AN IMPROVEMENT ON. CRANES TO PREVENT ACCIDENTS FROM THE RAPID DESCENT OF HEAVY BODIES
Year: 1812

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HARDCASTLE, of Abingdon, in the County of Berks, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, in and
by the said Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day
of May now last past, did give and grant unto me, the said William Hardcastle,
my executors, adññors, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said William Hardcastle, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, by myself and themselves, or by my or their deputy or
deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said William Hardcastle,
my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times 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, the Invention com-
municated to me by my late Father, John Hardcastle, of "AN IMPROVEMENT
ON. CRANES TO PREVENT ACCIDENTS FROM THE RAPID DESCENT OF HEAVY BODIES;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the
said William Hardcastle, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to
be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,

page_text: as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that this improvement consists in causing the rope or
chain employed in raising or lowering the weight to wind upon two cylinders
of different diameters, or two cylinders of the same diameters turning with
different degrees of velocity, but contrary ways, the rope or chain winding on
one cylinder at the same time that it unwinds from the other, so that a weight
hanging by a pulley on the middle or bite of the rope or chain is raised or
lowered by the turning of these cylinders; for it is evident that the larger
cylinder, or that moving with the greatest velocity, will take up the rope or
chain faster than the smaller cylinder, or that moving with the lesser velocity;
and since the two ends of the rope or chain fastened to each cylinder tend to
turn them in opposite directions, and each sustains an equal weight, they coun-
teract each other, and balance the weight; it therefore cannot run down of
itself, and thus the utmost safety is obtained. In raising or lowering it, one
of the cylinders may be turned by hand with a winch, or by a walking or
raising wheel, or by any other mode of applying power. The other cylinder `
is to be turned from the first by toothed wheels on the axis of each. To give
the respective and required velocities, the cylinders may be of equal diameters
and the toothed wheels unequal, or the cylinder unequal and the toothed
wheels equal, as may be found most convenient.
The annexed Drawings and the following references will exemplify the
principles of this Invention, observing that, the nearer the diameters and
velocities of the cylinders are to each other, the greater will be the power of
the machine, and the slower will the weight be raised or lowered.
REFERENCES TO THE DRAWINGS.
a, it, the checks; b, a spindle carrying' a pinion h; d, a toothed wheel
turned by the pinion h, and turning the cylinder e, by being on the same
axis; a toothed wheel on the axis of the cylinder e, working in another
toothed wheel of equal diameter. On the axis of the smaller cylinder f, the
winch or power may be applied to the axis of either cylinder or to the pinion,
according to the relative weight of the body to be raised or lowered, and a
walking wheel may be applied in same manner, when thought necessary.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hardcastle, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twelve.
WILLIAM (L.S.)
(L.S.) HARDCASTLE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixth day of July, in the fifty-
second year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, the said
William Hardcastle came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
forty-eighth year of His said Majesty's reign.