CONSIDERABLE IMPROVEMENTS UPON THE METHODS BY ME ALREADY INVENTED IN THE VARIOUS PARTS OF THE PROCESSES OF MAKING ROPES, CORDAGE, AND CORDS, BOTH TARRED AND UNTARRED, AND ALSO MY INVEN- TION OF OTHER METHODS IN THE PROCESSES OF MAKING ROPES, CORDAGE, AND CORDS BOTH TARRED AND UNTARRED
Year: 1798

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CHAPMAN, of the Town and County of the Town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His most
gracious Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Eighth day of November, in the thirty-ninth year of His
reign, did give and grant unto me, the said William Chapman, His especial
licence, that I, the said William Chapman, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Chapman, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and 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 in all His Majesty's Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, my Invention of "CONSIDERABLE IMPROVEMENTS UPON THE METHODS
BY ME ALREADY INVENTED IN THE VARIOUS PARTS OF THE PROCESSES OF MAKING
ROPES, CORDAGE, AND CORDS, BOTH TARRED AND UNTARRED, AND ALSO MY INVEN-
TION OF OTHER METHODS IN THE PROCESSES OF MAKING ROPES, CORDAGE, AND CORDS
BOTH TARRED AND UNTARRED;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said William Chapman, 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 six'
weeks next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,

page_text: as in and by the same, reference being thereto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, 'the said
William Chapman, do hereby declare, that the Specifications of the former
Letters Patent granted to me by His said Majesty on or about the Thirteenth
day of September, One thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, and
the Sixth day of March One thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight, I
have shewn the principles of most of the improvements I have now to
describe, and therefore must frequently refer to them. In the latter part of
those Specifications I have said that the spinners, instead of going backwards
for the length of the thread, may remain permanently in one place. In this
case the end of the yarn, instead of being simply fastened to a hook, is attached
to a bobbin, by means of which, and of a perforated spindle and a flyer, it is
wound up progressively as it is spun. As this method of spinning may be
carried on in a room, it enables them in a common ropery to lay ropes on
both sides, and if the ropery be uncovered, and as the generality are, it affords
them also the advantage of spinning in rainy weather.
The further improvement I have made in this method consists in enabling
such persons to spin rope yarns as now find it too hard a task, because of the
difficulty of preventing the twist running too fast beyond the part held
between the fingers. My improvement has also the further advantage of
enabling one person to spin two such threads at the same time. It consists
simply in preventing the twist of the yarn from running forward into the hemp
or other matter to be spun, which may be effected various ways. In front
of where the spinners either stand or sit, the yarn passes through or over any
substance in or against which it can be compressed, either by a determinate
or fluctuating force; the former may be acquired by weights or springs, and
the latter by the pressure of the foot on a strap or treddle. One of the
various ways of operation is shewn in Figs. I. and II., one in elevation and the
other in plan, where a, b, c, shew a block on which the yarn is pressed.
Through the ends a and c which stand higher than the middle, is a groove or
slit to guide the yarn, and the middle at b is either covered or not covered.
with leather, listing, felt, or other elastic matter, at the will of the party;
oover this space in the middle at c, the yarn may be compressed by a leather
strap directly, or by any substance intervening, or any other way, at the will of
the workman, my method consisting only in what I have mentioned, viz', in
preventing the twist of the yarn coming forward into the hemp or other matter
which it has to be spun, so as to reduce the great stress on the fingers, and
also enable a weak person to sping strong yarns with ease, or even two such

