Apparatus for recovering drill pipe

Claim 1

MEANS FOR RECOVERING A STRING OF DRILL PIPE EXTENDED ABOVE GROUND FROM A BOREHOLE COMPRISING, AN ERECTIBLE DERRICK FRAME, A TRANSPORT VEHICLE HAVING PIVOT MEANS SUPPORTING SAID DERRICK FRAME FOR ROTATION ABOUT A TRANSVERSE HORIZONTAL AXIS, MOTIVE POWER MEANS ARRANGED FOR CONTROLLABLY ERECTING AND LOWERING SAID DERRICK FRAME ABOUT SAID AXIS, A PLATFORM BRACED TO SAID FRAME AND GUIDEDLY MOVABLE THEREALONG ADAPTED TO BE SUPPORTED ON THE GROUND WHEN SAID FRAME IS ERECTED, SAID PLATFORM HAVING AN APERTURE FOR FREELY RECEIVING SAID DRILL PIPE THERETHROUGH, A PAIR OF LIFTING JACKS SPACED ON EITHER SIDE OF SAID APERTURE AND HAVING DRIVEN ELEMENTS MOVABLE VERTICALLY, A LIFTING CARDLE SUPPORTED FROM SAID DRIVEN ELEMENTS AND HAVING A TRANSVERSE MEMBER PARALLEL WITH SAID PLATFORM AND MOVABLE BETWEEN A LOWERED POSITION ADJACENT THE UPPER SURFACE OF SAID PLATFORM AND A RAISED POSITION SPACED ABOVE SAID PLATFORM IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE UPPER LIMIT OF THE DRIVEN MEMBER MOTION, APERTURE MEANS IN SAID CRADLE VERTICALLY REGISTERED COAXIALLY ON SAID PLATFORM APERTURE ADAPTED TO RECEIVE SAID DRILL PIPE, AND HAVING UPWARDLY OPENING CONIC FORM ADAPTED TO REMOVABLY RECEIVE SLIP MEANS FOR GRIPPING SAID DRILL PIPE WHEN SAID CRADLE IS RAISED TO PULL SAID PIPE UPWARD ON UPWARD MOTION OF SAID DRIVEN ELEMENTS, AND OPERABLE TO RELEASE SAID DRILL PIPE FROM SAID CRADLE WHEN SAID DRIVEN ELEMENTS ARE LOWERED.