AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN WOODEN BLOCKS FOR SHIPS' RIGGING, TACKLES, AND OTHER PURPOSES WHERE PULLIES ARE USED
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
NEWSON BREWER, of Jamaica Row, Bermondsey, in the County of Surrey,
Mast and Block Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters Patent
under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
bearing date at Westminster, the Third day of March now last past, did give
and grant unto me, the said Henry Newson Brewer, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Henry Newson, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Newson Brewer, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
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, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN WOODEN
BLOCKS FOR SHIPS' RIGGING, TACKLES, AND OTHER PURPOSES WHERE PULLIES ARE
USED;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said Henry Newson Brewer, 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 Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Newson Brewer, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in the following description thereof, reference at the same
time being had to the two Figures or Drawings hereunto annexed, that is
to say:-
My improvement consists in changing the direction of the grain of the wood
of which pulley blocks are usually made, with reference to the length of the
block, and the strop or band, whether the said strop or band be made
of rope or iron, or any other material.
Fig. 1 in the Drawing represents a pulley block made of wood in
the manner hitherto practised, namely, with the grain of the wood in the
line or nearly so of the direction of the tensional force when the block
is employed to overcome any resistance. B, B, represents the block with
its strop or band C, C, such as are usually employed on ship board for
raising weights and other purposes. In this Fig. 1, the shading and dotted
lines on the said Figure represent the grain of the wood as lying nearly
parallel with the strop C, C. In Fig. 2, B, B, is the block, and C, C,
the strop or band; but in the said Fig. 2 the grain of the wood is repre-
sented, by the shading and by the dotted lines, as lying in the contrary
direction to that in Fig, 1, at right angles or nearly so with the said strop
or band.
And I do hereby declare that my improvement in wooden pulley blocks of
the description herein-before mentioned consists in making the direction of
the grain of the wood of which pulley blocks may be made to lie transversely,
that is, at right angles or nearly so with the direction of the straining force to
which the said blocks may be exposed, and transversely or at right angles or
nearly so with the strop or bands of the said blocks. It is well known that
the wood of which pulley blocks are usually made requires much more force to
break it across the grain than is required to split it in the direction of its grain,"
and every mariner knows how frequently wooden pulley blocks are split when
exposed to great strains, in which the pin or axle on which the sheaves or
pulleys turn operates as a wedge to split the block through the middle, when
such blocks, as they have hitherto been made, having the grain of the wood'
lying in the direction of the straining force, and also how frequently such
blocks are broken and rendered useless by having portions of their lips or
cheeks broken off by falls or blows. But by the introduction of my improve-
ment a wooden pulley block is made capable of bearing a greater weight or
strain and a more violent, blow without breaking than any block made of

page_text: the same material having the grain of the wood lying parallel with the
straining force.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Newson Brewer, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of September, in the year of our
⚫ Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.