IMPROVE- MENTS IN STRENGTHENING THE MASTS OF SHIPS AND VESSELS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Harratt, of 2, Royal Exchange
Buildings, in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN STRENGTHENING THE MASTS OF SHIPS AND VESSELS."
Sealed the 17th September 1853, and dated the 18th March 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Harratt at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 18th March 1853.
I, CHARLES HARRATT, of 2, Royal Exchange Buildings, in the City
of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN STRENGTHENING THE MASTS OF SHIPS AND VESSELS
to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in giving to masts, by stays of iron brought
to act on the masts by studs or props to hold out the stays in a form
properly to strengthen every part of the mast. The usual back and
fore stays may be used as additional security in heavy weather.
The iron stays are tightened by means of wedges, so as to be
perfectly rigid.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Harratt, in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 17th September 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
CHARLES HARRATT, of 2, Royal Exchange, in the City of London,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Ier heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Charles IIarratt, Her special licence
that I, the said Charles Harratt, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Harratt, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agreo with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN STRENGTHENING THE MASTS OF SHIPS AND VESSELS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Charles Harratt, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, aud cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Harratt, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
This Invention consists in giving strength to masts by stays of iron
brought to act on the masts by studs or props to hold out the stays in
a form properly to strengthen every part of the mast. The usual back
and fore stays may be used as additional security in heavy weather.
The iron stays are tightened by means of wedges, so as to be perfectly
rigid.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my Invention I will proceed to
describe the means of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1, shows a mast strengthened according to my
Invention,
where rods of iron made into links are used, and Figure 2, shows
another mast where rods of iron are used, each in one piece. a, a, are
rods of iron, which, at their upper ends, are each fixed to a cap on the
top of the mast; and they, at their lower ends, are either fastened to
the heel of the mast, or to the ship where the heel of the mast steps;
and in order to keep all the stays a, a, tight, they are to be made suitable
for keying, wedging, or screwing up at a convenient height above the
deck, as shown. At intervals up the mast are iron hoops b, b, with
projections or props to receive and retain the links c, c, which connect
the rods a, a, as shewn in Figure 1, or else to receive the rods them-
selves, as shewn in Figure 2. I apply three or four such stays to each
mast, as shewn, by which means great additional strength is obtained to
a mast.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim
is the application of stays to masts, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Harratt, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
CHARLES HARRATT. (L.s.)
5 Witness, J. G. TONGUE.