pathfinder
Registered user
Thats bloody amazing.Not just for pumping water but can be also used for turning machinery if required.The Latin enscriptions are fascinating,cant read much Latin however.
Whatever it is.
I think pit-ponies were put into the yokes which turned the big bit,then the small bit,then the crank bit. For pumping water. I think.
It's in some outbuildings where I've been working today.
Looks like a donkey driven , belt pull , cam shaft ,lay shaft? drive system.
Modern tech, in the 18th century
D6
Registered user
Deleted member TF
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Smiler400
Registered user
Fascinating, they were called Gyn mills up here in Durham.
power take off shaft, like the one you had in the extraction at work that run the
cracker machines, cept that was 1916 steam turbine powered
Yeh it looks like the same set up , just didnt know what it was called.
Will this have a "crash clutch" to stop the main shaft ?
like on the main shaft run by the giant belts ,that links to the huge crown wheels that stirred the boiled meal?
That place should of been turned into a bloody museum.
Referring to the museum
This is where i used to work , last in 2000.
The place was a processing plant .
From the top level , the meal rode along a drag line into a hopper.
Next down, the hopper bottoms were operated by a pull slide which had a skirt sack which you tied up with a rope.
The top of the pots had a very heavy door with drop down bolts that held the
top sealed under pressure.
This was held on a swinging arm that you grabbed with , a solid brass walking stick type tool.
You can just see the doors on the right of the picture , next to the "full silo sign"
Below the hopper was the pot , a giant kettle , that boiled the meal with a petrol water mix called hexane.
This stuff was bloody volatile , we had to use brass wrenches, and hammers.
No naked flames were allowed , all light fixings , were hard wired in.
Even pulling gear had to be done by hand , block and tackle were used to shift 20 ton water filters outside the plant , this took ages .
If the plant was ever to go BANG , it would of taken selby with it (which isnt a bad idea)
Bear in mind it was bloody hot up there with huge boiling kettle below you.
The ground level was the drag line and the bottom of the kettle.
When a whistle was blown , and the guy above tapped his crook (told yer it was ancient
) you opend the bottom door , and the meal would fall out.
After a while the meal stopped flowing. So you had to use a long 10 foot pole with a scraper blade fitted on the end.
Inside the bottom of the pot/kettle is a bloody giant stirring wheel , this didnt stop untill you pulled a leaver , "crash clutch". You also had to time the rotation of the stirring wheel so you missed the arms going around , or you would snap your scraper pole.
All the boiled meal would drop on to the drag line , and the process would start all over again.
Behind the pots , water and petrol was managed by a series on valves , bloody complicated , to work out as they were only colour coded .
We worked in 12 hour shifts, 3 shift rotation.
More old machinery...
Next door was the old machine shop , all run by bet drive and pulley's
This was the where the giant winding wheel ran the main shaft to the processing plant .
The wheel was 20 foot tall and was run by an old 1920s steam powered motor
(i think , D6 will correct me) From the motor to the wheel are several thick leather ropes that drive on to the main shaft.
More of the old place where the giant crackers used to crush up shea nut , and other meals , to a pulp.
Not much in line of guards , n if ye caught yer hand in the cracker , you followed it ...nowt would stop it.
Also belt driven ....
The pic above is the belt drive to the main shafts and the cracker
Below there is a pit , which was always full of old rotten meal , rat piss, and 4inch cockroaches
On a friday this pit had to be dug out , not a fun job at all
I worked at the Extraction plant till 2000, untill the management decided to make us all redundant , and close the place down
I started working as a cleaner , moved to the bottom floor, then to the top floor, eventually i moved with the top men round the back operating the valves.
This place was stuck in the 1920 , like some of the workers , ha,ha
ugg
This is where i used to work , last in 2000.
The place was a processing plant .
From the top level , the meal rode along a drag line into a hopper.
Next down, the hopper bottoms were operated by a pull slide which had a skirt sack which you tied up with a rope.
The top of the pots had a very heavy door with drop down bolts that held the
top sealed under pressure.
This was held on a swinging arm that you grabbed with , a solid brass walking stick type tool.
You can just see the doors on the right of the picture , next to the "full silo sign"
Below the hopper was the pot , a giant kettle , that boiled the meal with a petrol water mix called hexane.
This stuff was bloody volatile , we had to use brass wrenches, and hammers.
No naked flames were allowed , all light fixings , were hard wired in.
Even pulling gear had to be done by hand , block and tackle were used to shift 20 ton water filters outside the plant , this took ages .
If the plant was ever to go BANG , it would of taken selby with it (which isnt a bad idea
)Bear in mind it was bloody hot up there with huge boiling kettle below you.
The ground level was the drag line and the bottom of the kettle.
When a whistle was blown , and the guy above tapped his crook (told yer it was ancient
) you opend the bottom door , and the meal would fall out.After a while the meal stopped flowing. So you had to use a long 10 foot pole with a scraper blade fitted on the end.
Inside the bottom of the pot/kettle is a bloody giant stirring wheel , this didnt stop untill you pulled a leaver , "crash clutch". You also had to time the rotation of the stirring wheel so you missed the arms going around , or you would snap your scraper pole.
All the boiled meal would drop on to the drag line , and the process would start all over again.
Behind the pots , water and petrol was managed by a series on valves , bloody complicated , to work out as they were only colour coded .
We worked in 12 hour shifts, 3 shift rotation.
More old machinery...
Next door was the old machine shop , all run by bet drive and pulley's
This was the where the giant winding wheel ran the main shaft to the processing plant .
The wheel was 20 foot tall and was run by an old 1920s steam powered motor
(i think , D6 will correct me) From the motor to the wheel are several thick leather ropes that drive on to the main shaft.
More of the old place where the giant crackers used to crush up shea nut , and other meals , to a pulp.
Not much in line of guards , n if ye caught yer hand in the cracker , you followed it ...nowt would stop it.
Also belt driven ....
The pic above is the belt drive to the main shafts and the cracker
Below there is a pit , which was always full of old rotten meal , rat piss, and 4inch cockroaches
On a friday this pit had to be dug out , not a fun job at all
I worked at the Extraction plant till 2000, untill the management decided to make us all redundant , and close the place down
I started working as a cleaner , moved to the bottom floor, then to the top floor, eventually i moved with the top men round the back operating the valves.
This place was stuck in the 1920 , like some of the workers , ha,ha
ugg
D6
Registered user
nothing stops the main shaft ,
dog clutches were used to run the pots, crash em in, remember?
worse thing on this plant was not that ugg run it,
but i repaired it
,all the tools were brass so there were no sparks, lights were air operated (intrinsic)
stunk like a dog otter after being in there a while,
the drive was woven leather running an 18 foot pulley, no one could make em anymore, so we were going to eventually have to put gears in,,,
the turbine was serviced by a museum,put in in the 20,s(but bought second hand from india, circa 1916) as it was the last of its kind working,
them were the days,,,eeee lad
(thank feck they pulled it down,,)