page_text: yarns at once. In the spinning of rope yarns, a considerable stress is requisite
to draw forward the yarn through the implement Fig. I., or even through the
fingers, and inconveniences arise from giving that stress by any retarding force
on the bobbin, because much of the force thus applied will be wasted. in friction
over the flyer and through the spindle, and also with the utmost attention the
quantity of twist put into a given length of yarn thus spun by hand would be
variable. These ill effects may be remedied by "causing the yarn to receive any
given number of twists in a given length," as mentioned in the latter of my said
Specifications, viz, by causing the yarn to advance forward to the bobbin a
certain space in any given number of twists. My improved method consists in
giving any determinate motion to a small sheave or roller a, Figs. X. and XI.,
inserted in the spindle b, round which the yarn passes in its way to the flyer c.
The motion to this sheave may be given various ways; but one of the most
simple is the following, viz,-d is a fixed sheave or whirl, giving motion to the
spindle and flyer by means of a band or belt from a large wheel; e is a loose
sheave or whirl, having also a band from the great wheel, but revolving at plea-
sure round the spindle, and having fixed to it a small bevil pinion f, which gives
motion to g, another bevil pinion or wheel fixed on the axis of the sheave u,
and revolving with it. Now it is plain that if the whirls d and e were both
of the same diameter and driven by the same wheel and diameter of wheel,
the sheave a would remain at rest, and, consequently, the yarn h would not
advance at all; but if the whirl e were either bigger or less than whirl d, then
it is equally clear that the sheave a would move round its own axis. Thus it
follows, that by proportioning these two whirls to each other, any determinate
advance of yarn in any given number of turns of the spindle is attainable, it
being premised that the stress communicated from the bobbin must be
For example,
sufficient to prevent the yarn slipping round the sheave a.
supposing it necessary to put twenty-four turns in one foot length of yarn, and
that one revolution of the sheave a is equal to four inches, there consequently
should be put in eight turns during each revolution of the sheave a; then, if
the pinion f be half the diameter of the small bevil wheel g, it follows that the
whirl e must make two turns round the axis of the spindle for eight twists of
the yarn, or one turn for every four twists; therefore, if the spindle make four
turns whilst the whirl e makes either three or five turns, the desired effect will
be produced. For this end it is only requisite that the whirl e should either
be four fifths, or once and one third the diameter of the whirl d, or that the
same disparity should take place in the diameters of the different rims of the
driving wheel, and then the whirls may be each of the same diameter. This
and the other improvements in spinning are equally applicable, whether a rope-

page_text: ground or machines be made use of. In the aforesaid latter Specification
have particularly described a process of turning and warping, or winding, up
yarns on separate reels (one or more on each reel) during the process o
tarring, which is of essential moment in all methods of making ropes in which
the yarns are designed to be of different lengths, according to their position in
the inner or outer part of the strand of the rope. I there mentioned, that 1
occasionally pressed the yarns separately; that method is chiefly eligible where
few yarns at one and the same time are passed, through; the tar, kettle, or
other vessel containing the tar; for instance, in passing them through the tar
in the first winding up on their reels; after they are, spun in a common rope-
ground, or under any other similar circumstance. In this instance I also, tho
there may be very few yarns wound up at once, press them'together in a narrow
slit, surrounding them with any elastic substance to make the pressure uniform,
notwithstanding the irregularity of thickness of the yarns; but when many
yarns are tarred together, I find it the most convenient way to press them'in
the mass, similar to the common method, by nipper plates. And then
my further Invention consists in the mode of drawing the yarns forward
without entanglement or twisting, which I effect by means of compressure be
tween two sheaves or rollers, which, moving together, or one driving, the other,
draw on the yarns. The best position of these sheaves or rollers is when the
rope or yarn they hawl forward forms nearly a figure of- 8. (as in Fig. III.):
Also, to add further prevention to the slipping of the yarns, I occasionally
compress them between more rollers than two (each by spur wheels driving
the other), so as to occasion a friction by the yarn passing round a consider
able portion of one or more of the rollers. These rollers' or sheaves I call
griping or holding rollers or sheaves, whether in fixed positions or capable of
pressing against or being pressed against each other, their use being to afford
a similar resistance to what is produced by turns of a rope round a capstan,
without the inconveniences that attend the latter, 'viz', the progressive passage
of the rope to one end of. the axis whilst winding on the capstan,, or the
constant slipping towards the narrower part of the barrel of the capstan,
which, in drawing forward of, yarn, occasions the mass of yarns to be
constantly twisting itself. These griping sheaves are most perfect when an
intermediate shave, as b, Figure IV., presses against two others, 'or, as, d
in the same Figure, which is capable of pressing against c.. This only
requires the collaring of that end of the axis to be in a slit or groove;, the
other end (where the spur wheel "e," Figure V. is) moving in a circular collar.
When the griping sheaves have either to give or resist the. progressive motion
of the yarn, strand, rope, or chain, passing through or round them, then they

