AN IMPROVED METHOD OF REGISTERING OR FORMING THE STRANDS IN THE MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING OF CORDAGE
Year: 1799

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Joseph
HUDDART, of Islington, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twentieth day of August, in the thirty-ninth year of His reign, did
give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Huddart, my executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that..I, the said Joseph Huddart, my executors, administrators,' and assigns,
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend my Invention therein mentioned, to wit, "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF REGISTERING OR FORMING THE STRANDS IN THE MACHINERY FOR
MANUFACTURING OF CORDAGE," within that part of Great Britain called England,
the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner
as to me, the said Joseph Huddart, my executors, administrators, or assigns,
should seem meet, to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers,
privileges, and advantages therein granted or mentioned to be granted unto me,
the said Joseph Huddart, my executors, admors, and assigns, for and during
and until the full.end and term of fourteen years therein expressed, in which said
Letters Patent there is (among other things) contained a proviso, that if I, the
said Joseph Huddart, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of my said Invention, and in, what manner the same was to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in the High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters

page_text: Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should
utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the said recited Letters
l'atent, reference being thereunto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Huddart, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, as follows,
that is to say:
My method (for which I have already obtained His Majesty's Letters
Patent) of registering or forming the strands of cordage, in order to acquire an
additional degree of strength, by giving the length of the yarns which compose
the strands a certain ratio, according to the angle, and hardness, or compres-
sion; the rope is intended to be laid with, and thereby acquiring a more equal
distribution of the strain upon the yarns than ropes made in the common
way, consists of the following principles:-
First, by keeping the yarns separate from each other, and drawing them from
bobbins, which revolve to keep up the twist whilst the strand is forming.
Secondly, by passing through a register, which divides them by circular
shells of holes, the number in each shell being agreeable to the distance from
the centre of the strand and angle the yarns make, with a line parallel to it,
and gives them a proper position to enter.
Thirdly, a cylindrical tube, which compresses the strand and maintains a
cylindrical figure to its surface.
Fourthly, by a guage, to determine the angle which the yarns in the outside
shall make, with a line parallel to the centre of the strand when registering,
and according to the angle made by the yarns in this shell, the lengths of all the
yarns in the strand will be determined.
Lastly, by hardening up the strand, and thereby increasing the angle in tho
outside shell, which compensates for the stretching of the yarns and compres-
sion of the strand.
If these principles are duly attended to, every yarn in the strand will bear
a strain when at the point of breaking, and when laid into a rope it will
acquire additional strength.
For a description of these principles and the method of performing them (of
which I am the first Inventor) I refer to the Specification of the Patent
granted me, and-dated the-Twenty-fifth of April, One-thousand seven hundred
and ninety-three, and shall now proceed to describe my further improvements
(for which the Letters Patent above recited are granted), which consist in the
invention of a machine that may be worked by men, or any other power, and
by means of which the registering may be carried on more commodiously. It

page_text: is illustrated by the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1st and 2d, which have the
same letters of reference.
The register and tube, Fig. 1st, must, instead of being drawn along the
yarns, be fixed at any convenient distance from the bobbins; the machine,
the frame of which may be of wood or iron, revolves round its axis upon
the gudgeons at A. and B, that gudgeon next the register at A (being
perforated to receive the strand from the register tube a, described in my
former Patent), and works in the centre of a fixed or sun wheel A, which, by
the machine revolving, gives motion to the planet wheel C, Fig. 1st and 2ª,
in the machine, and the machine and the bevel pinion upon its axis D,
which carries the bevel wheel E, and upon its axis the spur wheel F; this
wheel F carries the wheel G, and upon its axis the wheel P, and the whirl H,
which has a groove to receive the strand from the perforated gudgeon, and
after passing about two-thirds round this whirl to wind in like manner upon
the whirl I of, the same diameter, connected by equal wheels P and Q, upon
their axes, to give equal motion to the whirls, so that the friction of the strand
in the grooves of the whirls may not suffer it to slide over them (or the strand
may wind over more whirls to increase the friction if necessary) in its passing
to the reel K, which has a motion communicated to it by a band passing round
L, a whirl, upon the axis of a crank applied to one end of the reel, and M, a
whirl, upon the axis of one of the former whirls I; this band must be suffi-
ciently tight to give the reel a power to prevent the strand from sliding round
the whirls H and I, which it passes over, and yet so easy as to allow itself to
slide round the whirls L or M, when the reel, by the increase of its diameter
from the strand being wound upon it, would draw more than the whirls H and
I give, which are to regulate the quantity or length of strand, and for the
adjustment of which a clip that moves upon the centre N, with friction
wheels o, o, is provided to be tightened by a screw pins or otherwise (which to
prevent confusion is not represented in the Drawing) to draw the legs
N, O, N, O, nearer together. In order to vary the angle or degree of twist,
and form strands of different sizes by the same machine, the wheels F and G,
which works in each other, are provided in pairs (the sum of the two radii of
each pair being equal), which vary in numbers one or more teeth in each
wheel, and may be extended to as great a variety as necessary by shifting those
pairs and applying them to either axis. This difference in number will
increase or diminish the ratio between the revolutions of the machine and that
of the whirls, which determines the length of strand to be drawn each revolu
tion. Now, the length of one turn and the circumference of the strand being
given, which forms a right-angled triangle, the triangle is given, and therefore

