IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ROPE
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
HAYES EASUM, of Commercial Road, Stepney, in the County of Middlesex,
Rope Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing dato at Westminster, the Third day of July, One thou-
sand eight hundred and fifty-one, in the fifteenth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Robert Hayes Easum, my exors, adñors, and assigns, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilego and authority, that I, the said Robert Hayes
Easum, my exors, adñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Robert Hayes Easum, my 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, exer-
cise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and in the Island of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man,
and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ROPE;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Robert Hayes Easum,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of
Chancery 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 thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Hayes Easum, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:-
"
And in order more fully to explain the nature of my Invention, and in what
respects the same differs from the ordinary modes of making rope, I will
first proceed to describe the same of the ordinary modes now employed for
that purpose. In one of these modes the workman takes up a quantity of
hemp and places it round his body. He pulls out a portion and attaches it
to a hook at the end of a spindle, which is caused to revolve by a strap or
wheelwork or otherwise. The workman then walks backwards away from
the spindle, and at the same time he feeds out the hemp with his hands, in
as regular a manner as possible, from the mass which he carries with him.
He thus proceeds down the rope walk until he has obtained a "yarn" of
sufficient length. A number of "yarns" thus made are laid together and
twisted into a "strand" or "ready." For this purpose the "yarns are
passed through separate holes in a perforated plate, and then unite and pass
through a tube or a cylindrical hole in a block of metal, and are then attached
to a hook on a revolving spindle mounted on a carriage, which is made to
travel down the rope walk by means of machinery. By this means the yarns,
which have been each separately twisted, as above mentioned, are twisted
together to form the "strand" or "ready." Three or more of these "strands"
or "readies" are then twisted together to form a "rope," and three or more
"ropes" may be twisted together to form a "cable." The different stages
may therefore be expressed as the hemp, the yarn, the strand or ready, the
and the cable. It will be observed, that the hemp in this process is
formed into a "yarn" directly.
rope,
By another process or mode of manufacturing also in use heretofore,
another stage is introduced before the conversion of the hemp into yarn, by
means of which the process of hand-spinning above mentioned is avoided, and
the operations of converting the hemp into yarn are performed by machinery.
In this process the hemp is laid by band upon a table, from which it is con-
veyed by a pair of rollers into a machine consisting of an endless web or chain
of spikes over which the hemp passes, and is conveyed by another pair of
rollers into a cylindrical can. These last rollers move at a greater velocity
than the endless chain of spikes, and the hemp is thus drawn out into the form
of a long narrow band or "sliver," which is loosely coiled up in the can;

page_text: several slivers thus made are passed together through a second similar machine,
and this operation is repeated until the irregularities of the sliver are suffi-
ciently equalized. By this means is obtained a long narrow sliver or band,
consisting of parallel fibres of hemp lying side by side without twist. To
convert the "sliver" into "yarn" a cylindrical can full of sliver is placed in
a vertical position in a machine, where it is caused to revolve with rapidity
on its axis, while at the same time the sliver is drawn gradually out of the can
through a tube revolving at the same speed as the can. By this means the
sliver" is twisted into a yarn, which is wound up upon a reel. The "yarns"
thus made are twisted into "strands" or "readies," and the strands into
ropes, and the ropes into cables, in the manner above mentioned. In both
these processes it will be observed, that the rope or cable consists of an
assemblage of small twisted yarns, each of which has been separately
twisted, and such yarns frequently have twelve twists or turns in a length of
one foot.
45
Now, in making rope according to my Invention, I first convert the hemp
into "slivers," as above mentioned, and I then twist a number of these slivers
together to form a "strand" or "ready," without first twisting each sliver
separately as in the old method above mentioned. The strands or readies
thus made are laid together to form ropes, and the ropes may be laid together
to form cables if desired. The fibres of the hemp are thus laid more nearly
in the direction of the length of rope than is the case in ropes made in the
ordinary manner, and I have found that ropes thus made according to my
Invention possess greater strength than ropes of equal weight made in the
ordinary modes; they also admit of being made very flexible. In lieu of
using the slivers entirely without twist they may be slightly twisted, but in no
case is such amount of twist to exceed four turns in a length of one foot; at the
same time I would remark, that I prefer to employ the slivers entirely without
twist, as above described.
