METHODS OF APPLYING FLAT ROPES TO HORSE GINS AND PERPENDICULAR DRUM SHAFTS OF STEAM ENGINES FOR DRAWING COALS, MINERALS, AND WATER OUT OF MINES, WHEREBY THE HORSE'S LABOUR IS GREATLY DIMINISHED, AND FLAT ROPES WORKING ON HORSE GINS AND STEAM ENGINES CON- STRUCTED WITH PERPENDICULAR DRUM SHAFTS ARE PRESERVED FROM MATERIAL INJURY
Year: 1813

page_text: TO ALL WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME GREETING, J.
JOHN CURR, of Bellevue House, in the Parish of Sheffield, in the County of
York, Gentleman, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-ninth day of June, in the fifty-third year of His reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said John Curr, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, His spécial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said John Curr, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
.and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention for "METHODS OF APPLYING FLAT ROPES TO HORSE GINS
AND PERPENDICULAR DRUM SHAFTS OF STEAM ENGINES FOR DRAWING COALS,
MINERALS, AND WATER OUT OF MINES, WHEREBY THE HORSE'S LABOUR IS GREATLY
DIMINISHED, AND FLAT ROPES WORKING ON HORSE GINS AND STEAM ENGINES CON-
STRUCTED WITH PERPENDICULAR DRUM SHAFTS ARE PRESERVED FROM MATERIAL
INJURY" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said John Curr, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said

page_text: recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Curr, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in manner
following (that is to say):
In order to apply a flat rope in the most advantageous manner to steam
engines or to horse gins, for the purpose of drawing coals, minerals, or water
out of mines, it is proper that the drum should be considerably smaller in
diameter than the drums that are generally used for round ropes, in order that
an equalizing balance may be effected by the flat rope lapping upon itself; or,
in other words, that the steam engine or the horse or horses in the gin may
have the same weight to overcome (or as nearly the same as may be) during
the whole time the engine or the horse or horses are raising a baskett, corf,
or tub of coals, minerals, or water. And as the drums used with round ropes
for this purpose, and worked by horses, are generally from 12 to 50 feet in
diameter, and as the size of drum necessary to effect an equalizing balance by
means of a flat rope lapping upon itself would generally be required about 2
or 3 feet in diameter, the speed with. which the coals, minerals, or water
would be drawn, supposing the pace of the horse or horses to remain the same
as when drawing by a larger drum, would be considerably reduced, hence it
becomes necessary to apply multiplying wheels or drums, to be worked by
straps, belts, or chains, in order to produce a greater number of. révolutions of
the drum barrel than is made by the horse or horses in the same time, thereby
enabling them to apply their strength in a much more advantageous way than
they could do if the drum bar were shortened, so as to give. a due proportion
of power to the weight required to be raised, and consequently diminishing the
horse's labour. The size of flat rope drum which I recommend. for steam
engine or horse gins will always depend on the weight of a lift of. coals,
minerals, or water, or the weight of basket, corf or tub and chain, and weight
and thickness of rope, and depth of pit; and if its diameter. be made in pro-
portion to the greatest diameter to which the flat rope-coils by lapping upon
itself, as the weight of two basket, corves, or tubs, and two chains, added to
the weight of one lift of coals, minerals; or water, is to the weight of two
baskets, corves, or tubs, and two chains, added to the weight of two ropes: and
one lift of coals, minerals, or water, it will be found. that. the steam engine, or
the horse or horses in the gin, will at all times, while a basket, corf, or tub of
coals, minerals or water is raising, have the same resistance to overcome, or
nearly so. When the drum axis of a steam engine or horse gin. are fixed
perpendicular, as the coil of rope will increase considerably in diameter, when

page_text: applied to a deep pit, the flat rope will require to be preserved from injury by
working against the side or margin of the pulley wheel, my method of doing
which is by means of rollers properly fixed up to guide the rope in a fair line
to the pulley wheel when the empty corf or tub is descending, and in a fair
line to the drum when ascending, as shewn by Figure the 1st, a side view, and
Figure 2d, a ground plan, by which rollers the flat rope is prevented from
material injury, and is accommodated to the pulley wheel, standing either
higher or lower, or on the same level with the part of the drum on which it
laps; or the same purpose may be effected by a pulley wheel fixed upon a
moveable centre, so that either by the power of a man, or by any kind of
machinery, the pulley wheel varies its direction, so as to face always to the
outside coil of rope on the drum; or an horizontal flat rope drum, worked
as above described, by means of multiplying wheels, or otherwise, may be fixed.
over the pit or shaft; and the flat rope or ropes may be kept in their proper
situation by means of single or double rollers, fixed for that purpose, as
shewn in Figure 3d by an end view.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Curr, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-first day of August, One thousand eight
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of August, in
the fifty-third year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, the
said John Curr came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged 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
forty-eighth year of His said Majesty's reign.