A NEW OR IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF NET HAULING MACHINE
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Horner Fitzgerald at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd April 1879.
JOHN HORNER FITZGERALD, of Saint Andrews, in the County of Fife, North
Britain. "A NEW OR IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF NET HAULING MACHINE"
This Invention relates to improvements in net hauling machines for use on board
of fishing boats, and has for its object to obviate the inconveniences or disadvantages
connected with net hauling machines as hitherto constructed, namely, the multi-
plicity of wheels, which are found heavy to drive, and bring in the net so slowly
that the attendants have to wind so fast that they soon get exhausted, and when
the boat heaves it puts such a heavy strain on the gearing that the men are unable
to overcome it, and when the boat dips again it releases the strain so suddenly that
its tendency is to upset their equilibrium, and very frequently the rope drops off
the pulley, which causes great annoyance and loss of time in fitting it on again,
which annoyance is increased proportionately with the violence of the storm and
lurchings of the boat; while at the same time the wheel work being without cover
and unprotected the men are in danger of being pitched against it, and the net is
frequently destroyed by becoming entangled amongst the wheels. And the nature
and novelty of this Invention, which is designed to remedy these defects, consists
in mounting three pullies in the front cheek of a casing containing and protecting
a large fly wheel, the lower part of the casing with its contained arrangement of
fly wheel and pulleys being all bolted down by a swivelling or centre bolt to the
keelson or to the transoms or cross timbers of the boat. The shaft of the two
outside pulleys, which are ranged at a little higher level than the centre pulley,
passes through the front cheek, with the pulleys keyed upon them. These shafts
are supported by brackets spanning the wheels, and bolted to the inside of the
front check or side of the casing, leaving a space between them and the back cheek
for the fly wheel to revolve in. The shaft of the centre pulley is similarly mounted,
but is longer and passes through the back cheek of casing, a heavy fly wheel being
mounted or keyed upon it inside the casing, and upon the back end of the centre
pulley shaft outside the casing are keyed two ratchet wheels, set to act in reverse
directions to each other, having pawls similarly placed in reverse positions so as to
counteract the strain of the net in either direction from turning the centre shaft
backwards, each pawl being mounted on or moving on a pivot bracket, with a
handle attached, so that when one is thrown out of gear the other is thrown into
gear, according to the direction in which the pulleys are being turned. On the

page_text: extreme end of the centre pulley shaft a crank is keyed, the crank pin of which is
movenble in a slot to allow of the alteration of the length of stroke; and upon the
crank pin are fitted two connecting rods lying parallel to the centre of the machine,
on the outer ends of which rods are fitted cross handles, which are made to radiate
in a nearly horizontal line with the centre of the shaft by hanging radial links or
bars at opposite sides, the lower end of each of which is attached to the connecting
rod close to the cross handle, the other end of each link being supported and
oscillating on a stud in an arm projecting out from the upper part and side of the
casing. To work the machine the attendants take hold of the handles on one or
both sides, and reciprocate them to and fro in a horizontal direction, the recipro-
cating action of the connecting rods giving circular motion to the crank and fly
wheel shaft, the fly wheel carrying the crank over the two dead centres on opposite
sides.
It is preferred to weight the fly wheel so that the crank will always come to
rest between the centres, and the machine can at any time be started to revolve
in either direction by the man pulling the handles towards him, or pushing them
from him, as the case may be, in a nearly parallel line, as before stated. The uso
of the fly wheel already referred to possesses the great advantage that when any
heavy strain comes upon the hauling apparatus it will assist the attendants through
it, and if the strain is suddenly released it will not give a sudden start forward, but
will give a uniform and easy motion for the men to work, and enable them to bring
in the nets faster and steadier, the particular ratchet and ratchet wheel in action
preventing the possibility of the machine flying back in the opposite direction to
that in which it is hauling or winding for the time being, and the hauling groove
pulleys being ranged vertically there will be little tendency of the rope falling or
slipping off when slacking on any sudden release of the strain.