Sheet 1. Figure 1 is an elevation, and Fig. 2 is an end view of one of the
slivering machines which I employ for producing the sliver. A is the table
on which the hemp is laid by hand. B, B', are two grooved rollers which
draw the hemp into the machine, and present it to the endless chain of spikes
or combs C, by which it is carried forward in the direction of the arrow to
the drawing rollers D, D. These last rollers re much quicker than the
combs C, and the consequence is, that when the end of a filament of hemp
enters between the drawing rollers D, it is drawn forward from amongst the
rest of the hemp on the endless chain, and in passing between the spikes
becomes straightened or combed out. The successive filaments being thus

page_text: drawn out form a narrow band or "sliver," which falls into the tin cylinder
or can E. On the axis of one of the rollers B is an endless screw F, which
drives a worm wheel G on the spindle H, which by means of the bevil wheels
I, J, gives motion to a hand on the dial K. This dial, with the hand L, is
shewn separately on a larger scale in Figure 3, which is a front view, and in 5
Figure 4, which is a side view of the same. As the handle L revolves on the
dial at a speed always proportional to that of the feeding rollers B, B¹, it
serves as a guide to the workman in supply the table with hemp.
Figure 5 is a section of the feeding table, which is provided with two plates
or sides M, M, which form a sort of trough in which the hemp is laid. The
upper roller B' is pressed downwards by the spring N and rod O. The upper
roller D' is also pressed downwards by means of the lever P, the rod Q, and
spring R.
The construction of the endless chain of combs is shewn more in detail in
Figures 6, 7, and 8. Figure 6 is a side view of a portion of the chain, with
the wheel or wiper by which it is driven. Figure 7 is an end view, and
Figure 8 a plan of the same. a, a¹, are the links jointed together, the alter-
nate ones a', a', being wider than the others. The teeth b, b, of the wiper
embrace the narrow links a, and act against the wider ones a', and thus give
motion to the chain. These wipers are fixed on the shafts S and T, in Figure 1, s
which revolve at the same speed. Each link is formed with a slot c, in which
the bar dis capable of moving up and down. The combs e are fixed upon
these bars. ff, are bars or guards, which unite the links a, a', with the
corresponding links of a similar chain on the opposite side of the machine.
The ends of the bars d are furnished with round projecting pins, which enter
the grooved frame g, by which they are guided. This frame is of such a form
as shewn in Figure 1, that the combs remain concealed within the links while
they are passing along the lower part of their course, but as they turn round
the shaft S and begin to ascend, the combs are protruded and receive the
hemp which is supplied by the feeding rollers B, B'. As the endless chain
passes along the upper part of its course the combs remain protruded until it
begins to descend to pass round the shaft T, when the combs are drawn
in towards the bottom of the links and leave the hemp free to enter between
the drawing rollers D, D'. The guards f, f, shewn in Figures 6, 7, and 8,
serve to strip off any hemp which may be entangled in the combs, and prevent
it from being carried back by them in their return course. The hemp, after
passing between the drawing rollers D, D', is further compressed by passing
between the rollers U, U, and is then conveyed through a guide V to the
rollers W, W, and thence delivered into the tin cylinder or can E. The

page_text: machine is driven by a band and a live and dead pulley on the axis of the drawing
roller D, on which is a pinion h which drives the wheel i, on whose axis is
another pinion, the wheel j on the wiper shaft T. The wheel j gives motion by
means of the intermediate wheels k, l, m, to the equal wheel n on the other wiper
shaft S, which again drives the feeding roller B by means of toothed wheels o
at the back of the machine. The rollers U, U, W, W, are also driven by
toothed wheels p at the back of the machine. This machine converts the
hemp which is laid in the feeding trough into a narrow band or sliver, and
delivers it into the can E, as already mentioned. Several of the cans E, filled
with slivers from the first machine, which I have just described, are carried to
a second machine, constructed in a similar manner to the first, but withont
the feeding table A. The slivers from all the cans pass together over the end-
less chain of spikes in this machine, and form by their union a single sliver,
which is received in a can. The irregularities in the first slivers are thus
equalized. The slivers thus obtained may, if required, be again passed through
a third machine, to render them still more uniform, and this operation may be
repeated as many times as desired. In general, however, it is sufficient
to pass the hemp through two or three machines, and the slivers are then fit to
be formed into "strands" or readies," according to my Invention.
