AN IMPROVED FID
Year: 1830

page_text: PEARCE, GARDNER, AND GARDNER'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
GEORGE PEARCE, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Master Mariner,
RICHARD GARDNER, and JOSEPH GARDNER, of the same place, Merchants, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventh day of September, in the first year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Henry George Pearce, Richard Gardner, and Joseph Gardner, His especial
licence, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said Henry George Pearce,
Richard Gardner, and Joseph Gardner, our exors, adññors, and assigns, or
such others as we, the said Henry George Pearce, Richard Gardner, and
Joseph Gardner, our exors, admors, 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 in
all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, our Invention of "AN
IMPROVED FID;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging
us, the said Henry George Pearce, Richard Gardner, and Joseph Gardner,
by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals (or under the band
and seal of one of us), particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to
cause the same to be enrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery

page_text: within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Gardner, do hereby declare that the nature of our Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed is explained by the Draw-
ings hereunto annexed, together with the following description thereof, that
is to say :-
Our improved fid can either be used by itself for sustaining the topmasts or
other upper masts of ships and vessels, or it may be used in conjunction with the
wooden or metal fid commonly employed for that purpose, as may be deemed
most expedient; and our improved fid is also adapted for heaving up the topmast
for the purpose of tightening the rigging, or lowering the topmast in order to
slacken the same. Figure 1 is a front view; Figure 2, a side viow; Figure 3,
a plan, and Figure 4, a vertical section of the bar of our improved fid. It con-
sists of a strong bar of iron or other metal C perforated near to each end at
9, 9, with suitable screw holes to receive two upright screws b, b, Figures 1
and 2. We prefer screws made of metal, with square threads, and with strong
heads a, a, at the upper ends across which beads are holes f, f, for the insertion
of a lever handle, Fig. 11, to turn each of the screws round by. The points
c, e, at the lower ends of the screws, should be hemispherical, and fitted into
corresponding cavities d, d, in sockets of metal shewn in plan at Fig. 5; and in
section at Fig. 6, the said sockets being firmly affixed screws or other
effective means to the upper surface of the tressle trees of the lower mast.
The bar C of our improved fid may be made either square, as in Fig. 2, or of a
flat or dovetailed form, and the screws may have square threads with either
single or double spirals, or else angular threads with either single or double
spirals, according to the strength required. The following we consider to be
suitable dimensions for the principal parts of our improved fid for the topmast
of a vessel of one hundred tons burthen. The bar C should be two inches in
breadth, one inch and three quarters deep, and sixteen inches in length,
the distance between the centres of the two screws b, b, being thirteen
inches; the screws should be 13 inches in diameter outside of the threads, and
cut with one spiral thread, the turns thereof being of an inch apart from the
upper side of one thread to the upper side of the next thread; the length of
the screws from the under sides of their heads to their points should be nine
inches, these proportions to be suitably increased or diminished when our
improved fid is to be applied to the topmasts of vessels of other sizes. Fig. 7

