IMPROVEMENTS IN SKIPS CAPSTANS AND RIDING BITS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Horatio Harfield, of Fenchurch Street, in
the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SKIPS
CAPSTANS AND RIDING BITS."
Sealed the 20th December 1859, and dated the 8th July 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Horatio Harfield
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 8th July 1859.
I, WILLIAM HORATIO HARFIELD, of Fenchurch Street, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN SHIPS' CAPSTANS AND RIDING BITS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in ships' capstans and riding
bits. In constructing capstans it has been usual to form the barrel and head
of the capstan of wood, or in some cases cast iron has been employed. Now,
according to my Invention, I construct the barrel and head of wrought iron,
and by so doing I am able to construct a capstan more cheaply than when
wood is employed, and which is much superior to a cast-iron capstan, par-
ticularly for use on board a ship of war, for a cast-iron capstan when struck
by shot is liable to be broken into fragments, which fly and do considerable
injury; whereas a capstan made of wrought iron is not liable to have

page_text: fragments detached from it by shot. In constructing a capstan I mount on a
vertical axis at the top and bottom of the capstan bosses of cast iron (or they
may be of wrought iron, but this is not necessary); the head of the capstan
is formed by bolting wrought-iron plates to the top and bottom of the top
boss, between these plates the recesses for the bars are formed by introducing
wrought iron filling pieces at intervals; the inner ends of these pieces are
securely held in notches formed for them in the boss, and at their outer ends
they are bolted through the top and bottom plates of the head. To the boss
at the bottom of the capstan a plate of wrought iron is bolted; this plate has
a flange bolted to its edge, which carries the pawls; the barrel of the capstan
is formed of boiler plate and angle iron, and is secured to the top and bottom
bosses by bolts which pass through the lower plate of the head and the bottom
plate of the capstan; it is furnished with whelps, which may be of wrought
iron, wood, or brass. When the capstan has a chain flange, this takes the
place of the lower boss and bottom plate.
I also, according to my Invention, construct-riding bits of wrought iron.in
place of wood or cast iron, as heretofore. I form a cylinder of boiler plate
closed at the upper end, and formed with flanges at its lower end, by means
of which it may be firmly fixed in its position in the ship; on to this I shrink
rings of wrought iron, which take the wear occasioned by the cable passing
round the bit in running out; these rings may be renewed when necessary.
The riding bit is furnished with projections to keep the coils of cable placed
around the bit apart; these projecting pieces are of wrought iron, they are
fitted into holes made in the sides of the riding bit, and secured by keys or
otherwise.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Horatio Harfield in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 7th January 1860.
TO ALL TO, WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM,
HORATIO HARFIELD, of Fenchurch Street, in the City of London, send,
greeting,
WHEREAS, Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date. the Eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord One;
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me, the said

page_text: William Horatio Harfield, Her special licence that I, the said William Horatio
Harfield, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Horatio Harfield, 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 "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN SHIPS' CAPSTANS AND RIDING BITS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Horatio Harfield, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 performed,
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 William Horatio Harfield, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in. and by
the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in ships' capstans and riding
bits. In constructing capstans it has been usual to form the barrel and head
of the capstan of wood, or in some cases cast iron has been employed. Now,
according to my Invention, I construct the barrel and head of wrought iron,
and by so doing I am able to construct a capstan more cheaply than when
wood is employed, and which is much superior to a cast-iron capstan, par-
ticularly for use on board a ship of war, for a cast-iron capstan, when struck
by shot, is liable to be broken into fragments, which fly and do considerable
injury; whereas a capstan made of wrought iron is not liable to have
fragments detached from it by shot. In constructing a capstan, I mount on
the vertical axis at the top and bottom of the capstan bosses of cast iron (or
they may be of wrought iron, but this is not necessary); the head of the
capstan is formed by bolting wrought-iron plates to the top and bottom of the
top boss; between these plates the recesses for the bars are formed by
introducing wrought-iron filling pieces at intervals; the inner ends of these
pieces are securely held in notches formed for them in the boss, and at their
outer ends they are bolted through the top and bottom plates of the head.
To the boss at the bottom of the capstan a plate of wrought iron is bolted;
this plate has a flange bolted to its edge, which carries the pawls. The barrel