page_text: must, if acting to the most advantage, drive each other as described, or each
be driven by a wheel; but where the stress is small, or where the twisting of
the yarn, strand, or rope, has only to be prevented, then their connection with
each other by toothed wheels may be dispensed with. To give further
Security to the yarns coming untwisted or unentangled to and from the
griping rollers, and fair towards their separate reels on which they are to be
wound one or more together, 'I generally pass what belongs to each roll
separately through holes in one or more plates of metal, or other substance.
One of those plates, which I call a yarn guide, may then be fixed before or at
a convenient distance from the entrance into the nipper plates, and another,
after passing the holding rollers from whence the yarns separate to their
respective reels, which, if not driven by a belt, or other means capable
of slipping, should each have the power of slipping round it's axis, as
otherwise those reels which .chanced, from the unequal thickness of the
yarn, or other causes, to become of less diameter than the others, would
not coil up their yarns so fast. as they came from the griping rollers,
and entanglement and other inconveniences would of course ensue. Those
are the inconveniences, alluded to in my fore-mentioned last Specification,
which rendered it eligible to have the white yarn pass from and the
tarred yarn be received on equal numbers of reels; but by the means
now described it is not absolutely necessary that they should pass from or be
received on a similar number of reels, provided the yarns that have to be
separated or conjoined be wound with great regularity, either on the white or
tarred-yarn reels. My general method of winding them on the white-yarn
reels is performed, if in a common rope ground; immediately after they are
spun, and differs no further from the usual custom than in one man (by
means of giving motion to different spindles either by a belt or wheels,) wind-
ing up, either singly or any determinate number on each reel, so many yarns
as would otherwise, in the usual operation, be wound up on one reel, the
reels as aforesaid, having each the power of slipping round its own axis.
These separate reels may be made to contain any determinate quantity of
yarn. In that state they are ready to be drawn off through the tar, and my
isual method is, to wind them up as they are tarred on reels of equal size.
When the operation of tarring is thus finished, my most approved method' is
to take off one end of the reels, so as to slip off the coil of yarn, which I' tie
up like a coil of spun yarn, and in this state leave it to cool, and be laid up
for future use, if not immediately wanted.
The aforesaid Invention of the griping sheaves or rollers I claim for all
other purposes in the manufacture of ropes, their application being various, as

page_text: I shall shew in the following instances:-In the said last-mentioned of m
Specifications I described one of my methods of making ropes to be the fixing
upon pins so many reels as will contain all the yarns requisite for a strand, o
the given number of strands determined to be made at one time, each ree
containing one or more yarns, and that those yarns being passed through, the
holes in seperate plates of metal or other substance correspondent with the
requisite number of hooks on the foreboard of the sledge, are then made fas
to their seperate hooks, which are to be turned, and the sledge moving upor
wheels to be drawn backward by a horse or other means progressively, as the
strand is twisted or made.
Now, my improvements in this method (or the particulars not minutely
described) consist in the following points, viz:-A certain resistance is neces-
sary to the backward motion of the sledge, or the strand would come out not
sufficiently compressed. This resistance and compression I bring about with
what I have, in the first of my aforesaid Specifications, called press blocks, which
are further described in the accompanying Drawing, Figures VI. and VII.
The first, a front view of the two blocks; the latter, a plan of the lower block.
These I place on the side towards the sledge or front side of the perforated or
grooved plates, which I have called yarn guides, the advantage of which is,
that the pressure is always uniform and ascertainable, and also smooths the
strands; and that no more resistance is requisite on the reels containing the
yarns, or on the individual yarns themselves, than what is sufficient to prevent
their casual interference with each other from bringing them forward, which
sometimes will take place if they, are suspended on horizontal axes; to pre-
vent this effect, I occasionally place the reels on their ends, so as to rest on a
base sufficiently wide to give the necessary friction, which in this mode of
placing has the peculiar advantage of being nearly equal, whether the reel be
full of yarn or almost wound off, because in the latter instance the weight.
which occasions the friction decreases with the decrease of diameter on which
the yarn acts. When the aforesaid reels are used, I either have them of the
size of the reels the yarns were wound on when tarred, in which case nothing
more is requisite than to take off one end of the reels and to slip on the coil
of yarn that had been drawn off to cool and lay by, but if there be not suffi-.
cient room in the ropery, or if yarns of various sizes be frequently or alter-
nately made use of, I then wind off so much as may be requisite, or lesser
bobbins (many of them moved at the same time), and thus continue until the
large reels be exhausted. I also occasionally, in lieu of putting the coils of
yarn again upon reels, take the coils themselves, and place them conveniently
to the yarn guides and press blocks, or shelves or benches in tiers above each.
.

