CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STANDING RIGGING, AND STAYS FOR SHIPS AND VESSELS, AND IN THE METHOD OF FITTING OR USING IT, AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CHAINS APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS PURPOSES, AND IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MAKING OR MANUFACTURING SUCH RIGGING AND CHAINS
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANDREW
SMITH, of Princes Street, in the Parish of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, West-
minster, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His late most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, by
His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of December, in the seventh year
of His reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-six, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Andrew Smith, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Andrew Smith, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Andrew Smith, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STANDING RIGGING, AND STAYS FOR SHIPS AND VESSELS,
AND IN THE METHOD OF FITTING OR USING IT, AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
CHAINS APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS PURPOSES, AND IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
FOR MAKING OR MANUFACTURING SUCH RIGGING AND CHAINS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Andrew Smith, by an

page_text: instrument in writing, under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same
is to be performed, and to cause the same 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,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Andrew Smith, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):-
:-
My improvements in standing rigging and stays for ships and vessels,
and in the method of fitting or using it, consist, in the first place, in certain
improvements upon the subject of my former Patent, granted by His late
most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, and dated at Westminster,
the Twelfth day of January, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-five,
for "A new Standing Rigging for Ships and Vessels, and a new Method
of Fitting and Using it."
The first feature of this my present improvement is splicing the end of
my patent wire rope round a thimble or dead-eye, and thereby better adapting
it to the purpose of standing rigging.
The second feature of my present improvement, viz', the construction
of chains applicable to various purposes, is a method of forming chains for
rigging, for cables, and for other uses, of iron or other wire, or of strips
of plate metal wound in successive layers into links, and rendered solid
and compact by means of tin or some other readily fusible metal or alloy
of metals run in a molton state into the interstices or spaces between the
combined wires or strips.
Thirdly, twisting long links of iron or other wires or metallic rods into
forms suited for shrouds, constituting distinct links between the respective
ratlings, and also for stays.
And fourthly, the machinery or apparatus employed for making or manu-
facturing such rigging and chains.
As respects my wire ropes for rigging, I have fully described the manner
of making them in the Specification of my Patent above-mentioned, which
Specification was duly inrolled in Chancery in the Rolls Chapel Office, on
or about the Twelfth day of July, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-five,
and. to which I now refer. It will there be seen that a series of lengths

page_text: of wire were combined together and enveloped with coatings to prevent
oxydation, the ends of the wires being inserted into conical tubes and spread
out for the purpose of securely holding them. I now propose, as a more
secure mode of fastening the ends of the wire ropes, to turn them over
in the forms of loops, as shewn in the accompanying Drawing at Fig. 1, having
a metallic lining a, a, a, which I call a long thimble. The ends of the
wires are then separated into three or more distinct portions, and passed
through interstices made in the other part of the wire rope at b, in the
manner in which hempen ropes are usually spliced. These loops and
thimbles may then be fitted to dead-eyes or shackles in the ordinary way,
and the wire ropes are by these means adapted to the purposes of shrouds
and other standing rigging.
The links of the wire chains constituting the second head of my Invention,
are made by winding a length of wire round a mould shaped as a pulley,
but of an elliptical form, as shewn in three different views at Figures 2, 3,
and 4. One of the links so formed of wire is represented at Fig. 5, and
the wires being compactly brought together in the way technically called
selvage fashion"
they are then prepared with a chemical material as a
flux, and afterwards immersed in molten metal consisting of some of the
alloys or compounds similar to hard or soft solder, which, entering in between
the interstices, fills up the substance of the materials, forming the ring or
link into a solid mass, as represented at Figure 6. I sometimes, instead
of wire, use long strips of thin plate metal, cut into the form of a section
taken lengthwise, of a very long parabolic spindle, the length of the strip
being made equal to the circumference of the link, so many times repeated as
will, by the accumulated thicknesses of the plate metal lapped one over another,
produce the required thickness of the link, and the breadth of the strip in the
middle of its length must be equal to a section of one side of the link or
its thickness. The strip of plate metal may be wound or lapped round
one of the elliptical moulds, as described, and be afterwards immersed in
molten metal for the purpose of cementing its parts altogether into a compact
or solid state. It will be perceived that thus far I have only described the
method of making single links. I will now proceed to shew the manner in
which I construct chains by connecting these links together. This is done by
threading or winding a similar link of wire or plate metal through two of the
previously formed links, which are by any convenient means to be placed,
as shewn in Fig. 7, at A, B, partially inserted into recesses or notches cut.
in the mould block, one of which mould blocks is represented in two positions
at Figures 8 and 9. In these two last-mentioned Figures the situations of

page_text: the two previously formed links A and B, which are to be connected together
by threading or winding a third link through them, are shewn by dots. Fig. 10
represents the two links so connected together by the link C, formed by a
length of wire passed many times round the mould block D, one side
of the mould block being removed in this last-mentioned figure for the
purpose of exhibiting the now formed link more clearly. When the con-
necting links have been so made, the wires are to be cemented together by
solder, as before described, and a chain is produced, as Fig. 11. Links of any
required length suited for shrouds and stays may in the above way be formed
of wire wound upon a suitable mould, or of rods of metal so wound, and the
separate links may be connected together into a chain by threading or winding
wires or rods through them, as described; and when the chain has been so
formed, the sides of the links may be twisted by any convenient mechanical
means, and adapted to the purpose of shrouds or stays as shewn at Figures 12
and 13.
The machinery or apparatus to be employed for making or manufacturing
the above described chains, constituting the fourth head of my Invention, is
shewn in the several Figures of the Drawings, from Fig. 2 to 4, and from
Fig. 7 to 10, inclusive. The moulding block round which the wire is to be
wound for forming the link, is, as before said, of an elliptical figure, having
a semicylindrical groove round its periphery as a pulley. The block is con-
structed of two parts, separating in the middle in the perpendicular line,
as shewn in Fig. 2, and the parts separated are shewn in two positions at
Figures 3 and 4. The two parts of the moulding block being put together,
as at Fig. 2, it is mounted upon an axle or spindle passed through the
aperture in its centre. The end of the wire intended to be wound upon the
block is then inserted into a hole in the periphery of the block for the purpose
of confining it, and the block being turned upon its axle, the wire, which is
drawn from a reel and held with a slight degree of tension, winds round the
moulding block until a sufficient quantity has accumulated to constitute the
substance of the link; the two parts of the block are then separated, and the
link is removed therefrom. The apparatus for connecting the links together
for forming chains, as shewn at Figures 7, 8, 9, and 10, consists of a moulding
block constructed as before described; but in this case recesses or notches are
made in the block, as shewn in Fig. 9, for the previously formed links to be
inserted into. When these links have been properly fixed, the wire is passed
round the block and through the links, as at Fig 10, by means of a shuttle
worked by the hand or by any suitable machinery, whereby the new link is made
which connects the two former; and this being repeated, any number of links

page_text: ANDREW (L.S.) SMITH.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of June,
in the first year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said Andrew
Smith came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth year of
the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of June. One thousand eight