MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Tizer]

For raising the boat, yes - but nothing to do with maintenance. I'll let it run further before giving a clue.

[Gloria]

Does the bottom open up after it has been raised to drop something out?

[chinatyke]

Is this the counterweight arrangement of a boat lift? Boats are lifted to or from another level by gravity when this is filled with water. There is one in Northwich, Cheshire.

[Stanley]

So that gravity assists in the unloading? IE. Shovelling downhill.....

[Tizer]

It's not a `counterweight arrangement of a boat lift' and nothing is dropped out of the boat. It's not `so that gravity assists in the unloading'. You're all very, very close and you'll probably kick yourselves when you realise the answer! Imagine you and your crew have shovelled a load of coal into your barge. What do you need to know about that load?

[PanBiker]

Boat weighing device, weigh the lot and subtract the known weight of the boat?

[plaques]

It sounds like you are suggesting that its a lifting platform where the intended boat load is first dropped onto the platform (horse and cart) then lifted to a height so it can be shoveled into a boat without a lifting action.

[Tizer]

Bang on target, Ian. There have only been three of these boat weighing machines in Britain. This one was at Brimscombe on the Thames & Severn Canal near Stroud. The first photo was taken around 1910, the second around 1905. A boat sails into the weighing lock, under the shelter, then water is run out of the lock so that the boat settles onto a cast iron cradle to be weighed. This was to check the loading of the vessels so an exact toll could be levied. The other two such machines were on the Glamorganshire Canal at Cardiff and the Somersetshire Coal Canal at Midford. The only one still in existence is that from Cardiff, which was moved to Stoke Bruerne and recently moved again to the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. You can find further details and photos on the web. Photo: LINK

[Gloria]

That was a good one, wouldn't have got that without the big clue. Excellent.

[chinatyke]

I almost suggested a boat weighbridge but I thought it sounded daft and that they weighed boats by displacement and measuring how far they sank in the water. You live and learn! Good one Tiz.

[Wendyf]

This photo popped up on a local history Facebook page this morning, does anyone know what these boats were known as?

[chinatyke]

I've heard them referred to as butty boats but I don't know whether that was a special type of barge.

One of the drivers that delivered chlorine to us was born and brought up on a boat and took a commercial boat and towed barge down to Birmingham every year during his holidays. I remember him asking "how do you straighten a barge that is not following in a straight line?"

Any guesses?

[Tizer]

Wendy, a lovely photo. Those are known as `Tom Pudding' boats and were common carrying coal on the Aire & Calder navigation. They are linked together and when they get to the destination the individual tubs are lifted out of the water and tipped to drop the coal.

I almost suggested a boat weighbridge but I thought it sounded daft and that they weighed boats by displacement and measuring how far they sank in the water..

Indeed, that was the usual way but it was complicated (e.g. by different densities of cargo) and the weighing machine saved a lot of money and time...and yet the machine didn't really catch on. I guess the traders were conservative in outlook and also no-one really wanted to fork out the initial investment.

China's question - "How do you straighten a barge that is not following in a straight line?" Shift the distribution of the load, perhaps?

[PanBiker]

What are younger amps - milliamps?

Whilst reviewing a thread I came across this post from China from nearly three years ago that I didn't reply to. It's regarding how the Chinese and Japanese write information literature when they don't have a direct comparison in their own language.

Younger Amps, found in a VCR service manual circuit description = Pre Amplifier (Pre-Amp)

[Wendyf]

Spot on Tiz. I thought there was a connection with the guesses made about your photo. A couple of short videos on this link describe how it all worked.


https://www.iarecordings.org/productions/p8.html

[chinatyke]

Thanks Ian. I came across another mis-translation and new word yesterday on a large hoarding in Nanning. Topest. "It is the topest night club"

The bargee told me that they used to hang a knotted rope fender/bumper over the side of the rear barge just trailing in the water. Moving this from one side to the other was enough to keep the barge in line. Another useless piece of information stored in my brain that couldn't remember the name for coriander yesterday!

[Stanley]

Most butty boats had their own rudder, Common to see the bargee's wife steering the butty. Where it was wide enough barges were occasionally lashed side by side.
Try this associated object. Too easy I suspect.

[Marilyn]

An old burnt out boat?
(Woman too busy steering and forgot about the chip pan?)

[chinatyke]

[Stanley]

No Maz. Just abandoned and eventually it sank. Question is why? What was it?
China knows, he has a good memory. Let it run a while China to see if anyone else remembers.

[chinatyke]

I was laughing at Maz's comment: "Woman too busy steering and forgot about the chip pan?" after you wrote "Common to see the bargee's wife steering the butty"

[Marilyn]

(you get me, China)

[PanBiker]

My dads drawing of it when he was 17 and the boat was still in operation.

[Stanley]

Same year I was born. Dead right Ian. It has vanished completely now.
Next one?

[PanBiker]

A year before you Stanley, not very clear but it's 1935 my dad was born in 1918 and he has put his age on the drawing.