A NEW OR IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF WINCH."
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Edington at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 16th July 1878.
THOMAS EDINGTON, of Lumsdaine, in the County of Berwick, North Britain. "A
NEW OR IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF WINCH."
This Invention relates to and consists generally in a most simple and portable
form and construction of hauling hand winch specially suitable in its smaller sizes
for use on board of ships or fishing boats, and for other purposes where ropes,
tackle, and nets have to be hauled in, or it might be paid out by such winches.
And the nature and novelty of the Invention or construction of this winch
consist of a portable vertical standard frame secured by and revolving on a circular
flange below, to and on a circular plate screwed to the boat or other suitable
foundation, the upper part of the standard being made double or of an open fork-
shape, with bearing recesses fitted with suitable brass or other bearing bushes, for
carrying the working axles of the driving crank handle and shaft of the main
hauling pulley with tightening screws and india-rubber or other pressing springs
over the bushes of the latter shaft, which slide in their recesses in the cheeks
of the standard, which are tied together by a cross stay at their extreme top ends.
The upper driving winch handle shaft is fitted with a star or recessed pinion,
secured on it between the cheeks close over a large star wheel secured below it on
the shaft of the hauling or V shaped grooved pulley, which is keyed on the over-
hanging end of this shaft on the opposite side of the frame to that of the winch
handle on the upper shaft, which drives the lower shaft by a short endless chain
passed over their respective star wheels before-mentioned, tightened up as desired
by the screws and india-rubber or other springs.
The projecting teeth of the large star wheel are preferreed to be made of
malleable iron, and screwed or rivetted into a portable malleable iron ring, secured
on the outer web of the star wheel, for easy removal and repair when a tooth
breaks, the ring being fitted so tight as to drive by stiff friction, and yet yield or
slip back in "surging" to prevent the breaking of the chain, gearing, or the rope,
when the strain thereon came to be more than it could safely bear.
Price 2dl

page_text: Each link of the chain is preferred to be of an open U shape, the open end of
which being fixed to the close end of the other by eyes turned round it while hot,
so that the chain when finished works flat on the periphery of the star wheels, with
a tooth acting within and on the close or solid end of each link, but an ordinary
form of link chain might be used with the links of equal length or pitch, so that
every alternate link would work on a projecting tooth, with recesses in the
periphery of the wheels for the intermediate edge links.
The bauling V shaped grooved pulley is preferred to be formed in a new or
improved manner by annular portable rings screwed or otherwise secured to the
rim of the wheel, and curved on their inner or adjacent sides to the round open
V shape at some little distance apart, for the easy admission and leading-off of the
rope at the outer periphery, and for the gripping of it firmly within the lower or
inner part of the groove, the outer ring being fixed and adjusted by screws and jam
nuts to suit various sizes of ropes, while the inner fixed ring is made considerably
larger in diameter to prevent the rope from slipping off the pulley, these rings
being made of brass when the machine is to be used for the hauling of ropes and
nets at sea, or where subject to get wet and liable to corrode.
The inner parts of the rings are preferred to be formed with smooth or rounded
radial grooves or corrugations to grip the ropes, and when adjusted are fitted with
a narrow ring screwed up between them at the bottom of the groove, close to the
screws, the nuts of which outside may be covered in by a disc of wood, to prevent
them catching on the rope or net being hauled in.
A loose holding pawl is fitted to oscillate on the centre of the short stay, between
the upper ends of the side cheeks, so as to take into the recesses of the upper star
wheel on either side to prevent the backward turning of the gearing, or running
out of the rope or net when desired, as when the hauling or winding is suspended.
A small reversing U shaped pulley is mounted on a fixed lateral stud projecting
from the top of the standard close over the hauling pulley, so that the rope or edge
of the net to be hauled is passed one-half turn round the lower large hauling pulley,
and then over one side and top of the upper guide pulley, from which it is led off
by hand, thus holding the rope sufficiently tight in the groove of the hauling pulley,
to draw in the rope with great power, and yet let it pass freely off to the delivery
guide pulley, all in a more efficient and simple manner than by any of the portable
hauling winches heretofore in use.
For the free throwing off and on of the ropes over their hauling and guide
pulleys, these are overhung on the outer end of their axles on one side of the frame,
which can as explained turn round to any angle to suit the direction of the hauling
required, when it may be fixed in that position by a pinching screw at the
swivelling base.
And for the heavier class of this improved construction of hauling winch, the
upper shaft might be driven by motive power when desired, as by a crank and
steam cylinder and connecting rod carried on the frame or standard, whether made
to swivel or not.