pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on fri 1 jul 05
Hi Steve,
How odd..!
Curioiusly, the Flywheel with it's charming "S" shaped spokes, is a 'V-Belt'
pulley, or to all appearences it is anyway, dating from likely the immediate
pre-war era...but could be later maybe, being English...could be 1940s,
1950s...
This Wheel makes no sense to me whatever !
...why not just make a 'Kick Wheel' then? As this does appear crudely
assembled anyway...and hardly seeming in it's present form to represent a
thoughtful or intentionally concieved construction from scratch.
Unless, this was driven originally from a Vee-Belt, even as a crude sort of
assemblage, and the 'lever' or a previous one of some kind, communicated to
something else whose reciprocating motions 'did' something. or the Crank
shaft was utilized expeditiously with the intent of it only being in effect,
a vertical Axle, for want of a proper one being handy...and the lever was
not intended originally to be there at all...
Or...
Made, most likely, post-war, regardless, useing a then, disused, slightly
older V-Belt Pully, set on a Crank-shaft whose width of the throw and
genreral appearance suggests it had been from something quite else, with a
quite embarrassingly crude and hasty lever fitted to it, so the Pully is in
effect the Flywheel, of course, if a lightish one...even by default...
In a time, when any kind of Electric Motor from the previous 60 years or so
of their being readily around, was no longer in any way a
novelty, nor, hard to come by. So, why not have simply run it with some
small Motor and a V-Belt?
Likely, that was it's previous method, with no 'lever' about it, unless that
(or more likely, some better and more deliberate one) was to reciprocate
some other thing near bye, maybe some small blunger apparatis or
something...
So, what an odd wheel this is!
If the lever's free end were fixed, it would function something as a Treadle
Wheel, which a-l-m-o-s-t would make some kind-of (not much of, almost a
very-little bit of, ) sense...
But as it is, this makes no sense at all.
No production facility at any time in History, no matter how small or
humble, would occupy personell needlessly.
And, as you mention, the 'Lever' suggests that someone was having to
push-and-pull on it to make the wheel rotate...a lousy method for anything
anyone would wish to do on a Wheel...truely...and a waste of personell who
could be doing something else far FAR more productive.
How odd...!
As a Potter's Wheel...to me anyway, it makes no sense at all in any way at
all...
Even as a Banding Wheel, if that was it's "last" (ab)use somehow, one might
merely use one's foot on the V-Pully and make it turn nicely enough...or
just add some flat weight things on top of the Pully and let it be a Kick
wheel for that matter, instantly...
Too, being 'low' suggests it is a recent contrivance if it has any pretext
at all as for being for Throwing, since throwers traditionally stood to the
tasks, and unless very, very short, this is decidely a 'low' Wheel, or is to
be sat to.
On and on...
Fun to wonder about...!
Phil
las vegas
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Irvine"
> On the subject of old wheels, you might be interested in this one. I
photographed it in England, at
> an industrial pottery called Wreccelsham, in 1984. At the pottery they
referred to it as the "slave
> wheel." It took two people to operate it, a thrower (no doubt working
slowly!) and a person to
> power the wheel while kneeling and working the pole back and forth:
>
> http://www.steveirvine.com/clayart/sla_wheel.jpg
>
> Wreccelsham, also known as the A. Harris and Son Pottery Works, was the
last of a dying breed in
> England. It was an industrial scale pottery that still made everything on
the wheel. They made
> earthenware planters, chimney pipes, roof tiles, that sort of thing. An
interesting place to visit, but
> I notice in my notes the words, "dark, dangerous and Dickensian."
>
> Steve Irvine
> http://www.steveirvine.com
Steve Irvine on sat 2 jul 05
Hi Phil,
Interesting speculation about that old wheel. There were a lot of things about that old factory that
had an other worldly, out time and place feel to them. Something curious around every corner.
Notice the slatted floor in the photo. The whole building (three floors as I remember it) had this
type of floor, making the factory into, basically, a giant drying rack. From the top floor you could
look right down into the basement!
On the same trip I visited a potter in Canterbury named Geoffrey Whiting who had a room full of
antique wheels he had collected and restored, much as someone would collect antique cars. I wish
I had taken more photos!
Steve Irvine
http://www.steveirvine.com
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