Model of a Cart for Rope Making

Entry

Model of a forming machine, consisting of a wooden frame with gearwork, on four wheels.

The large double wheel of the gearwork, set in longitudinal direction, has a large number of holes in concentric circles; short arms connecting the holes of one wheel with the corresponding hole in the other form the bearing surface for the drive rope. The cart has cranks driving the gearwork. Depending on the type and size of the rope being manufactured, the three whirls at the front of the cart can be made to turn a given number of revolutions per foot travelled by the forming machine. The wheels are made from brass; the front wheels are steered with a crank, acting via a worm screw on a toothed quadrant.

The identification of the model¹ is based on elimination and therefore remains uncertain. It is probably the ‘travelling machine’ mentioned in 1823 by the Dutch Consul General in London, William May Jr (1760-1824), in his correspondence with his brother Job Seaburne May (1765-1827), then Director of the Navy dockyard in Rotterdam.² It was used for making patent rope, of which all the strands were laid with the same tension. The Chatham dockyard obtained forming machines of this type in 1811 from Henry Maudslay, but their designer is unknown.