page_text: other, or in any other convenient manner, and lead off the inner end of each
coil to the yarn guides and press blocks, as already described. This part of
my Invention, the application of yarn in coils, in place of being on reels or
bobbins, is attended with several advantages, as it dispenses with great numbers
of reels or bobbins which would otherwise be requisite, and also the time that
would be occupied in winding them on the bobbins or placing them on the reels.
Coils of yarn have likewise the further advantage of putting turns into the
yarn to counterbalance, in some degree, the twist taken out of it by each turn
of the strand. Hard-twisted yarns would be liable to run into kinks or snarls
by a twist being put into them on the unwinding of the unrevolving coil;
but this is remedied by my mode of compressing the strands by press blocks,
which permit the twist taken out of the yarn by every turn of the strand
to run back towards the coil, and allow the turns to be put in there
without runing into kinks, which would be liable to take place were the
pressure applied upon the yarns before they combined in the strand. In
the travelling of the sledge backwards, it is essential that the backward
motion should keep pace with the twisting of the strand, which can only
arise from the motions being dependant on each other, viz', that for every
turn of the strand the sledge should retire a space equivalent to the axis-
of that twist. For instance, if the axis or length of one twist or spiral
on the outside of the strand should be required to be 1 or 1½ the girt of
that strand, then every revolution of a six-inch strand, should move the sledge
eight or nine inches. Were ropes of one size only to be made by orie
machine, the end might easily be produced, as it would only require that a
wheel on the axis of the winch or crank should move all the hook wheels, and
that the other end of that winch or axis should give or receive its motion to
or from the wheels, drawing the sledge forward in any of the ways hereafter
described; but as ropes of various girts are requisite to be made on the same
machine, it becomes necessary to contrive a change of motion suited to the
I respective ropes; and my Invention consists in not giving an immediate con-
nection between the two motions by the crank or axis, but in separating that
connection, and communicating it through two axes, with wheels acting on
each other, one or both of which to be changeable at pleasure, so as to com-
municate any requisite disparity of motion, whether arising from reduction or
increase of girt of the strands, or from other causes; for instance, when the
requisite motion of the sledge for every turn of the crank is precisely what it
would be if the axis of the crank acted immediately on the wheel drawing the
sledge, then the two junction wheels x and y, Figure IV., which I call regu-
lating wheels, or change motion wheels, or pinions, should each have the same

page_text: number of teeth as the other; but if requisite that the sledge should move
'twice as fast, then it is. only necessary that the change pinion, a, on the axis
of the crank, should have twice; the number of teeth of the pinion y, on the
axis driving or driven by: the wheels: which move the sledge; and, on the
other hand, if necessary that the sledge should go through only half of what
would have been its fixed motion, then the change pinion a must only be of
half the number of teeth of the other change pinion y. Thus, all the relative
motions, are determinable at 'pleasure, by the different proportions of these
change pinions, which are easily taken on and off the ends of their, respective
axes, the collaring or 'support of these axes being within, the wheels and one
of the axes, vizt that of the crank, being capable (by resting on a, brake or
lever). of being raised or depressed at pleasure,, so as to suit, the diameters of
the respective pinions. The proportionate motion being thus ascertainable,
may be given various ways, one of which is shewn in Figure IV., where a
stretched rope, which I call a ground rope, is extended from the foot to the
head of the ropery, or a sufficient part of it, and passed over what, I have
called griping sheaves, viz, a, b, c, d, Figure IV It is clear that if these
sheaves were incapable of revolving, round their axes, and only capable of being
compressed against each other, that the sledge could not by any moderate force
either be moved one way or the other; therefore, if these sheaves turn when-
ever the crank turns, it is evident that the sledge must move accordingly. The
griping sheaves move in consequence of the motion of the crank being commu-
nicated by the regulating wheels x, y, Figure IV.; to the level pinion g,, and
from it to the level wheel h, Figures IV. and V., which is on the same axis
with a, one of the griping sheaves which drive each other by spur, wheels on
one end of their axes, so all to move together. On inspection of Figure IV.,.
it is plain that if the lowest wheel of the griping sheaves, or any other-wheel
with teeth, were to act on a rack fixed along the bottom of the rope ground,.
that the sledge would equally be moved onwards; but, the rope,, as described, is
less costly and more simple, the objections to hauling onwards by a rope being
in my method done away; because, after putting it over the griping sheaves,.
I I propose it to be stretched, previously to the commencement of twisting the,
strands, with a force superior to the stress requisite, to move the sledge, and;
therefore no irregularity can arise from, the unequal stretching or the elasticity:
of the rope during the progress of the sledge; also the inequality of motion;
that would have arisen from winding up the rope on a winch as the sledge,
moves is entirely done away by the use of the griping sheaves. I mentioned.
in the aforesaid Specification, that the sledge might be drawn backward by a.
rope to a capstan, moved either by a horse or man. In this case I ise'a.

