AN IMPROVEMENT IN WINDLASSES FOR SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1814

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHAEL
LARKIN, of Blackwall, in the County of Middlesex, Shipwright, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Sixteenth day of August, in the fifty-fourth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Michael Larkin, His special licence that I, the said Michael Larkin, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Michael
Larkin, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, 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 England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also within all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention
of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN WINDLASSES FOR SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Michael
Larkin, 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
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 and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Michael Larkin, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained
in the Plan drawn in the margin of these Presents, and the following explana-
tion thereof, that is to say:
This improvement consists in fixing to the shaft or barrel of the common
windlass A, A, one, two, three, or more circles or cylinders of wood or
metal B, B, B, generally from three to four feet in diameter, and from six
to twelve inches in thickness, but may be more or less. In each of these
cylinders are holes for the handspikes or levers C, C, C, generally eight in
number, which, acting at a greater distance from the center, afford a great
increase of power, and these holes being all sunk a certain distance into the
cylinder, the handspikes always abut against the bottom of the holes. They
are thereby more easily and certainly fixed and disengaged than they can be in
the common windlass, where the holes are cut quite through the shaft or barrel.
In one or more of these cylinders the stops are to be cut for the palls D, D, D,
by which the windlass is prevented from recoiling, and here the greater dia-
meter of the cylinder, compared with that of the barrel of the windlass, greatly
diminishes the strain on the palls, and gives room for them to catch more
frequently than they can be made to do with equal security on a smaller circle.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Larkin, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fourteen.

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHAEL
LARKIN, of Blackwall, in the County of Middlesex, Shipwright, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain; bearing date at West-
minster, the Sixteenth day of August, in the fifty-fourth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Michael Larkin, His special licence that I, the said Michael Larkin, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Michael
Larkin, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, 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 England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also within all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad; my Invention
of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN WINDLASSES FOR SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Michael
Larkin, 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
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 and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Michael Larkin, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained
in the Plan drawn in the margin of these Presents, and the following explana-
tion thereof, that is to say:
This improvement consists in fixing to the shaft or barrel of the common
windlass A, A, one, two, three, or more circles or cylinders of wood or
metal B, B, B, generally from three to four feet in diameter, and from six
to twelve inches in thickness, but may be more or less. In each of these
cylinders are holes for the handspikes or levers C, C, C, generally eight in
number, which, acting at a greater distance from the center, afford a great
increase of power, and these holes being all sunk a certain distance into the
cylinder, the handspikes always abut against the bottom of the. holes. They
are thereby more easily and certainly fixed and disengaged than they can be in
the common windlass, where the holes are cut quite through the shaft or barrel.
In one or more of these cylinders the stops are to be cut for the palls D, D, D,
by which the windlass is prevented from recoiling, and here the greater dia-
meter of the cylinder, compared with that of the barrel of the windlass, greatly
diminishes the strain on the palls, and. gives, room for them to catch more
frequently than they can be made to do with equal security on a smaller circle..
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Larkin, have hereunto set my
land and seal, this Fourteenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fourteen.