In the counterweight fly system sheaves help guide and direct the wire rope cables which support the batten and the arbor. Most of the sheaves in this system are anchored to the grid. The sheaves guide each cable from the arbor, across the grid, and down to its respective pick point on the batten.

A sheave which changes the direction of a cable is known as a mule block.

Part of the Stage Rigging Metanode

Sheave (?), n. [Akin to OD. schijve orb, disk, wheel, D. schiff, G. scheibe, Icel. skifa a shaving, slice; cf. Gr. a staff. Cf. Shift, v., Shive.]

A wheel having a groove in the rim for a rope to work in, and set in a block, mast, or the like; the wheel of a pulley.

Sheave hole, a channel cut in a mast, yard, rail, or other timber, in which to fix a sheave.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Sheave, v. t. [See Sheaf of straw.]

To gather and bind into a sheaf or sheaves; hence, to collect.

Ashmole.

 

© Webster 1913.