page_text: power.
single, double, or greater power in the application from the capstan or other.
hauling force. If a single rope, I then continue to use either the ground'
rope or the toothed wheel acting upon a rack, and the sole difference is, that
in place of the griping sheaves or the toothed wheel drawing onward the
sledge by their action on the ground rope or on the rack; they receive their
motion, or the regulation of it, by the resistance of the ground rope or rack;
so as to regulate the twists of the strands whilst the sledge is drawn forward
by the power of the horse or other force at the capstan rope. Thus, the sledge.
cannot move faster than correspondent with the predetermined number of
twists in a given length of strand; because, if the stress of the capstan- rope
be greater than sufficient to draw the strands forward, that excess of
is, by the resistance afforded by the griping. sheaves or the rack wheel,
applied,, through the connection of the two motions on the sledge, to the
hooks twisting the strands, and if the power be sufficiently great, may twist
the strands without any other aid; or I produce the-same effect without
either a rack or ground rope, by resting the sledge either on broad
wheels or rollers; or on wheels or rollers tranversely ribbed, so, as to occasion
sufficient resistance on the ground to give either the whole or any portion of
the power requisite to twist the strands. If the capstan be applied to a haul-
ing rope of a double power, then its application may be on the part of tlie
ground rope that in Figure 1V. passes under the sledge, but which in this
instance is brought forward to the capstan. When this rope. is hove upon, it
will, from its inability to slip over the griping sheaves, give motion, as in the
preceding instances, to the hooks that twist the strands. I also produce minute
changes of motion, suited to different girts of strand, by having, in place of the
griping sheaves, a sheave, changeable at pleasure, on the axis of the bevil
wheel h, Figure IV., which is easily done by being; like the griping sheaves;
placed at the outer end of the axis, outside its supports or bearings; therefore,
nothing more is requisite than to have a sufficient number of those sheaves; of
different diameters, all capable of being fixed on the 'end of the axis, and giving
motion to the bevel wheel l, which then may act on a bevel pinion on the axis
of the intervening or centre wheel that gives motion to the looks. To give
greater friction to the rope, so as to prevent its slipping on those changeable
sheaves, I either pass both parts between two guide pulleys in front, or cross
them over a single one.
In these last-described methods, men to turn the hooks of the sledge may
be dispensed with, as, when the change pinions or change slicaves are duly
proportioned to the circumference of the strand, the strands will of themselves.
take the necessary number of turns as the sledge moves along. When the

page_text: sledge has got backwards to the full length of the strands,. and they are at the
opposite end cut off and fastened to hooks on the fixed foreboard of the ropery,
and a drag fixed to the tail of the wheel sledge, then the hooks at both ends
should (as described in the last of my former Specifications) be turned, to
harden up the strand sufficiently, and the rope be afterwards laid in the usual
method.
I have further invented a method of continuing the application of a horse and
capstan throughout the remainder of the operation of making the rope, when-
ever griping sheaves are used on the sledge, in which case, when the sledge has
been drawn backwards to its full extent, the operation will be thus:-First, to
attach to the tail of the backward sledge a drag or small sledge, properly
weighted,, then, if a double capstan hauling rope have been used, cast off the
standing part of it, which,, when the capstan is again in motion, will, by being.
drawn through the griping sheaves, give motion to them, and consequently to
the hooks. If the ground, rope have been used, then cast off both ends and
apply the capstan rope. to the bight of the ground rope, at d, Figure IV.,
and after having, as just described, cut off the other end of the strands, and
fastened them to. the hooks on the permanent foreboard at the head of the
ropery, both ends are hardened up as before directed (with no other difference
than the motion being given at one end by the power of the horse), taking
care to reduce, the weight on the drag sledge correspondently to the retarding
power of the capstan rope,. which will be so far equivalent to the resisting
power of the sledge, and probably. equal to the whole stress wanted. The
strands, when hardened up to their proper extent, are at the lower end to be.
taken off their separate hooks, and made fast (by a forelock) to the prolonged
axis of the intervening wheel that gives motion to the hooks, and thus the rope
will receive the contrary twist to the strands; or it may be done by fastening
them to any of the strand hooks, and drawing the rope the contrary way
through the griping sheaves. The top must then be applied between the-
strands, and the rope made as usual, the only difference being in the applica-
tion of the capstan to the after hard or twisting of the rope. The ratio of the
change pinions x, y, to each other have here no further to do than in giving,
by their different proportions, any increase or diminution of power or velocity
to the action of the hauling rope, the overhauling part of which must be of
sufficient length not to be drawn through the griping sheaves, and therefore it
will be requisite to clap an additional length to the lower end of it.
Another method of combining the power of the capstan, during the whole:
process of making the rope, is thus:-When the backward sledge has gone-
down to ite full extent, and the strands are ready for hardening up, then secure:

