AN IMPROVEMENT IN SHIPS' WINDLASSES
Year: 1829

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
STRAKER, of South Shields, in the County of. Durham, Ship Builder, send
greeting..
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, in and by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fifth day of July last past, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, did give and grant unto me, the said George Straker, my exors,.
admors, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said George Straker, my exors, admňors, and assigns, and every
of them, by myself and themselves, or by my and their deputy or deputies,
servants or agents, or such others as I, the said George Straker, my exors,
adñiors, or assigns,, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend my Invention of
AN IMPROVEMENT IN SHIPS' WINDLASSES," within that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed (and also in all His said.. Majesty's
Colonics and Plantations abroad, in such manner as to me the said George

page_text: Straker, my exors, admors, and assigns, or any of them, should in my or
their discretion seem meet; in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso obliging me, the said George, Straker, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in. what manner the same is to be performed, and
to cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery,
within two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Straker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention to consist
in certain machinery applied to or connected with the windlasses of ships and
other vessels in such manner as enables me to apply the power of a handspike
(peculiarly formed for that purpose) with more effect and with less loss of
time than heretofore; and in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said George Straker, do hereby describe the manner in which my said Inven-
tion is to be performed by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawing annexed, and to the figures and letters .marked thereon,
that is to say :-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
7
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a ship's windlass fitted with my said
improvement on the starboard or sheet anchor side, but it may be as well here
to observe that it may, if required, be equally well fitted to the larboard side,
or to both, if thought necessary. A is the paul bit. B is the bit head. C, C,
is the windlass barrell. D is a cogged band or rack round the windlass
barrell, and E is a pinion working into the said rack. F is the axle, on which
the said pinion is fixed, and is supported at one end by the bit head, and at the
other end by the paul bit G, G, G, G, are four circular metal plates with rackets
or teeth cast on or rivetted to one side of each of them, as at H, H, H, H,
Figure 2, and fixed firmly in pairs on the axle F, about four or five inches,
as under, the teeth or rackets A on each plate must be set exactly to corre-
spond, and it is then by means of a peculiarly-shaped handspike herein-after
described that I act upon these teeth or rackets forcing round the pinion E,
and thus acting with great power upon the rack D, which of course turns the
windlass barrell round. Figure 2 is an enlarged view of one of the racket
plates. Figure 3 is a representation of the said 'peculiarly-formed handspike.
The lower part from the point marked M is made of iron, and is 'forked at L,

page_text: and is furnished with two shoulders, one at each side, as at r. Now, if one
of this sort of handspikes be introduced between each of the two racket
plates G, G, which form a pair, the fork L being allowed to bestride the axle F,
the shoulders'r will rest upon and act against the rackets H on both sides,
and if these handspikes be only worked up and down like a pump-break, they
will force the axle F round and thus turn the barrell of the windlass, while
the loss of time occasioned by removing the handspike of the old form when
hove down and hitting the hole in the upper square again at every fetch will
be avoided, and it is evident that this improvement of the racket plates and
forked handspikes is equally applicable to the main axle of the windlass
barrell and to the axle of the pinion E. And it may be proper to observe that
the racket plate or wheel may be made single and be worked by, a handspike
placed astride of it. Figure 4 is a view of the racket plates G, G, G, G, the
axle F, and pinion E drawn to a larger scale the better to show their con-
struction. S, S, are the two points that rest on the bearings, one in the paul-
bit, and the other in the bit head.
Now whereas my said improvement when applied, as here shown, to the
axle of a pinion, which I consider the most efficacious mode of applying
it, may be made to ship or unship in the bearings of the axle, or to slip in
or out of geer with the pinion at pleasure; and whereas the racket plates
may be made of cast iron or of wood strapt with iron or otherwise; but
whereas I claim as my Invention the racket plates marked G and H, whether
applied to the axle of the pinion as here shown, or to the main axle of the
windlass barrell, as before mentioned, and also the forked handspike to be
used therewith, which two articles together used for the purpose of giving
additional power to a ship's windlass constitute my said improvement and
Invention, and such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and
belief, entirely new and never before practised in that said part of His said
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
Ilis Dominion of Wales, nor Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby
declare this to be my Specification of my said Invention, and that I do
verily believe this my said Specification doth comply in all respects, fully
and without reserve or disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore, I do hereby claim to main-
tain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh
day of September, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.
GEORGE (L.s.) STRAKER..

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eleventh day of September, in
the year of our Lord 1829, the aforesaid George Straker came before our.
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form-
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the. Fifteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.