(n.) 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.
Example Sentences:
(1) Rotation of a permanent pacemaker can result in a capstan effect, and the lead is drawn out of the right ventricle.
(2) The same holds for pulley- and capstan-form toric surfaces.
Handspike
Definition:
(n.) A bar or lever, generally of wood, used in a windlass or capstan, for heaving anchor, and, in modified forms, for various purposes.
Example Sentences:
(1) Hill, 52, was sentenced to death for killing a fellow prisoner, Joseph Handspike, in 1990.
(2) In 1990 he was already serving a life sentence for murdering his girlfriend when he killed fellow inmate John Handspike in a Georgia prison, beating him to death with a nail-studded board.
(3) The incident was impulsive – he didn't intend to kill Mr Handspike," Kammer said.
(4) At the time he bludgeoned Handspike to death, he was being held in a shared prison dormitory and was coming under physical and sexual harassment from other inmates.
(5) Richard Handspike, nephew of Joseph Handspike, speaking for the family, said that the death penalty should not have been imposed.