are built for the public. A cableway that satisfies that mandate must have a trolley that is self powered. The applicant found no prior art or fixed, elevated cableway where powered trolleys for human transport can pass over intermediate supports. Cellai (1985), Bozzalla (1906), Watkins (1919), Meek (1970) and others had powered trolleys that travel on a single cable span, but these trolleys cannot pass over intermediate supports. Lamb (1895) patented an electrically powered trolley that required an associated power cable, however the cableway did not allow tight turns, lacked trolley locks to the cable and intermediate supports, did not allow multiple trolleys on the same span, did not form a loop, and human transport was not anticipated. The Anderson banana-tram trolleys are human powered therefore not ADA accessible.
The applicant's tramway embodies the designs necessary to maximize the ecotourism experience, ADA accessibility, and minimum impact to nature. These features include but are not limited to speed control devices, a trolley that locks to the support cable and intermediate supports, tight turns at intermediate supports, intermediate supports that join two separate cable spans, multiple trolleys per span, slow speed, self-powered trolleys, intermediate supports that can attach to trees, and an ability to access various topographies. No existing tramway for human transport or not combines the features needed for the greatest access to nature observation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIt is accordingly an object of the invention to provide the physically challenged and the general public with a cableway that has one or more independently operated trolleys that are securely connected to one or more support cables. The system provides access to many types of terrain, including flat, rolling, hilly, canyons, forested (
The applicant's trolley may possesses one or more speed-limiting devices and/or automatic braking systems, such as, but not limited to, a centrifugal brake (
The applicant's intermediate supports (
A preferred use of the cableway would allow two or more trolleys along the cableway as a group, of course it would still be possible for a single trolley to use the cableway. A guide trolley with a guide would point out interesting aspects of natural history and would radio the location to other guides. Other guide duties would include ensuring that trolleys are kept moving on schedule, and maintaining safe distances between groups. Electronic control of the distribution of trolleys could also be accomplished.
Some embodiments of the applicant's trolley may possess pedal power (
Other anticipated uses include a linear system (and/or one or more loops) where the trolley travels back and forth over a given distance over one or more intermediate supports. These may be pedaled and or motor powered.
Anticipated uses of the invention and/or features of the invention include:
- 1. A cableway for one or more trolleys used as mobile hunting platforms. This system would be useful in scientific research of forest communities.
- 2. A child-recreation structure having one or more intermediate supports, with or without an associated treehouse, where the trolleys lock to the supports and cable, powered by gravity and/or electric motor and/or a fueled engine and/or human pedaling either individually or as a group.
- 3. An embodiment of the applicant's cableway and trolleys where the trolleys can lift objects and move them to other locations.
- 4. An embodiment of the applicant's cableway and trolleys where the trolleys are used for film making.
- 5. An embodiment of the applicant's cableway and trolleys where the trolley is used as an escape device for exiting high structures where the trolley possesses at least one centrifugal brake, regardless of the nature of the supports, potential safety devices, and means of returning the trolleys back to the high end of the cable. Such structures include offshore oil platforms, buildings, cliffs, balloons and the like.
- 6. An embodiment of the applicant's cableway and trolleys where movement and spacing of the trolleys are regulated automatically by electronic sensors contained in the trolleys. These sensors start and stop the trolley to maintain preferred distances between the trolley and to keep trolleys moving at an acceptable average speed.
- 7. An embodiment of the applicant's cableway and trolleys where a control center maintains radio contact with the trolleys visually and by voice.
- 8. An embodiment of the applicant's cableway where a control center electronically governs the exact speed and spacing of the trolleys to govern trolley movement.
- 9. An embodiment of the applicant's cableway that has a system whereby the trolleys can transfer to another series of cable spans.