page_text: is a side view, and Fig. 8, a front view of a portion of the lower mast and a
portion of the upper mast of a vessel. In Fig. 7 our improved fid is shown
as applied by itself to sustain the weight of the upper mast without the aid of
a common fid; and in Fig. 8 the common fid 2 is shewn as used in conjunc-
tion with our improved fid. h is the lower part of the topmast; n, n, are tho
tressle trees of the lower mast; C the bar of our improved fid inserted through
a fid hole or mortice across the lower end of the topmast h; b, b, the upright
screws of our improved fid, their lower ends resting in the sockets which are
fixed on the tressletrees n, n; the screws b, b, sustain the weight of the top-
mast, which can be set up as high as is necessary to tighten the rigging by
turning the screws round by their lever handle applied in the holes through
their heads, or by turning the said screws back the rigging can be slackened.
When it is required to lower the topmast (supposing it to be in the position
shewn in the Figures 7 and 8), a suitable purchase must be applied as usual to
the top rope i, which passes through the pulley block k suspended as usual
from the cap of the lower mast; and at the same time that the top rope is hove
very taught, the screws b, b, of our improved fid are to be turned back by their
lever handles, until by lowering our improved fid and letting down the top-
mast, the rigging is slackened and its tension relieved; and also until the
weight of the topmast is left suspended on the top rope, whereby our improved
fid is released from the pressure of the topmast, and then its screws can
be turned back more quickly by the hand in order to remove one of them
entirely out of the perforation through one end of the bar C, and also to set
the other screw so loose that its lower end may be lifted out of its socket
in order to permit the bar C to be drawn out endways from its fid holo
through the lower part of the topmast; the topmast is then lowered by the
top rope in the usual manner.
When the topmast is again to be replaced,
it is swayed up in the usual manner by the top rope i, until the fid hole
across the heel of the topmast for the reception of the bar C of our
improved fid is sufficiently raised above the tressletrees to allow the bar C
(one or both of its screws b being previously withdrawn from it) to be inserted;
and when the bar C of our improved fid is inserted into its fid hole and the
screws b, b, thereof are screwed into the perforations through the ends of the
bar, as before described, with their hemispherical points in the sockets, and by
turning the screws by their lever handles, the topmast can be raised or set up
as much higher as is required in order to tighten the rigging. Figures 9 and 10
are views of the lower part of the topmast, shewing the aperture a across the
heel of that mast for the reception of the bar C of our improved fid. The
same Figure also shews the fid hole for the insertion of the common fid,

page_text: When the common fid is employed, the fid hole for it should run somewhat
angleways across the square heel of the topmast, so that one end of the
common fid may project out behind one of the screws 6 of our improved fid,
and the opposite end of the common fid before the other screw b; and wedges
or pieces of wood may be put into the common fid hole above the common fid,
in case the topmast is raised (in order to tighten the rigging) higher than is
necessary to insert the common fid. When the common fid, together with
those wedges (if they are required) are in their places, the screws of our
improved fid may be withdrawn entirely from the bar, if thought proper, and
the common fid will support the topmast in the usual manner; but at any
time, the screws of our improved fid may be readjusted in their places at the
ends of the bar C and used for setting up the topmast, so much as to release
and take off all pressure from the common fid in order to permit the wedges
which are above it to be withdrawn from the fid hole together with the fid
itself, if required; and then by turning back the screws of our improved fid
the topmast can be eased either for slackening the rigging, or else in prepa-
ration for lowering the topmast by its top rope, as herein-before described.
The construction of our improved fid may be varied by making the bar C
thereof so short as that its ends will not project out beyond the square of the
heel of the topmast, and consequently the screws b, b, and their heads must
be received in cavities cut out in the wood, leaving space to apply the lever
handles to turn the screws round. The bar C will, in that case, be fixed fast
into the upper part of the fid hole or aperture across the heel of the mast,
and to support the mast a moveable cross bar of iron must be put through
the lower part of the aperture, across the heel of the topmast, the ends of
that cross bar resting on the tressletrees, and the upper side of that cross bar
having two hemispherical cavities to receive the points of the two screws
which are contained, as aforesaid, within the aperture through the topmast;
and those screws being screwed up will take their bearing on the cross bar
and set up the topmast for the purpose of tightening the rigging, or if the
screws are slacked, the topmast will be lowered to slacken the rigging, and
if the top rope has previously been hove very taught by its purchase, the
slackening of the screws will leave the weight of the topmast suspended on
the top rope, leaving the cross bar looso so that it can easily be withdrawn
from the aperture across the heel of the mast, and then the topmast may be
lowered by easing the top rope, the bar C and the screws of our improved fid
remaining in the aperture through the heel of the mast. The first described
construction of our improved fid we, however, consider preferable. Our
if the same is required to be used in conjunction with our improved fid.

page_text: improved fid may be also adapted to sliding bowsprits by applying it in a
horizontal, in lieu of a perpendicular position.
Having now described the structure of our improved fid, I do hereby declare
that our Invention consists in the bar C with the screws b, b, through each
end thereof, constituting our improved fid, such bar and screws being applied
in the manner herein-before described; and further, we do not claim any
other application of screws for supporting and raising or lowering topmasts
and sliding bowsprits, or for slackening or tightening rigging, except when
the said screws are screwed through the two ends of the bar, as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Gardner, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of February, One thousand eight