AN IMPROVED METHOD OR MODE OF MAKING THE SAILS OF SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
BROOKING, of Weymouth, in the County of Devon, Admiral in the Royal
Navy, send grecting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Fourth day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and twenty-eight, in the Ninth year of His reign, give and grant
unto me, the said Samuel Brooking, His especial licence that I, the said
Samuel Brooking, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others
as I, the said Samuel Brooking, 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 mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OR MODE OF
MAKING THE SAILS OF SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso that I, the said Samuel Brooking, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, referenco
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Brooking, do hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention
is to be performed, by the following, description thereof (reference being had
to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:―
My said Invention consists in constructing the sails for ships and all other
vessels in such manner that the length of the pieces of cloth of which such
sails are made and formed, and likewise the seams by which such pieces of
cloth are sewed or united together, shall bo placed as nearly as possible in the
direction of the greatest tension and force that is applied to such sails, either
by the wind, or in setting and using them. Thus, for example, in a square
sail or course, as the same have always hitherto been made and put together,
all the seams run vertically or nearly at right angles to the yard to which
such sail is attached, as shewn in the sail or course A, A, Fig. 1 of the
explanatory Drawing hereunto annexed; and in hauling on board the tack of
such a course, or stretching the sail to make it ready to receive the wind, a
force is first applied to one or other of the bottom clews or loops B or C,
according to the tack of the vessel. Suppose the said force to be applied
at B, then, in the present construction of sails, it is well known, that that
force will manifest itself by drawing all the central part of the sail into folds
in a diagonal direction, as indicated by the line B, D, E; thus transferring the
force so applied to the earrings and point E of the yard, which thereby
frequently becomes sprung, while at the same time this force acts transversely
through the several breadths of cloth which form the sail, and in almost direct
opposition to the seams which unite them, and which therefore become much
strained and liable to open or tear asunder. A force is next applied by the
sheet to the opposite bottom loop or clew C, in order that the sail become
fully stretched or strained, and this second force will remove the folds and
appearance of strain in the direction B, B, E, from the sail, and will operate
to draw down the opposite end F of the yard. The principal strain therefore
falls upon the two ends of the yard; and little or none of it upon its middle,
which is not only the strongest part, but the part which is most strongly and
firmly supported. To obviate these several defects and inconveniences, I
dispose the length of my canvass and the seams that unite them as nearly as
may be in the direction of the strain that the canvass is subject to as
aforesaid, by placing the breadths of cloth and the seams that unite them
diagonally, as shewn in topsail G, G, supported from a yard H, I, as in the
former case. It will be evident, from this construction of the sail, that when
it is strained at its lower clues or corners E and F, as in the former case, the
may

page_text: strain, instead of being wholly communicated to the-yard arms or ends of the
yards, will be mainly transferred to the bunt or middle of the sail and of the
yard; besides which, instead of that strain operating across the seams and
the breadths of cloth, it will operate in the direction of their length, thereby
adding very considerably to the duration of the sail, and making it much less
likely to fail or open in its seams. In the formation or making of this my
improved sail, I cause the ends of the cloth, where the meeting takes place in
the center line K, K, to overlap each other considerably, and to be very
strongly sewed, because I conceive, the main stress upon a sail so formed to be
in the direction of that line. Another, and a very important advantage which
is derived from the diagonal mode of seaming is, that as the canvass lays in
that direction in which the power used to strain or stretch it will act to the
greatest advantage, so the sail will lie more tort and flat, and will not bag to
the same extent as in the former mode of construction; consequently, it may
be inferred that sails on my improved plan will add considerably to the speed
of a vessel on a wind, that they will give security to the yards, and tend less
to lay her down, as from the flatter surface maintained by my sails the wind
will escape more freely from the lee leach than when confined by the bagging
of one, two, or more cloths on that part, and consequently there will be less
lateral strain upon the masts and yards.
Figures 2 and 3 of the annexed Drawing shew the manner in which I
propose to seam the cloths for stay and other triangular sails, which have
always hitherto been made with perpendicular seams and breadths of cloth,
thereby giving them a tendency to bag on the hypotheneusal or stay side of
the sail. I prefer, however, placing the seams as nearly as may be at right
angles to the stay side of the sail, or rather in such direction that the cloth
or seam opposite to the hinder clue M may proceed as nearly as possible to
the middle of the opposite side of the sail next to the stay, as indicated by the
line L, M; thus throwing the greatest tension at the clue M nearly on to the
central part of the opposite side of the sail.
As my Invention applies to sails of every form and description, it would be
almost impossible to represent by Drawings the exact position or direction which
the seams would take in every case; but since the principle which I claim under
my herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is that placing the cloth and
the seams thereof in such directions as to coincide and agree with the direction
of the strains or forces used to set and tighten the sails, and particularly in
their lec leeches, and as this is better and more effectually done by diagonal
instead of vertical seams, so I therefore claim the exclusive right and
advantage of making, using, and vending sails with diagonal seams, whether

page_text: the breadths of cloth shall run in one strait direction from one side of the
sail to the other, or whether the same shall meet and unite in the middle of
the sail, as in Figure 1, or in whatsoever way the said process of diagonal
seaming shall be adopted and used, such diagonal seaming being the essence
or spirit and principal object of my aforesaid Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Brooking, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our
3
PRIDHAM, Extra.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of February,
in the year of our Lord 1829, the aforesaid Samuel Brooking came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.