Improved Means for Attaching Ropes or Cables to each other or to other Bodies.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 1st June, 1887
Complete Left, 1st Mar., 1888
Complete Accepted, 13th Apr., 1888
Improved Means for Attaching Ropes or Cables to each other or
to other Bodies.
I, RALPH RHENIUS EVANS DRAKE-BROCKMAN, Major in the Royal Engineers at
present of No. 8, Sumner Terrace, South Kensington, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to an improved means for fastening ropes or cables to other
ropes or cables or to other points of attachment.
It consists in the use of a wedge which is fastened to the rope or cable end by a
retaining wire (and must therefore move with said rope or cable) in conjunction with
a stout ring or socket, the bore of which is tapered for part of its length, and parallel
for the remainder. This ring may be distinct from the substance of the body to
which the rope or cable is to be attached, or may be of the same substance
with it.
The wedge is of wood if the rope is of hemp or coir; and metal, if of wire.
The wedge and rope or cable end are laid together and fastened together by
passing the aforesaid wire through the rope or cable before they are pushed into the
ring.
Suitable provision is made in the wedge, by means of grooves formed in the side
thereof, to receive the several strands of the rope separated by the insertion of said
wedge; or the wedge itself may be channelled to receive the end of the rope or cable,
which latter would not in that case be separated into its component strands. The
wedge and rope or cable end are pushed into the ring through the parallel or outer
part of the bore of the latter. The rope or cable and fastening wire are then pulled
back, when the wedge will jam the rope or cable against the taper portion of the bore.
The fastening wire is then made fast to suitable projections upon the outside of the
ring.
The parallel part of the bore of the solid ring provides for the pull on the rope
cable being straight, i.e., in a line with the axis of that part of said rope or cable in
the ring.

page_text: According to my invention I also provide for the prevention of abrasion of the rope
or cable by the ring when the latter is used for the purpose of connecting the rope or
cable to a buoy or the like, by introducing a bush of indiarubber into the outer end
of the parallel part of the bore, so as to serve as an annular cushion between the rope
or cable and the terminal or outer edge of said bore.
The ring above described may terminate in a convenient coupling device, either
screw, hook, or eye, or of any other convenient and suitable type for the purpose of
enabling it to be made fast to any point, or to a duplicate coupling device.
A ring may be, according to my invention, made duplex, i.e., with two bores, when
it is desired to connect one rope to any point other than the end of another rope, or to
connect two ropes to one object, one bore to embrace one rope and the other to
embrace the second one.
Dated this 1st day of June 1887.
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Means for Attaching Ropes or Cables to each other or
to other Bodies.
I, RALPH RHENIUS EVANS DRAKE-BROCKMAN of 8 Fowlis Terrace, Fulham
Road S.W. Major, Royal Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:—
My invention relates to an improved means for fastening ropes or cables
to other ropes
or cables, or to other points of attachment SO that the
resisting power tending to prevent the end of the rope or cable from drawing out of
the coupling is always proportional to the tension of said rope or cable.
In order that my invention may be the better understood, I have appended the
accompanying sheet of drawings in which Figure 1 represents a single coupling
sleeve for coupling a rope or cable to a hook, eye, ring or equivalent device with the
several parts shown detached. Figure 2 is a vertical section and Figure 4 a cross
section of said coupling showing a rope or cable in position. Figure 3 represents a
sectional elevation of a coupling with wedge detached; Figure 5 is a coupling
arranged upon a rope or cable having an attachment thereon for a cross or transverse
rope or guy. Figure 6 shows a plain socket and eye or ring coupling; Figure 7
illustrates a coupling for uniting two ends of a rope or cable; Figure 8 is a double

