FFF 33 Friday 10th March 2023
West Block line shafting!
Last week someone asked about ‘line shafting’ and what powered it. In a future item in Friday Facts and Fotos, we will discuss the two boiler houses that provided steam just to power all the machinery in West Block.
This early photo in West Block clearly shows the line shafting mounted on the wall and suspended above the machinery. Stationary steam engines powered these shafts and every machine had its connecting thick leather drive belt. The shafting ran continuously, but the machine operator could move the drive belt across onto an idler pulley which allowed the machine to stop, be set up, measurements to be taken, or the job’s position on the machine’s work table to be changed.
West Block had a labyrinth of masonry-lined trenches under the floor which distributed steam, water, and compressed air to different sections of the workshops.
It was not till after WW2 that machinery started getting individual electric motors and the line shafting started to be removed.
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