Portsmouth Block Mills in 1808. The machines were of 22 types and totalled 45. They were driven by two 30 hp (22.4 kW) steam engines. The machines included circular saws, pin turning machines and morticing machines. With these machines 10 men could produce as many blocks as 110 skilled craftsmen. A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves. The process of making the shells
Hoist (device) Hoist (device) A hoist is a device used for lifting or lowering a load by means of a drum or lift-wheel around which rope or chain wraps. It may be manually operated, electrically or pneumatically driven and may use chain, fiber or wire rope as its lifting medium. The most familiar form is an elevator, the car of which is raised and lowered by a hoist mechanism. Most hoists couple to their loads using a lifting hook. The basic hoist has two important characteristics to define it: Lifting medium and power type. The lifting medium is either wire rope, wrapped