IMPROVEMENTS IN WINDLASSES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Walker, of London Street, in the City of
London, Windlass Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
WINDLASSES."
Sealed the 13th May 1864, and dated the 19th November 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Walker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th
November 1863.
I, EDMUND WALKER, of London Street, in the City of London, Windlass
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN WINDLASSES," to be as follows:-
My Invention refers to those windlasses known as Emerson and Walker's
windlasses, that is to say, those in which motion is communicated from a
vertical shaft through gearing to the windlass barrels. In these windlasses,
as hitherto constructed, it has only been practicable to drive the windlass
barrels in one direction. Now the object of my present Invention is to so
construct the windlass that the barrels may also be driven in the reverse
direction. I prefer to accomplish this in the following manner :-I raise the
paul or clutch from one of the spur pinions on the vertical shaft and insert a
double key wedge between the other clutch and the top of its corresponding
spur pinion, the result being to allow of the windlass barrels being driven with
equal facility in the reverse direction to that in which they could be driven
before.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edmund Walker in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
19th May 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDMUND
WALKER, of London Street, in the City of London, Windlass Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Edmund Walker, Her special licence that I, the said Edmund Walker,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edmund
Walker, 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 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 WINDLASSES,"
upon the condition (amongst others,) that I, the said Edmund Walker, 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 per-
formed, 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 Edmund Walker, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being bad to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say):
My Invention refers to those windlasses known as Emerson and Walker's
windlasses; that is to say, those in which motion is communicated from a
vertical shaft through gearing to the windlass barrels. In these windlasses,
as hitherto constructed, it has only been practicable to drive the windlass
barrels in one direction. Now the object of my Invention is to so construct
the windlass that the barrels may also be driven in the reverse direction.
prefer to accomplish this in the following manner:-I raise the paul or clutch
from one of the spur pinions on the vertical shaft and insert a double key
wedge. between the other clutch and the top of its corresponding spur pinion,
1

page_text: the result being to allow of the windlass barrels being driven with equal
facility in the reverse direction to that in which they could be driven before.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a view, partly in section, shewing
the vertical shaft, the two spur pinions, and their corresponding pauls or
clutches, the lower of which latter is so formed and arranged as to admit of its
being raised upon the vertical shaft for the insertion of the double key wedge,
represented in Figure 2; Figure 3 is a a view of the under side of one of the
pauls.
The double key wedge is formed with two projections a, a, one on the
upper and the other on the under surface thereof, the under projection taking
into one of the inclined notches or depressions b, b, cut in the flat surface of
the interior part of the spur pinion, while the upper projection takes into one
of the corresponding inclined notches or depressions c on the under side of the
paul or clutch, thereby allowing the pinion to rotate in the reverse direction
to that in which it rotated before the introduction of the double key wedge,
and by that means transmitting the desired reversed motion to the windlass
barrels.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the employment
of the double key wedge for enabling the motion of the barrels of the before-
mentioned description of windlass to be reversed, substantially as herein-before
described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Walker, have hereunto set my
haud and seal this Eighteenth day of May, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-four.
EDMUND WALKER. (L.S.)