page_text: the backward sledge to the place where it is, and, instead of fixing the strands
at the other end to hooks in the permanent foreboard at the head of the ropery,
fix them to hooks on the breast board of a common roper's sledge, properly
weighted. This sledge then goes down the extent the strands have to be
hardened up, and (as it may also in the preceding instance) the three strands
may be joined, and the top applied either at the one end or the other. If at
moveable common sledge, then the strands remain as before, at the hooks of
the backward sledge, and the only inconvenience is, that as all those hooks
move together they cannot put in any alteration of twist, or any individual
strand that may be requisite to make the rope lay fair, which in running
rigging and small ropes is easily remedied by the practice known to every
roper, viz, taking off or unhooking a strand. In larger ropes the three strands
should be joined at the backward sledges, as afore described. The inconvenience
then is, in the difficulty of knowing whether the turns in the rope and the
turns in the strands keep due pace with cach other; for this purpose there.
may be fixed near the single hook, to revolve with it, a stick with a pieco
of white cloth, or anything else that will shew the revolutions. The capstan,
in all these instances, may give motion to the hook or hooks on the backward
sledge during the whole process of making the rope, and is also applicable to
the old principle of manufacturing.
In the first part of the process of running out the strands, if neither ground
rope nor rack be made use of, it will be necessary that the capstan rope should
be previously stretched so as to lose its elasticity, as otherwise the due proportion
between the twist of the strands and motion of the sledge cannot be uniform.
If, in these instances, a chain be used in place of a rope, the regularity will.
be greater. The methods described are sufficient to elucidate any variety of
them that may be adopted; and any further description of this part of my
Invention, and the application of it, will, I presume, be unnecessary.
The remaining parts of my new Invention and improvements are principally
applicable to my methods of making ropes, or strands of ropes, without the use
of a rope ground.
.
In my method of making ropes by machinery, as described in the Specifica-.
tion of the first of my aforesaid Letters Patent, I twist the rope by an arbor
or shaft revolving round its own axis, and the strands by seperate arbors or..
shafts revolving round their own axes, and each containing a table on which
are placed as many reels or coils of yarn as are expedient to form the strand.
If the yarns for each strand be all wound on one reel, then the rope would be
Inade on the old principle, with all the yarns of the same or nearly of the same
length, and the outside yarns of the strands would break first; but if placed on

