AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING CAPSTANS
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
LIHOU, of the Naval Club House, Bond Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Esquire, a Commander in the Royal Navy, send greeting..
WHEREAS His present Majesty King William the Fourth, in and by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Tenth day of January, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-two,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, did give and grant unto me, the said John
Lihou, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said John Lihou, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of them,
by myself and themselves, or by my and their deputy or deputies, servants or
agents, or such others as I, the said John Lihou, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING CAPSTANS;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said John Lihou, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereto had, will more fully appear.

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page_text: or pinions being so placed as to work in a fore and aft thwartship or
other direction, as will be most convenient for working. For this purpose,
in vessels of war, I recommend that two pinions be used, and so placed
as to be worked one afore and the other abaft the said lower body in
midships, which positions will be found to interfere least with the men
employed about the duties of the ship. The axle of the said pinion, or axles
of the said pinions and crank handles, must be respectively placed at such a
height from the deck on which the said lower body revolves as will enable the
men to work the cranks to the greatest advantage, and the drum head of the
lower body must be placed at a suitable height from the same deck accordingly;
and if the drum head of the lower body be too high to admit of the before-
mentioned horizontal wheel being fixed upon the drum head at a suitable
height between decks for the axles of the pinions to be properly placed for
working the crank handles to the greatest advantage, in that case the said
drum head may be entirely removed, and the said horizontal wheel is to be
fitted to bind the lower body together, instead of the said drum head, the centro
part of the said wheel forming a suitable and efficient drum head, (which may
be furnished with bar holes, if required,) thus leaving more room for the
messenger to pass round the whelps than if the drum head had been lowered.
In this capstan I use a spindle of wrought iron or other suitable material,
which said spindle is firmly connected or attached to the upper drum head and
upper body, with which it revolves in its bearings; but the lower part of the
said spindle is to be perfectly round, and to turn freely in the centre of the
lower drum head and lower body; but when it is required to connect the said
lower body with the spindle and upper body, I propose to use a clutch moving
up and down on the said spindle. This clutch may be easily put in and out of
geer by means of a lever or any other similar well-known contrivance, but
this is no part of my Invention. By the foregoing arrangements it will be
seen that the lower body being attached to the spindle by means of a clutch,
the upper and lower bodies may be worked by means of my said horizontal
wheel and pinions without the use of the capstan bars, or the capstan bars may
be used in the ordinary way at the drum head of the upper body, at the same
time that the wheel and pinions below are being worked, in which case the
power acquired by the machinery and the power acquired by the bars will be
combined, and the power of the capstan in both bodies will be thereby mate-
rially encreased, or the pinions may be withdrawn or thrown out of geer, as
above described, and thus both the upper and lower bodies worked entirely by
the bars in the drum head of the upper body, as in the ordinary mode of using
capstans. Also, by lifting up the clutch and detaching the lower body from

page_text: the spindle, the lower body may be worked by means of the said wheel and
pinions while the upper body and the spindle remain stationary, or the upper
body may be worked by the capstan bars in the ordinary way, and the lower
body can at the same time be worked by means of the wheel and pinions'in
the same direction and at a different velocity from that of the upper body, or
the upper and lower bodies may be worked at the same time in contrary
"directions, whereby the said double capstan may be made to perform the office
of two separate and detached capstans, or 'unite their powers without the
'inconvenience of applying bars to the drum head of the lower body, and by
these means the use of capstans is very materially facilitated. When the said
pinions are actuated by hand, I propose, as a greater security to the men work-
ing the crank handles, to increase the number of times which the capstan shall
paul or catch during each revolution; for this purpose I recommend that the
hanging pauls should be eight in number, and that there should be eighteen
stops or catches for the same; half the said number of pauls to be of one
equal length, and the remaining half of another equal length, in order that
the capstan may paul thirty-six times during each revolution, but this is no
part of my Invention. The above-described method of fitting a double cap-
stan may in many cases render the upper body unnecessary. In every such
case a double capstan may be converted into a single capstan by merely
removing the upper body, and either letting the spindle through the deck
below (as is usual in single capstans), or by cutting it off even with the deck
above; I therefore do declare that my claim extends to the adaptation of my
said Invention to single capstans as well as double capstans, whenever the
former are situated between the decks of a ship. And further, single capstans
may have the advantage of my said Invention, by fixing the above-mentioned
horizontal toothed wheel securely to the spindle below the deck on which the
said capstan revolves, so as to be worked by a pinion or pinions, as herein-
before described; and such single capstan may be situated either on the
upper deck or elsewhere. I therefore claim the exclusive privilege of construct-
ing capstans with the horizontal toothed wheel attached to the drum' head, or
fixed to the top of the body, or to the spindle of capstans, and worked by
means of pinions applied in the manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Lihou, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-two.
JOHN (L.S.) LIHOU.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Ninth day of March, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Lihou came before our Lord the
King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all
and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also the Speci-
fication aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in that
case made and provided.