In the year 1798, a new kind of rope was introduced by Mr. John Curr of Sheffield, who took up a patent for " a method of forming and making a flat rope in tended to be used in drawing coals and other minerals and waters out of mines of any kind." These ropes are formed by connecting two or more small ropes sidewise together by sewing or stitching, lapping or interlacing with thread or small ropes. Mr. Curr found it necessary to make the component ropes al ternately of a right and left hand twist to keep the flat rope in a quiescent state. In the tenth volume of the Repertory of Arts, first series, will be found a description of the machine for stitching the ropes together.
Mr. Balfour, whose exertions in improving the ma nufacture of cordage were indefatigable, took out a third patent in 1799, for an improvement on his for mer methods of making ropes. This patent contains three important improvements: 1. He proposes that any number of yarns not above four, shall be wound on each reel, and he has given a method of winding them so as to cause them to un wind equally. This original idea afterwards led to a still greater improvement.
2. He proposes to spin the hemp when tarred.
3. In order to prevent loss of time when the spin ners are returning, he proposes to have a wheel at both ends of the rope ground, so that in place of re turning when they have reached the end of the rope ground, the spinners spin back again. In this case boys take the threads off the hooks and lay them at their length on one side.
In July 1799, Messrs. W. and E. W. Chapman took out another patent for a method of applying a steam engine to the locomotive machinery in rope grounds, and for other inventions. The first object of these inventions was to improve the method of spinning the yarn by having the fibres of the hemp laid in the yarn in the same manner as the yarns themselves are laid in the strand. The machinery for this purpose con sists only of a spindle divided into two parts, the up per containing apparatus to draw forward the hemp from the spinner with twist sufficient to combine the fibres, which enabled them to employ women, chil dren, and invalids, and to appropriate the rope ground for the purpose of laying ropes. Another object of the patentee was to give to the yarns in the act of their being spun, that counter-twist to that of the strand, which Mr. Huddart in his patent of 1799, had
given them during the operation of making the strand. Mr. Chapman produced this effect either by dividing the spindle, and giving it two separate motions, or by two separate operations, the last of which methods was preferred.
Mr. James Mitchel of Poplar took out a patent in 1799, for " a method of manufacturing cables, haw sers, or strand laid ropes, &c. on a scientific princi ple." This principle consists in slightly twisting a small number of yarns together previously to the for mation of the strand, and • these slightly twisted sets of yarns were united in the strand as so many single yarns. This was a happy improvement on the idea of Mr. Balfour, who overlooked the propriety of giv ing the yarns upon his reels a slight twist.
In the same year, Mr. J. Grimshaw took out a pa tent which embraced four objects. 1. That of split ting the hemp previous to spinning. 2. That of winding up the yarns. 3. That of preparing the yarns for tarring, and 4. That of laying the ropes and the strands. To accomplish the first of these objects, he makes the heads of ,hemp, when spread out, pass through conical fluted rollers of the form of truncated cones, before they come to the rotative heckles, so that by this means the hemp is very equally mixed. In winding up the yarns and preparing them for tar ring, he uses a long cylindrical barrel which contains the whole length to be tarred at once. Before the tarring takes place the yarns are drawn from the cy linder, and coiled away in a revolving tub, so that the mass of yarns are twisted together and prepared to go through the tar kettle, from which they are again coiled away in a tub in a similar manner before they are separated. In forming the strands or ropes, Mr. Grimshaw uses a top or conical block of wood, along the grooves of which the strands converge into a point, where they are combined into a rope. This top fol lows the central motion of the rope machine, and the rope, when formed, is coiled upon a stationary barrel of such a size as will hold the whole rope without any double coils. The same plan is used by Mr. Grim shaw in forming the strands from the yarns. Mr. Grimshaw erected the rope works of Southwick and succeeded Mr. Fothergill, whose patent we have al ready noticed.