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Occupation Interests / Re: what exactly did a wood turner or turner do?
« on: Monday 14 January 13 06:34 GMT (UK) »
I was surprised to learn from my mother when I eventually met her, that one of my uncles was a bodger making spindles for chairs…
Anyone looking at the Cutty Sark or HMS Victory or anyone of the numerous old square rigger ships can’t help to notice the vast number of ropes and pulleys, called blocks.
The Royal Navy used large numbers of blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000.
One of the first steps in the industrial revolution was the building of the Portsmouth Block Mills
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth_Block_Mills this could also account for the decline of the wood turner and or bodger.
Anyone looking at the Cutty Sark or HMS Victory or anyone of the numerous old square rigger ships can’t help to notice the vast number of ropes and pulleys, called blocks.
The Royal Navy used large numbers of blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000.
One of the first steps in the industrial revolution was the building of the Portsmouth Block Mills
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth_Block_Mills this could also account for the decline of the wood turner and or bodger.