CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ROPE MAKING
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
GALE, of Shadwell, in the County of Middlesex, Rope Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighteenth day of
August, in the forty-eighth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said James Gale, my executors, adñññors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said James Gale, my
executors, adiñors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned,
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 ROPE MAKING;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said James Gale, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same
(relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Gale, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described and ascer-
tained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed and the following description
thereof, that is to say:-

page_text: 1st, a machine for more accurately and steadily equalizing the twist neces-
sary to be put in strands for ropes, hawsers, and strands for cables.
2d, a machine for winding rope yarns, and the use of that machine.
No. 1 is a side view of the equalizing machine. a, a, a, a, the frame; b, a
spur wheel communicating with a pinion; upon the same spindle is f, a bevel
wheel, driving 9, another bevel wheel, which, by means of a small shaft
communicating with h, i, k, k, l, a common jack, well known to ropemaking.
c are two iron wheels (one invisible), having eight screws in each d, d, d, d,
pointing to the centre, on which are pieces of iron, which I call whelps, and
arc, by means of the screws, to be extended- further from or nearer to the
centre, to make a complete sheave of different diameters requisite for different
sized ropes. No. 2, a perpendicular view of the same machine.
a, a, the
frame; b, spur wheel; c, two iron wheels, described No. 1. m, m, m, m, the
iron whelps, by means of the screws drawn farther from or nearer to the
centre. n, m, n, n, n, a rope, which by passing round several times, the machine
is moved progressively along, turning all as it goes. I call a fly or dividing
wheel having whelps, upon which is the endless rope p, and may be driven or
set going by any kind of power, such as horses, a steam engine, or men.
No. 3, a machine to wind rope yarns either from a winch or a-haul, ás laying
on the ground at length or double. a, the crank or lever, at which is applied
the power to work it, either manual, horses, or steam.engine.. b, a wheel, wood
or iron, upon which is. a. Icather or rope band, communicating with a, a, för
bobbins (two invisible), and turning, upon which are wound rope yarns sepa-
rately. c, a small wheel on the spindle of b, on. which is a band communicating
with cand e with g. (by another small wheel ), upon which spindle is, a
heart wheel, and being turned moves upward the small roller i and with it the
upright piece k, across which is a piece l, for the purpose of having pieces of
iron attached, conducting-the-rope-yarms-on-the-bobbins regularly-The-parti-
cular method. of using No. 3 is likewise a part of my Invention.
I have
what is usually called by ropemakers a haul of yarn stretched along the rope
walk, single or double, which haul is previously warped or netted in fours,
corresponding with the number of bobbins on the machine. A four yarns is
taken out and parted by a man or boy, and as parted laid up-on stakeheads in
two two's, which, when done, is ready for winding on the bobbins, the bite
being followed by a man or boy-; but previous to the yarns being separately
attached to the bobbins all the four yarns must be applied to what I denominate
a rigger, or two rollers or-barrels placed one above the other, or in a variety
of directions, such as horizontally-or-perpendicularly; one may be used, or-both
the yarns may go half round or quarter round, or once or twice round, or more;

page_text: according to the pleasure of the workman. The rollers or barrels may be
turned by either man or boy, or any other power, or no power at all, applied
to them, the effect will be the same, the intention and use of this rigger being
to draw the rope yarns up of an equal length before they are wound upon the
bobbins; but in whatever of these ways it is used, I claim it as my Invention,
and without it rope yarns cannot be wound very expeditiously from a haul on
bobbins. The one I use and which I find most convenient is No. 4, the
yarns passing under the lower roller and then over the upper one, the upper
one being turned by a man or boy, and No. 3, winding machine, being turned
will of course wind up the yarns.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Gale, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Sixteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eight.
JAMES GALE. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixteenth day of September, in
the forty-eighth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, the
said James Gale 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-fourth year of His said Majesty's reign.