The invention will be described with reference to the following drawings wherein:
- wr—wire rope or support cable
- cs—curved support
- go—gate opening extension of the rail
- r—rail
- ch—roof over rail forms a locking channel
- is—intermediate support
- h—hole in rail
- pin—pin inserted in wire rope holds rope to rail
- n—nut
- dw—drive wheel
- eb—electric brake
- hb—hand brake
- Ro—Rosada-like cable lock
- atl—anterior rail lock that fits in the roof channel of the intermediate support
- t—trolley
- g—gate of Rosada-like cable lock
- psl—posterior rail lock that fits in the roof channel of the intermediate support
- cw—castor type wheel
- csa—castor wheel support arm
- dh—double hinge mechanism
- cd—chain drive
- em—electric motor
- tr—transmission
- ax—axle
- ps—chain sprocket
- spr—sprocket
- cb—centrifugal brake
- sh—sheave
- h—hole
- aa—adjustible arm
- ash—adjustible sheave bracket
- bb—battery box
- cc—cable catch
- chr—chair and battery box support
- sp—suspension point
- ped—pedals
The cableway is placed in any desirable natural area (
The preferred cableway may use trees as primary supports (
The intermediate support may have a straight angle or possess a curve (
Another configuration for an intermediate support (
The preferred configuration of a cableway will be a closed circuit or loop where the visitor returns to the starting point (
The trolley may possess a single wheel (
The preferred embodiment of the trolley will possess an electric brake (eb) and hand brake (hb) such as used on motor cycles or bicycles and/or a centrifugal brake (cb). The centrifugal brake, hand brake, and electric brake is not described. Embodiments of the applicant's cableway can be designed as a continuous downhill run and may not possess a speed-limiting device. This embodiment differs from other elevated cableways, such as ziplines in that it has passable intermediate supports. This does not infringe upon other systems such as (Albrict and Marvin) that are elevated rails, nor is the Anderson cableway designed for downhill use.
My trolley and cableway possess locks to the cable and the intermittent support to prevent the trolley from leaving the cableway during operation. The trolley (
The function of the rear stabilization, caster-type wheel (cw) (
Powered trolleys (
One skilled in nature observation, eco tourism, and cableway businesses and the art of cableway fabrication could quickly conceive of countless variations on all of these cited forms of the invention, including its components which are offered as examples only, and are not to be construed as limitations to the scope of this invention.
Claims
1. An elevated cableway system for personal conveyance therealong, said system including:
- a plurality of spaced cable supports defining the system configuration, said cable supports each including a cable support station elevated above ground;
- stationary cable connected to said supports and extending in a continuous closed loop along said system configuration from one support station to another, thereby forming a cableway path along said system;
- a trolley including a drive wheel pulley in rolling engagement on said cable for movement therealong;
- a passenger carriage suspended from said trolley for movement therewith along said cable and around said loop;
- and drive means, operable from said passenger carriage, to drive said trolley along said stationary cable.
2. A system as defined in claim 1, in which said drive means is a passenger-operated pedal and chain mechanism operatively connected to said trolley.
3. A system as defined in claim 1, in which said drive means is an electric motor operatively connected to said trolley.
4. A system as defined in claim 1, in which said drive means is an internal combustion engine operatively connected to said trolley.
5. A system as defined in claim 1, further including clutch means, operable from said passenger carriage, to releasably lock said drive wheel to said cable.
6. A system as defined in claim 1, further including brake means, operable from said passenger carriage, to reduce trolley speed on said cable.
7. A system as defined in claim 1, said cable including a plurality of cable sections joined together at said cable support stations for continuity of said loop, said cable support stations adapted to change direction of said cableway path.
8. A system as defined in claim 1, including a plurality of said trolleys drivable along said cable independently of each other.
9. A system as defined in claim 1 where the intermediate support(s) allow a tight turn.
10. An elevated cableway system for personal conveyance therealong, said system including:
- a plurality of spaced cable supports defining the system configuration, said cable supports each including a cable support station elevated above ground;
- stationary cable connected to said supports and extending in a continuous closed loop along said system configuration from one support station to another, thereby forming a cableway path along said system;
- a trolley including a drive wheel pulley in rolling engagement on said cable for movement therealong;
- a passenger carriage suspended from said trolley for movement therewith along said cable and around said loop;
- drive means, operable from said passenger carriage, to drive said trolley along said stationary cable;
- said system including plural interconnected loops of said cable for separate cableway paths for trolley travel.
11. A system as defined in claim 10, in which said drive means is a passenger-operated pedal and chain mechanism operatively connected to said trolley.
12. A system as defined in claim 10, in which said drive means is an electric motor operatively connected to said trolley.
13. A system as defined in claim 10, in which said drive means is an internal combustion engine operatively connected to said trolley.
14. A system as defined in claim 10, further including clutch means, operable from said passenger carriage, to releasably lock said drive wheel to said cable.
15. A system as defined in claim 10, further including brake means, operable from said passenger carriage, to reduce trolley speed on said cable.
16. A system as defined in claim 10, said cable including a plurality of cable sections joined together at said cable support stations for continuity of said loop, said cable support stations adapted to change direction of said cableway path.
17. A system as defined in claim 10, including a plurality of said trolleys drivable along said cable independently of each other.
18. A system as defined in claim 10 where the intermediate support(s) allow a tight turn.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 12, 2008
Publication Date: Jun 17, 2010
Inventor: Donald Ray Perry (Branchport, NY)
Application Number: 12/316,535