Windlass vs Capstan - What's the difference?
windlass | capstan |
Any of various forms of winch, in which a rope or cable is wound around a cylinder, used for lifting heavy weights
A winding and circuitous way; a roundabout course.
* 1599 , , Ham II. i. 65:
An apparatus resembling a winch or windlass, for bending the bow of an arblast, or crossbow.
To raise with, or as if with, a windlass; to use a windlass.
To take a roundabout course; to work warily or by indirect means.
(nautical) A vertical cleated drum or cylinder, revolving on an upright spindle, and surmounted by a drumhead with sockets for bars or levers. It is much used, especially on shipboard, for moving or raising heavy weights or exerting great power by traction upon a rope or cable, passing around the drum. It is operated either by steam power or by a number of men walking around the capstan, each pushing on the end of a lever fixed in its socket.
*
, title=Vagabonding Under Sail
, publisher=Hastings House (New York)
, page=211
, passage=We toiled over the capstan , and late in the afternoon slipped out of the harbour.}}
*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
, title= (electronics) A rotating spindle used to move recording tape through the mechanism of a tape recorder.
As nouns the difference between windlass and capstan
is that windlass is any of various forms of winch, in which a rope or cable is wound around a cylinder, used for lifting heavy weights while capstan is a vertical cleated drum or cylinder, revolving on an upright spindle, and surmounted by a drumhead with sockets for bars or levers. It is much used, especially on shipboard, for moving or raising heavy weights or exerting great power by traction upon a rope or cable, passing around the drum. It is operated either by steam power or by a number of men walking around the capstan, each pushing on the end of a lever fixed in its socket.As a verb windlass
is to raise with, or as if with, a windlass; to use a windlass.windlass
English
(wikipedia windlass)Noun
(es)- With windlasses and with assays of bias, / By indirections find directions out.
- (Shakespeare)
Verb
- (The Century)
- (Hammond)
capstan
English
(Webster 1913)Noun
(en noun)Geothermal Energy, volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.}}