CERTAIN IMPROVED FIDS FOR TOPMASTS, GALLANTMASTS, BOWSPRITS, AND ALL OTHER MASTS AND SPARS TO WHICH THE USE OF THE FID IS APPLIED
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
KINGSTON, of the Royal Dockyard, Portsmouth, in the County of Hants,
Master Millwright, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of
November, in the sixth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the
William Kingston and Henry King, of Norfolk Street, Commercial Road, in
the County of Middlesex, Master Mariner, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that we, the said William Kingston and Henry
King, our agents, executors, administrators, and assigns, or any other person
whom we should agree with, and no other, 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 that part of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, our
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVED FIDS FOR TOPMASTS, GALLANTMASTS, BOWSPRITS,
AND ALL OTHER MASTS AND SPARS TO WHICH THE USE OF THE FID IS APPLIED;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging us, the said
Henry King and William Kingston, or one of us, by an instrument in writing
under our hands and seals, or one of our hands and seals, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Ilis said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said .in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that .in .compliance with the said proviso,. I, the said
William Kington, do hereby declare that the nature of our said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawing héreto annexed, that is to say:
Our improved fids for topmasts, bowsprits, and other masts to which the use
of fids are applicable, have for their object a more convenient and expeditious
mode of fidding and unfidding such masts than has heretofore been practised.
In order to effect this object, we have invented several modifications of sliding
bolts or wedges, which are intended to pass into the fid hole on each side of
the mast, and to bear against the under side of the fid plate when in the
act of supporting the mast. These bolts or wedges have inclined planes at or
near their points of bearing, and when liberated (by withdrawing a screw or
other fastening) the bolt or wedge is at liberty to slide back out of the fid hole
by the weight of the mast bearing upon its end, by which means the mast is
set free from the fid, and is then allowed to pass down through the cross-trees
and tressel-trees.
-
-In the Drawing hereto annexed, Fig. 1 represents a portion of the lower
mast a, a, of a ship or other vessel to which the tressel-trees b, b, and
cross-trees c, c, are aflixed in the ordinary way. d, d, is the upper mast
(shewn in section), slidden through a square aperture between the tressel-
trees and cross-trees, and having a perforation through it called the fid
hole, with an iron plate e called the fid-plate. The mast is held up in its
erect position by two wedge pieces f, f, bearing against the fid plate e, and
upon a bar g, which may be called the fid, passed through the fid hole, and
resting upon the tressel-trees. Behind the wedge pieces f there are pieces h, h,
introduced, in order to keep the wedge pieces from sliding back when the mast
has been thus fidded. On preparing to unfid the mast, the two pieces h, h, are
to be first withdrawn, and then, if the weight of the mast is not sufficient to
push the wedge pieces f down the inclined planes y, the screws i, i, are to be
turned, the ends of which bearing against the ends of the fid plate, cause the
wedge pieces ff, to recede upon the inclined planes of the bar 9, and thereby
allow the mast d to descend, so as to hang in the bearing tackle, when the fid bar
may be withdrawn, and the mast struck as usual. The fid g, which we should
in general prefer to be made of iron, may, if made of sufficient substance, be
of wood, but in that case its upper surface must be shod with plate iron.

page_text: Fig. 2 is another contrivance for fidding and unfidding masts, which consists
principally in the employment of two sliding bolts for supporting the upper
mast.
a, a, is the lower mast; b, b, the tressel-trees; c, c, the cross-trees; d, d, is the
upper mast, shewn in section. Upon each of the tressel-trees an iron box e is
affixed, for the purpose of receiving the sliding bolts f and their screws y. The
mast being raised by the top tackling in the usual way into its situation, the
bolts are both forced up into the fid hole by turning the screw g, as at A, and
by the points of the bolts f bearing against the fid plate, the mast is supported
and confined in its elevated situation, or, as is technically called, fidded.. When
it is intended to unfid the masts, the bolts are withdrawn from the fid holes.
as at B, by turning the screws 9 the contrary way, and the support, that is, the
fid being thus removed, the mast then hangs in the bearing tackle or top
ropes, and is lowered as usual.
.
Fig. 3 represents another mode of adapting the sliding bolt fid. d is the
upper mast; b, the tressel-trees; e, e, iron boxes affixed to the tressel-trees, for
the purpose of receiving the sliding bolts f. The point of the bolt is seen at A,
passed into the fid hole, and supporting the mast by the fid plate resting upon
it. The heel of the bolt at is intended to stop against a rebate & in the
upper part of the box, and the bolt is confined in that situation by a screw g
pressing upon its tail. When it is required to unfid the mast, the screw 9 must
be turned so as to allow the tail of the bolt to rise sufficiently for the heel z to
pass over the rebate a, by which means the point of the bolt will have assumed
an oblique angle to the fid plate, and the mast bearing upon it in that situation
will then exert sufficient force to slide the bolt back in its carriage (as B) and
liberate the mast.
Fig. 4 exhibits the sliding bolt fid last described with a tail screw and a sliding
guide adapted in a different way to the foregoing contrivance. In this Figure,
a, a, is the lower mast; d, d, the upper mast, supported on one side, as at A,
by the end of the sliding bolt being passed into the fid hole; b, b, are the
tressel-trees, on which are affixed the iron carriages e for the bolts f to slide
in; k is a staple made fast by screws or otherwise, to the hinder part of tho
carriage, for the purpose of confining the action of the sliding guide l. When
the mast is fidded, the heel of the bolt stops against the rebate x of the
carriage, and the thick part of the guide intervening between the bolt and
the staple, the tail part is prevented from rising, and consequently the bolt
cannot be slidden back; the mast is thereby securely fidded. In order to unfid
the mast, the screw g which passes through the back part of the guido / must
be turned, the point of which bearing against the end of the bolt causes the

page_text: guide to be drawn back; and the tail of the bolt being thereby allowed to rise,
the heel passes over the rebate a, and the weight of the mast bearing
against the point of the bolt forces it back, as, at B, by which means the mast
is liberated.
!
I have herein described our improved fids as applied to standing masts,
for the purpose of fidding and unfidding the upper masts of ships and other
vessels, but I wish to observe that we; do inot mean to confine ourselves
to that particular situation only, as a similarly constructed apparatus' is also
applicable to bowsprits and various other masts and spars, to which we claim
their exclusive use; neither do we confine ourselves to the particular metals
mentioned in describing the construction of the said apparatus..
And, lastly, we claim as our Invention the adaptation and employment of
sliding bolts or wedges in the nanner made, or having the properties of the
sliding bolts or wedges, as herein-before describied, for the purpose of fidding
and unfidding the upper masts and other masts and spars, as aforesaid, of
ships and other vessels.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Kingston, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of May, One thousand eight
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the year above written.