IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ROPE, CORDAGE, YARN, WIRE ROPE, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE TWISTED AND PLAITED FABRICS, AND IN THE MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Cope and William Guest
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on
the 30th August 1865.
We, THOMAS COPE, of William Street, Hampstead Road, and WILLIAM
GUEST, of Rosoman Street, Clerkenwell, both in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF ROPE, CORDAGE, YARN, WIRE ROPE, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE
TWISTED AND PLAITED FABRICS, AND IN THE MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be
as follows:
This Invention relates to a new or improved manufacture of rope, whether
of fibrous materials or of wire strands, and of other such like twisted manu-
factures, and also to improvements in the machinery or apparatus by which
such new or improved fabrics are manufactured.
We propose to construct a suitable foundation or bed plate having standards
or uprights bolted down thereto for carrying the machinery. Near one end
of the foundation we set a hollow shaft in bearings on standards; this shaft
carries a disc set vertically thereto, and having near its periphery a series of
apertures through which the strands, or cords, or wires to form the rope are
brought from reels or beams containing a sufficient supply.
There may
be any number of these apertures and any number of strands or wires,
according to the dimensions of the machinery and the thickness of rope
required. This horizontal shaft is made to turn by a cogged or toothed wheel
gearing with a pinion on the shaft, or by means of a strap and pulley worked
from a steam engine. After the ropes or wires pass through the vertical

page_text: perforated disc they are caught successively by a corresponding number or
series of catches, figures, or clutches of metal, of a curved or hooked form,
and thus, during the revolution of the disc, each strand or wire is caught or
held and made to form a plait, twist, or union with the others, the whole
being likewise twisted so as to form a cylindrical or flat section or form.
"These catches are set on 'bearings on the fixed portion of the machine, and are
made to oscillate vertically by means of canis bearing on rollers attached to
the extremities of the arms of the catches or fingers. As the rope is thus
manufactured it is drawn off by a 'take-off motion of a cylinder or reel, on
which it takes a few turns and is then delivered in a condition either to form
a coil, a ball, or a reel, as may be desired. We prefer to effect the revolution
of the hollow shaft, in order to produce the necessary twist, by means of a
vertical bevelled toothed wheel keyed to the horizontal, hollow shaft and taking
into and deriving motion from a horizontal mitre wheel or pinion which is in
connection with the main shafting and driving band.
The advantages of this new manufacture of rope, whether of wire, of fibre,
or of cordage generally, whether flat or circular, are, firstly, that by each
separate strand (intended to form the complete rope) being first plaited and
twisted in a small machine constructed, according to this Invention, each
strand being manufactured on the same principle as the rope itself it is evident.
that when a series of these strands, each a perfect miniature rope in itself, are
re-manufactured or concentrated into one larger fabric, each strand bearing its
exact proportion of strain, the greatest possible amount of strength must be
obtained, together with a degree of elasticity to withstand sudden strain
without fracture, a desideratum never yet obtained by the ordinary twisted or
plaited iron or fibrous ropes, as by this Invention the rope or cordage is both
plaited and twisted, and is not affected by atmospheric influence, nor by wet
or heat, as other ropes are; secondly, the rapidity and saving of labour with
which a rope of any diameter may be made, and the smoothness or uniformity
of surface, are among many others of its advantages.
The Invention is also applicable to. covering telegraph cables.