NEWLY-INVENTED IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MASTS, YARDS, SAILS, AND RIGGING OF SHIPS AND SHALLER VESSELS, AND IN THE TACKLE USED FOR WORKING OR NAVIGATING THE SAME
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
LANE HIGGINS, of Oxford Street, in the County' of Middlesex, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Seventh day of July last, in the fifth year of His reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said John Lane Higgins, my exors, admors,
and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said John Lane Higgins, my exors, admors, and assigns, during the
term of fourteen years, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland called England, His Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my "NEWLY-INVENTED IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE
MASTS, YARDS, SAILS, AND RIGGING OF SHIPS AND SHALLER VESSELS, AND IN THE
TACKLE USED FOR WORKING OR NAVIGATING THE SAME;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said John Lane Higgins,
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 performed, to be enrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
immediately 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Lane Higgins, do hereby describe the nature of my said Invention, and
declare that the Plan thereof hereunto annexed is composed of the following
particulars (that is to say) :-
Figure 1 represents a sail, the tack, head, and peak being an arc or equi-
distant from the after end of the boom A. The sail is extended on a gaft or
yard B; the fore end having a roller travels up and down a rope or yard C.
One end of the rope or yard C is attached to the mast head, and the other end
to the fore end of the boom. The fore part of the sail is confined to the rope
or yard C by cringles or lacing, which slide up and down according as the sail 1
is to be set, reefed, or furled. When it is necessary to reef the sail, the main
haliard being lowered, the sail is drawn down the yard C, and reefed, as
shown by the dotted lines at Figure 1. The advantages of this mode of reef-
ing are, that no weigh is lost during the operation of reefing, as the sail con-
tinues to set fair, the weight of the reef is in the middle of the vessel, leaving 1
the outer end of the boom with a clear leech, and the reefs can be taken in
and let out much quicker and safer than by the present mode of reefing. The
rope B, at Figure 3, extended from the peak to the boom end, is for the pur-
pose of keeping the leech of the sail flat.
full
Figure 2 represents double masts or shears, between which I propose that
the sail is to be hoisted. A sail constructed as heretofore described may be
worked with much greater facility than the sails now in use; one third or more
of the sail being on the weather side of the vessel, the stress of the boom on
the mast and rigging is very much relieved, and a vessel thus rigged may jibe,
all standing with perfect safety. For vessels of moderate size, I propose that
the bowsprit shall be attached to the fore end of the boom, as at Figuro 3,
by which the jib will draw on the same plain as the main sail, and act with
power before the wind, and the weight of the bowsprit will always be on
the weather side of the vessel; or the bowsprit may be worked by a swivel on
a short boom at the stern of the vessel, the after end working on a traverse
on the deck by tackles, which will bring the jib to act in any direction as
required. See Figure 4. If double masts or shears are objected to, then I
propose that the boom shall project before the mast, in order that the foro snil
and main sail may both work on the boom, Figure 5. I propose that the
boom shall be made double, as at Figure 6, working on each side of the mast, s
and hooped at each end. A boom thus constructed will be much stronger
and not heavier than the single boom now in use. D, at Figure 3, is a top-
sail proposed to be substituted for the present gaft topsail. The yard on

page_text: which the sail is bent is slung at the middle, and hoisted by a haliard through
a block at the mast head. A small rope at each end of the yard keeps it
perpendicular, and by letting go one rope, and hauling on the other, the sail
is always kept on the weather side of the gaft; for the purpose of conducting
the wind into the main sail. The gaft topsail now in use cannot be set with-
out a man going aloft to lace it to the topmast; nor can it be taken in
without a man going aloft to unlace it, which occupies the time of two or
more men, when a sudden squall or, accident may require the assistance of all
hands at other quarters. The topsail now proposed can be set or taken in
without any one going aloft, and requires only half the length of topmast
now used to set a sail of the same size. For vessels with two masts I pro-
pose that the fore and main sheets shall be all one rope, the middle of the
rope being passed round a wheel in the middle of the vessel. As the fore.
sail and main sail will have nearly an equal draft, one or two men at the
wheel will easily bring either sail to windward as the other is let down to
leeward, and be of great service in tacking or veering the vessel. For ships I
propose that the fore and mizen sheets shall be thus connected. For ships
Ι propose that the foot of the jib shall be made fast to each end of the jib-
boom, as at Figure 7, the jibboom being attached to the end of the bowsprit
by a swivel fixed on the boom at about three fifths from the after end by
tackles on the after end of the boom. The jib may be brought to act on the
weather or lee side, as circumstances may require, and greatly facilitate the
working of the ship. In order to work the jib in this manner, it will be
necessary to have the bowsprit longer beyond the present station of the fore-
stay, or a short boom rigged out at the end of the bowsprit to receive the
swivel of the jibboom. The two topmast stays must be kept apart by a cross-
piece at the end of the bowsprit, and continue down to the cutwater like bob-
stays, the jibboom being made double, as at Figure 6, and having a foot rope
rigged along it for the jib traveller.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Lane Higgins, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twenty-third day of December, in the fifth
year of the reign of His present Majesty George the Fourth, by the
grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
King, Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1824, the aforesaid John Lane Higgins came before
our said Lord the King in His 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.
Inrolled the Twenty-third day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.