The case of a stretched wire bent successively over a system of three pulleys has been analysed with specific reference to a commonly used wire tension measuring device. With the help of the simple theory of elastic bending, expressions for the tension variation, angles of wrap, deflections etc., at the pulley have been obtained. A brief parametric study leads to some useful design guidelines. The analysis can be usefully applied to other systems also where wirelwire rope is bent over multiple pulleys. © 1990 Blackwell Publishing Ltd