Devices for erecting a building from prefabricated sections

Claim 1

Apparatus for rapidly erecting a building from elongated prefabricated sections which comprises: two vertically disposed masts; a substantially horizontal guide means disposed between said masts and connected to the upper aspects thereof, said masts and said guide means being substantially within the same vertical plane at all times during operation thereof, said masts being located on opposite sides of the place selected for the foundation of the building to be erected and within said vertical plane in substantially parallel alignment with the horizontal longitudinal center line of the building to be erected; each of said masts being located to define adjacent thereof and the place selected for the foundation of the building to be erected a section discharge receiving space, each of said space conforming to the size of the individual prefabricated sections for the building to be erected; transport means being provided which is adapted to position prefabricated sections for the building to be erected within each said space in the directional orientation they will occupy in the completed building; a pair of hoisting means each of which comprises a trolley carried by said guide means, elongated flexible extensible means depending from said trolley, and a yoke for supporting said sections connected to said flexible means; a separate moving means for each of said trolleys whereby each said trolley is independently movable along about at least one-half of said guide means to and from a position directly above a different said defined space; each of said yokes provided with section orientation maintaining means for performing the function of maintaining the directional orientation of each said section supported by the corresponding yoke; said hoisting means, including each said trolley and each said yoke, adapted to carry each said section for the building to be erected in a horizontal position and otherwise in an orientation maintained by said orientation maintaining means whereby at all times from when each said section is vertically elevated from either one of said defined spaces until it is placed in the building being erected, its longitudinal axis is substantially horizontal and substantially perpendicular to said vertical plane and its shorter sides move substantially parallel to a longitudinal side of the building to be erected; one of said trolleys, with its depending said yoke and said hoisting means, adapted to hoist said prefabricated sections from a first of said spaces and to transfer same to their place in the building to be erected and the other said trolley with its depending said yoke and said hoisting means adapted to hoist said prefabricated sections from the second of said spaces and to transfer same to their place in the building to be erected; and control means controlling movement of each said trolley and its corresponding depending said yoke and the corresponding said hoisting means substantially independently of the other said trolley and its depending said yoke.