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From: "Ray Hennessy" <>
Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] Re: Horse-engine platform
Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 01:07:07 +0100
References: <65.4b464ddd.302e6ab1@aol.com>


Hi List

There used to be any number of weird and wonderful "engines" driven by
horses and the like. Usually where water or wind power wasn't readily
available.

Some time ago, I came across some sort of grinding mechanism which had
been driven by two horses attached to the ends of a long wooden
contraption. This appeared to have a grindstone attached to the middle
vertical axle, thus directly grinding the corn without the intervention
of cogs or drive shafts. I'm not sure that it wasn't in Aberdeenshire,
but senior moments abound here!

Near where I live in southern England, a 17th century house has a
"donkey wheel". This takes a form similar to the exercise wheel you
have for hamsters/guinea pigs, etc, but entirely made of wood. The
wheel is about 16 ft high and connects to a complicated set of ropes and
ratchets so that two large buckets are alternately lowered about 80-100
ft into the well and drawn up full. At the top, the ratchets tip each
bucket into a cistern before it starts on its downward journey again.
It's very ingenious in that the donkey/s just kept plodding on and
didn't have to reverse direction to change the direction of the buckets.
As two donkeys could work alongside one another, trying to turn them
round in the confined space every few minutes might have been more of a
problem than designing the Wheel.

Of course if they hadn't built their house so far up the hillside, the
well might have been easier to draw from by hand; they are only some 250
ft above the River Thames but obviously the wonderful views were more
important than saving labour!!

Best wishes

Ray Hennessy

----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 10:12 PM
Subject: [ABERDEEN] Re: Horse-engine platform


> Hello Aberdeen and World,
> This is Merry old hot New Jersey. Hope your weather is better than
> mine.
> I came across the words, "Horse-engine" and also "horse-engine
> platform",
> the other day and would like to know what it is and how was it used
> and what
> for. It occurred on a farm that one of my ancestors was born on. I
> don't find it
> in my Scots Dictionary and am a loss as to what it is.
> Pat
>
>
> ==== ABERDEEN Mailing List ====
> Please do not send Test Messages to the List.
>

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