CERTAIN NEW AND USEFUL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CAPSTANS FOR NAUTICAL AND GENERAL PURPOSES
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
PERLEY, of the City of New York, in the United States of America,
Machinist, and a Citizen of the said United States, 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 date at Westminster, the Thirty-first day of July, in the fifteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Charles Perley, Her especial license, full power, sole privi-
lege and authority, that I, the said Charles Perley, my exors, admors, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said Charles Perley, my exors, adñiors, 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 mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man,
my Invention of "CERTAIN NEW AND USEFUL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF CAPSTANS FOR NAUTICAL AND GENERAL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Charles Perley, by an

page_text: 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 saine to be enrolled in Her 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Perley, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):
These improvements in capstans consist,-
Firstly, in a novel arrangement of mechanism for giving rotary motion to
a capstan through the agency of levers; and,
Secondly, in a novel means of protecting the internal parts of the works
from the weather, and affording a convenient means of lubricating them. By
this novel arrangement the working of the capstan is effected by a given
number of workmen with great efficiency and within a smaller space upon the
deck of the vessel than heretofore, and the men, whilst working it, have
firmer foot hold, are not encumbered by chains or ropes, or hatchways, or
other obstructions, which are frequently found to produce great inconvenience
and danger when working capstans of the ordinary kind.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 is a plan of the base of the capstan
with the barrel removed, as at and below the line A, B, of Figs. 2 and 3;
Fig. 2 is a general exterior elevation of the capstan complete, as seen on either
working side; Fig. 3 is a general sectional elevation of the same, shewing the
interior parts in place as through the line C, D, of Fig. 1, and the like letters
and numbers as marks of reference apply to the same parts in each Figure,
wherein E is the deck of a ship, or, may be, a platform on which the capstan
is to be mounted and used. a is a base flanch secured down by bolts 1, and
raised slightly from the deck, and kept from straining the bolts or turning by
lugs let partly into the deck; and this flanch a is made solid in one piece,
with the short base cylinder 6 and arms c to the nave or hub 2, that has a
wrought band 3 put around its upper end, and shrunk on to prevent its
splitting and this hub receives the main spindle d, which is secured by a key
4 (see Fig. 3), to prevent the spindle from working loose. On the side of
the nave, between the arms, are one or more bearing and journal boxes e, and

page_text: Within the upper part of
near the upper end of the
at 5 are journals in the base cylinder b. These carry a shaft 6, on which,
inside the base, is a mitre or bevel pinion f, and on the end, outside the base,
is a disc wheel g formed as a female ratchet wheel with inside teeth 7, 7, cut
nearly at an angle of 45° with the radial line, from the centre to the top of
each tooth. This disc wheel is to be firmly keyed on the shaft 6, as near to
the base cylinder as will allow of its working easily. Outside the wheel'g a
disc is made to rotate on the shaft 6, secured by a pin i, through the nose
of the shaft, and has on the inside face two pin joints 8, 8, each taking a
pawle 9 set in reverse to each other, so that when turned in one direction one
pawle is out of action, and the other takes the teeth 7, and vice versa, as
shewn by dotted lines in Fig. 2, so that whichever way the disc h is turned
by the handspike l, in the eyes k, one pawle is in action to rotate the wheel
and ratchet 9 in the direction in which the lever is moved. Above the
base 6 is the capstan barrel F of hollow metal, having lugs 10 and bolts 11
that connect the barrel to the upper side of the bevel or mitre wheel m which
gears into the pinion f, and is further sustained by lugs 12 that connect the
lower inner bevil of the barrel to the outer and upper edge of the wheel m,
which forms also a journal a round the spindle d.
the barrel F is a hub and arms n forming a journal
spindle d, on which arms n a yoke o is secured by bolts 13, and is fitted with
an inverted seat to take the pivot-formed head p of the spindle d, so as to
support the weight of the barrel F, and a pin 14 passed through the shaft d
keeps the barrel from rising. Over the centre of the pivot p the yoke o
receives an oil cup 9, by which the pivot is lubricated. G is the drum head
or cover of the capstan held on by pins 15 or other convenient means, and
fitted with a hole r to let oil into the cup q. The oil passing through between
the pivot and seat runs down the spindle, lubricating the journals of the barrel
to a ring cup cast in the top of the hub 2, from which the oil runs by grooves
16 (see Fig. 1), in the band 3, to the journals e of the inner ends of the shafts
6, as, when the capstan is in use, these journals cannot be reached by oil by
any other than this or some equivalent contrivance. At H. is an annular
ratchet bed having a descending flanch 17 secured by bolts 18 to the base b.
In the upper face of the bed H are ratchet teeth t having both sides formed
to an angle of about 20°, with a mortice or cell between them to receive the
moving ends of the barrel pawles and the barrel F may be fitted with
whelps if found convenient, and small holes are bored through the flanch H
to allow water to run out of the cells. The upper part I. of the capstan
barrel, is made nearly the same as usual, with holes w, w, to receive the hand-

page_text: spikes or levers that are used in the eyes k, k, so that whenever small power
and quick motion are needed the bandspikesil. may be applied to the drum
head, if there is room to use them; thus combining the common construction
of capstans with convenient means of converting the capstan at once to operate
as a powerful vertical windlass. The action of this arrangement is, that when
.the levers are moved in the direction of the arrow (Fig. 2), the pawles 9, of
the discs h, taking into the teeth 7, turn the discs g and mitre wheels fand 'm,
with the barrel F, all in the same direction, the pawles v taking into the teeth
t, and holding all that the movement has gained. The first effect of this mode
of construction is, that a given number of men at the levers will do a greater
amount of work by these means than they can do by using the common cap-
stan bars, as now used, inserted into the sockets in the. drum head of the
capstan, with the men walking round the capstan pushing at the bars, as it
is a downward pressure instead of a horizontal push... The next effect is, that
this capstan can be put in any place where the men can stand round and
close to it, instead of requiring a circle of many feet in diameter to "walk"
round with the capstan bars, as in the present. mode of working capstans.
They frequently interfere with the conveniences of having hatchways and sky-
lights where wanted; and in addition to this, the seamen work with. more
safety, and consequently more confidence, when alongside this capstan on a
wet slippery deck than when travelling round a capstan with bars fitted in the
ordinary manner; and a great advantage of this mode of construction is, that
the whole of the parts are enclosed and protected from wet, and are not in the
way of ropes or the men; and by my improved mode of constructing the
eyes k on the disc h, the disc is balanced, so as not to hang on one side, and
rub on the shaft 6, so that the capstan barrel can be rotated without much
friction, the disc wheel 9 and pawle disc h rotating with the shaft 6; 'and one,
two, or more similar shafts, pinions, and discs may be used round the capstan,
so that this mode of constructing, applying, arranging, and combining the
parts employed constitutes a new Invention that produces new and useful
results substantially in the manner above set forth and shewn.
I do not claim the Invention of the individual parts irrespective of their
arrangement and adaptation, as herein described; but I'do claim the con-
struction and arrangement of the cylinder, hub, and spindle to receive the
capstan barrel, with its bevel wheel taking into one or more bevél pinions or
shafts, supported and working on the cylinder b; and in combination with
the foregoing parts I claim the application of the double-acting pawles, as
described and shewn.

page_text: I claim also the mode of constructing the disc h with the eyes to receive
the handspikes for the purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Perley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-one.
CHARLES (L.S.)
(L.S.) PERLEY.
Taken and acknowledged by Charles
Perley (party hereto), at New York,
in the United States of America,
this Fourteenth day of November,
One thousand eight hundred and
CHARLES
(L.S.) PERLEY.