page_text: coupling for two separate ropes or cables; Figures 9 and 10 are respectively an
elevational and sectional view of a modification of my invention specially applicable
for gut or rope driving bands; and Figure 11 is a sectional view of a coupling adapted
to a screw socket for manifold purposes.
In carrying out my invention I employ a sleeve or elongated ring A the bore of
which is tapered on one side for a part of its length as shown at b, and parallel beyond
as shown at c. A looped or forked elongation E may support a hook, eye, ring or
other suitable appliance for the attachment of the sleeve A to a ropo or other object.
One side of the bore of said sleeve A is corrugated or spirally grooved to suit the
"lay" of the strands of a rope or cable. A wedge B preferably of semicircular form,
and which may also be corrugated or spirally grooved upon the inner or concave
surface, is furnished with a suitable piece of flexible wire a for the purpose hereinafter
described. The wedge B is shown detached in Figure 1, and also in the sectional
view Figure 3. In order to prevent abrasion of the rope by chafing against the edge
of the sleeve A, I may introduce a tapered bush & of india rubber or other resilient
material within the parallel portion of the bore of the sleeve, and may further
secure said tapered bush in position by means of an annular recess within the lower
part of the sleeve A.
In order to attach the improved coupling device, according to my invention, to the
end of a rope or cable, I pass the free end of said rope or cable through the parallel
portion of the bore of the sleeve A, and out through the larger diameter of the
tapered portion of said bore. I then attach the wedge B to the rope or cable by means
of the wire a passing the latter through the strand, and so through the centre of the
rope as shown at Figure 2, and draw said wedge into the taper part of the sleeve,
when the inclination of the respective surfaces of the taper bore of said sleeve, and of
the wedge, causes the corrugations or spiral grooves in both, to be forced into the
lay" of the strands of said rope or cable, and thereby to hold it securely within the
sleeve against any strain or tension. The wire a may then be wrapped round the rope
or cable to resist any tendency to uncouple, or any other suitable method may be
adopted for securing said wire a.
"6
The sleeve A and wedge B may be adapted to attach a rope or cable to any point in
the length of another rope, as shown at Figure 5 by means of an eye or ring H, or, I
may use a plain eye, with a suitable provision in the upper part thereof for passing the
wedge upwards when the end of a rope or cable is inserted therein, as shown at
Figure 6. I may also employ a hook, eye or equivalent appliance for the attachment
of the sleeve A carrying the end of the rope or cable, firmly fixed therein by means
of the wedge B, to another rope or cable, or any other body. In cases when the
rope is of hemp, coir or other fibrous material, I form the wedge B of hard wood, but
when a rope is formed of strands of metallic wire, I prefer to make the wedge B
of metal.
I may further employ a compound sleeve A (Figure 7) for coupling two ends of a
rope or cable together by means of the wedges B B¹ or I may form the sleeve A with
a compound bore, as shown at Figure 8, so that the ends of two or more distinct
cables or ropes F, F', may be firmly fixed therein by means of the compound wedge B,
according to the method hereinbefore described, and said two or more ropes or cables
may then be attached to a single rope, cable or other body as may be desired, by
means of a suitable connection which may be a hook, an eye, a ring or equivalent,
according to the nature of the desired connection. Figures 9 and 10 illustrate a
modification of the device or appliance according to my invention, which may be
adapted for joining the ends of gut or rope driving bands, such as are employed for
driving lathes or other machinery. The wedge B is used in conjunction with a
sleeve A in the same manner as that described in the former examples, and said
sleeve A is provided with a hook or an eye for linking the two ends of the band
together. may further modify the sleeve or elongated ring A by forming thereon a
channelled or forked extension E, (Figure 11) in which is formed a female screw I
into which engages the male screw G. This arrangement may be duplicated, and by
means of a right and left handed threaded screw, two ends of a rope or cable may be

page_text: drawn together, or, the tension of such rope or cable may be augmented at will, when
the coupling connects said rope or cable to a fixed body.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
First In a coupling for connecting ropes or cables together or to any stationary
body the employment of a sleeve or elongated ring having a bore partly taper and
partly parallel with corrugations or spiral grooves and a channelled wedge having
corrugations or spiral grooves and provided with a wire attachment, a bush of india
rubber or other suitable material with or without a retaining cap substantially as and
for the purposes herein set forth and shown.
Second: In a coupling for connecting ropes or cables together or to any stationary
body the employment of a sleeve or elongated ring having one, two or more bores
with edges and auxilliary attachments for connecting two or more ropes or cables
to a single rope or cable or to any stationary object substantially as herein set
forth.
Third-In the improved coupling for ropes or cables referred to in the preceding
claims the connection to the sleeve or elongated ring of a ring, hook, eye or equivalent
for the purpose of attachment together of two ropes or cables by the ends thereof or
of the end of one to the centre of another, or for attachment to any other body or for
coupling driving bands of gut or rope substantially as herein set forth.
Fourth: In the improved couplings for ropes or cables as herein described the
adaptation of a screw coupling to the sleeve or elongated ring substantially as and for
the purposes herein set forth.
D
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