"
Sheet II. Figure 9 is a back view, and Figure 10 is a vertical section, of
a portion of the machinery or apparatus which I employ for forming the
"slivers" into "strands" or "readies." A is the register plate, perforated
with a series of holes arranged in concentric rings, and through which the
slivers are passed from the cans E to the tube or perforated block B, which is
shewn separately in Figures 11 and 12. The register plate serves to maintain
the slivers in their proper relative positions during the operation. The assem-
blage of slivers, after passing through the tube B is attached to the hook C,
which is mounted on a carriage capable of travelling down the rope walk.
The construction of this carriage, and the mode of setting it in motion, are not
shewn in the Drawings, as the same are well understood, and in use heretoforo
for the purpose of forming "strands or "readies" from " yarns."
hook C being caused to revolve rapidly while the carriage gradually travels
down the rope walk, the slivers S are gradually drawn out of the cans E, and
being brought together in the tube B, the assemblage or bundle of "slivers"
is twisted into a "strand" or "ready." The "strands" or "readies" thus
formed are laid together to furin ropes by the ordinary well-known means, and
the ropes may also be laid together to form cables, as is well understood.
"
The
It will thus be seen that the various stages of the first of the ordinary pro-
cesses for making a rope may be expressed as the hemp, the yarn, the strand
or ready, and the rope.

page_text: The second of the ordinary processes consists of the hemp, the sliver, the
yarn, the strand or ready, and the rope.
My improved mode of manufacture dispenses altogether with the yarn, and
consists of the hemp, the sliver, the strand or ready, and the rope.
Figures 13, 14, 15, and 16, illustrate the ordinary process of manufacture.
Figure 13 shows one of the yarns; Figure 14 represents a strand or ready
formed of several yarns; Figure 15 is a rope made of four strands or readies;
and Figure 16 is a cable made of four ropes.
Figures 17, 18, and 19 serve to illustrate my improved mode of manufac-
ture. Figure 17 is the strand or ready, formed of several slivers; Figure 18
is a rope formed of four strands or readies; and Figure 19 is a cable formed
of four ropes.
If it be desired to give a small amount of twist to the separate slivers it may
be done by causing the cans which receive them from the slivering machines
to revolve upon their axes, or it may be done by means of a bobbin and fly
frame, or by means of a machine in which a can full of sliver is caused
to revolve upon its axis while the sliver is drawn out of the can, and through a
tube revolving at the same or a different velocity to the can. In whatever
manner, however, the sliver may be twisted such twisting must in no case
exceed four times in a length of one foot of sliver.
I have not deemed it necessary to shew Drawings of machinery for twisting
the slivers, as I prefer to employ the slivers without any twist, as herein-before
described.
I have described my Invention as being applied to hemp, but it is of course
equally applicable to manilla and other fibrous materials suitable for the
manufacture of rope.
In making tarred ropes the slivers are passed through a vessel of melted
tar, and are afterwards formed into the "strand or ready".
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not
claim as my Invention the various machines herein-before described. But
what I claim is, the mode or modes of manufacturing rope by twisting an
assemblage of slivers into a strand or "ready," and laying such strands or
"readies" into a rope, as hercin-before described, such slivers aforesaid not
being previously separately twisted, or if so twisted having no greater amount
of twist than four turns in a length of one foot of sliver.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Hayes Easum, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
ROBERT HAYES (L.S.) EASUM.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid Robert Hayes Easum came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.