CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN RIGGING FOR SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
LIDWELL HEATHORN, of Change Alley, Cornhill, in the City of London, Ship
Owner, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of November, in the third year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Joseph Lidwell Heathorn, His especial licence, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Joseph Lidwell Heathorn, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Lidwell
Heathorn, my executors, administrators, 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, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN RIGGING FOR SHIPS
AND OTHER VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
that I, the said Joseph Lidwell Heathorn, shall cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be inrolled in His said 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
Joseph Lidwell Heathorn, do hereby declare that the nature of my said

page_text: Invention, and in what manner the same is, to be performed, is particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thercon (that is to say) :-
My improvements in rigging for ships and other vessels consist in adapting
elastic appendages to chains employed for the shrouds or standing rigging in
place of ropes. These elastic appendages may be variously constructed. They
may be made of metallic or wooden springs or of any other elastic material,
and are to be applied in any convenient way to the standing rigging, for the
purpose of relieving the chains from sudden strain or pressure, by affording a
certain degree of elasticity, and yet retaining the rigging with a sufficient
degree of tension. The way in which I propose to apply these elastic
appendages, and the manner of constructing them, are exhibited in the
accompanying Drawing.
Figures 1 and 2 represent portions of the side of a vessel with standing
.chain shrouds, & .shew the manner of applying the springs, which are of
several kinds. Those of Figure 1 are metallic springs of different con-
structions. Those of Figure 2 are made of wood.
. Figure 3 and 4 are different views of a spring which contracts, shewn
adapted to the rigging at a, a, a, in Figure 1. Figures 5 and 6 represent
another mode. of applying a contracting spring, shewn adapted at b, b, in
Figure 1 and Figure. 7, an expanding spring shewn at c, c, in Figure 1.
The mode of making these springs is so well known that it will be un-
necessary.to describe them more minutely, and the manner in which they are
attached to the shrouds will be obvious from the Drawing, Figure 1.
Figure 8 represents a wooden spring formed by two rails connected by a
clamp round the middle.. These are the kind of springs adapted to the
shrouds in Figure 2. It is only necessary to add, that in order to prevent
accidents from the springs breaking, it would be desirable to allow a slack part
of the chain to be continued as a preventor.
I do not confine myself to these particular constructions of springs, nor to
the precise way in which they are represented as. attached to the shrouds, but
claim every construction of spring, and every mode of adapting them, which
may be applicable to the purpose of affording elasticity to chain rigging of
ships or other vessels.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Lidwell Heathorn, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-three.
JOSEPH LIDWELL (L.s.) HEATHORN.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of May, in the
third year of the reign of His present Majesty King William the Fourth, the
said Joseph Lidwell Heathorn came before our said Lord the King in His
Chancery, and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every
thing therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also
the Instrument aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute
made in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the
Third
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of May, One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-three.