Closed loop block and tackle

[Mr. H. Bean]

Can anyone tell me if there is a standard way of rigging a block and tackle so that the motive force is supplied by a closed loop rather than a free line? I expect to be doing a lot of moderately heavy lifting to a fixed location, and rather than having loose rope accumulate at the bottom when the rig is at the top, I would like to provide the motive force with a closed loop, which I could pass around a pully so that it is anchored at both the top and the bottom. I suspect there is a standard way of doing this, that probably has a name, but I have not been able to figure it out.

 

[LopezBart]

Chain hoists can of course be set up this way.... but if you want to use a single piece of rope with moving pulleys to get force amplification, the end you're pulling on will take up more space. You could rig another set of pulleys underneath (exact reverse of the ones you're lifting with) to take up the slack, but it'd be a bunch of extra drag. Why not wrap it up on a drum?