AN IMPROVED METHOD OF LIFTING AND LOWERING SHIPS' ANCHORS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Thomas Peter Newbon, and Thomas Smith,
both of 63, Fenchurch Street, in the City of London, Naval Architects,
and James Brown, of No. 37, Tollit Street, Mile End, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF
LIFTING AND LOWERING SHIPS' ANCHORS."
Sealed the 25th January 1859, and dated the 1st October 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Thomas Peter
Newbon, Thomas Smith, and James Brown at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 1st October 1858.
We, JAMES THOMAS PETER NEWBON and THOMAS SMITH, both of 63, Fen-
church Street, in the City of London, Naval Architects, and JAMES BROWN, of
No. 87, Tollit Street, Mile End, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OF LIFTING AND LOWERING SHIPS' ANCHORS," to be as follows:-
In lieu of a windlass or capstan with stoppers, bitts, and rollers, now in use
in vessels, we substitute a bevel or spur wheel for each anchor fixed vertically
in openings made in either the upper or main deck, and worked with one or
more pinions, with a connecting rod or shaft if required, the handle or lever
rod being worked on any part of the deck. Over the wheel the chain cable
passes to and from the hawse hole, and is constructed so as to hold or gripe
each link of the chain, and in lifting the anchor the chain cable falls into the
chain locker. The apparatus is secured by carlings and coamings of sufficient
strength. At the after part of the carlings we fix a compressor to hold the

page_text: cable, as additional security to the vessel when riding at anchor. We do not
claim any part of the machinery separate and apart as new, but the com-
bination of such apparatus, whereby space on and between decks is gained, and
increased facility and safety in lifting and lowering ships' anchors is obtained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Thomas Peter Newbon, Thomas Smith, and James
Brown in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 29th March 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
THOMAS PETER NEWBON and THOMAS SMITH, both of 63, Fenchurch St., in
the City of London, Naval Architects, and JAMES BROWN, of 37, Tollit St.,
Mile End, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said James Thomas Peter Newbon, Thomas Smith, and James Brown,
Her special licence that we, the said James Thomas Peter Newbon, Thomas
Smith, and James Brown, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said James Thomas Peter Newbon, Thomas Smith, and
James Brown, 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 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF LIFTING
AND LOWERING SHIPS' ANCHORS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we,
the said James Thomas Peter Newbon, Thomas Smith, and James Brown,
by an instrument in writing under our, or one of our 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 calender months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Thomas Peter Newbon,
Thomas Smith, and James Brown, 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 and accompanying
Drawing:-

page_text: In lieu of a windlass or capstan with stoppers, bitts, and rollers now in use
in vessels, we substitute a bevil or spur wheel for each anchor, fixed vertically
in openings made in either the upper or main deck, and worked with one or
more pinions, with a connecting rod or shaft, if required, the handle or lever
rod being worked on any part of the deck. By arranging this handle or lever
rod, as a socket bar or moveable capstan head (of smaller size and lighter
weight than is necessary by the ordinary construction of capstan gear) for
working each apparatus, it can be removed from out of its place on deck, and
when not required the deck is disencumbered, and the socket holes, into which
the socket bars or capstan heads are shipped, may be fitted with flap covers or
plugs.
Upon rotary motion being given to the socket bars or capstan heads, by
men walking round with the handspikes or bars inserted in the heads thereof,
the wheel gear is set in motion, each being connected with and rotating a
suitable chain, barrel, or pulley belonging to its respective line of chain cable.
Over the wheel the chain cable passes to and from the hawse hole, and is
constructed so as to hold or gripe each link of the chain, and in lifting the
anchor, the chain cable falls into the chain locker. The chain, whilst passing
over the wheel barrel or drum, is held, link by link, in suitable notches cast
in the bottom and sides thereof; and a ratchet wheel may be fitted to the
side of the chain wheel or barrel, and palls fitted to fall thereinto, so as to
resist the tendency to overhaul which the chain may, from sudden strain
coming upon it, put upon the chain wheel or barrel and its gearing.
A friction lever and brake is added, for the purpose of lowering out the
chain or easing off, and where it is not convenient to add a seperate friction
wheel or drum, and a friction strap or band, a lever having a curved termi-
nation partially to surround and press against the spur wheel, or the periphery
of the chain wheel or barrel, may be substituted; and such brake may be
worked from the deck by means of a moveable lever or socket handle, or
otherwise.
The apparatus is secured by carlings and coamings of sufficient strength.
At the after part of the carlings we fix a compressor to hold the cable, as
additional security to the vessel when riding at anchor.
In the accompanying Drawing we have illustrated the application of our
Invention on board of a ship in such a manner as it may be ordinarily applied,
as a substitute for the present machinery or apparatus fitted on board ships
for similar purposes.
Fig. 1 is a plan view of the fore part of a ship, showing two sets of our
patent apparatus fifted in place, one on each side of a hatchway. Although