page_text: the angle of registering found which may be compared with the register
gauge; or the ratio may be varied by different sets of the whirls I and I
'applied to their axis, each set of different diameters from another set. Or if
the groove
in the whirls is so formed that the width of the outer part k, h,
Fig. 3rd, is equal to the diameter of the largest-strand intended to be registereil
on the machine, and the sides of the groove by right lines meeting at the axis
or centre of the whirl at 1, the machine will register all strands at the same
angle when the same shifting wheels are applied. The smaller strand mi,
passing round that part of the whirl at the distance l, m, from the centre, will
draw a less length of strand in the same ratio to the circumference as the
larger strand 'n to its distance from the centre n, 1, and circumference, there-
fore the angles of registering will be equal in various sized strands registered
by the machine. It is necessary to have a traverse to pass the strand more
regularly round the reel, and particularly to ascertain the turns and fraction
of a turn, if any, that the strand makes in winding from one end of the reel to
the other, in order to acquire the length of strand registered. This may be
performed various ways-now in practice, by communicating the motion from the
axis of the crank which carries the reel, by worms or tooth and pinion to a
heart and lever, or otherwise to guide the strand over; but my Invention' is by
'the application of a cylinder R, which makes half à revolution, while the strand
is winding from one end to the other of the reel, and by its spiral ridge or
groove upon its surface, which mooves the lever a, b, upon the cylinder, by
'friction wheels or pin at the under side of the lever or otherwise, the strand
passing between the rollers x and y at the end of the lever; and returns the
'strand again to the end of the reel where it begun, while the cylinder moves
'through the other half of its revolution, which is communicated by wheels and
'pinions from the axis of the crank or reel to the cylinder. In this Drawing,
'Fig. 1st and 2, where' c represents the wheel upon the axis of the lever, and
'carries d with the pinion e, and the pinion e carries the wheelf and pinion g,
'which carries the wheel hand pinion i; this pinion i carries the wheel -k,
fixed upon the.axis of the cylinder R, which by two pinions in it may give
motion to an index to shew the number of shells of strand wound upon the
wheel, and ascertain the length of the strand. The wheel C and D, or any
other pair, may be made to shift and vary the revolution of the cylinder,
according to the size of the strand;-as-before-described; and having registered
the required length upon this reel, it may be shifted by drawing the pin S
(which is secured by a forelock or otherwise); the strands are then to be run
upon the laying ground and hardened up by the looks to the required angle, as
described in my former Patent, and then topped or laid into a rope in the

page_text: common way. I must remark, that the tube A of the register, instead of being
in two parts to compress the strand, may be of solid metal, without much injury
to the performance, as from the compressibility of the strand and the eveness
of size, when composed of many yarns, it will pass the tube very uniformly;
and also, if the strands are smaller than the hole in the perforated gudgeon at
A, which will generally be the case, it will be necessary to have friction wheels
between the machine and the tube x, to confine the strand in the axis of the
tube, continued to prevent any vibratory motion in the strand, which will render
a long tube necessary, as the ratio of the yarns is given at the mouth on first
entering the tube, and its length is only to preserve the direction of the strand.
The fore board of the register in Fig 1 may be dispensed with if the yarns
from the bobbings come to the register at a sufficient distance to keep them
from being entangled by the fibres, which it was intended to prevent, and if a
sufficient number of turns is put in the yarns before winding, there will not be
any necessity for keeping up the twist in registering, if performed by this
machine, when the distance is short between the bobbins and register. The
bobbins may be run either perpendicularly or horizontally, and the machine
may also revolve with its axis parallel or perpendicular to the horizon, as the
situation may require.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Huddart, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine.