America on the Move | Providence steam capstan windlass model

Providence steam capstan windlass model

Catalog #: 57,053, Accession #: 12,778
Currently on display
From the Smithsonian Collection

The American Ship Windlass Company of Providence, Rhode Island, manufactured capstans, windlasses, winches, and related equipment. Shipbuilders installed its products on hundreds of vessels throughout the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. This demonstration model represents the company's top-of-the-line 1883 "New Style" Providence steam capstan windlass, a machine suited for hauling all manner of lines, cables, and chains aboard steamships.

Physical Description

The model is steel and measures 10 1/4" L x 12" W x 10 3/4" H.

Details

Date Made:

1883

Locations:

Rhode Island

Credit:

Gift of the American Ship Windlass Company

History

In 1883, Lieut. Z. L. Tanner, commander of the United States Fish Commission steamer Albatross, asked the American Ship Windlass Company to donate a model windlass to the Smithsonian for display at the London International Fisheries Exhibition. Frank Manton, the company's agent, sent this model in response.

The company's machines incorporated numerous patented components, and the company received 16 new patents between 1881 and 1890. This model demonstrates three patented ideas: a gear lubricating apparatus; the placement of the steam engine next to the windlass apparatus, rather than under the deck below; and the provision of sockets for bars to move the gypsies (chain drums) by hand.

Ref:

Frank S. Manton, assignor to the American Ship Windlass Co., Windlass, U.S. patent no. 237,885, Feb. 15, 1881.

Herman Winter, assignor to the American Ship Windlass Co., Gearing Lubricator, U.S. patent no. 276,987, May 1, 1883.

Herman Winter and Frank S. Manton, assignors to the American Ship Windlass Co., Power-Windlass, U.S. patent no. 276,988, May 1, 1883.

G. Brown Goode, ed. "Descriptive Catalogues of the Collections sent from the United States to the International Fisheries Exhibition, London, 1883," in Bulletin of the United States National Museum no. 27 (Washington, 1884), 724-25.

National Museum of American History accession file no. 12,778.