Back row (from left): Harken, Lewmar, Meissner, LVJ. Front row (from left): Andersen, Antal, Arco-Hutton.

The origin of the magnificent machine called a winch is obscure. It ranks almost as high as the lever, which can provide unlimited mechanical advantage and is probably the greatest of man’s tools.

The historians of engineering consider the six basic machines to be the screw, the wheel, the wedge, the lever, the inclined plane, and the pulley. A winch combines several of them in a compact package.

Egyptians, who were keen on pyramids, may have used windlasses, horizontal barrels (or logs), to wind up lines and drag stones on rollers up their inclined planes. Much later, someone tired of killing slaves when they lost their grip on the cranks…