IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF ROPES, CORDS, AND WIRE ROPES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Guest, of Great Saffron Hill, Farringdon
Road, in the County of Middlesex, Machinist, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE
OF ROPES, CORDS, AND WIRE ROPES."
Scaled the 10th September 1870, and dated the 18th March 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Guest at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th March 1870.
I, WILLIAM GUEST, of Great Saffron Hill, Farringdon Road, in the
County of Middlesex, Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE
MANUFACTURE OF ROPES, CORDS, AND WIRE ROPES," to be as follows:-
Four revolving plates, discs, heads, or frames having notches, recesses,
or openings at the edges to receive tubes or hollow spindles are arranged
around a common central point or fixed pillar. The tubes are supplied
with strands of the material to be formed into a rope or cord. The

page_text: plates, discs, heads, or frames revolve in alternate directions, that is to.
say, each plate, disc, or frame revolves in an opposite direction to the
next. Two opposite plates overlap the next two a little. On the central
pillar is a plate or guide, which I call a conductor, and which or a path
in which is curved at the edges or sides, the curves being disposed
according to the pattern or description of rope or cord to be produced.
The tubes work against the curves. The conductor works partially
round in both directions of motion alternately.
It is best to make the revolving frames thus:-Four notched upper
horizontal plates are connected by ties and by an axis with four corre-
spondingly shaped and notched lower horizontal plates parallel to the
upper plates, and thus form four revolving frames; the tubes are placed
in the notches of both upper and lower plates, and there are two con-
ductors, as above described, of corresponding shape to each other, one
working against the upper portions and the other against the lower
portions of the tubes.
When the machine is in motion the tubes fed with the strands are
carried round or partially round with the revolving plates or frames, and
by aid of the conductor they are delivered from one plate to the next,
and thence to the opposite plate, being carried round or partially round
by and with the opposite plate, and are thence delivered by the next
adjacent plate to its original plate, and so on. The strands are led from
the tubes or spindles and meet at top at a common point of union or
connection, and are led upward united in the form of rope or cord.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Guest in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th September 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GUEST, of 83, Great Saffron Hill, Farringdon Road, in the County of
Middlesex, Machinist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-third
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and

page_text: grant unto me, the said William Guest, Her special licence that I, the
said William Guest, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said William Guest, my 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
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle
of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
THE MANUFACTURE OF ROPES, CORDS, AND WIRE ROPES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Guest, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Guest, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings,
that is to say:-
Four frames, each formed of two discs or plates of equal diametre and
a toothed wheel fixed upon a spindle at any required distance apart
revolve on their own axis in an outside frame which has eight fixed
guides. At the edges of the discs or plates are notches or openings to
receive tubes or hollow spindles, inside of which are weights or needles
to keep taught or strained the strands. On the upper end of each tube
is a bobbin or reel containing the strands for forming the rope or cord.
The discs or plates when in position in the outside frames overlap
each other and revolve in alternate directions, that is to each frame
revolves in an opposite direction to the one next to it. In the centre of
the outside frame is a fixed pillar, upon which are two plates or con-
ductors of precisely the same size and shape curved in various ways
according to the pattern or description of the rope or cord required; the
said conductors work partially round in both directions of motion alter-
nately, and their duty is to direct the spindles to the proper notches or
openings on the discs or plates of the revolving frames.

page_text: round one frame and half round the other, but always in the same
direction.
5th. The peculiar construction of the rope or cord as made by this
machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Guest, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of September, in the
year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
W¼. GUEST. (L.S.)