Old Buildings

[DerbyBorn]

I was in an old place today and was fascinated by the elaborate and well engineered arrangement for openening some roof lights. A couple of handles would turn a screw which was linked to various cranks and then to a long rod that went the length of the building to open the windows. A lovely mechanism and still working after about 150 years. At a factory where I worked as an apprentice we had a similar arrangement but controlled by chain wheels - a run of about 100feet of windows could be opened. I suppose the modern equivilant is a microprocessor controlled electric motor that will burn out when the mechanism sticks.

[Scott M]

I was recently working in a building that had just had a load of motorised window openers put in and, boy, where they slow, and noisy in loud and graunchy way.

Progress? Wassat?

[Brian Gaff]

Probably, I saw something like this in a Greenhouse in guernsey some many years ago. Wonderfully simple in concept. Brian

[Davey]

Yes, our local Garden Centre has exactly this arrangement, but I believe it has a motor to do the work. I'll check next time I'm there. The loooooong rod operates several other rods at right angles, each of which has two sets of wonderful linkages to open and close pairs of roof lights. I was admiring it myself only last week.