IMPROVEMENTS IN WINCHES AND OTHER HOISTING OR HAULING MACHINES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John David Napier and Robert David Napier,
of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineers,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WINCHES AND OTHER HOISTING
OR HAULING MACHINES."
Scaled the 14th August 1874, and dated the 16th February 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John David Napier
and Robert David Napier at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 16th February 1874.
We, JOHN DAVID NAPIER and ROBERT DAVID NAPIER, of Glasgow,
in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engincers, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WINCHES AND OTHER
HOISTING OR HAULING MACHINES," to be as follows, that is to say: -
This Invention relates more especially to winches and othor hoisting
or hauling machines arranged to be worked cither directly or indirectly
by steam or other mechanical agency; but the improvements or some
of them are also applicable to hand-power hoisting or hauling machines.

page_text: We herein-after apply the term first-motion shaft to the barrel shaft
or that shaft of the machine to which the power is ultimately communi-
cated, and we designate as second-motion shaft that communicating
power to the first-motion shaft, and as third-motion shaft that communi-
cating power to the second-motion one, and so on.
In improved winches or cranes made according to this Invention the
third-motion shaft is turned in the same direction whether what is known
as the single purchase or the double purchase is in gear instead of
having to turn in opposite directions as in ordinary arrangements, and
this is attained by gearing the third-motion shaft to the second-motion
shaft for both purchases (instead of gearing it directly to the first-motion
shaft for one purchase). The wheels on the third-motion shaft are fitted
thereon with friction clutches, which are by preference of the differential
kind described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to Robert
David Napier, one of the present applicants, dated 2 February 1867
(No. 299), and it is an important practical advantage of the improved
arrangement that the power can be shifted instantly from the single to
the double purchase, and vice versa, whereas in steam winches as
hitherto constructed to do so involves considerable difficulty and loss of
time. The brakes employed are by preference also such as are described
in the earlier Specification herein-before referred to.
In making traveller cranes or hoisting apparatus according to the
present Invention the improvements herein-before described may be
applied in connection with the shaft driven through bevil gearing from
the usual continuously revolving driving shaft when the machine is
made with double purchase, but whether it has one or more purchases
two differential friction clutches are fitted on the driving shaft. One of
these clutches, termed the hoisting clutch, is arranged so that when in
gear the rotation of the driving shaft brings the tightening action into
play, but the other, which is termed the lowering clutch, is arranged
reversely, so that the rotation of the driving shaft tends to slacken it,
whilst it can nevertheless be easily held in gear for overhauling slack
chain. In any case, however, if a descending weight tends to impart
a greater speed to the clutch than that of the driving shaft, the self-
tightening action operates so that the weight cannot descend more
quickly than corresponds to the speed of the driving shaft.
The present Invention also comprises a simple but practically useful
improvement in windlasses of a kind described in the earlier Specifica-

page_text: tion herein-before referred to. This improvement consists in forming a
projecting lug on the lower friction segment of the hoisting purchase,
and in jointing to the outer part of this lug the links connecting the
segment to the differential hoisting lever. This avoids a great incon-
venience which is experienced when jointing the said links as heretofore
to the part of the segment close to the wheel,
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said John David Napier and Robert David Napier
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th August 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
DAVID NAPIER and ROBERT DAVID NAPIER, of Glasgow, in the County
of Lanark, North Britain, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto us, the said John David Napier and
Robert David Napier, Her special licence that we, the said John
David Napier and Robert David Napier, our exccutors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John David Napier
and Robert David Napier, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree 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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WINCHES AND OTHER HOISTING OR
HAULING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said John David Napier and Robert David Napier, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
mature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to
be performed, and 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John David Napier and Robert
David Napier, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement in writing, reference
being had to the accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
Our said Invention relates more especially to winches and other
hoisting or hauling machines arranged to be worked cither directly or
indirectly by steam or other mechanical agency. And in order that our
improvements and the manner of effecting the same may be properly
understood, we hereunto append a Sheet of explanatory Drawings to be
herein after referred to and representing modifications of machinery as
constructed in accordance with our Invention. In these Drawings the
same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts
wherever they are repeated.
The first part of our Invention relates to steam winches having two
or more powers or purchases, and has principally for its object to
obviate the difficulty, inconvenience, and loss of time which are expe-
rienced in shifting from one purchase to the other with steam winches
of the ordinary construction, and which often leads to the least suitable
purchase being continued in use even for considerable periods with the
view of saving the time required to change from one purchase to the
other and back again.
In our improved steam winches the engines work in the same
direction by whichever of the purchases the hoisting is effected instead
of having to be reversed as in ordinary winches when changing from one
purchase to the other. We effect our object in this respect by employing
the same number and arrangement of spur wheels for one purchase as
for the other, obtaining the difference in the powers by using different
relative sizes of wheels instead of obtaining it partly or entirely by
arranging more wheels in one purchase than in the other.
In combination with the hercin-before described arrangement of
gearing we cause the power to be transmitted through friction clutches
which are by preference of the differential kind described in the Speci-
fication of Letters Patent granted to Robert David Napier, one of us,
and dated 2 February 1867 (No. 299).
In steam winches made with the indicated improvements the pur-
chases can be changed in an instant without even stopping the hoisting

