IMPROVEMENTS IN WIND- LASSES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Horatio Harfield, of Fenchurch Street, in
the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WIND-
LASSES."
Sealed the 11th February 1859, and dated the 23rd August 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Horatio Harfield
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd August 1858.
I, WILLIAM HORATIO HARFIELD, of Fenchurch Street, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN WINDLASSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in windlasses. For these
purposes, in order to give motion to a windlass barrel, two cog or toothed
wheels on parallel axes are used, which gear into each other, and one of them
also gears into a wheel on the axis of the windlass barrel. On the axis of one
of the two cog wheels there is a lever, which is caused to vibrate by suitable
windlass bars; and by means of connecting rods, motion is communicated
from the above-mentioned lever to a second lever, which moves on the axis of
the other cog wheel; each lever carries a driver or drivers arranged to give
motion to its cog wheel, and so that the two cog wheels are driven alternately
In order that a windlass may be
by their respective levers and drivers.
more conveniently arranged to deliver a cable, there is a break wheel fixed on

page_text: the axis of one of the cog wheels, to which there is applied a suitable break
strap and lever. In some cases I so combine and arrange a windlass barrel
and its framing that the barrel of the windlass may work in or through a
hole or opening in the deck of a ship; and the whole may in such case be
covered in, simply having openings or slots through the covering to admit of
the passage of the windlass bars and for the passage of the cable.
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 23rd February 1859.
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 Twenty-third day of August, 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 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, 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
night 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 WINDLASSES," 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 the
following statement thereof, that is to say:
This Invention has for its object improvements in windlasses. For these
purposes, in order to give motion to a windlass barrel, two cog or toothed wheels

page_text: on parallel axes are used, which gear into each other, and one of them also
gears into a wheel on the axis of the windlass barrel. On the axis of one of
the two cog wheels there is a lever, which is caused to vibrate by suitable
windlass bars; and by means of connecting rods motion is communicated
from the above-mentioned lever to a second lever, which moves on the axis of
the other cog wheel. Each lever carries a driver or drivers arranged to give
motion to its cog wheel, and so that the two cog wheels are driven alternately
by their respective levers and drivers. In order that a windlass may be more
conveniently arranged to deliver a cable, there is a break wheel fixed on the
axis of one of the cog wheels, to which there is applied a suitable break strap
and lever. In some cases I so combine and arrange a windlass barrel and its
framing that the barrel of the windlass may work in or through a hole or
opening in the deck of a ship; and the whole may in such case be covered in,
simply having openings or slots through the covering to admit of the passage
of the windlass bars and for the passage of the cable.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shews a side elevation of apparatus combined into a windlass
according to my Invention; Figure 2 is a plan thereof; Figure 3 shews a side
elevation, the side of the frame being removed; Figure 4 is a transverse
section taken through the barrel of the windlass, which is shewn of the con-
struction I prefer to employ; Figure 5 shews an end view, the end of the
framing being removed. In each of these Figures the same letters are used to
indicate the same parts.
a, a, is the framing of the windlass; b, b, is the windlass barrel; c is a
friction break or strap, which acts on a break wheel on the barrel of the
windlass, and it is acted on by the lever d. On the windlass barrel is fixed or
formed a cog wheel e, into which a pinion f gears, and motion is communicated.
to the axis f' of the pinion f in the following manner :-g is another pinion on
the axis g', this pinion g gears into the pinion f; the axis of the pinion g
receives motion by means of a rocking lever h, which is carried by and moves
freely on the axis g¹, on which axis is fixed a ratchet wheel i. The lever h
has two sockets h¹, h³, to receive windlass bars. The lever h carries a driver j,
which acts on or gears with the teeth of the ratchet wheel i on the axis g¹,
hence, as the lever h is caused to move or rock on the axis g¹, it will give
motion to the ratchet wheel i, to the pinion g, and consequently to the axis gl
(to which it is fixed), as well as to the pinion f on the axis f¹. The lever h is

page_text: connected to another lever by means of two connecting rods or links k, k.
The lever is carried by the axis f¹ (of the pinion f), on which it can vibrate
freely. On the.axis f₁ is fixed the ratchet wheel m, which is actuated by the
driver n carried by the lever ; by these means the axis of the piuion f will
receive a continuous rotatory motion when the lever h is caused to rock, and the
barrel b, b, of the windlass will be prevented moving back by the drivers on
the two levers; but it is desirable to have other arrangements of apparatus for
holding or retaining the barrel, such as have heretofore been employed; but I
prefer to use a sliding bolt or stop such as is shewn at o, which enters the
recesses or steps p, p, formed on the interior of the barrel of the windlass. As
the barrel b, b, rotates, the bolt or stop o slides up and down between the
guides q, and it is caused to do so by the inclines p³, p², of the steps p..
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to the
mechanical parts separately; but what I claim is, the combination hercin
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Horatio Harfield, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of February, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
AR. CARPMAEL.
W. H. HARFIELD. (L.S.)