IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN GETTING SHIPS' ANCHORS, AND IN SHACKLING CHAINS."
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Horatio Harfield, of Fenchurch Street, in
the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
EMPLOYED IN GETTING SHIPS' ANCHORS, AND IN SHACKLING CHAINS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Horatio Harfield
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 18th July 1859.
I, WILLIAM HORATIO HARFIELD, of Fenchurch Street, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN GETTING SHIPS' ANCHORS, AND IN SHACKLING CHAINS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus employed in
getting ships anchors, and in shackling chains. Heretofore when chain
messengers are employed, the messenger has usually been worked with a
capstan having a spike or toothed wheel mounted on it, the spikes or teeth of
which enter every other link of the chain; this arrangement renders it im-
possible to employ a messenger chain having stayed links, and chains the links
of which, if not stayed, are very liable to stretch, and when stretched are useless,
as they will no longer work properly with the spike wheel of the capstan.
Now, according to my Invention, I employ for the purpose of getting ships'
anchors a combination of apparatus which I will proceed to describe. The

page_text: capstan is fitted with a chain flange, such as is commonly made use of on
capstans for working with chain cables, that is to say, the flange is made with
a groove in which the chain lays, and on the sides of the groove stops are
fixed, which enter between the vertical links and over and below the horizontal
links of the chain; this capstan is combined with an endless or messenger
chain, the links of which are stayed, as has heretofore been practised in other
chains, and I connect up the chain so as to make it endless, by means of a
shackle made of a form corresponding with a link of the chain, but divided
into two parts longitudinally; these parts are made to fit together with dove-
tails, and the parts are prevented from sliding apart when in use by a pin, or
the two parts of the shackle may be otherwise connected together. This
shackle, corresponding in form with the links of the chain, passes very readily
round the capstan when at work, or the ends of the messenger chain may be
connected by means of a pair of shackles made to reave through each other, in
place of by a single shackle, as is usually employed for shackling chains; by
using a pair of shackles I avoid the use of enlarged links at the end of each
length of chain, as such enlarged links are required when a single shackle is
employed, in order that the curved part of the shackle may be able to pass
through the link; but when a pair of shackles are employed, the pin of each
shackle passes through links of the chain, and the curved part of one shackle
is rove through the curved part of the other shackle. The shackles are made
of the same length as the links of the chain, so that they may pass freely
round the capstan. In some cases I employ, in place of a pair of shackles, a
double shackle having a pin at each end, to pass through the links of the chain.
These methods of shackling are applicable to other chains as well as to
messenger chains, and it will be seen that if a chain breaks it may thus bo
shackled up at any point in its length, whereas, with ordinary shackles, it is
only at the enlarged links that shackles equal in strength to the chain can be
introduced. In order to connect the chain cable of the anchor to the
messenger chain, in place of employing rope lashings as is used, I make use
of a pair of claws, one of the pair of claws fits on to the messenger chain, and
the other on to the chain cable; these claws are each furnished with a pro-
jecting pin, and by lashing the pins of the two claws together, the chain cable
is connected to the messenger much more conveniently than heretofore.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Horatio Harfield in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th January 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HORATIO HARFIELD, of Fenchurch Street, in the City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said William Horatio Harfield, Her special licence that I, the
said William Horatio Harfield, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said William Horatio Harfield, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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 APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN GETTING SHIPS'
ANCHORS, AND IN SHACKLING CHAINS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said William Horatio Harfield, 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 Horatio Harfield, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by tho
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus employed in
getting ships' anchors, and in shackling chains. Heretofore when chain
messengers are employed, the messenger has usually been worked with a
capstan having a spike or toothed wheel mounted on it, the spikes or teeth of
which enter every other link of the chain; this arrangement renders it
impossible to employ a messenger chain having stayed links and chains, the
links of which are not stayed are very liable to stretch, and when stretched
are useless, as they will no longer work properly with the spike wheel of the
capstan. Now, according to my Invention, I employ for the purpose of getting

page_text: ships' anchors a combination of apparatus which I will proceed to describe.
The capstan is fitted with a chain flange, such as is commonly made use of on
capstans for working with chain cables, that is to say, the flange is made with
a groove in which the chain lays, and on the sides of the groove stops are
fixed, which enter between the vertical links and over and below the horizontal
links of the chain; this capstan is combined with an endless or messenger
chain, the links of which are stayed, as has heretofore been practised in other
chains, and I connect up the chain so as to make it endless by means of a
shackle made of a form corresponding with a link of the chain, but divided into
two parts longitudinally; these parts are made to fit together with dove-
tails, and the parts are prevented from sliding apart when in use by a pin, or
the two parts of the shackle may be otherwise connected together; this
shackle corresponding in form with the links of the chain passes very readily-
round the capstan when at work.
Figure 1 is an elevation of a capstan mounted on the deck of a ship, and
fitted with a chain flange, such as is commonly made use of on capstans for
working with chain cables. I employ a Brown's patent chain flange, the
capstan is in other respects fitted in the usual manner. Figure 2 is a
horizontal section of the same. Round the capstan there passes a chain
messenger a, which also passes round the guide pulleys b, b. The ends of the
messenger chain may be connected by a shackle, such as is shown in side view
at Figure 3; this shackle is made in two parts, c and d; on the part cat c' a
dovetailed projection is formed, which fits a corresponding recess in the part d,
at their other ends the parts c and d are both formed with recesses, and the
double dovetail key e is driven in between the two parts, and serves to hold
them tightly together; f is a pin passing through the centre portion of the
shackle, to prevent the parts c and d moving laterally; f' is a small locking
pin to keep the pin f in its place; this shackle I prefer to make of steel. In
place of this arrangement the ends of the messenger chain may be connected
by means of a pair of shackles made to reave through each other, in place of
by a single shackle, as is usually employed for shackling chains; by using a
pair of shackles I avoid the use of enlarged links at the end of each length of
chain as such enlarged links are required when a single shackle is employed,
in order that the curved part of the shackle may be able to pass through the
link; but when a pair of shackles are employed, the pin of each shackle
passes through links of the chain, and the curved part of one shackle is rove
through the curved part of the other shackle; the shackles are made of the
same length as the links of the chain, so that they may pass freely round the
capstan. This arrangement is clearly shown at Figure 4, and also as applied

page_text: to the chain messenger in Figure 2. In some cases I employ, in place of a
pair of shackles, a double shackle having a pin at each end to pass through
the links of the chain. A double shackle of this description is shown at
Figure 5.
These methods of shackling are applicable to other chains as well as to
messenger chains, and it will be seen that if a chain breaks it may thus be
shackled up at any point in its length; whereas, with ordinary shackles, it is
only at the enlarged links that shackles equal in strength to the chain can be
introduced. In order to connect the chain cable of the anchor to the
messenger chain, in place of employing rope lashings, as is usual, I make use
of a pair of claws, one of the claws fits on to the messenger chain, and the
other on to the chain cable; these claws are each furnished with a projecting
pin, and by lashing the pins of the two claws together, the chain cable is con-
nected to the messenger much more conveniently than heretofore.
One of these claws is shown separately at Figure 6, and in Figure 2 the
messenger a is shown connected with the cable g by means of a pair of these
claws and rope lashing passing from the projecting pin of one of the claws to
that of the other; these claws are placed on the messenger and on the cable
as soon as the one comes up to the other, and they are immediately lashed
together; the claws are taken off the messenger just as it comes up to the
capstan. The messenger should be of such a length as to allow of three pairs
of claws being on at a time.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Horatio Harfield, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
W. H. HARFIELD. (LS.)