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History of The Power Wheel:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d910b3127cceb8d308637a1200000026100AZt3DFizZN2Kg This piece is a "Line Shaft Pulley", commonly called
"The Power Wheel"
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d910b3127cceb8d3085afb1b00000026100AZt3DFizZN2Kg the piece getting its name from the fact that early wineries/ factories often only had one source of power. That power, be it horse, electrical, steam or water, drove one main shaft from which machinery was attached by wide belts from the pulley system. In some cases the main line shaft would run the length of the building. The pulleys would vary in size depending on the speed the machinery required. This is a wheel that was used with steam or stationary engines or electrical engines. A wheel like this one was needed for your power supply-(horse, steam, electricity, gas,together with another wheel on the machine you wanted to use, you would use a flat belt to connect the two together and then you would start the source of power http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d910b3127cceb8d30854fb1500000026100AZt3DFizZN2Kg on the engine and the machine would work. A thread/article on "Smokstak" someone tells that the belts, the power wheel were used in 1400 on (Leather drive belts were in use way before the 1800s, long before the IC-(Internal combustion) engine was in use, even before steel and gasoline power became popular. They-(the ranchers) used what was on hand for a power source-(animals)powered air billows for Iron forges to make tools and equipment possibly as early as the 1400s. Horses, goats and dogs were the main motive power. The belts themselves were made from cow or horse hides.)
To see photos CTL click on hypertext attached.Blackback ground image
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