down at 41 to the drum 22 and at the other side the cable runs at 42 partially across the housing and to the drum 22 the ends of the cable are secured to balls 43 only one of which is shown after passing through holes in the drum walls so as to anchor the cable ends on the drum see fig2 d one housing part is formed with an annular recess 44 to allow the balls 43 to rotate with the otherwise closely enclosed drum and this housing part is also formed with four projections 45 forming mounting studs for screws 46 securing the housing 25 to the bracket 18 the opposite housing part is formed with a chamber 47 enclosing the operating parts of the locking device 23 which include a lever 51 pivoted on a shaft 52 and having a dog portion 53 adapted to engage peripheral teeth 54 on the outer face of the drum 22 for positive detent locking to operate the locking device 23 a torsion spring 55 biases the lever 51 counterclockwise in fig2 f and 2g to hold the dog portion 53 in engagement with the drum teeth 54 and a cam 56 on the same shaft as and operated by a thumb lever 57 pushes the lever 51 against the bias of the spring 55 when the thumb lever 57 is turned so as to clear the dog portion 53 from an engaged tooth 54 this obviously unlocks the drum the various modes of operating the spreader 20 can now be readily seen in the fig1 configuration with the drum 22 locked further outward spreading movement of the tripod legs 12 14.