CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WINDLASSES FOR WEIGHING THE ANCHORS OF SHIPS AND NAVIGABLE VESSELS, AND VARIOUS OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1807

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Jonn
BYWATER, of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham, 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 Sixth day of June, in
the forty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said John
Bywater, my executors, aduiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Bywater, my executors,
adiñiors, and assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF WINDLASSES FOR WEIGHING THE ANCHORS OF SHIPS AND
NAVIGABLE VESSELS, AND VARIOUS OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said John Bywater,
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
John Bywater, do hereby describe the nature of my said Invention to

page_text: consist in adding a power to the common windlas, now in use for the purpose
of weighing the anchors of ships and other navigable vessels, and for various
other uses, in such manner as shall be most simple and easy to be. worked.
For this purpose I fix a wheel of iron or other proper materials on the end
of the common windlas so close to the outside of the bit as just to allow it
room to work. This wheel may be of any diameter provided it is so much
much larger in proportion to another wheel fixed to another windlas, hereafter
to be described, as shall be in proportion to the power proposed to be gained.
This wheel is shown in the Drawing hereunto annexed at A, and is supposed
to be eighteen-inches-in-diameter, supposing the diameter of the windlas to
be about sixteen inches. I then fix another wheel at the bit at B, which may
be of any size that will allow sufficient room between the common windlas
and the additional one next to be described. This second wheel in tho
Drawing at B is supposed to be 'twelve inches diameter: I next introduce my
second windlas. C, placing it so far forward as that it shall not interfere with
the working of the common one. It may be made of wood or iron, or any
other proper material, and of any strength at pleasure; but this, in the
Drawing, is supposed to be about one half the diameter of the common
windlas referred to above, or about 8 inches: This; I suppose, will bo fully
sufficient in strength, or may be made so by iron hoops driven on at proper
- intervals. To the end of this second windlas I fix the wheel D, of nine
inches diameter, which works into the second wheel as the second does
into the first. Now, supposing the anchor is to be weighed, and the resistanco
is too great to be overcome with the common windlas by the hands employed,
this second windlas is to be worked by the handspikes being put into its
respective holes E, E, E, E, E, E, which, with the wheels proportioned as
above, will increase the purchase in a proportion 'double to that which could
be obtained by the use of the first or common windlas. This extra windlas
may only be used when occasion requires, as the first or common windlas may
be worked in all cases, but when the additional purchaso is absolutely necessary.
If it be thought preferable for security. in large vessels, a set of wheels may
be fixed at each end of the windlas, as shewn in the Drawing at F, G, H.
The number and sizes of the wheels may be varied at pleasure, and affixed
either within or without side of the bits; but those in the annexed Drawing
appear to be the most useful.
The advantages of this plan above all others will appear obvious when it is
considered that in using this the men have no occasion to quit their station or
lay aside their handspikes to make use of machinery to which they are accus-
tomed, especially as their old windlass is secured the same as it was before,

page_text: and may be worked alternately with the new one to take the advantage of
speed or power, as circumstances may require.
N.B. The wheels may be thrown in and out of gear at pleasure by any of
the common methods, though the additional frixion will be so small as not to
render it necessary.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bywater, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seven.