Machinery or Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1885

page_text: Machinery or Apparatus therefor.
I, THOMAS JOHNSON of 1 Havelock Road, Southsea in the county of Hants,
Retired Chief Boatswain, Royal Navy do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
Hitherto it has been the practice to serve ropes for use for ships' rigging by
hand by means of what is known as a serving mallet or a serving board which is
manipulated by one person whilst a second person passes the ball of spun yarn
or the like round the rope.
My invention consists in serving ropes or winding them with spun yarn or the
like by means of machinery or apparatus of suitable construction such as is herein-
after described whereby a great saving is effected in hand labor as by the use of
my apparatus one person is enabled in a given time to do an amount of work
which it would take several persons to perform by the ordinary method and
further the turns are automatically taken out of the spun yarn as it is wound
onto the rope.
A suitable construction of machine for carrying out my invention is as follows:-
In a frame of suitable construction and provided with bearings for the purpose
I mount a divided toothed wheel or pinion having a hollow boss with a projection
through which boss and through the wheel passes the rope to be operated on; the
said pinion is driven by multiplying gearing operated by a handle; a bobbin of
yarn is mounted in a holder or bracket pivotted to the frame; the yarn from the
bobbin passes round and over a roller having a toothed wheel in gear with a
toothed pinion on the pivotted holder or bracket; from the said roller the yarn
is carried to and wound around a serving mallet and the rope to be served,
similarly to the manner in which the yarn is wound over the usual serving mallet
and rope
By this construction of apparatus the hollow pinion being operated, its projection
in revolving around the rope will serve the yarn thereon, the turns being at the
same time taken out of the spun yarn.

page_text: Machinery or Apparatus therefor.
I THOMAS JOHNSON, of 1, Havelock Road, Southsea, in the county of Hants,
Retired Chief Boatswain, Royal Navy do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Hitherto it has been the practice to serve ropes for use for ships' rigging by
hand by means of what is known as a serving mallet or a serving board which is
manipulated by one person whilst a second person passes the ball of spun yarn
or the like round the rope.
My invention consists in serving ropes or winding them with spun yarn or the
like by means of machinery or apparatus of suitable construction such as is berein-
after described whereby a great saving is effected in hand labor as by the use of
my apparatus one person is enabled in a given time to do an amount of work
which it would take several persons to perform by the ordinary method and
further the necessary turns are automatically taken out of the spun yarn as it is
wound onto the rope.
A suitable construction of machine for carrying out my invention is as follows:-
In a frame of suitable construction and provided with bearings for the purpose
I mount a divided toothed wheel or pinion having a hollow boss through which
boss and through the wheel passes the rope to be operated on; the said pinion is
driven by multiplying gearing operated by a handle; a ball of yarn is placed in
a holder pivotted to and revolving with a serving mallet bereinafter described
in the frame, the said holder being rotated on its pivot by a divided bevel wheel
fixed to the frame; the yarn from the ball passes to and around a serving mallet
which is fixed to the pinion hereinbefore described and around the rope to be
served similarly to the manner in which the yarn is wound over the usual serving
mallet and rope.
In order to enable my invention to be fully understood I will proceed to describe
the same by reference to the accompanying drawings in which figure 1 represents
a front elevation of my improved machine or apparatus for serving rope for the
rigging of ships. Figure 2 is a central transverse vertical section and figure 3 3
is a plan of the same. Figures 4 and 5 represent elevations of the right-hand and
left-hand sides respectively of the machine. Similar letters in all the figures
represent similar parts.
a, a, represent the sides of the frame of my improved machine which are
connected at their lower ends by a bar a¹; b, and c, are the bearings of the 3
frame a, a¹; d, is the divided toothed wheel or pinion mounted in the bearing b,
and d, is the hollow boss of the same through which and through the wheel d

page_text: and fixed bevel wheel hereinafter described passes the rope 7, to be operated on;
is the multiplying gearing and ƒ, is the handle for operating the gearing; h, is
the holder and k, is the ball of spun yarn placed therein; j, is the serving mallet,
to a bracket i on which, the holder h, is pivotted and with which mallet the holder
revolves in the frame a, a¹ and is held in place by means of a nut and washer ;
g, is the horizontally divided bevel wheel fixed to the frame a, the said wheel
serving to rotate the holder h, on its pivot by gearing with a bevel wheel h¹, fixed
on the top of the holder ;.the inner end of the spun yarn passes (as shewn in
figure 1) upward through a hole i, in the centre of the bracket i, to and twice
(or more times) around the serving mallet j, (which is fixed to the pinion d, and
to a divided hollow boss g³, with which it rotates) and over and around the rope l,
to be served similarly to the manner in which the yarn is wound over the usual
serving mallet and rope.
a, is a tension device fixed to the serving mallet j, and through which passes
the yarn on its way from the yarn holder h, to the rope 1; by means of the said
device, the required tension is placed upon the yarn and the yarn can be held
firmly when splicing and placing a fresh ball of yarn in the holder.
By this construction of apparatus in order to serve a rope with spun yarn, the
caps of the bearings b and c and also the top halves of each of the divided wheels d
and g, are first removed and the machine is then placed so that the rope (which
is strained or fixed in the usual manner) shall lie in the lower halves of the hollow
bosses d, and gl; the top halves of the wheels d and g and the caps of the bearings
b and c, are then replaced, the said caps being bolted down as shewn. The inner
end of the ball of yarn k, is then passed through the hole i, in the bracket i, and
through the tension a³, and passed twice or more times round the serving mallet j,
and rope 7, to be served and is finally fixed to the said rope in the usual manner.
The operator then by means of a strap fastened to the bar a', and placed around
his neck or by other suitable means supports the machine while, with his right
hand, he turns the handle f; the gearing e, is thereby caused to operate the wheel d,
the mallet j, and holder h being thereby caused to rotate together in the direction
of the arrow as shewn in figure 2 and wind the yarn round and along the rope l,
as clearly shown in figure 1; the holder h, gearing with the fixed wheel g, will at
the same time be caused to revolve in the direction shewn by the arrow in figure 3
thus taking the necessary turns out of the spun yarn as it is fed to the rope
It will be obvious that instead of using the bevel wheels g and ; for driving the
holder I can employ friction wheels.
A machine of this construction suitable for serving large ropes would be too
heavy for the operator to support in the manner hereinbefore described for any
great length of time; in such cases I therefore provide a leg or rest fixed to the
frame and preferably having a roller at its lower end which leg or rest can be
placed on the ground when required thus relieving the operator from the weight
of the machine.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is:
1. A machine for serving rope for the rigging of ships in which the serving
mallet and yarn are automatically rotated round the rope to be served substan-
tially as herein before described.
2. In a machine or apparatus for serving rope for the rigging of ships the
combination with a suitable frame, and gearing such as e, of a divided toothed
wheel or pinion for rotating a serving inallet and yarn holder substantially as and
for the purpose hereinbefore described and represented in the accompanying
drawings.
3. In a machine or apparatus for serving rope for the rigging of ships the
combination with a suitable frame, gearing such as e, and a divided toothed wheel

page_text: or pinion for rotating a serving mallet and yarn holder, of a divided fixed bevel
wheel. gearing with a bevel wheel upon the yarn holder substantially as and for
the purpose herein before described and represented in the accompanying drawings.
4. The improved machine or apparatus for serving rope for the rigging of ships
herein before described and represented in the accompanying drawings.