page_text: for that purpose, so that with each change of load the most suitable
purchase can be found and adopted without any trouble or loss of
time. With these steam winches also the usual link motion or equi-
valent mechanism for working the valves may be dispensed with.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a plan showing as much
of a steam winch as is required for explaining our improvements. The
engine shaft 1 of this winch has keyed on it two differently sized spur
wheels 2, 3, which gear respectively with spur wheels 4, 5, loose on a
second or intermediate shaft 6, and this intermediate shaft 6 has fast on
it two friction pulleys 7, 8, and a spur wheel (or pinion) 9, the last gear-
ing with the large spur wheel 10, which is fast on the winding barrel
11 or on its shaft. Attached to the wheels 4, 5, are discs 12, 13, which
have fixed in them pins 14, on which are to be centred the differential
levers of the frictional clutch combination. These levers and other
details of the clutches are not shown in Figure 1, but are fully described
in the earlier Specification herein-before referred to, whilst the same
construction of clutch is shown in Figures 3 and 4 of the Drawings
hereunto appended, and is herein-after referred to. A lever 15 is pro-
vided for acting by hand on the two clutches, and is connected to them
so as on being pushed to the right or left hand to put the right wheel 4
or left wheel 5 into driving gear or union with the shaft 6, and causes
the winch to be worked with the greater or lesser purchase accordingly.
When the lever 15 is in its middle position both clutches are out of
gear, and then a suspended weight is controlled only by a friction brake
16, which is applied to the shaft 6, and which may be either a common
brake or one of our well-known differential brakes.
The second part of our Invention relates more particularly to travel-
ling cranes, and a modification embodying our improvements is shown
in plan in Figure 2 of the accompanying Drawings. In this example
we apply the improvements herein-before described in connection with
a shaft 1 driven through bevil gearing 17, 18, from a continuously
revolving shaft 19, the hoisting gearing being made with double pur-
chase, but whether it has one or more purchases, two differential friction
clutches, the pulleys 20, 21, for which are shown, are provided in con-
nection with the bevil wheels 17, 18, on the driving shaft 19. Similar
pairs of clutches are provided on the shaft 19 in connection with sets of
bevil wheels 22, 23, for actuating the gearing through which the
transverse and longitudinal traversing movements are effected. In as

