This is a long shot, but here (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3580/3575403763_ca4133f4d8_b.jpg) is a (somewhat worse for wear) photograph of my great great grandfather (wearing the flat cap) and his daughter in his work yard at Rock Street, sometime in the late 1800s (I don't know who the man in the bowler hat is). I was hoping someone would be able to tell me what the circular equipment in the middle would be used for? Or if it's something he's made, what is it? It's annoyed me for ages, so if anyone knows then it'd be greatly appreciated. :)

It could be for bending peices of wood, there are what look like pegs to the right which could be put in various positions in the square holes then the whole thing placed over a steamer. Or maybe used for making cartwheels?

washer for washing whatever in the vat below Oh &it spins while it washers not a clue what I'm talking about but my mind wander's

look like bottles in it ?

Thank you for the replies!

Flyer, it's used for washing then? (actual washing? Or is that term used for something in joinery too to mean something else?) I don't quite understand how it works...

Just got home and looked more closely, it does look like a bottle washer, those definitley look like bottles to the right. If you zoom in on the wooden tank next to the man with the bowler hat you can see a pair of U shaped blocks on the top which would locate with the axles sticking out from the middle of the drum.

He is a shopfitter...there are bottles in the round thing...could be a wine rack

i reckon the thing on the left is a water tank, it's got brass, or steel fittings for the trunions on the wheel, and bracing designed for outward pressure - i think it's possibly constructed by Waddington hence the sign. if you google "rock street" plus "sheffield" plus your family name you might find something on the geneology websites that give you a hint (ie his trade) - and you know what, unless Waddington is also based in Rock Street, that photo is not necessarily taken in Rock Street - that could be Waddinton's own yard, hence the timbers everywhere - just my 2p

on giving more thought ,wood & water don't normal mix to well but looks like it spins bottle's, need a man with a very long arm to load &unload,not to worry I'll go to bed dreaming about it ,some of my best machine's i thought up sound asleep

O foggy brain of course,Unrecording right just sit in the wood tank and operate from the side I was thinking horizontal not vertical

Try contacting this place (http://www.shef.ac.uk/hawley/)

their knowledge of tools and industries is incredible!

Thanks for posting this, I also think its a bottle washer, probably for the brewing trade in Sheffield. Wood was a common material in pre plastic days. Just think back to Dolly Posher's, Washboards, even buckets and of course water wheels. Cedar is used today for silkscreen frames due to it's longevity when immersed in water as was Elm & Beech.

It's not a million miles from this modern bottle washer http://www.germes-online.com/direct/dbimage/50329929/XP_24_Bottle_Washer.jpg

Very interesting
I think bottle filling, to wash you need to invert the bottle so wash water runs out.
Its an early bit of mechanisation, I man loads the bottles, the next fills with a pipe, the next puts the top on, the last one unloads.
If it was any more mechanised than that, i.e. auto fill, the rows of holes would have to be radial, imagine a clock with 30 fingers, each being a row of holes.
As it turned there would always be a row of holes in line. Does that make sence?
Its obviously in a yard with an old stone wall behind that has topping stones on, Probably the old black Slag ones you see round sheffield.

Its obviously in a yard with an old stone wall behind that has topping stones on, Probably the old black Slag ones you see round sheffield.
The topping stones are known as Crozzle.
;)

The topping stones are known as Crozzle.
;)

i've never heard that before, there's still a lot down the east end

George E Waddington was at 42 Rock St in 1901,Burngreave bank in 1881 a joiner i guess you know this.

Thanks so much for the replies - my mind is finally at rest! :) I had it in my head that it was a piece of equipment to help make something, rather than something he'd actually made. The replies have been very helpful, thanks again.


George E Waddington was at 42 Rock St in 1901,Burngreave bank in 1881 a joiner i guess you know this.

Yes I know this, I've been looking into my family tree for a few years and luckily my gran's very sentimental, so I've been spoilt by the amount of birth/marriage/death certificates and old photographs we've got. George and his wife Elizabeth also had the house next door to 42 Rock Street, at the same time (his stamp is in the back of an old book we've got, and it says the address). Thank you for looking it up though. :)

tghere seems to be straw on the right of the wheel, could it have just been unpacked and the workers were taking a minute and contemplating how to build a jig to fix the wheel shaped object into,maybe it was an automated bottle filler or sterilizer

Depoix, that's simply a tear in the photograph. :)