lunes, 21 de mayo de 2007

The aguaton water cart


2 comentarios:

jolabent27 dijo...

The Project, in it's various activities, will require the use of some horse-drawn vehicles for the transportation of passengers and goods, as the use of mechanically-propelled vehicles would be inappropriate to Middle Earth.
Accordingly, I have designed a number of such vehicles, the most likely to be required. These are: Drawing Number 7: Water-cart.
Drawing Number 12: General Merchant's Cart.
Drawing No 13: Pony-trap for 4 passengers.
Drawing No 19: Diligence.
Drawing No 20: Horse-bus.
The pony-traps are for general light use in the region, the merchant's carts are for the general transportation of goods, and the passenger vehicles are for providing public transport for persons between the various locations on the route of the Ring, principally for persons who, for reasons of age, infirmity, or extreme youth, would not be able to travel on foot or on horseback.
Therefore I have designed the diligence and the horse-bus in such a way as to enable them to accomodate wheelchairs.

Drawing Number 7: The "Aguaton" water-cart.
This cart was designed in order to provide potable water to the Hobbit.holes. The Hobbits would have originally drawn their domestic water supplies from wells sunk in their own gardens, or carried up from the river in buckets.
The sinking and use of domestic wells is likely to be prohibited under modern legislation, and in any case, sinking wells in rocky land is an expensive undertaking if the water-table lies deep.
Accordingly, I suggest that water-cisterns be sunk into the ground at each Hobbit-hole to have the appearance of wells, the water being drawn by bucket-and-windlass for domestic use, and the cistern to be periodically re-filled from a water-cart drawn by horses or oxen.
The water-cart will draw it's water from the nearest authorised supply.
As I do not know at this time how many Hobbit-holes will be built, how many persons will be there, or where the nearest authorised water-supply point will be, I have designed the largest water-cart which it would be practicable to build and use.
The "Aguaton" water-cart is designed so that it may be easily scaled-down to a smaller size, and I recommend that this be done if the supply of water does not need to be very great, both on the grounds of convenience and cost.
The large version of this cart carries some 600 gallons of water and requires the use of four heavy horses on fairly level ground, with the assistance of at least one more if steep hills are to climbed. The operation of heavy horses can be expensive, and there are few people to-day who have the skill necessary to drive a big team of horses. A scaled-down version of the "Aguaton" which can be hauled by two such horses would therefore be preferable, and would supply, say, three-hundred gallons per delivery.
I remember clearly that, when I was a small boy, one of Charrington's big coal-chaldrons, hauled by four Clydesdale heavy horses, bolted in Cliffe High Street, Lewes, Sussex, when the horses were frightened by a firework exploding. It was a most impressive sight. The whole team took off and came thundering down the High Street at a full gallop with the huge chaldron, loaded with about four tons of coal in sacks, the driver pulling on the reins with all his might and shouting "Whoa! Whoa there, my beauties!" While his mate ran behind yelling for people to get out of the way. I assure you that they did not need his advice, for the population was diving into shop doorways, into alleyways, and even climbing lamp-posts, as fast as they could!
I take the liberty of recounting this incident to you as a reminder that horses are not always as obedient as internal-combustion engines are; they have feelings and minds of their own, and big horse-drawn wagons are not toys. A great deal of knowledge,skill,and experience are necessary in order to handle them safely.

You will notice that I have provided the barrel mounted on the cart-frame with a number of internal baffles (Dwg.Nos. 7B, 7D,7F). These are intended to separate the load of water into compartments, so as to prevent the uncontrolled movement of the water. Water is heavy stuff, and, being fluid, it will move about according to the forces applied to it. On descending a hill, or under the force of strong braking, it will, if uncontrolled, move forwards quickly, causing the cart to move forwards against the horses, which will upset their equilibrium, and may frighten them and cause them to bolt. Equally, the abrupt ascendance of a hill will cause the water to surge backwards, and may pull the horses back on their haunches, causing them to fall.
For this reason I have provided the anti-surge baffles inside the Barrel.
In the matter of brakes, I have provided: 1, a lever handbrake incorporating a ratchet system. 2, a screw set-brake, and 3, a drag-brake. (Dwg. No. 7G).
Many of the old carts had a simple pad-an-pole system, operating on one rear wheel only, whereby the driver pulled on a rope leading from the pole in order to apply the brake.
I doubt whether such a primitive system would be either safe or legal to-day, on roads which may be shared with modern transport.

Bearings: The axle-bearings are lubricated by grease fed from a grease-cup which feeds the grease to the bearings through grease-ways drilled in the stub-axles (Dwg.No.7F). The method of doing this is that the driver walks the team of horses slowly forwards, while his mate walks round the cart, from wheel to another, giving each grease-cup one full turn until all four wheels have been greased.
The front axle has been equipped with lateral bearings left and right, and with a trunnion-bearing. All of these a Vee-form bearings, the trunnion bearing being circular, and the lateral-support bearings quadrant on the arc of a circle having the central pivot bearing as it's centre.
The front axle turns upon the central pivot bearing, which is supported by a traction-rod leading to the main-frame of the cart, which prevents all the force of traction being taken by the pivot-bearing itself. See Dwg.Nos.7H,7I,(several sketches).
It will be noted that the frame is designed in such a way as to bring the weight of the barrel and it's water as low down as possible to reduce the risk of tipping over when traversing ground with a steep camber.

Transfer of load: A hand-pump and canvas or leather hoses should be carried in order to pump water from the cart to the wells.

gonzalo dijo...

Meparece fantastico que en Hobbiton se transporte el agua de esa manera, son aspectos de la vida Hobbit que ahondan mas en la cultura de una civilización desconocida. Bravo