page_text: separate reels, each containing only one yarn (or a small proportion of the yarns
of a strand), then all the yarns would be of the length required for the position
they assumed in the strand; whether nearer or farther from it's centre, and
consequently the middle yarns little or no longer than the strand itself; there-
fore, on the rope composed of those strands and the strands themselves stretch-
ing and also decreasing in diameter, the outside yarns would lose their propor-
tion of stress, and the inside'yarns would break. To remedy these two evils, it
is necessary that the strand should have a due combination of twist accordant
to these two principles, and my Invention in this instance consists in giving
them both in the same operation, or causing them both to go forward at the
same time. To obtain this end, it is necessary that each strand shaft should
have some interior movements within itself, or that each shaft should be divided
in two parts; which latter I shall proceed to describe, after correcting an error
in an explanatory part of my aforesaid first Specification, where, for tlie
purpose of explanation, I have assumed the proportionate twists or rotation of
the strand and rope at two to one, and the rotation of the upper and lower
shafts as three to one, because of one
strand by each one put into the rope.
twists I have stated to be no object of my Patent, conceiving the ratio
to depend on the skill and practice of the roper, and which is also of
less moment, as I have, in the explanation of Fig. III. of that Specification,
shewn an easy method of altering the disparity of movement of the shafts: It
should have been that the rotations or twists in the strand and rope are
nearly equal, and that, with the allowance for twists taken out, the final
movements of the lower and upper shafts should be nearly two to one.
twist being taken out of the
This assumption of proportionate
After premising this, as a mean or approximate ratio, variable at the will of
the rope manufacturer, I shall proceed to the explanation of Fig. VIII., which
shews an upper shaft divided into two parts, each capable of a separate-
number of revolutions. A, the upper division of this shaft, contains the yarns,
yarn guide, and press blocks of the shaft as before, the strand receiving at
the press block its twist, so far as each yarn is to vary in length, passes through
the foot gudgeon of the upper division, which turns in a socket on the head
gudgeon of the lower division B of the shaft, and is then passed round holding
or griping sheaves; whichi suffer it to go forward whilst they prevent the twist
put in by the lower part of the shaft from passing up: The griping slieaves
delineated will answer the purpose very well. a, c; are two fixed sheaves or
rollers between which the bight of the strand is drawn outwards, and the
moveable sheave 6 is put through it and brought to its place, where it is kept
thé pressure of the strand, which, according to the principles already de-
by

page_text: scribed, of the griping or holding rollers or sheaves, will prevent the strand
both from slipping and turning, and admit its going forward. Accordingly to
what I have already said, the upper division of the strand itself should make
about two revolutions to one of the rope shaft. As to the lower division, its
motion must depend on whether the rope be laid with a great or small
stress. If laid with a great stress, to prevent it from stretching, viz, if
designed for a shroud or stay, then the lower division B must move very
little faster than the rope shaft, but, if pliable and slack laid for large
running rigging, then it may move one sixth or even one fifth faster.
These differences of motion may easily be given by different pinions being
occasionally applied to the intermediate wheel h, which gives motion to
the lower division of the whole of the strand shafts, one of which only is here
shewn. The upper division of the intermediate shaft must also, by its wheel i,
give its proportionate motion to the upper division of the strand shaft of
nearly two to one of the rope shaft. The upper division of the strand shaft
is also capable of receiving only the same motion of the lower part by raising
or falling the upper intervening wheel out of geer, and locking the two parts
of the strand shaft together. This operation is useful both in making shroud
ropes from strands previously made, and in making cable-laid ropes, the
strands for which must be laid on the upper table or platform, and passed
down through its hollow gudgeons to the holding rollers in the lower division,,
and made as heretofore described.
A further part of my Invention is in the application of the holding sheaves
to the laying of the strands uniformly in the rope. For this end, the sheave c,
or any of them, must in all the strand shafts be of precisely the same dia-
meter; then by communicating the motion of all these sheaves c to one com-
mon wheel g in the centre, which shall have no motion but what it receives
from these sheaves, it is clear the strands must all come forward uniformly
and lay fair, if of the same girt, which they ought to be. One way of commu-
nicating the motion is shewn in the Plan, and is sufficient for the purpose. In
this method the sheave c, by a bevel wheel upon it, gives motion to the bevel
pinion d, which, by the spur pinion at the other end of its axis, moves the
small spur wheel e, which is fixed to the great spur wheel f, and with it
moves round the pivot or lower gudgeon of the lower division of the strand
shaft. The same wheels are necessarily on each strand shaft, and all their
wheels f communicate with the centre wheel g, which moves round the foot of
the axis of the intervening wheel h, which gives motion to the lower division
of the strand shafts as the upper wheel i does to their higher division. If
shroud strands be made in any of the methods I have described in the second

page_text: of my aforesaid Specifications, previously to their being made into a rope,
it is clear that the two twists can be put into them at once; but it is no way
necessary, as the most simple way is, to put only the first twist into the strand,
viz, that which draws the yarns into the strand, and to put in the remaining
twist whilst making all the strands into a rope, which is easily done by giving
the strand shafts, as recently mentioned in describing their divisions, so .many
more proportionate revolutions as the nature of the rope requires, or by
-hardening up so much of the strands as requisite if the rope be laid in a rope
ground.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Chapman, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of December, in the thirty-ninth-
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the
grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland King, Defender
of the Faith, and so forth, and in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand seven hundred and ninety-eight