page_text: in practise they may be fitted in any other position, which may be equally or
more convenient in this view, each spur wheel, with its chain barrel, is fitted
in a direct line with the hawse hole and course of the chain cable, whilst the
moveable capstan head or socket bar, by means of bevil gearing, as shewn,
is enabled to be worked closer to the gunwale and clear off the chain.
Instead of motion being given to the apparatus by placing the moveable
capstan head or socket bars in the position shewn in Figure 1, the rotating
gear may be carried along the deck fore or aft by means of shafts, or bevil
wheels, or their equivalents.
Fig. 2 is a plan, Fig. 3 a side elevation, and Fig. 4 a transverse sectional
view of one of the apparatus constructed according to our Invention, and
intended to be applied in manner shewn by plan view, Fig. 1. The three
views, Fig. 2, 3 & 4, are drawn to an enlarged scale for the purpose of
illustrating the application of our said Invention shewn in Fig. 1. a, is a spur
wheel fitted on a short shaft b, and to the spur wheel a is fitted (or it may
be cast thereto) a chain wheel or barrel c, suitably formed to receive and hold
the links of the chain between its flanges; these flanges being taper, the width
between them varies from top to bottom so as to admit of variations in the
size of the links, or to admit of chains of more than one size being used;
d is a ratchet wheel also fitted to (or it may be cast on to) the other side of
the chain wheel or barrel; e, e, are palls taking into the teeth of the ratchet
wheel; f, a pinion wheel taking into and driving the spur wheel a, this pinion
is fitted on to the end of the horizontal shaft g, which shaft is shewn as
working in two bearings g¹, g¹, the journals for which h, h, are turned therein
as shewn; on the opposite end of this shaft g is a mitre wheel i, which is
driven by a mitre wheel i, fitted upon the end of a vertical socket or hollow.
shaft k, which is rotated by means of a suitable capstan head or socket bar l,
into the head of which (m) capstan bars are fitted.
A break block and lever u are shewn as fitted for working against the
periphery of the spur wheel, and a moveable socket handle o is fitted so as to
be worked from deck when required, the break may be fitted to the face of
the ratchet wheel instead of as shown.
The compressor shewn in plan on an enlarged scale at Fig. 2, and in side
elevation at Fig. 3, is so constructed that the compressor arm p is moved back
and forth by means of a crank arm, and with which it is connected by means
of a rod or link 8, the end of which after passing the dead centre, butts against-
a stop or stud t, which securely prevents any tendency to permit the escape of
the links between the jaw of the compressor, and enables it to be left without
requiring constant attention, or the exercise of force to keep the compressor

page_text: arm closed upon the chain, a moveable socket handle v, will enable the com-
pressor to be worked from the deck as shewn in Fig. 3, but any other position
on deck or elsewhere may be assigned to the socket handle of the compressor
apparatus, and by lengthening the rod or link s, the distance between the
compressor and the crank may be increased.
In the several views in the Drawing hereunto annexed, a spur wheel a and
pinion is shewn, for communicating motion to the chain wheel or barrel,
but we prefer to employ, in certain cases, instead thereof a bevil wheel of
suitably large diameter (instead of the spur wheel a), and a bevil pinion of
suitable diameter and pitch to gear into the bevil wheel either at the top or
bottom, or at one of the sides of such bevil wheel, and the motion may be
communicated thereto either direct or through other wheel gearing; when
the bevil pinion shaft is vertical, whether the bevil pinion is applied at the top
or bottom of the bevil wheel, or when the bevil pinion is fitted upon a hori-
zontal shaft, and gears into the bevel wheel at either side thereof, motion may
be communicated thereto by means of bevil wheels, or by any other convenient
gearing.
Having described our said Invention, and illustrated by the accompanying
Drawing an application thereof, and further described such modifications as
we desire to secure to ourselves the right of using, we wish it to be under-
stood that we do not claim any part of the machinery seperately and apart as
new, but the combination of such apparatus, whereby space on and between
decks is gained, and increased facility and safety in lifting and lowering ship's
anchors is obtained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Smith, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of March, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-nine.
THOMAS SMITH. (L.S.)