page_text: of the capstan is formed of boiler plate and angle iron, and is secured to the
top and bottom bosses by bolts, which pass through the lower plate of the
head and the bottom plate of the capstan; it is furnished with whelps, which
may be of wrought iron, wood, or brass. When the capstan has a. chain
flange, this takes the place of the lower boss and bottom plate.
I also, according to my Invention, construct riding bits of wrought iron in
place of wood or cast iron as heretofore. I form a cylinder of boiler plate
closed at the upper end, and formed with flanges at its lower end, by means
of which it may be firmly fixed in its position in the ship. On to this, I
shrink rings of wrought iron, which take the wear occasioned by the cable
passing round the bit in running out; these rings may be renewed when
necessary. The riding bit is furnished with projections to keep the coils of
cable placed around the bit apart; these projecting pieces are of wrought
iron, they are fitted into holes made in the sides of the riding bit, and secured
by keys or otherwise.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto
annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is an elevation, and Figure 2 is a vertical section of a pair of
capstans constructed according to my Invention; they are mounted on one
axis, one above the other, on the upper and lower deck of a ship. a is
the upright axis, which at its lower end rests in a step a¹ and turns in a
bearing at a²; the upper end of the axis is made octagonal, and it receives the
two cast-iron bosses b and c. These bosses are bound round with wrought-
iron rings d, d, to prevent them splitting. One half of the Figure 3 shews a
horizontal section of the upper capstan, it is taken through the boss 6; the
other half of this Figure is a plan of the upper capstan. To the upper boss b
two plates of wrought iron e and f are attached by rivets passing through the
boss and the two plates; and between these plates the wrought-iron filling
pieces g, g, are placed. The inner ends of these filling pieces fit into notches
in the boss, and their outer ends are secured by rivets g¹, 9', passing through
them and the filling pieces. The spaces between the filling pieces form holes
to receive the capstan bars. The lower boss c has a plate h rivetted to it by
rivets h¹, as is shown. The body i of the capstan is formed by bending a
plate of wrought iron to the cylindrical form required, and it is attached to
the plates and 6 by rings of angle iron, clearly shewn at Figure 2, and
b

page_text: which are rivetted to it and to the said plates. The body is stiffened from
within by means of vertical strips i, i, of which there are three; one of them
serves to cover the butt joint, where the two edges of the plate, of which the
body is formed, meet. The whelps are in the capstan, shown, of brass, one
half of the Figure 4, which is a section taken at the line C, D, clearly shews
the sectional form of these whelps; the other half of this Figure shews an
under side view of the upper capstan and the manner in which the lower ends
of the whelps are held. A back view of one of the whelps is shewn at
Figure 5, the whelps are attached to the body by tap screws, as is shewn.
The front plates of the whelps at the lower part pass down through slots in
the plate h, and they are supported by the bridge pieces k, which themselves
are rivetted to the angle iron ring / rivetted to the plate h. The bridge
pieces / also allow of a dog or block centre to the deck being employed to
prevent the backward revolution of the capstan, when desired; or, in place of
this arrangement, I sometimes, as already mentioned, rivet a flange of angle
iron on to the edge of the plate h, as is shewn at Figure 6, and mount thereon
pawls which work into a ratchet bolted to the deck. The lower capstan is
constructed in a very similar manner; the portion of the axis which carries
it is, however, circular in section, so that the boss 6 can turn freely on it.
And over this boss, a block m is keyed to the axis, and when it is desired to
make the capstan fast with the axis, the pins n, n, are introduced, which pass
through both the block m and the boss b. In this case a chain flange is
substituted for the lower boss, this flange is bolted to the plate h. The
periphery of the chain flange carries pawls o which work into a ratchet bolted
to the deck. The lower ends of the whelp in this arrangement do not descend
below the plate h, but they are fitted into it, as is shewn. p is a clearer to
clear the chain out of the chain flange, it is such as is ordinarily employed.
Figure 7 is a section similar to the left-hand half of Figure 4, with the exception
that wrought-iron whelps are employed in place of brass; they are attached to
the body by tap screws entering the face of the whelp, as is shewn. Figure 8
is an elevation; Figure 9, a vertical section; and Figure 10, a plan of a
wrought-iron riding bit constructed according to my Invention. It consists
of a cylinder of boiler plate a, securely rivetted up, a covering plate a being
employed to cover the joint where the two edges of the plate butt together;
the lower end of this cylinder has two rings of angle iron b, b, fixed to one
on the exterior and the other on the interior. These rings are rivetted to the
bed plate c, which is itself firmly bolted down by the holding down bolts d, d,
to the deck. The cylinder a is strengthened near its upper end by another

page_text: angle iron ring e, and a smaller ring f is rivetted to its upper edge to receivo
the thin covering plate 9. h, h, are wrought-iron hooks, shrunk on the
cylinder a to take the wear from the chain, these hoops can be changed when
necessary; i and are projecting pieces, the stems of which pass through the
sides of the cylinder a, they are held in their places by keys and j', and
serve to support the coils of the chain; k is a shelf to support the first coil;
and I, 1, is a bar to prevent the coils slipping off the top of the bit, it passes
through the cylinder a, and is secured by keys P, P.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Horatio Harfield, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
W. H. HARFIELD. (L.S.)