AN IMPROVEMENT IN CERTAIN SAILS OF SHIPS AND OTHER NAVIGABLE VESSELS, AND THE MODE OF WORKING THE SAME
Year: 1806

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
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 Twenty-second day of
August, in the forty-sixth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said John Bywater, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, that
I, the said John Bywater, my exors, adñors, and assigns, during the term
of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might 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, my Invention of
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN CERTAIN SAILS OF SHIPS AND OTHER NAVIGABLE VESSELS,
AND THE MODE OF WORKING THE SAME;" 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 per-
formed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one
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 conformity to the said proviso, I, the said
John Bywater, do hereby declare my Invention in the improvement in
the sails of ships and other navigable vessels is, to render them capable

page_text: of being rolled, folded, or doubled from the head of the sail in an easy
and expeditious manner, without the necessity of sending a hand aloft to
do the same, leaving them firm at the point they are reefed or furled
to; and as the method of reefing or furling the sail by rolling it appears on
several accounts to promise the greatest advantage, I begin with explaining
that method, which is as follows;
To the yard of the topsail or topgallant (see the Drawing hereunto
annexed) attach a roller, which I call the reefing roller, Fig. 1, with ends
of enlarged diameter, a, a, or of the same diameter according to the power
required, and the length of which roller between the ends of enlarged
diameter, on which the reefing ropes are to be applied, is equal to the width
of the sail in that part to which I mean the reefing to extend. In order
to admit a circular motion to this roller, the ends of it have gudgeons of iron,
or any other proper material, b, b, with collars to keep them steady in the
socket of the arms of iron or any other proper material, Fig. 2 and y, y, Fig. 3,
fixed on the ends of the respective yards, and are kept in their place by pins
o, o, passing over the gudgeons. On this roller the head of the sail is firmly
fixed, so that the sail may be rolled thereon. In order to support the reefing
roller two friction rollers B, B, Fig. 3, having gudgeons at their ends, B, B,
Fig. 4, running in sockets in clamps or iron, or other proper material, C, C,
Fig. 3 and 5, affixed by the bolt d, Fig. 5, to the yard. The relative situation
of the friction rollers with regard to the reefing roller is such as to prevent
its bending, and to keep it as nearly as may be in its whole length and at all
times parallel to the yard; that is, one of these friction rollers 1 place under,
and the other in front of the reefing roller, as at Fig. 6, by which means the
reefing roller is prevented from bending either downwards or forwards, and the
sail has a free passage between the friction rollers. These friction rollers I
encrease in number and vary in situation according to the length of the reefing
roller. At one or both ends of the reefing roller, according to the power
required, I fix a rope on the enlarged part, which I call the reef line, R,
Fig. 6, and R, R, R, R, Fig. 7, which, by passing over itself a number of
times, according to the quantity of sail to be reefed, and in a contrary way
to that in which the sail is rolled, enlarges the thickness at the end of the
roller, and produces an additional leverage, which is greatest when the
greatest power is required, that is, when the whole sail is set. This reef
line (or lines) being passed through a sheave or block fixed under the yard
S, S, Fig. 6, and S, S, Fig. 7, leads to other blocks L, L, Fig. 7, near the
center of the yard, or over additional sheaves in the clue line blocks down the
mast to the deck.
We will now suppose the sail to be set, and that it is

page_text: necessary to take in a portion equal to one or more reefs; while the sail is yet
full, without shivering the sail, I lower the yard, and as fast as the yard is
lowered 1 haul in the reef lines, till the portion required is reefed; I then
make fast the halliard and the reef line, and the part reefed remains firm on
the roller. If I want to take in more canvas I repeat the operation before
described, but if more sail is to be set the above operation is to be reversed,
viz, the reef lines are to be slackened off, and the yard is to be hoisted till
the requisite quantity of sail is set.
In
By the machinery and in the method above mentioned I reef any portion
not exceeding half the sail, and the rest I hand in the usual manner.
applying this machinery to the courses I use the same method, except that,
as their yards cannot be lowered, the tacks and sheets must be started or eased
off till the necessary quantity of canvass is taken in, and the remaining part
handed as usual. In order to furl or take in the whole of the sail the roller
must be longer, and consequently the yard or the dimension of the sail must
be contracted at the foot and rolled up from the top, in the manner above
described.
My method of doubling or folding is as follows:-I take any square sail of
the usual form, and attach it to the yard in the usual manner across the
middle of the sail; or at the point to which I mean to reef I fix a strong reef
band, a, a, Fig. 9, on the after part of the sail, to which I attach a rope
similar to the head rope b, b, and which I call the reef head rope, the ends of
which are firmly seized into the leech ropes, and form what I call the reef
earings. To these carings I attach what I call the outer reef lines c, c,
Fig. 9, and at equal distances on the head rope I seize four other lines,
d, d, d, d, or more or less according to the width of the sail (so as to divide
the sail into equal parts) which from thence lead through an equal number of
half blocks e, e, e, e, e, e, Fig. 10, fixed on the fore part of the yard, nearly per-
pendicular to the points where the reef lines d, d, d, d, Fig. 9, are seized to
the reef head rope, but each rather inclining outwards for the purpose of
hauling and keeping taught the reef head rope when the reef is taken in.
The outer lines c, c, c, c, Fig. 9, lead to the mast in the same manner as the
reef lines in common use. The lines d, d, d, d, Fig. 9, lead from the half
blocks e, e, e, e, e, e, through blocks on or near the middle of the yard down
the mast or shroud to the deck, or at a convenient distance below the yard two
or more are seized together and lead upon deck as one line, for the purpose of
taking up less room. Suppose a topsail or topgallant to be set, and that it is
required to take in a reef; the outer reef lines, c, c, Fig. 9, are first haul'd taught
and belayed, and then the yard is lowered till the points where the lines d, d, d, d,

page_text: are seized to the reef head rope are hauled home to their respective half blocks
e, e, e, e, c, e, as in Fig. 10; when these are fastened below I again haul taught
the outer reef lines c, c, and that part of the sail which is reefed hangs double
before that part which is set. In order to prevent this double part from shivering,
when the vessel is going about or close hauled on a wind I attach two ropes
which I call reef sheets f,f,f,f, Fig. 10, to cringles in the lowest part of the
leech ropes of the part doubled, which lead with the sheets to the deck; when
more sail is required to be set, I slack off the reef sheets f.ff.f, and the reef
lines c, c, and d, d, d, d, Fig. 9, and haul taught the halliards. If I want to reef
one of the courses on the doubling or folding plan, I slack off the sheets in
proportion to the quantity to be reefed, and then haul the reef lines taught
home to the half blocks, as before described, and belay them. In taking in
two reefs at different times by the above method, I apply double the number
of reef lines attached to an additional reef band and reef head rope; and if
three reefs and another set of reef lines, reef, band, and reef head rope, and
work them, as before described.
By the above Invention I reef or furl all square sails of whatever name or
denomination and use in working the same, also such other tackle and
mechanical contrivances as have been and are in common and ordinary use
among scamen.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bywater, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and six.