AN IMPROVEMENT IN ROPEMAKING MACHINERY
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
POLLARD, of Topsham, in the County of Devon, Ropemaker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day
of February, One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, in the twelfth
year of Hèr reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Robert Pollard, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Robert Pollard, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Robert Pollard, my exors, admors, 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, and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man,
and in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Inven-
tion of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN ROPEMAKING MACHINERY;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained & proviso that I, the said Robert Pollard, shall cause
a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said

page_text: in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Pollard, hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the present Specification thereof, that is to say:-
Whereas in ropemaking, as now ordinarily practised, a weighted travelling
drag is used for stretching, hardening, laying, and closing the ropes and cables,
which is of cumbrous construction, very inconvenient to use, and from the
irregularity of its action the frequent cause of great unevenness in the work;
now the object of my Invention is to substitute for this objectionable
travelling drag a pressing machine, which, though capable of being readily
moved from one place to another, shall be stationary while at work, whatever
may be the length of the rope or cable, and which can be set at starting to any
required degree of pressure, and will maintain the pressure to which it is sot
under every variation of circumstances.
Figure 1 of the Drawings annexed is a perspective view of this pressing
machine, and Figure 2 a similar view of the jack used in connection with it.
Figure 3 is a front elevation, Figure 4 a plan, and Figure 5 a section of the
pressing machine, taken on the line a, b, of Figure 3. A is a basement furnished
with wheels, on which the machine is mounted; S, S, two end standards; E,
a barrel round which the press rope or chain F is wound; M, a crank bandle
by which the barrel is turned; L, a cog wheel attached to the inner end
of the barrel; I, J, and K are three revolving shafts, which are supported
by the standards S, S, and are all of them parallel to but situate in vertical
planes to the roar of the barrel E. The shaft I carries at one end a pinion P,
which takes into the cog wheel L on the barrel E, and on the other end a cog
wheel T. The shaft K carries at one end a pinion R, which gears into the
wheel T on the shaft I. To the shaft J is attached the pinion V, which takes
into the cog wheel L on the barrel E. B' is a lever, weighted on the steelyard
principle, to which is attached at one end a strap D, which grips a friction
pulley C, on the revolving shaft J, and b a cross bar, which serves as a fulcrum
to B, and B is a similar lever to B', which acts through the medium of a
similar strap D, friction pulley C, and fulcrum rod (6¹¹), on the revolving
shaft K. N is a crank handle by which the shaft J is turned, and which may
be transferred as required to either of the shafts I and K.
Now as the friction of rubbing surfaces is known to vary with the pressure,
and to remain nearly uniform under the same pressure, and as the machine
which has been just described can be adjusted to any degree of pressure

page_text: required, by merely changing the position of or magnitude of the weights
attached to the levers B and B", it affords obviously the means of obtaining.
any degree of retardation of the jack (in lieu of the drag weight) required for
the manufacture of ropes of all sizes, from the smallest ratline up to the largest
cable. It will be further evident that as the lever B₁ acts on the barrel E
through the medium of a single wheel only, V, it must necessarily exert less
force than the lever B", which is in connection with the whole train of wheels
R, T, V, L, and P. The lever B', therefore, when used by itself, is adapted
for small work only, and the lever B for the larger and more general sizes;
but both levers may be used conjointly when very great pressure or resistance
is required. When either of the levers is in use by itself, the other is thrown
out of action by lifting a paul on the shaft, and drawing the pinions P, R,
or V, out of gear with the wheel into which they take. To illustrate the
effect of shifting or altering the magnitude of the weights attached to the
levers B' and B", in encreasing or diminishing the resistance to the rotation
of the barrel, I have shown in Figure 6 the lever B" on an enlarged scale,
graduated from 1 cwt. up to 40 cwt., that is to say, supposing the weight to
be drawn is that of a loaded sledge such as is generally used by rope makers,
and that the ground over which it has to be moved is a level gravel walk of
the description of those usually to be met with in covered rope grounds, then
No. 1 on the scale attached to this lever will represent the amount of resistance
offered to the rotation of the barrel of the machine, or strain exerted on the
rope when a weight of 10 lbs. is suspended from that point, and the succeeding
numbers will denote the proportional encrease of strain produced by moving
out the weight one, two, or three degrees further towards the end of the lever.
Thus, supposing the rope about to be closed is of a diameter known to require
a press of twenty cwt., then the ten Ibs. weight must be suspended from the
point No. 4; or if double that amount is required, then either the ten lbs.
weight must be pushed out to No. 8, or a 20 lbs. weight must be suspended from
the point No. 4. A single man, or at most a couple of men, will, by turning a
winch handle attached to the end of either of the shafts E or J, draw back with
the greatest ease a small or middle sized jack; or by applying the winch handle
to the shaft K (which is in gearing with the whole of the train of wheels) they
will be able to draw back the largest and heaviest jack in use. With the ordi-
nary travelling drag the same work would require from ten to twenty times the
number of hands. The levers B' and B", after they are once adjusted to any
required amount of pressure, are kept uniformly steady by means of the
stays H, h, the upper ends of which terminate in clefts so adjusted to the
position of the levers when weighted that the levers and stays may be con-

page_text: nected together by glands and nuts H', h'. If at any time the press given
should be found too tight, it can be instantly slackened by moving the
suspended weight or weights on the lever or levers more or less inwards.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I declare that the improvement in rope-
making machinery which I claim as constituting my said Invention is that
embodied in the stationary pressing machine herein-before described, and
intended by me to be substituted for the weighted travelling drag now in
common use, that is to say, the employment for the purpose of my Invention,
and in manner before specified, of levers weighted on the steelyard principle,
according to the exact degree of pressure or resistance required.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Pollard, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our
Land One thousand eight hundred and fastenine