WINDLASS. The Winch and Axle, the TVindlass by which on board of small ships the anchors are weighed, and even the Capstan, are so many different forms of the same machine. In the last two of these machines the power of men is applied at the extremi ties of handspokes or levers inserted at their opposite extremities in holes made in the axle or barrel to receive them. In the capstan, the axis of the barrel being vertical, the hand spokes are in horizontal positions, and the men exert a continuous pressure against them while walking round.
In the machine to which the name of wind lass is more particularly applied, the barrel is a horizontal cylinder. In order to turn the cylinder on its axis the men mounting on it plant their handspokes vertically in a series' of holes formed at intervals for the purpose ; then grasping them as high as they can reach, they pull towards themselves : when the cylinder is turned nearly a quarter round, the handspokes being almost in horizontal positions, the men throwupon them the whole weight of their bodies, and by the weight the cylinder is still further turned. After this the handspokes are drawn out and planted in other holes, which now are in vertical post ties, and the like exertions of muscular force and pressure are repeated till the anchor is weighed or the weight raised. The machine
permits the power of men to be applied, in one position of the handspokes, in the most advantageous manner ; and in this respect it may be considered superior to the cap stan.
The vertical windlass, or capstan, was originally a short cylindrical column turning on its axis by means of levers or bars of con siderable length which passed quite through the perforations made to receive them at the top of the column ; the pivot or axle upon which it turned, entered, as at present, into the floor or deck upon which the machine was placed. It appears to have been introduced into the British navy_ in the time of Queen 'Elizabeth. It is now generally made in the form of a frustum of a cone, or rather the body is cylindrical, and about it, at equal intervals, are ribs or buttresses which, pro jecting from the cylinder less at top than at bottom, give to the part about which the rope turns It pyramidal figure. Both the 'windlass and the capstan are furnished with catches, or Faulk, each consisting of an arm of metal turning on a pivot, acid as the barrel revolves falling into notches formed in a ring of wood or metal placed round one end of the barrel.