Come-A-Long

A come-a-long (comealong, come-along, power puller) is a hand operated winch with a ratchet used to pull objects. The drum may be wrapped with wire rope, nylon webbing, or rope.

Come-a-longs are not rated for overhead lifting, but a similar looking device called a ratchet lever hoist is used this way.

The original tool of this type was developed by Abraham Maasdam of Deep Creek, Colorado about 1919, and later commercialized by his son, Felber Maasdam, about 1946. It has been copied by many manufacturers in recent decades. A similar heavy duty unit with a combination chain and cable became available in 1935 that was used by railroads, but lacked the success of the cable-only type units.

A similar tool to a come-along is a cable puller which does not have a drum and ratchet but directly grips the cable allowing unlimited lengths of wire rope to be used.

References

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 load is attached to the hoist by means of a lifting hook.

Types of hoist

The basic hoist has two important characteristics to define it: Lifting medium and power type. The lifting medium is either wire rope, wrapped around a drum, or load-chain, raised by a pulley with a special profile to engage the chain. The power can be provided by different means. Common means are hydraulics, electrical and air driven motors. Both the wire rope hoist and chain hoist have been in common use since the 1800s, however mass production of an electric hoist did not start until the early 1900s and was first adapted by Germany. A hoist can be built as one integral-package unit, designed for cost-effective purchasing and moderate use, or it can be built as a built-up custom unit, designed for durability and performance. The built-up hoist will be much more expensive, but will also be easier to repair and more durable. Package units were once regarded as being designed for light to moderate usage, but since the 60s this has changed. Built-up units are designed for heavy to severe service, but over the years that market has decreased in size since the advent of the more durable packaged hoist. A machine shop or fabricating shop will use an integral-package hoist, while a Steel Mill or NASA would use a built-up unit to meet durability, performance, and repairability requirements. NASA has also seen a change in the use of package hoists. The NASA Astronaut training pool, for example, utilizes cranes with packaged hoists.