Welcome Jack,  Your set up sounds great.

    I once spent a long weekend working with a group of blacksmiths in the
hills of Tuscany changing their waterwheel.  The wrought iron was still
sound but the wood had rotted out so, like they did every 50 years or so, a
pulley was jury-rigged up to a beam laid over the stone well that held the
wheel and we hauled it out to replace them. (I was there at the invitation
of a friend who was learning their trade as part of his sculpture training.)
Grandpa, who was the only one who had been around when they last did this,
had this idea that the wheel should go in backward.  You see, the slanted
fins were great at catching the falling water on the top 1/4 of the spin but
seemed to get in the way of releasing them on the bottom 1/4 (or maybe it
was the other way around, I don't remember.)  He figured that they would be
just as good at catching the flow if they faced the other way but would shed
the water more quickly and with less friction so the wheel would run faster.
You could tell that he had been working this one out since at least the last
time they did this, maybe longer.
    Anyway, muscling the damned heavy thing into the well without crushing
someone was no joke.  We were all screaming at each other in different
languages and, since I didn't speak Italian then and they didn't speak
English, my friend was busy translating a lot of curses back and forth.
Someone had to get in the well to position the thing and of course, would be
under it if the wheel slipped.  Somehow neither happened and we got it back
on in its new orientation on the shaft.  A bottle of wine was opened as the
pins were driven in and the sluice gate was raised.  The wheel just stayed
there, sort of quivering.  It looked like it couldn't decide which way to
turn, like all of its decisiveness was gone.
   Grandpa disappeared, the water was turned off, and we humped the now wet
and slippery bastard out of the well, turned it over and set it in the old
way.  I hope they remember this in 100 years when it will be the next chance
for some bright light to improve on a thousand year old design.  I know I'm
ready.

Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: Jack C. Thompson <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, December 31, 1999 5:58 AM
Subject: Newby


>"Your first task is to send a message to BP introducing yourself."
>greeted me as I completed my subscription to this list.
>
>I've read through a few odds & ends in the archive and decided to
>subscribe anyway.
>
>I own the Thompson Conservation Laboratory (also Istor Productions, which
>produces videotapes, and the Caber Press, which publishes things that
>interest me) in Portland, Oregon, USA.
>
>The lab opened for business in 1976 and is a reflection of my interests
>in olde stuff.  Medieval books are my main interest because they represent
>a number of technologies.  Wood, metal, skins, dyes, tools, chemistry, and
>technology.
>
>In the lab, I have the regular stuff: microscopes, gas chromatograph,
UV-VIS
>spectrophotometer, 4,000+ volume research library, etc.
>
>At my place in Idaho (off the grid; nice and quiet) I have another
laboratory,
>of sorts.  There, I've been teaching an annual workshop about the
technology
>of the medieval book and have built a three-hammer stampmill operated by
>a 4 ft. dia. overshot waterwheel.
>
>Taking some time off right now to have a large pond dug out to supply the
>power for a larger stampmill/papermill (nine hammers; 8 ft. dia. overshot
>waterwheel.
>
>Some of the dirt coming out of the pond site will level out an area where
>I will be building some wattle & daub hovels for workshop participants to
>live during the workshops.
>
>A layer of nice red clay is being clumped together to provide material for
>a kiln to produce bricks, tiles, and the odd plate.
>
>A layer of blue clay is being held in reserve in case the pond develops
>a hole....
>
>Near Portland is the site of a red pigment mine which I am mining (now
>that the paint company is no longer using it) to gather material for
>turning into wrought iron using a Catalan-style forge.  The iron will
>be used in the new papermill.
>
>That's about it.
>
>Jack
>
>Jack C. Thompson
>Thompson Conservation Laboratory
>Portland, Oregon
>USA
>
>503/735-3942  (voice/fax)
>
>http://www.teleport.com/~tcl
>