A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING CAPSTANS AND WINDLASSES
Year: 1826

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
FRASER, of Houndsditch, in the City of London, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, in and by His
Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-fifth day of February last, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, did give and grant unto me; the said James Fraser, His special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said James Fraser,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and
themselves, or by my and their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such
others as I, the said James Fraser, my executors, administrators, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term of years therein unexpired, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED
METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING CAPSTANS AND WINDLASSES;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said James Fraser, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner, the
same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery, within two calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereto had, will more fully appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Fraser, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the peculiar formation of its various parts, is fully explained and made known
by the following description.
First, for an arrangement of parts in placing machinery in the interior of
capstans and windlasses to give extra power, without materially increasing
bulk.
Secondly, for adding leverage to these for compressing the chain on a more
enlarged and secure principle of grasp, thereby lessening the strain on par-
ticular parts of the said chain in the operation of bringing up a ship, and also
for applying the said leverage brake or compression to bitts where no wind-
lasses are used. The body of the capstan and windlass is made of iron, and
of the usual appearance. but hollow like a drum to receive the machinery,
which consists of a pinion on a spindle, one intermediate wheel, and one curb
wheel with the geer inside, which curb ring or wheel may be cast on the inside
of the drum and with it, all in one cast, which will give great additional
strength to the drum or body of the capstan or windlass; without increasing
the weight. When the pinion on the centre spindle is put out of geer, and
the drum head fastened to the drum by pins, screws, or clutch, the whole acts
as a common capstan or windlass, the intermediate wheel revolves on a strong
carriage fixed to the base where the pauls play, and is also strongly bolted
through the deck, and to prevent the rise of the intermediate wheel out of
geer a strong support, consisting of three and sometimes four prongs rises
from the opposite side of the said case, crosses the centre pinion over its upper
surface, receives the spindle and prevents its vibration, passes on over more
than half the surface of the intermediate wheel, and receives its upper gudgeon.
The intermediate wheel thus secured is immediately under the cross bearings
of the drum, which revolves perfectly free of the machinery; there are also cross
bars in the said drum further up, which prevent all eccentricity, and through
which the spindle from the revolving head passes; should iron be reckone
unfavourable to ropes, wood may be made to project through nitches cast in
the drum, or a wooden plug may be placed in the inside of the drum or
hollow, which will strengthen the drum very much; to this the wooden
projections may easily be fixed by bolts passing entirely through from side to
side. The drum head will revolve more rapidly than the drum when power is
required, but the pinion being put out of geer and the head fixed as already
stated, their motion is the same. The pauls work as usual in a circular frame
on deck, but this system will require a ledge, which is to be raised from the
said frame to go under the diam to prevent water from going below, and all

page_text: the recesses in the said frame where the parts work are to have perforations
to prevent the lodgements of water in them. When capstans work below as
well as on deck, machinery can be fixed to such lower capstan heads, as well
by means of the said head having the under part formed as a bevul wheel to
which another beval wheel as a pinion may be attached; this with cranks and
leverage can be made to work the pumps, and with much less room than by
eapstan bars, and when not required can be as easily laid aside.
It is not necessary to go into a lengthened detail of the entire minutiae of
capstans and windlasses, but only what forms the essence of my Invention.
The spindle has a square head which, fixed by a screw to the capstan head,
but does not pass through it; on this spindle is the pinion at a lower level,
which geers with the intermediate wheel at a lower level; the spindle passes
down to the lower capstan when there is one, or into a foot joined to the
frame in which the pauls work, or into the lower deck, as is practised at
present, and there is a space at the deck round the spindle to allow the pinion
to drop out of geer, either by hand or lever, and when the same spindle does
not go lower than the under part of the deck there are strong fastenings
below deck, joined to the paul ring above by bolts, which give such strength
as no lateral motion can effect; these fastenings are left to the builder or
engineer, so as strength is not lost sight of, and which will be required in
proportion to the age and strength of the timbers.
Having now described what I conceived as an ample description of my
capstans and windlasses, I proceed to my application of a lever or brake, and
to point out the difference between one fitted to machinery and one for the
purpose propose..
I
The usual brake on machinery would not suit or be effectual on board of
ship, because in cranes the end of the rope or chain is fixed to the barrel, so
that to stop the machinery or barrel is all that is required, but on board of
ship the rope or chain is seldom of the same length; the grasp must therefore
be on the rope or chain, not on the machinery; the consequence has often been
most distressing from the partial nature of the said grasp of chain, and the
consequent immense strain on particular parts: it is therefore intended to act
on all the involution of chain round the windlass or bitts at one instant of
time; there is therefore to be a body of iron to correspond nearly with the
curve of the windlass on which the chain turns round in the act of going out
with the anchor. Therefore, when the lever or brake is applied the body of iron
comes up, and the chain being between both surfaces, namely, the windlass and
lump of iron, the chain is tightened round the windlass by compression; the
turns being numerous, they assist each other in bearing the strain, and there is

page_text: neither danger nor difficulty in the operation; the said lever or brake may be
placed immediately under the revolving chain, and fixed to the deck as much
out of the way as possible, or to the uprights in which the windlass revolves;
and on the bitts in any convenient situation.
I therefore recapitulate and declare that my Invention consists of a simple
and powerful arrangement of parts, of which the hollow capstan, or drum, or
hollow windlass form a prominent part; and for adapting such hollow. space
to all the purposes of receiving such machinery as is herein particularized, and
though I have here described what appears to me the most simple and proper,
yet I do not restrict myself to the form of a cog, so that the general principle
is kept in view of making the capstan and windlass perfect machines within
themselves, and I hereby declare that the brake or lever, as has already been
described, and which compresses the chain where the greatest number of turns
are on capstan, windlass, or bitts, is also a prominent and most useful part of
this Invention, and which can be applied to any windlass or set of bitts at
present in use.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal the Twenty-
fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and twants civ
J. S. HARVEY.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-fifth day of April,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid James Fraser came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained, in form, above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.