page_text: far as the traversing and hoisting are concerned we use the differential
friction clutches applied in our usual way, that is, arranged so that
when the clutch is put into gear the turning of the driving shaft 19 in
its normal direction brings the tightening action of the clutch into play.
The lowering clutch, however, we by this second part of our Invention
arrange in the reverse way, that is, so that the turning of the driving
shaft 19 in its normal direction tends to slacken the clutch, whilst it can
nevertheless be easily held in gear for the purpose of overhauling slack
chain when required. At the same time, should a descending weight
tend to impart more speed to the clutch than that which the driving
shaft has, then the automatic tightening action of the clutch would
come into play and prevent the weight from descending more quickly
than what corresponds to the speed of the driving shaft 19. By this
arrangement we obtain amongst other results the important one that
we can make use of self-holding brakes in conjunction with self-holding
clutches, whilst it is impossible to put the one into gear against the
other, which would otherwise be likely to occur and cause breakage.
With our new arrangement, if the self-holding brake is put into gear
whilst a weight is being lowered by the engine the only result is the
throwing of the lowering clutch out of gear and the stoppage of the
lowering action.
Figure 3 represents a differential friction clutch applied in our hitherto
usual way for hoisting, and Figure 4 represents a similar clutch as
applied for lowering by as herein-before explained. The shaft 19, which
revolves always in the direction of the arrows has keyed on it the
friction pulleys 20, 21, and each of these pulleys has applied to it a
jointed friction band 24 connected to a differential lever 25, which is
centred on a pin 14 fixed into the wheel (17, 18,) to be driven or regu-
lated. It will be observed that with the hoisting clutch Figure 3 the
short end of the lever 25 is the leading end, whilst the longer end leads
in the other clutch Figure 4. This reversed disposition of a pair of our
differential friction clutches is of course applicable with stationary as
well as with travelling crancs.
In applying our improved arrangement of clutches to travelling
cranes it is of great importance to have all the parts in connection with 3
them accurately fitted and adjusted, and we therefore fit and fix the
parts on a counter driving shaft 19, Figure 2, which moves along with
the transversely moving crane truck 26 instead of fitting them so as to

page_text: shift with the motion of the truck along the transverse driving shaft 27,
as has hitherto been done with such parts. We drive the countershaft
19 from the other 27 by spur gearing 28, so that there is only one wheel
with clongated boss to slide along the shaft 27, and we can consequently
make this shaft 27 square instead of round, which makes it not only
less costly but capable of being more conveniently and satisfactorily
spliced when required. With this arrangement all the bevil wheels
17, 18, 22, 23, friction pulleys 20, 21, and other parts can be fitted and
adjusted on the countershaft 19 in the constructing shop, and be
transported as a whole to the place whereat the cranc is to be erected,
thus, as the practical engineer will understand, conducing greatly to
increased accuracy and saving expence.
The arrangement with a countershaft 19 as last herein-before
described is obviously advantageously applicable with various kinds of
clutch details as well as with our own differential frictional clutches.
The third part of our Invention consists of a simple but practically
useful improvement in windlasses of the kind described in the earlier
Specification herein-before referred to, and which will be understood
from Figures 5 and 6 of the accompanying Drawings, these Figures
representing respectively our former and our improved arrangements so
that the two can be easily compared.
It has frequently been found very difficult whilst adopting the greatest
allowable distance between the joints 31, 32, to make these and the
links 33 of adequate strength, and to at the same time leave sufficient
freedom of movement between the links 33 and the joint 32.
Our present improvement consists in forging a lug 34 on the lower
segment 35 of the friction band, which lug we find both theoretically
and practically can be set out far enough for the links 33 to be at right
angles to the lever 36 without injuring the gripping action; and this
improved arrangement has the further important advantage that mode-
rate wear of the friction wheel 37 or band 35 does not practically affect
the gripping power, whercas it does so with the former plan.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, we have to state that we do not
restrict ourselves to the precise details herein described or delineated,
but that what we believe to be novel and original, and claim as the

page_text: Invention secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is,―
1. The combining of the gearing of steam winches or steam hoisting
or hauling machines, so that the direction of rotation is the same
for different powers, and substantially in the manner herein-before 5
described.
2. The fitting of reversely disposed differential friction clutches to the
gearing of travelling cranes and other hoisting or hauling machines,
substantially as and for the purposes herein-before described.
3. The providing of travelling cranes with a countershaft (19), sub- 1
stantially as and for the purposes herein-before described.
4. The forming of the projecting lug 34, Figure 6, on the friction
band of our differential friction windlass, substantially as and for the
purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John David Napier, on behalf of 1
myself and the said Robert David Napier have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JOHN D. NAPIER. (L.S.)