On the comparative Strength of Chain Cables. 4b7 



destroying the right to the other two; and therefore his Lord- 

 ship would reserve the point of law on this head, if defendants 

 insisted on entering into any other question than the infringement 

 complained of, should the jury not find for the plaintiff upon this 

 point. It was finally so settled; the defendants insisting on in- 

 quiring into the noveltv of plaintiff's mode of manufacturing 

 ships' anchors. They admitted the novelty of the windlass. 



On the part of the plaintiff, the utility of the chain cable was 

 proved by Captain Jolniston, the acting manager of the house of 

 Messrs. IBuckles and Co. eminent ship-owners in the city, who 

 stated, that all the ships belonging to their house were furnished 

 with the patent chain-cables and anchors ; that the hempen ca- 

 bles used frequently to give way, the iron ones never; and that 

 in a voyage to the West Indies their ships used to break on an 

 average two of the common anchors every voyage — sometimes 

 three ; but that they have never yet broken one of tlie patent 

 anchors. The actual infringement of the patent was then proved 

 by a gentleman who bought a chain cable from defendants, 

 impressed or marked with the name of Hawks on every one of 

 the links, a piece of which was exliibited to the Jury. 



Dr. Gregory and Mr. Barlow (of the Royal Military Academy, 

 Woolwich), Mr. Brunei and Mr. Donkin (both eminent engi- 

 neers), gave evidence to the perspicuity of the specification, and 

 the scientific merits of the chain-cable and anchor. The im- 

 provements in the former they stated to be, the placing the whole 

 material of the links in the same sectional plane, the introducing 

 a broad-ended stay into each link to prevent the sides from col- 

 lapsing when exposed to a strain ; the making the ends of this 

 stay remain in their place by lapping upon and surrounding a 

 considerable portion of the opposite curved parts of the opposite 

 sides of the link, and the making those parts of each link which 

 interpose between the central stay and the neighbouring inter- 

 posed links at each end, as straight as possible, that they might 

 not be solicited to change their figure when exposed to a strain— 

 every change of the figure being apt to injure the fibre of the 

 iron : and these improvements were pointed out as being manifest 

 and self-evident, by comparing the patent chain-cable with the 

 chain-cables before in use, which were manufactured by Captain 

 Brown. — In these cables the links had stays, but instead of being 

 broad-ended, they were sharp-pointed ; and instead of lapping 

 round and embracing the opposite inner sides of the link, were 

 secured in the links by holes punched in these to receive the 

 pointed ends of the pins or stays — a mode of combining them 

 that tended to weaken the link and endanger its rupture, by 

 breaking it over the points of the stay as fulcrums, when expose d 

 to a strain ; and besides, instead of presenting the substance of 



Vol. 55. No, 3G6. June 1820. U u ihc 



