AN APPA- RATUS FOR CHECKING OR STOPPING CHAIN CABLES, WHICH APPARATUS MAY BE APPLIED TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1831

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BATTEN, of Rochester, in the County of Kent, Gentleman, 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 July, in the second year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Batten, His especial licence that I, the said William Batten, my
exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Batten,
my exors, admors, 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 expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN APPA-
RATUS FOR CHECKING OR STOPPING CHAIN CABLES, WHICH APPARATUS MAY BE APPLIED
TO OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said William Batten, 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 enrolled 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
William Batten, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention

page_text: to consist in a double or compound lever, fitted with pullies, and attached to
the under side of one of the angles of what is commonly called a ship's
hatchway, for the purpose of forcibly nipping, and by that means checking,
or, if sufficient force be applied, stopping chain cables when in the act of what
seamen call running or paying out.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said William Batten,
do hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention is to be performed
by the following description thereof, reference being had to the Drawing
annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon (that is to say) :-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a plan of my said apparatus in the position it would assume
when the levers are not acted upon; it is here supposed to be fastened to the
under side of one corner of a ship's hatchway, and while in this position the
chain cable may be supposed to be running or passing out. A, B, C, is the
angle formed by two sides of the hatchway; D is an iron plate to which the
levers are fixed, and in the angle at E is a raised boss or shoulder, shown in
section at Figure 2, and is made in one solid piece with the plate D, or
separate, as shewn by the dotted lines S, T, V; the section is supposed to be
taken in the direction of the line F, G, Figure 1, and the object of this boss
is to form a shoulder for the link to catch against when the nip takes place.
H is a lever, turning on a fulcrum at I, and furnished with a pulley at J; this
is the lever which acts directly on the chain, which is represented at K, and
which lever I therefore call the check lever. L is a second lever, turning on a
fulcrum at M, furnished at one end with a pulley N and at the other with an
excentric O; this excentric it will be seen acts upon the short arm P of the
check lever H, thus giving the power of a compound lever to act upon the
chain; the levers are put in action by a small tackle fall rove through the
pulleys at the ends of the levers, as here represented, and belayed when
the chain is stopped to any cleat conveniently placed below the batchways for
that purpose. I think it better to fasten the fast end of the fall to a swivel
eye, as shown at R, and a small rope such as Q may be attached to an eye at
the end of the lever L to pull open the nip and release the chain if
necessary.
Figure 3 is a plan of the same apparatus when the force is applied to nip
or stop the chain, and this being merely the representation of another position
of the same apparatus, while the same letters have been used to denote similar
parts in all the Figures, I do not think any further explanation of this par-
ticular Figure is necessary. I have colored the levers red and green merely

page_text: to make the Figure more clear, but it should be stated that they are to be
made of wrought iron.
Now, whereas it is evident that this same apparatus may be applied to the
stopping of chain sheets or chain haulyards, or in most situations where chain
running rigging is substituted for rope. And whereas I claim as my Invention
the apparatus herein-before described, (that is to say,) the two levers H and
L, acting upon each other by means of the excentric O, and the pullies J, N,
forming a part of the said levers, and over which the tackle fall passes. And
such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely
new, and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His said Dominion of
Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be my
Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Speci-
fication doth comply in all respects fully and without reserve or disguise
with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent
contained, wherefore I hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege
to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Batten, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.