Safety winch with disengageable drive

A combined winch and safety device comprising:

• a housing having a drum and drum shaft rotatably mounted within said housing;
• a rope adapted to be wound around said drum and having one end thereof secured to said drum, the other end of said rope being adapted to be connected to a worker;
• spiral spring means connected between said drum and said housing so that during unwinding of the rope and therefore rotation of said shaft of said drum, said spiral spring means is tensioned and while during winding of the rope and therefore rotation of said shaft of said drum in an opposite direction, said spring means is relaxed;
• centrifugal brake means within said housing for preventing rapid unwinding of said rope from said drum;
• a speed changing transmission carried by said housing;
• a manually operable drive member carried by said housing for driving at least one member of said transmission, and
• a clutch mounted on said drum shaft for rotation therewith and being movable between a first axial position on said shaft in which it connects said drum shaft with said transmission thereby interconnecting said drum and shaft with said drive member and a second axial position on said shaft in which the clutch disconnects said drum and shaft from said transmission so that the rotation of said drum is not affected by said drive member but is determined by the speed of the rope being wound upon or unwound from said drum and further including means for selectively maintaining said clutch in each of said first and second positions.